e-learning at macerata university

e-Learninge-LearningPROVISION andPROVISION and

RESEARCHRESEARCH

University of Macerata


Macerata, where is?Macerata, where is?


SummarySummary• E-Learning at Macerata University

– WHO we are, WHAT we do– Focus areas, research areas

• Background– Pedagogical model– Technologies– Results– Future challenges

• ILE, Intelligent Learning Environment– Aims and objectives– Structure and technologies


CELFI e-Learning centre provides CELFI e-Learning centre provides resources and technologies resources and technologies supporting personalised, supporting personalised, online/blended learning activities. online/blended learning activities.

44 Faculties

1717 Degree Programmes

10691069 students

55 Postgraduate Masters

33 Postgraduate Courses

14201420 students

22 Lifelong learning courses 1800 1800 students

Ph.D. programme Ph.D. programme in e-Learning and Knowledge Management

2525 students

E-Learning at Macerata E-Learning at Macerata UniversityUniversity

Faculty of LawFaculty of Law

Faculty of Humanities and Faculty of Humanities and Philosophy Philosophy

Faculty of Educational ScienceFaculty of Political Science

The department of Educational Science is responsible for research and development of advanced learning content.


CAIM - Centre for Informatics and Multimedia supports ICT-based learning through the implementation and maintenance of dedicated services and equipment providing a technological infrastructure to students, researchers, administrative and teaching staff.

CELFI - e-Learning Centre supports and coordinates the progressive methodological and technical strengthening of teaching and learning processes based on ICT and multimedia. The Centre serves as a strategic resource for the integration of e-Learning technologies both in teacher didactics and in student activities. It manages e-Learning events and distance/frontal courses jointly with academic departments.

CIEM Centre for Informatics, E-Learning and Multimedia35 people 7 laboratories 410 workstations

structured into two organisations

Support centresSupport centres


CELFI CELFI activity AREASactivity AREASCELFI focus areasCELFI focus areas• Strategic, pedagogic and organisational modelling of

university’s online learning;• Teacher and online tutor training;• Faculties’ online learning environment setup;• Pedagogical models, research and organisation of

national and international conferences;• Coordination and development of international

project.


CELFI and Ph.D. rCELFI and Ph.D. research esearch areasareas• Models for e-Learning;• Online environment design and e-Learning tools;• Knowledge Management and Ontologies for e-

Learning;• Semantic web and e-Learning; (mash up)• Multimedia and interactive video streaming;• e-Portfolio.


Pedagogical Pedagogical modelmodelOur didactical approach enables a flexible, non-neutral pedagogical model


AssumptionsAssumptions• Real world complexity and class heterogeneity

(cultural, motivational, etc.);• Different learning styles of students;• Different motivation and awareness;• Different teacher educational philosophies;• The importance of personal reflection and

awareness of own identity (individual activities next to personal spaces) (PLEs);

• To relate Formal and Informal education;• To make technology and didactics interacting.


Theorical referencesTheorical references• Intersubjectivity and collaborative knowledge

construction (Wenger, 1998; Jonassen, 1999; Bereiter, 2002; Brown, 2005);

• Self, reflection and narration (Polanyi, 1967; Schon, 1983; Kolb, 1984; Perrenoud, 1996; Le Boterf, 2000; Gergen, 2001; Mezirow, 2003; Gruschka, 2005; Korthagen, 2006);

• Lifelong learning and professional competence construction(Samurçay e Pastré, 1995; Rabardel, 1995; Pastré,1997; Rogalski, 1997; Rey, 2003);

• Learning environment as cognitive domain(J.S. Brown, 2005, Jonassen, 2001);

• Artificial Intelligence and Intelligent Tutoring Systems (Newel, 1982; Clancey, 1993; VanLehn et al., 2005).


Main elements for designMain elements for design• Fractal approach;• Enactive approach;• Significant e-tutor presence;• Central role of learning entities;• Flexible, non-neutral, three-dimensional online

learning environment.


Fractal approachFractal approach• It allows, at design phase, to overcome restrictive

approaches and to set out for a situated design that is connected with the experience; this happens while keeping:– an internal coherence and a similar structure across the

various parts that soon become familiar to students;– autonomy of single levels that, even though they present

the same structure, consist of specific branches.


Enactive approachEnactive approach• An approach where teacher-student-contest

relations allow for the creation of an environment, and the environment represent a snapshot of the community and its developed, shared knowledge;

• An environment that expresses relations developed between its components.


Significant e-tutor presenceSignificant e-tutor presence• Each course is supervised by a professor and

managed by an online tutor possessing subject-matter and pedagogical competences; usual ratio e-tutor to students is 1/25;

• E-tutors’ tasks can be defined as follows:– Help and guidance: they operate on all subjects and

support students in cross-areas;– Subject-matter: they posses specific subject competences

as well as generic relational ones.

• E-tutors must attend a three-month training to gain relational competences focused on management of online student groups.


E-tutors’ tasks, 1/2E-tutors’ tasks, 1/2• Student guidance and assistance;• Help students within specific subject-matter support

and guidance;• Constantly monitor student activities and progress;• Support teachers with course activity design;• Organise and develop study resources.


E-tutors’ tasks, 2/2E-tutors’ tasks, 2/2• E-tutors are asked a great commitment towards:

– Student guidance and assistance in order to facilitate the creation of learning communities;

– Constant monitoring of student activities through the analysis of platform and specific activity logs.

• E-tutors enable the individualisation of learning paths and foster the creation of learning communities also through:– Interpretation of data from platform and activity logs;– Definition of different strategies that can be applied based

on multiple indicators.


Learning entitiesLearning entities• A learning entity is represented by a single student as

well as a group or class; • In order to develop a community each module includes:

– A preliminary welcoming activity and continuous support allowing students’ positioning and personalisation of his learning paths;

– Collaborative activities that reveal the students’ personal experiences and allow to negotiate shared cognitive domains;

– Design activity and project work (in team).

– Personal reflection and awareness activities facilitating the creation of dynamic professional identities.

(diachronically)


Three-dimensional modelThree-dimensional model

• The three macro dimensions:– Instructional dimension;– Collaborative and regulative dimension;– Personal and reflexive dimension.

• Each dimension is characterized by:– Different learning aims and objective typology;– Own activities and tools;– Specific monitoring & assessment tools.


Online Learning EnvironmentOnline Learning Environment

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Group - Individual

1Instructional

Activities

2Collective and

regulative activities

3Reflective and

personal activities

Materials Materials

Materials

The conceptual artifacts (materials) are “Boundary Objects” connecting the three dimensions


11stst – Instructional dimension – Instructional dimension

• Knowledge and skills acquisition;

• Media redundant materials; learning object; instructional delivery;

• Objective assessment (test).


22ndnd – Collaborative and regulative – Collaborative and regulative dimensiondimension

• Knowledge building; problem-solving; activation of regolative processes;

• Activities such as knowledge sharing and negotiation, collaborative projects, case study, open-end problems; problem posing and decision making;

• Tools for qualitative analysis, Latent Semantic Analysis and Social Network Analysis.


33rdrd – Personal dimension and e- – Personal dimension and e-PortfolioPortfolio

• Competence acquisition; identity awareness; reflection on own professional and personal identity;

• Personal selection and narration (blog); reflection tool; reflexive path; learning experience criss-crossings;

• e-Portfolio


Online Learning EnvironmentOnline Learning Environment

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Community - Personal

Instructional Delivery, Test

1

Communityof Practice,

Knowledge 2Management

(elicitation, collaboration,regulation)

Personal LearningSpace,

ePortfolio(identity, trajectories,

learning, awareness)

Communities of PracticeIndividual in the Community

Tools for reflection and individual writing are predominant

Tools for research, organization and collaboration are predominant

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Individual and Informal education

Class and Form

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Reflection and Individual activities

are predominant

The attention to content and discipline

is predominant

3


TechnologiesTechnologiesCoherence and processes of cross design between pedagogical and technological approaches


TechnologiesTechnologiesCELFI uses different environments to suit different needs of online learning:1.Graduate courses: a custom-designed version of U-Portal jointly developed with the University of Udine. This infrastructure has been successfully used and regularly updated for four years.2.Post-grad courses: an in-house developed, ASP-based environment constantly undergoing modifications and improvements, used for the last four years also.3.Since last year other LMS platforms (Moodle, Dokeos, etc.) have been tested and experimented for minor or external courses


Some examplesSome examples• Graduated, U-Portal based courses:

– Degree programmes in Educational Sciences http://celfi.unimc.it/sdf/(1)

• Post-graduated courses:– Master degree in “Educational Design”, attended by 196 teachers from

all across Italy (drop-outs: 2) during 2007-2008 http://zope.unimc.it/master/progetta(2)

– Master degree in “Open Distance Learning”, running since 2005 and attended by approx. 20 students every year http://celfi.unimc.it/odl/(3)

• Specialisation, Moodle-based courses:– Specialisation course for Online Tutors, attended by 70 grad students

during 2007-2008http://celfi.unimc.it/moodle(4)

– Specialisation course for the Ministry of Health attended by 1007 health-workershttp://www.eduiss.it/fad/(5)


Different technologies, same Different technologies, same modelmodelWe keep the same pedagogical approach in each learning environment we deploy; for this reason every LMS includes:

– Personal page;– Modular structure, easily editable by teachers and tutors;– Dispositifs for negotiation featuring indented forums;– Dispositifs for collaborative writing;– Dispositifs for learning path reflection;– Dispositifs for the construction of maps and patchworks;– e-Portfolio for personal reflection, awareness and learning

path documentation.


Personal page, blogPersonal page, blog

Self introduction

Personal blog


Learning unit entry pageLearning unit entry page

Activity introduction

Study materials

Forum discussionSuggested activities


Map, aggregation toolMap, aggregation toolSimply drag & drop study materials to create node elements into map and document personal learning paths showing the activities carried out.


MultimediaMultimedia• The synchronization (the our evolution)

– http://flash1-bo1.unimc.it/streamings/masterODL/rossi/rossi_pres_mod1

– http://flash1-bo1.unimc.it/streamings/sp/AA0708/Gioia_SPE_05/

– http://flash1-bo1.unimc.it/streamings/bcn_expoel2008/presentation/

– http://flash1-bo1.unimc.it/streamings/smt/lesson2-demo

• The Multimedia author– http://celfi.unimc.it/progetta – http://celfi.unimc.it/lab07 pat altet


e-Portfolioe-Portfolio


Circular modelCircular model

Students’ deliveries

Evaluation

Teacher-added

materials

Students’ notes, comments, reflections


Student activity monitoringStudent activity monitoringEvery activity / action is logged for group readings / writings.

SNA graphs are dynamically generated.


ResultsResults• Increase of enrolments: 100% within last three years;• Increase of teacher involvement (30% - 70% dependent

on the faculty) with online learning and great impact of acquired knowledge on face-to-face teaching activity;

• Overall quality improvement through certification by EU-funded UNIQUe accreditation;

• Increase of incoming requests for the provision of Lifelong Learning by Italian Ministries (Health, Internal Affairs);

• Participation in European Initiatives involved with e-Learning (e.g. Streaming Media Training).


Future challenges, 1/2Future challenges, 1/2• University’s 3-year development plan includes:

– Online students enrolment increase from 9% to 15%;– Increase e-Course offering and number of faculties involved

in online learning;– Improve overall teaching quality of online learning;– Enhance integration of ICT with face-to-face learning;– Expand participation in international project aimed at

technological and pedagogical research focused on e-Learning and Knowledge Management.


Future challenges, 2/2Future challenges, 2/2• In order to achieve the University’s goals we have

identified three objectives:– Personalisation of LMS and individualisation of learning paths;– Improve competences of teachers and e-tutors;– Flexibility and autopoiesis of the learning environment.

Autopoiesis literally means "auto (self)-creation" (from the Greek: auto – αυτό for self- and poiesis – ποίησις for creation or production), and expresses a fundamental dialectic between structure and function. (Source: Wikipedia)


I.L.E.I.L.E.Intelligent Intelligent LearningLearningEnvironmentEnvironmentIn 2007 a new learning envinronment project was initiated in order to improve quality of online learning while supporting professors and e-tutors in their day-to-day activities


From today’s ITS…From today’s ITS…• Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS) models and

experiences:– Dick and Carey (1990);– Beck and Stern (1996);– ANDES, VanLehn (2005);– Baghera, Webber (2005);

• ITS systems are subject matter oriented e and foresee an very specialized subject specific, rigid interaction;

• Need for general purpose, subject matter independent implementation, aimed primarily as a professional support tool for professors and e-tutors. It should relief e-tutors from 1st level learning entity support activities.


……to ILE to ILE • The Intelligent Learning Environment is based on a

pedagogical didactical domain;• Semantic indicators supply a mapping of addressed content,

issues discussed or elaborated;• Provide in real time a mapping of the elaborated activity, the

acquired knowhow of the learning entity (student, group or community);

• Supply a mapping of established relations in a given community;

• Suggests appropriate didactical strategies to professors and/or e-tutors to individualise and personalise given learning paths;

• Constant monitoring of learning entities (LE) (student, group or community).


ILE CharacteristicsILE Characteristics• Communicate with a given LMS platform via Agents

according to predefined rules and actions;• Agents with “profile based subject matter“ expert

knowledge;• Relief e-tutors from 1st level “subject matter“ tutoring

activity;• Support students / work groups (LE) with 1st level, subject

matter tutoring;• Interpret the “tutoring role” according to:

– Knowledge / subject matter profile;– Pedagogical profile in conjunction with the LE profile ;

• ILE – AI engine input:– LMS tracking data;– LSA, or any type of interpretable system, external input;– Profiles;– Manual intervention from Experts, Tutors etc.


ILE tutoring conceptILE tutoring conceptBase parameters for monitoring:• Profile of learning entities;• Advanced activity logging / tracking;• Use semiotic-semantic indicators for

interaction analysis;• Use of tagging and LSA;• Use indicators of the Social Network

Analysis (SNA).

Base of didactical knowhow:

•Wide range of models and learning dispositifs;•Models and dispositifs for collaborative knowledge construction;•Models and dispositifs for reflection and awareness of learning.

1st level student support: reduction of e-tutor load2nd level student support: relieve of e-tutor load


Evaluation of LMS platform Evaluation of LMS platform for ILEfor ILERequested characteristic for the LMS:• Pedagogical flexibility;• Adequate tools for group activities;• State of the art usability and ease of use for authors;• Clear mapping of learning path structure based on XML;• Developed for scalability, portability, interoperability;• Open source/architecture for future or specific case oriented

extensions.

OLAT Version 6 from the University of Zurich was selected as LMS platform for the ILE Project


ILE Architecture / ConceptILE Architecture / Concept

OLAT OLAT LMS - SystemLMS - System

Video ConferenceVideo ConferenceSubsystemSubsystem

OpenMeetingOpenMeeting

AI – ILEAI – ILESubsystemSubsystem

LMS AuthenticationLMS Authentication

AI AI Interaction AgentInteraction Agent

AI AI Tutor Tutor

InterfaceInterfaceAI AI

Knowledge BaseKnowledge Base

LMS DBLMS DB


LMS – ILE LMS – ILE EnvironmentEnvironment

ILE AUTHORING ENVIRONMENT

OLAT LMS PLATFORM

DB OLAT 6

ILE Engine

LE / Student Agent

Knowledgebase Agent

Presentation Agent

Pedagogical Agent

Coach/Tutoring Admin.ILE Middleware

KnowledgeDB

ProfileDB

AIRules DB

E-ContentSimplified Authoring

toolset

AIML / UMLUtilities

AI ILEAuthoring

Offline simulationTest utilities

Global Architecture of the ILE PlatformGlobal Architecture of the ILE Platform

LMS – ILE EnvironmentLMS – ILE Environment


LMS – ILE LMS – ILE EnvironmentEnvironment

OLAT Java based LMS performing functions like:• Student , Teacher, Authors administration• Group administration• E-Course administration• General access control• Global community functions like Forum,

Wiki, Blog• Extended tailored functions like e-Portfolio

etc.

AI coaching / tutoring Engine• Learning entity Agent (real-time

student / group profiler)• Curriculum Subagent (generating and

adapting learner curriculum)• Knowledge base Agent (subject matter

related)• Pedagogical profiler• Coach / Tutoring Subagent• Subject matter profiler• Presentation Agent (Dynamic session

initiator)• Pedagogical Agent• Coaching/Tutoring administrator Agent

Authoring Middleware• AIML / UML / SOAP utilities• AI ILE Authoring tools• Global Knowledgebase management

utilities• Standalone e-Course development

environment• AI simulation / Test utilities

ILE Components

LMS – ILE EnvironmentLMS – ILE Environment


OLAT – ILE OLAT – ILE INTEGRATIONINTEGRATIONILE-AI Push/Pull

Servlet

ILE-AI LMS Communicator

AI - Engine

OLAT – ILE integrationOLAT – ILE integration


LMS – ILE Design issuesLMS – ILE Design issues• Static Design Static Design strives for a

simple, elegant, efficient solution to a single situation.

Outside of that situation the design is useless

• AdaptationAdaptation strives to just survive in a constantly changing situation.

Adaptation is continuously making design decisions

Requirements

Design

Implement

Test

Water Fall Design Process Water Fall Design Process

ImplImpl

Adaptive Control Loop Adaptive Control Loop

ImplementationLoads

Capacity Cost

QoS

AdaptiveControl

Policy

Conditions Conditions

LMS – ILE design issuesLMS – ILE design issues


Plug-ins

Blackboard (Method for inter Agent Communication)

Agent

Publish (Push) Subscribe (Pull)

Message Queue

AI – ILE “the Agent”AI – ILE “the Agent”


componentcomponent

service

BBBB

BehaviorBehavior

effectereffecter coordinator

coordinatorsensorsensor

componentcomponent

service service

componentcomponent

librarylibrary

Agent

BBBB

BehaviorBehavior

effectereffecter

coordinator

coordinator sensorsensor

componentcomponent componentcomponent

serviceservice

librarylibrary

Agent

Abstracted Environment

Systemspecific

VariableBoundary

Cougaar Agent Reference Model FrameworkCougaar Agent Reference Model Framework

Infrastructure

Applicationdomainspecific

AI – ILE Agent FrameworkAI – ILE Agent Framework


Sensor-BasedControl Loop

Model-BasedControl Loop

CognitiveControl Loop

Model PolicySituation

inference rules

days to minutes secs to msecs

NetworkNetwork DiskDisk

management plane data plane

Sensor/ ActivityProxy

Agents

Sensor/ ActivityProxy

Agents

Real-timeOptimizer

Agents

Real-timeOptimizer

Agents

processing statuscoordination

resource statuscoordination

resource trendscoordination

CognitiveLearnerAgents

CognitiveLearnerAgents

processing. trendscoordination

SituationPredictorAgents

SituationPredictorAgents

processing patterncoordination

resource patterncoordination

Sensor/ActivityProxy

Agents

Sensor/ActivityProxy

Agents

ProcessingUnits

CPUCPU

AI - Architectural Mapping AI - Architectural Mapping ConceptConcept


Cougaar1. Agent societies2. Cougaar environment3. Agent coordination4. Transitioning of control

loops human to automation

architectural mapping

Application 1. Functional modules (oval shaped)2. Underlying distributed environment3. Sensor / Activity to control loop

coordination4. Evolving degree of human

involvement

AI - Architectural MappingAI - Architectural Mapping


Agent AgentCoordination

Artifact(CA)

Agent AgentShared stateShared state

Defines rolesDefines roles

Role-playersRole-players

Coordination Artifacts (CA’s) – Are first-class entities in MAS– Define explicit roles for role-players (Profiles)– Offer shared state between the role-player & the CA– Coordinate behavior among role-players– Designed and implemented as distributed, scalable implementation

ILE – AI Environment ConceptILE – AI Environment Concept


Summary ILE PlatformSummary ILE Platform• Considered as a “Intelligent Support Tool” for Tutors and

Learning Entities;• Act’s according to predefined profiles;• Relief Tutors from 1st level “ subject matter “ tutoring

activity;• Support students / work groups (LE) with 1st level subject

matter tutoring;• 1st level tutoring is proposed in “friendly suggestion

mode”, logged in the LE course activity log files;• Leaves Authors the “didactical Freedom”;• Allows a “tailored, adaptable learning path”;• Proposed ILE-AI actions are always confirmed and

initiated by the “human tutor”.


Thank you!Thank you!Prof. Pier Giuseppe Rossi, director [email protected]

Ing. Attilio Pedrazzoli, PhD professor

[email protected]