Volume 11 - Issue 3 - EN

Scope and Limitations of Open Assessment: An ICT-Based Case Study

Authors:

Chiappe, Andres and Pinto, Ricardo A. and Arias, Vivian M.

Abstract:

This paper describes the results of a study that presents open assessment as an innovative educational practice mediated by information and communications technology. In addition, it describes the implementation of an open assessment experience in higher education as a case study. The results show that open assessment is accepted well by students due to the adaptability and flexibility of the time and place of testing, and it has been possible to demonstrate that the responsibility and maturity of the students play important roles in improving the learning process as a part of this type of evaluation, which makes it formative in nature.

+ Info



Teaching Image Processing in Engineering Using Python

Authors:

Jiménez López, Andrés Fernando and Prieto Pelayo, Marla Carolina and Ramírez Forero, Ángela

Abstract:

This paper describes the experience during the execution of a project that applied the project-based learning (PBL) methodology for teaching an undergraduate course on image processing at the Universidad de los Llanos. During this project, the learners, the students of electronics engineering and computer science, were able to complement their lectures, process and manipulate images, and build their own image processing tools using Python programming language. This paper shows students' projects resulting from the application of key concepts of image processing and pattern analysis supported by the PBL methodology.

+ Info



An Architecture for a Learning Analytics System Applied to Efficient Driving

Authors:

Pañeda, Alejandro G. and Pozueco, Laura and Melendi, David and Pañeda, Xabiel G. and García, Roberto and Tuero, Alejandro García and Rionda, Abel and Díaz Orueta, Gabriel and Arciniegas, Jose L.

Abstract:

Transport companies are probably one of the greatest sources of pollution nowadays. Perhaps because these companies would like to improve this situation, or perhaps because they simply would like to reduce the petrol they consume, they are more than ever deploying plans in order to increase the efficiency of their fleets. One of the easiest and cheapest ways to achieve this is to teach their drivers how to be more efficient. Nevertheless, traditional learning approaches were only successful in the short term, according to the previous work. In order to achieve long-term results, new learning paradigms must be taken into account. Furthermore, if we combine these paradigms with a learning analytics system, optimal results may be reached for both the company and the drivers. In this paper, we present a learning analytics system applied to the efficient driving context. This learning analytics system is used as a fundamental piece in the deployment of the blended learning methodology for efficient professional driving designed by our research group. We describe the design and the integration of this system with a real product currently being used in many transport fleets. With a technical approach, we also describe the main problems found during the deployment of this system and the solutions designed to cope with these problems.

+ Info



From Analysis to Improvement: Challenges and Opportunities for Learning Analytics

Authors:

Guenaga, Mariluz and Garaizar, Pablo

Abstract:

Learning analytics (LA) is a multidisciplinary area of research, where education, statistics, and technology experts collaborate with other disciplines to get insights from learning data sets. This involves a continuous cycle of gathering data from teachers' and students' interactions, filtering and translating it to proper formats, using a wide range of analysis techniques and starting again after taking advantage from the results found. Considering the variety of expertise involved, the need for sharing knowledge and experiences is highlighted in relevant forums such as the Learning Analytics and Knowledge Conference. The same happens at Spanish level with the Learning Analytics Summer Institute, Spain and the Spanish Network of Learning Analytics. Research works presented in this special issue show the ability of analyzing and improving learning and teaching processes through LA. These three papers address different educational challenges, such as assessing massive collaborative projects, evaluating the accessibility and usability of open educational resources and mapping them with the IMS Caliper standard, and using social network analysis to evaluate the socio-regulation skills among students.

+ Info



Learning Opportunities for Mass Collaboration Projects Through Learning Analytics: a Case Study

Authors:

Sancho, Jordi

Abstract:

One way to improve the education of our students is to promote the creation of mass collaborative projects. These projects, also seen as learning products, would also help to better scale our learning experiences (massive open online courses) and generate collective value from the hours and cognitive efforts invested doing academic work. However, the complexities to assess those projects are challenging. This requires developing new monitoring and feedback systems for this kind of projects. This paper presents an exploratory analysis for applying learning analytics methodologies based on social networks analysis, factorial analysis, k-means clustering, and “naïve” Bayes algorithms.

+ Info



Academic Social Networks and Learning Analytics to Explore Self-Regulated Learning: a Case Study

Authors:

Gewerc, Adriana and Rodríguez-Groba, Ana and Martínez-Piñeiro, Esther

Abstract:

Social networks have become a new form of communication that allow students to share and collaborate. In this sense, they have joined forces with self-regulated learning (SRL) skills. This paper presents an experience at the University of Santiago de Compostela to analyze how SRL is developed in a course using a social network. This research used the following: 1) MSLQ questionnaire by Pintrich and 2) social network analysis techniques within the learning analytics framework. The results show that pedagogy encouraged students to interact and create a rich environment for developing SRL skills.

+ Info



Cocreation and Evaluation of Inclusive and Accessible Open Educational Resources: A Mapping Toward the IMS Caliper

Authors:

Avila, Cecilia and Baldiris, Silvia and Fabregat, Ramon and Graf, Sabine

Abstract:

The aim of this paper is to introduce a model to cocreate and evaluate inclusive and accessible open educational resources (IA-OERs) toward the perspective of the IMS caliper analytics framework. The model was applied by 72 teachers of primary and secondary schools who cocreated and evaluated IA-OERs in the context of the validation phase of the inclusive learning project. The evaluation of the IA-OERs covered two aspects: Web accessibility and quality. Moreover, an accessibility dashboard was developed to display the graphics of the results obtained from the Web accessibility evaluation.

+ Info



Trends in Computers in Education

Authors:

Sierra-Rodríguez, José Luis and Sarasa-Cabezuelo, Antonio and Velázquez-Iturbide, J. Ángel

Abstract:

The goal of this invited editorial is to introduce an IEEE-RITA special issue on trends in computers in education. The special issue integrates the thoroughly revised and extended versions of five outstanding papers presented at the 16th International Symposium on Computers in Education (SIIE’14), held in La Rioja in November 2014.

+ Info



Evaluation Experiences of the Representation Techniques of Greedy Programs: Application to the GreedEx Tool

Authors:

Molina-Díaz, Ana I. and Paredes-Velasco, Maximiliano and Redondo-Duque, Miguel A. and Velázquez-Iturbide, Jesús Ángel

Abstract:

The use of several representation techniques of algorithms, of either a textual or a graphical nature, is common in systems, which support learning of programming. The GreedEx tool, a system for interactive experimentation with greedy algorithms, incorporates some of them. This system has been evaluated several times, using subjective perception questionnaires as the main technique to gather data. This paper describes two empirical evaluations conducted with the aim of assessing the usefulness and/or complexity of the representation techniques supported by GreedEx. In this analysis, we combine several sources of information: subjective perception questionnaires and the metrics provided by an eye tracking device.

+ Info



Improvement Process of Adaptive Questionnaires: Implementation and Early Experiences With e-valUAM

Authors:

Molins-Ruano, Pablo and Borrego-Gallardo, Francisco and Sevilla, Covadonga and Jurado, Francisco and Rodríguez, Pilar and Gómez-Moñivas, Sacha

Abstract:

Adaptive questionnaires allow identifying the most appropriate question at a particular moment during an evaluation process. There are several approaches to implement adaptive questionnaires, but not many to ensure their quality. This paper shows a procedure to improve the adaptive questionnaires quality by considering the relevance of each question. Therefore, a level is associated with each question, which allows analyzing the students’ answers in order to identify how to improve the evaluation process. The proposed method has been implemented in e-valUAM that allows building adaptive questionnaires and has enabled carrying out the first experiments to validate the approach.

+ Info



12