The document proposes a multi-layer map model to improve self-directed learning through resource organization and community-based learning on the web. It describes difficulties in locating suitable resources and navigating large amounts of information. The model visualizes common learning behaviors like resource location, categorization, and sharing. It was developed into a system allowing learners to easily find resources, organize them into personal topic maps, and share with a community topic map merging all personal maps. A case study found learners could locate resources faster, organize more meaningfully, and collect community resources more easily.
This document summarizes a study that examined how weblogs were used to create communities of learning among students in a higher education course. The study found that the 76 students formed into groups of 6-7 students and each group created a weblog. By contributing to and interacting on each other's weblogs, the students were able to share knowledge, provide peer support and encouragement, and work towards common learning goals as a community. The weblogs allowed the students to learn from each other in a way that transcended boundaries and helped develop their identities as members of the learning community. The study concluded that communities of learning can result in significant student learning when supported by technologies like weblogs.
Roles of perceived fit and perceived individual learning support in students’...eraser Juan José Calderón
Roles of perceived fit and perceived individual learning support in students’ weblogs continuance usage intention. Princely Ifinedo.
Abstract
Weblogs (or blogs) are increasingly being used in higher educational contexts. Not
much is known about the factors that influence students’ continued usage intention
of weblogs. This study uses the expectation-confirmation model (ECM) as its background
theoretical framework, and explores the roles of antecedent factors of perceived fit and
perceived individual learning support in the research model. A cross-sectional survey was
used to collect data from 108 undergraduate students taking a management information
systems (MIS) course in a small university in Canada. Relevant hypotheses on the subject
matter were formulated and tested. The partial least squares (PLS) technique was used for
data analysis. The results strongly support the proposed hypotheses, indicating that
perceived fit, perceived individual learning support, perceived usefulness, confirmation,
and satisfaction have positive effects on students’ continued usage intentions of Weblogs.
The findings of this study have practical and theoretical implications, which are succinctly
discussed, and suggestions for future research outlined.
Keywords: Perceived fit, Perceived individual learning support, Continuance usage
intention, Weblogs, Students
The document discusses the evolving role of librarians as instructors in information literacy. It notes that librarians have traditionally provided library instruction and orientations, but that the role has expanded with the growth of information technology and emphasis on lifelong learning. Some challenges to the teacher identity of librarians are discussed, as well as arguments in favor of this role, including librarians' expertise in information seeking and understanding of students' needs. The importance of continued professional development for librarians to stay updated on new technologies and skills is also emphasized.
This document discusses student use of Wikipedia for academic research. It notes that today's students have grown up with the internet and see it as their primary source of information. While Wikipedia provides easily accessible information, instructors and information professionals are concerned about students' ability to evaluate sources critically. The document reviews literature on student information behavior, the concerns of instructors, Wikipedia as a source, and how students use Wikipedia. It finds that students often feel frustrated by academic databases and gravitate towards familiar sources like Wikipedia and Google.
The document summarizes research on the evolving roles of information and communication technologies (ICT) in education and their impact on students' learning experiences. It discusses frameworks that classify ICT's roles as tools, tutors, and tutees. Research also shows ICT supporting deeper learning through "mindtools" and promoting motivation, engagement, access to information and resources, collaboration, and critical thinking skills. Studies find technology-rich classrooms correlate with improved critical thinking. Overall, ICT is increasingly emphasized in curricula and has significantly changed students' educative experiences in various ways.
1) The University of Southern California's Leavey Library received 1.4 million visits last year, illustrating how a library can become integral to campus life if designed with an understanding of Net Gen students' needs.
2) There is a disconnect between the culture of traditional library organizations and that of Net Gen students. Libraries emphasize access to information but do not support student creation of new information or multimedia environments preferred by Net Gen students.
3) Net Gen students perceive the open web as their information universe, not the library. They prefer simple search engines like Google over navigating complex library databases and sites. Libraries must make their resources more accessible and integrate them into students' online environments.
This document summarizes a study that examined how weblogs were used to create communities of learning among students in a higher education course. The study found that the 76 students formed into groups of 6-7 students and each group created a weblog. By contributing to and interacting on each other's weblogs, the students were able to share knowledge, provide peer support and encouragement, and work towards common learning goals as a community. The weblogs allowed the students to learn from each other in a way that transcended boundaries and helped develop their identities as members of the learning community. The study concluded that communities of learning can result in significant student learning when supported by technologies like weblogs.
Roles of perceived fit and perceived individual learning support in students’...eraser Juan José Calderón
Roles of perceived fit and perceived individual learning support in students’ weblogs continuance usage intention. Princely Ifinedo.
Abstract
Weblogs (or blogs) are increasingly being used in higher educational contexts. Not
much is known about the factors that influence students’ continued usage intention
of weblogs. This study uses the expectation-confirmation model (ECM) as its background
theoretical framework, and explores the roles of antecedent factors of perceived fit and
perceived individual learning support in the research model. A cross-sectional survey was
used to collect data from 108 undergraduate students taking a management information
systems (MIS) course in a small university in Canada. Relevant hypotheses on the subject
matter were formulated and tested. The partial least squares (PLS) technique was used for
data analysis. The results strongly support the proposed hypotheses, indicating that
perceived fit, perceived individual learning support, perceived usefulness, confirmation,
and satisfaction have positive effects on students’ continued usage intentions of Weblogs.
The findings of this study have practical and theoretical implications, which are succinctly
discussed, and suggestions for future research outlined.
Keywords: Perceived fit, Perceived individual learning support, Continuance usage
intention, Weblogs, Students
The document discusses the evolving role of librarians as instructors in information literacy. It notes that librarians have traditionally provided library instruction and orientations, but that the role has expanded with the growth of information technology and emphasis on lifelong learning. Some challenges to the teacher identity of librarians are discussed, as well as arguments in favor of this role, including librarians' expertise in information seeking and understanding of students' needs. The importance of continued professional development for librarians to stay updated on new technologies and skills is also emphasized.
This document discusses student use of Wikipedia for academic research. It notes that today's students have grown up with the internet and see it as their primary source of information. While Wikipedia provides easily accessible information, instructors and information professionals are concerned about students' ability to evaluate sources critically. The document reviews literature on student information behavior, the concerns of instructors, Wikipedia as a source, and how students use Wikipedia. It finds that students often feel frustrated by academic databases and gravitate towards familiar sources like Wikipedia and Google.
The document summarizes research on the evolving roles of information and communication technologies (ICT) in education and their impact on students' learning experiences. It discusses frameworks that classify ICT's roles as tools, tutors, and tutees. Research also shows ICT supporting deeper learning through "mindtools" and promoting motivation, engagement, access to information and resources, collaboration, and critical thinking skills. Studies find technology-rich classrooms correlate with improved critical thinking. Overall, ICT is increasingly emphasized in curricula and has significantly changed students' educative experiences in various ways.
1) The University of Southern California's Leavey Library received 1.4 million visits last year, illustrating how a library can become integral to campus life if designed with an understanding of Net Gen students' needs.
2) There is a disconnect between the culture of traditional library organizations and that of Net Gen students. Libraries emphasize access to information but do not support student creation of new information or multimedia environments preferred by Net Gen students.
3) Net Gen students perceive the open web as their information universe, not the library. They prefer simple search engines like Google over navigating complex library databases and sites. Libraries must make their resources more accessible and integrate them into students' online environments.
Comparing learning management systems global learn 2016 irelandDavid Brooks
This document compares two learning management systems (LMS), Moodle and Google Classroom. It discusses the advantages and disadvantages of each system. Moodle provides more comprehensive tools and flexibility, while Google Classroom is easier to set up and use, especially for schools already using Google Apps. Both systems allow teachers to communicate with students, distribute assignments, provide feedback, and track student progress online. The best choice depends on a teacher's needs and technical skills.
Blended Learning Course ware: Introduction to Poetry Eftekhar Uddin
The document discusses using a blended learning approach in a large, mixed ability poetry classroom at a private university. The author's goal was to engage students in active learning outside of class through collaboration and individualized feedback. To address this, the author proposes using Moodle, an open-source online platform, to supplement face-to-face instruction. Key aspects of the blended approach discussed include social constructivism, formative assessment, and utilizing Moodle features like forums, quizzes, and groups to facilitate collaboration between students.
This document summarizes a presentation about how Fort Hays State University is leveraging social media and collaborative technologies to enhance learning in the 21st century. It discusses moving from an industrial age teaching paradigm to a "Wikinomics" paradigm focused on collaborative learning and knowledge creation. It then outlines FHSU's strategic plan to develop an institutional ecosystem using social media tools to foster collaboration across different university audiences and integrate decentralized uses into a shared learning commons. Some early action plans and tactics are described, along with critical success factors for managing the strategic plan in real-time.
Choosing Open (#GO_GN) - Openness and praxis: Using OEP in HECatherine Cronin
This summary provides the key points from the document in 3 sentences:
The document discusses open educational practices (OEP) in higher education. It explores how academic staff use OEP, their reasons for using or not using OEP, and identifies 4 dimensions shared by academic staff who do use OEP - balancing privacy and openness, developing digital literacies, valuing social learning, and challenging traditional teaching roles. The document concludes that use of OEP is a complex, personal, and contextual issue that higher education institutions should support by building academic staff capacity in digital literacies, navigating privacy and openness, and reflecting on educator roles.
This document presents a new learning environment model based on Web 2.0 applications, discussing how the technological changes of Web 2.0 have impacted communication, knowledge, and learning. It reviews concepts of eLearning 2.0 and personal learning environments, then describes the development and implementation of a Web 2.0 learning environment at Darmstadt University consisting of wikis, blogs, social bookmarking, and RSS feeds. An evaluation of this learning environment found that it successfully motivated students and improved learning outcomes.
Tweeting the night away: Using Twitter to enhance social presencePatrick Lowenthal
This document discusses using Twitter to enhance social presence in online courses. It begins by explaining the importance of social presence and interaction for online learning. While learning management systems provide some social tools, they cannot facilitate the informal, just-in-time interactions that occur outside the classroom. The authors describe how they used Twitter in their online courses to allow students to interact and ask questions in real-time. This helped enhance social presence by providing a space for informal discussions and connections between students and instructors. The authors also note some additional instructional benefits of using Twitter, such as addressing student issues promptly and practicing concise writing.
Mobile devices have been the focus of a push in many nations and internationally as part of
efforts to achieve greater literacy and numeracy among students. Research has shown a strong
link between Internet usage, the spread of broadband in a country, and its GDP. Those countries
that are the highest performing educationally already integrate mobile devices in their
education. This paper synthesizes empirical research on mobile devices from 2010 to 2013 in
K-12 schools by focusing on studies that demonstrate emerging themes in this area. It is also
clear that the pedagogy needed to be successful in creating positive outcomes in the use of
technology has to be student-centered with the aim of personalizing the learning experience.
Research found that students could become collaborators in designing their own learning
process. As students become independent learners, they become more prepared in the skills
needed for college and in their careers.
Hann -collaborate-to-learn-learn-to-collaborateDiana Moglan
This document summarizes a study that explored how asynchronous discussion in a web-based learning system facilitated collaborative learning. The study analyzed discussion transcripts and interviews from a master's level course. Three main categories emerged as important for collaborative learning online: context (structural support and active participation), community (formation of membership and social dialogue), and cognition (social process of learning and communal facilitation). The document provides background on social views of learning, conceptual frameworks for web-based learning environments, and reviews literature on collaborative learning theories and models.
If i upload it, will they come using lazy user theory to explain student use ...Alexander Decker
This document summarizes a study that examined student use of optional online learning resources based on the theory of lazy user behavior. The study surveyed 55 undergraduate business students about their perceptions and use of different online services like groupware and online courses. The results indicated that students' decisions about using administrative online services were strongly influenced by minimizing effort, but effort minimization was less of a factor for more learning-focused services. The findings provide insights into how students allocate effort across different online learning options.
AN INVESTIGATION OF TEACHER EDUCATORS’ PERCEPTION TOWARDS THE PEDAGOGICAL BEN...Thiyagu K
The use of ICT in teacher education programs has been gaining interest throughout the world. This interest places pressure on faculties of education to prepare a new generation of graduates capable of integrating a variety of technological tools into their personal and professional lives (Starkman, Neal. 2007). Argued that enabling teachers to make effective use of ICT as a tool for deep learning should be top priorities for both, pre-service and in-service programs, so as to overcome the most important challenge of the teaching profession, which is the preparation of students equipped with the skills needed for 21st century careers. The explosion of technological growth with Web 2.0 applications has opened up new learning possibilities for educational programs and blogs are a promising example of these new applications (Keegan and Desmond. 2002). Weblogs are considered to be one of the best ways of combining Information Communication Technology (ICT) with teaching and learning methodologies in a classroom. The application of weblogs in higher education, particularly in teacher preparation programs, has been documented very recently. Hence, the investigator proposed the title of the study has “Teacher Educators’ Perception towards the Pedagogical Benefits of weblog in Tirunelveli District”. The main aim of the study is to assess the perception towards the pedagogical benefits of weblog among the teacher educators of Tirunelveli district. Survey method is employed for this study. The investigator has chosen 150 teacher educators as a sample for the study in a random sampling technique. Finally the investigator concludes; (a) Average level perception towards pedagogical benefits of weblog among the teacher educators. (b) There is no significant difference in the mean scores of teacher educators’ perception towards pedagogical Benefits of Weblog with respect to their gender, age, subject, marital status, years of experience and educational qualification.
- Students face challenges with online group work including unequal contributions, difficulties managing different ideas, and issues with individual assessment. Effective online collaboration tools can help address these challenges if implemented properly.
- Google Docs, Wikis, and video conferencing tools like Google Hangouts allow for real-time collaboration but require careful facilitation to encourage participation and avoid issues like editing other students' work. With the right support, these tools have been shown to improve outcomes for online group work.
The document discusses challenges with eLearning implementation in universities and proposes connectivism as a framework to address these challenges. It summarizes that eLearning has largely been unsuccessful due to a lack of change in teaching practices. The HKU eLearning strategy aims to enhance learning but will not succeed without reconceiving teaching approaches. Connectivism provides a model of learning as an ongoing process of exploration and connection that could help change teaching in line with how knowledge is acquired today. While the LMS has limitations, it could potentially support connectivism if used creatively to connect learners to external resources and allow knowledge production and sharing.
Stephen Abram presented on the future of libraries and information in a changing digital landscape. Key points include:
- Users will continue to be diverse with increasing expectations for timely access across digital and print.
- Content will be dominated by non-text formats like video, audio, and 3D.
- Search options will expand while devices focus on social features and multimedia.
- Librarians will need to focus on strategic alignment and reduced roles in organizing knowledge.
- Formats, devices, search, and content will continue to fragment requiring flexibility from libraries.
The document discusses the readiness of teacher education institutions in the Philippines for Education 4.0. It finds that administrators and faculty members perceive themselves as ready in terms of their skills in selecting and integrating digital resources for teaching and learning, as they receive capacity building through seminars and conferences on technological literacy. However, they are not skilled in using learning management systems, online class modalities, augmented reality, robotics, or 3D printing, which may be due to a lack of digital infrastructure and virtual laboratories. Respondents also disagreed that the institutions are ready in terms of research programs and initiatives for Education 4.0. The study thus concludes that institutions need to rethink infrastructure planning, strengthen research, and improve teacher training capabilities to
This document discusses using social networking platforms as new technology tools for e-learning. It begins by introducing how social networks have made connecting people globally easier and cheaper. It then discusses how e-learning through web-based learning systems provides advantages for both teachers and students by allowing flexibility. The popularity of using social networks as an educational tool is increasing as educators incorporate platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn into learning. A study examined students' usage of learning management systems versus social networks for educational purposes. It found that social networks were used more regularly and seen as more useful and effective for spreading information among students. The conclusion is that while some students still prefer learning management systems, social networks can provide a richer environment for sharing knowledge between educators and peers
The document discusses the benefits and guidelines for implementing hybrid online learning in K-12 classrooms. It argues that hybrid models can provide students with greater engagement, flexibility, and access to knowledge beyond the classroom by combining online and face-to-face learning. Standards from organizations like the American Association of School Librarians and Common Core emphasize skills like research, analysis, collaboration, and use of technology that are well-suited to hybrid environments. Recommendations include building an online community, using various technologies to encourage interaction, and assigning collaborative tasks.
Social research methods and open educational resources: a literature review (...CSAPSubjectCentre
A literature review written by Kate Orton-Johnson and Ian Fairweather as part of the C-SAP (Higher Education Academy's Centre for Sociology, Anthropology and Politics) project "Discovering Collections of Social Science Open Educational Resources".
Hybrid online learning: An introductionjessrushing
This document discusses the benefits and guidelines for implementing hybrid online learning in face-to-face classrooms. Hybrid learning combines online and in-person instruction, allowing students to access resources and knowledge beyond the classroom. Standards from the American Association of School Librarians and Common Core emphasize students' need to use technology as a learning tool. Research suggests hybrid models provide individualized learning while maintaining social support from classmates and teachers. The document provides tips for collaborative online learning and lists popular platforms to integrate online content and activities into face-to-face courses.
Comparing learning management systems global learn 2016 irelandDavid Brooks
This document compares two learning management systems (LMS), Moodle and Google Classroom. It discusses the advantages and disadvantages of each system. Moodle provides more comprehensive tools and flexibility, while Google Classroom is easier to set up and use, especially for schools already using Google Apps. Both systems allow teachers to communicate with students, distribute assignments, provide feedback, and track student progress online. The best choice depends on a teacher's needs and technical skills.
Blended Learning Course ware: Introduction to Poetry Eftekhar Uddin
The document discusses using a blended learning approach in a large, mixed ability poetry classroom at a private university. The author's goal was to engage students in active learning outside of class through collaboration and individualized feedback. To address this, the author proposes using Moodle, an open-source online platform, to supplement face-to-face instruction. Key aspects of the blended approach discussed include social constructivism, formative assessment, and utilizing Moodle features like forums, quizzes, and groups to facilitate collaboration between students.
This document summarizes a presentation about how Fort Hays State University is leveraging social media and collaborative technologies to enhance learning in the 21st century. It discusses moving from an industrial age teaching paradigm to a "Wikinomics" paradigm focused on collaborative learning and knowledge creation. It then outlines FHSU's strategic plan to develop an institutional ecosystem using social media tools to foster collaboration across different university audiences and integrate decentralized uses into a shared learning commons. Some early action plans and tactics are described, along with critical success factors for managing the strategic plan in real-time.
Choosing Open (#GO_GN) - Openness and praxis: Using OEP in HECatherine Cronin
This summary provides the key points from the document in 3 sentences:
The document discusses open educational practices (OEP) in higher education. It explores how academic staff use OEP, their reasons for using or not using OEP, and identifies 4 dimensions shared by academic staff who do use OEP - balancing privacy and openness, developing digital literacies, valuing social learning, and challenging traditional teaching roles. The document concludes that use of OEP is a complex, personal, and contextual issue that higher education institutions should support by building academic staff capacity in digital literacies, navigating privacy and openness, and reflecting on educator roles.
This document presents a new learning environment model based on Web 2.0 applications, discussing how the technological changes of Web 2.0 have impacted communication, knowledge, and learning. It reviews concepts of eLearning 2.0 and personal learning environments, then describes the development and implementation of a Web 2.0 learning environment at Darmstadt University consisting of wikis, blogs, social bookmarking, and RSS feeds. An evaluation of this learning environment found that it successfully motivated students and improved learning outcomes.
Tweeting the night away: Using Twitter to enhance social presencePatrick Lowenthal
This document discusses using Twitter to enhance social presence in online courses. It begins by explaining the importance of social presence and interaction for online learning. While learning management systems provide some social tools, they cannot facilitate the informal, just-in-time interactions that occur outside the classroom. The authors describe how they used Twitter in their online courses to allow students to interact and ask questions in real-time. This helped enhance social presence by providing a space for informal discussions and connections between students and instructors. The authors also note some additional instructional benefits of using Twitter, such as addressing student issues promptly and practicing concise writing.
Mobile devices have been the focus of a push in many nations and internationally as part of
efforts to achieve greater literacy and numeracy among students. Research has shown a strong
link between Internet usage, the spread of broadband in a country, and its GDP. Those countries
that are the highest performing educationally already integrate mobile devices in their
education. This paper synthesizes empirical research on mobile devices from 2010 to 2013 in
K-12 schools by focusing on studies that demonstrate emerging themes in this area. It is also
clear that the pedagogy needed to be successful in creating positive outcomes in the use of
technology has to be student-centered with the aim of personalizing the learning experience.
Research found that students could become collaborators in designing their own learning
process. As students become independent learners, they become more prepared in the skills
needed for college and in their careers.
Hann -collaborate-to-learn-learn-to-collaborateDiana Moglan
This document summarizes a study that explored how asynchronous discussion in a web-based learning system facilitated collaborative learning. The study analyzed discussion transcripts and interviews from a master's level course. Three main categories emerged as important for collaborative learning online: context (structural support and active participation), community (formation of membership and social dialogue), and cognition (social process of learning and communal facilitation). The document provides background on social views of learning, conceptual frameworks for web-based learning environments, and reviews literature on collaborative learning theories and models.
If i upload it, will they come using lazy user theory to explain student use ...Alexander Decker
This document summarizes a study that examined student use of optional online learning resources based on the theory of lazy user behavior. The study surveyed 55 undergraduate business students about their perceptions and use of different online services like groupware and online courses. The results indicated that students' decisions about using administrative online services were strongly influenced by minimizing effort, but effort minimization was less of a factor for more learning-focused services. The findings provide insights into how students allocate effort across different online learning options.
AN INVESTIGATION OF TEACHER EDUCATORS’ PERCEPTION TOWARDS THE PEDAGOGICAL BEN...Thiyagu K
The use of ICT in teacher education programs has been gaining interest throughout the world. This interest places pressure on faculties of education to prepare a new generation of graduates capable of integrating a variety of technological tools into their personal and professional lives (Starkman, Neal. 2007). Argued that enabling teachers to make effective use of ICT as a tool for deep learning should be top priorities for both, pre-service and in-service programs, so as to overcome the most important challenge of the teaching profession, which is the preparation of students equipped with the skills needed for 21st century careers. The explosion of technological growth with Web 2.0 applications has opened up new learning possibilities for educational programs and blogs are a promising example of these new applications (Keegan and Desmond. 2002). Weblogs are considered to be one of the best ways of combining Information Communication Technology (ICT) with teaching and learning methodologies in a classroom. The application of weblogs in higher education, particularly in teacher preparation programs, has been documented very recently. Hence, the investigator proposed the title of the study has “Teacher Educators’ Perception towards the Pedagogical Benefits of weblog in Tirunelveli District”. The main aim of the study is to assess the perception towards the pedagogical benefits of weblog among the teacher educators of Tirunelveli district. Survey method is employed for this study. The investigator has chosen 150 teacher educators as a sample for the study in a random sampling technique. Finally the investigator concludes; (a) Average level perception towards pedagogical benefits of weblog among the teacher educators. (b) There is no significant difference in the mean scores of teacher educators’ perception towards pedagogical Benefits of Weblog with respect to their gender, age, subject, marital status, years of experience and educational qualification.
- Students face challenges with online group work including unequal contributions, difficulties managing different ideas, and issues with individual assessment. Effective online collaboration tools can help address these challenges if implemented properly.
- Google Docs, Wikis, and video conferencing tools like Google Hangouts allow for real-time collaboration but require careful facilitation to encourage participation and avoid issues like editing other students' work. With the right support, these tools have been shown to improve outcomes for online group work.
The document discusses challenges with eLearning implementation in universities and proposes connectivism as a framework to address these challenges. It summarizes that eLearning has largely been unsuccessful due to a lack of change in teaching practices. The HKU eLearning strategy aims to enhance learning but will not succeed without reconceiving teaching approaches. Connectivism provides a model of learning as an ongoing process of exploration and connection that could help change teaching in line with how knowledge is acquired today. While the LMS has limitations, it could potentially support connectivism if used creatively to connect learners to external resources and allow knowledge production and sharing.
Stephen Abram presented on the future of libraries and information in a changing digital landscape. Key points include:
- Users will continue to be diverse with increasing expectations for timely access across digital and print.
- Content will be dominated by non-text formats like video, audio, and 3D.
- Search options will expand while devices focus on social features and multimedia.
- Librarians will need to focus on strategic alignment and reduced roles in organizing knowledge.
- Formats, devices, search, and content will continue to fragment requiring flexibility from libraries.
The document discusses the readiness of teacher education institutions in the Philippines for Education 4.0. It finds that administrators and faculty members perceive themselves as ready in terms of their skills in selecting and integrating digital resources for teaching and learning, as they receive capacity building through seminars and conferences on technological literacy. However, they are not skilled in using learning management systems, online class modalities, augmented reality, robotics, or 3D printing, which may be due to a lack of digital infrastructure and virtual laboratories. Respondents also disagreed that the institutions are ready in terms of research programs and initiatives for Education 4.0. The study thus concludes that institutions need to rethink infrastructure planning, strengthen research, and improve teacher training capabilities to
This document discusses using social networking platforms as new technology tools for e-learning. It begins by introducing how social networks have made connecting people globally easier and cheaper. It then discusses how e-learning through web-based learning systems provides advantages for both teachers and students by allowing flexibility. The popularity of using social networks as an educational tool is increasing as educators incorporate platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn into learning. A study examined students' usage of learning management systems versus social networks for educational purposes. It found that social networks were used more regularly and seen as more useful and effective for spreading information among students. The conclusion is that while some students still prefer learning management systems, social networks can provide a richer environment for sharing knowledge between educators and peers
The document discusses the benefits and guidelines for implementing hybrid online learning in K-12 classrooms. It argues that hybrid models can provide students with greater engagement, flexibility, and access to knowledge beyond the classroom by combining online and face-to-face learning. Standards from organizations like the American Association of School Librarians and Common Core emphasize skills like research, analysis, collaboration, and use of technology that are well-suited to hybrid environments. Recommendations include building an online community, using various technologies to encourage interaction, and assigning collaborative tasks.
Social research methods and open educational resources: a literature review (...CSAPSubjectCentre
A literature review written by Kate Orton-Johnson and Ian Fairweather as part of the C-SAP (Higher Education Academy's Centre for Sociology, Anthropology and Politics) project "Discovering Collections of Social Science Open Educational Resources".
Hybrid online learning: An introductionjessrushing
This document discusses the benefits and guidelines for implementing hybrid online learning in face-to-face classrooms. Hybrid learning combines online and in-person instruction, allowing students to access resources and knowledge beyond the classroom. Standards from the American Association of School Librarians and Common Core emphasize students' need to use technology as a learning tool. Research suggests hybrid models provide individualized learning while maintaining social support from classmates and teachers. The document provides tips for collaborative online learning and lists popular platforms to integrate online content and activities into face-to-face courses.
Hybrid online learning: An Introductionjessrushing
This document discusses the benefits and guidelines for implementing hybrid online learning in classrooms. Hybrid learning involves adding online delivery of content and instruction to traditional face-to-face teaching. It can provide students with greater flexibility, engagement, and access to knowledge beyond what is taught in the classroom. Standards from organizations like the American Association of School Librarians and Common Core emphasize skills like research, media literacy, and use of technology that hybrid learning supports. The document provides examples of online learning platforms and guidelines for creating collaborative online learning communities.
A Folksonomy-Based Lightweight Resource Annotation Metadata Schema For Person...Kim Daniels
1) The document proposes a lightweight resource annotation metadata schema and semantic model to annotate and personalize hypermedia learning resources for individual learners based on folksonomy tagging.
2) It aims to harness social web resources for educational purposes by adapting them to different learner needs, styles, and preferences through collaborative tagging and annotation.
3) A prototype recommender system is demonstrated and preliminary results found learners were confident in the accuracy, usefulness, and relevance of the recommended resources.
This document discusses two conceptual models that can help address major infrastructural, cultural, and organizational issues in integrating formal and informal eLearning environments: 1) The "Aggregate then Curate" social media participation model developed on the MOSI-ALONG project. 2) An "Architecture of Participation" development framework for institutional flexibility created with UK colleges. It also summarizes the background and development of related models including the Emergent Learning Model, Open Context Model of Learning, and Community Development Model of Learning. Key aspects of applying these models on the MOSI-ALONG project are described.
The document provides a reflection on a portfolio module focused on e-learning. It discusses the author's expectations for the module, issues with the module design, struggles engaging with directed tasks and research, insights gained from the structured research, and opportunities to improve collaborative elements and make resources more openly accessible. The author felt the module provided a useful framework for developing an understanding of e-learning but that some tasks seemed tokenistic and that the resources could be better shared to build a wider learning community.
This document discusses contextualizing learning resources for community learning. It addresses topics like context modeling, metadata for community content, learner modeling, and community content design principles. It advocates that context is key and community content should be locally relevant and created using tools and skills training. Learning is interest-driven and animateurs help develop learners within a community development model by providing timely interventions and goal articulation.
There are many challenges to develop an online community of teachers. This paper describes the support needs of pre-service and early career teachers, and some design principles for creating online networks that meet them.
It includes a critique of existing online communities, including commercial sites (like Facebook) and government sites (like Scootle).
This document discusses key attributes that create an effective online learning experience from the perspective of adult learners. It identifies that asynchronous learning environments allow learners to participate on their own schedule. It also discusses how technology participatory practices like games and simulations can engage learners and promote collaboration. Effective communication tools that facilitate interaction between instructors and students are also important. The document emphasizes the importance of staying relevant by embracing new technologies and updating course materials to meet current learning needs.
OLAP based Scaffolding to support Personalized Synchronous e-Learning IJMIT JOURNAL
The advent of asynchronous web based learning systems has helped the learner in a self paced,
personalized and flexible learning style. It can be even more useful with a supportive synchronous tutorial
(question-answer) session. The challenge is to provide sufficient information to the instructor about the
learner’s experience in that particular course at run time. Online analytical processing (OLAP) is a very
useful technique in producing such run time information in the form of reports. In this paper we have
designed an automated scaffolding technique to hold this vital information about the learner which we have
obtained by OLAP techniques on the log data of the LMS users. We have also proposed an overall
architecture of the scaffolding where this information can be easily accessed and used by the instructor in
the synchronous tutorial session to make the system more adaptive.
Social Media and Facebook for learning: methodological aspects and main resul...Stefania Manca
The document summarizes two research studies conducted by Stefania Manca on the use of social media and Facebook for learning. The first study was a literature review that found Facebook has been used mainly as a learning management system rather than fully utilizing its affordances to blend information sources. Barriers included institutional policies and traditional pedagogies. The second study surveyed Italian academics and found they use social media more for personal and professional purposes rather than teaching. Use varied by discipline, and barriers included cultural, pedagogical, and institutional factors. Overall, the studies show potential but also limitations in social media integration in education due to various obstacles.
Running Head ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY1ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY .docxSUBHI7
Running Head: ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY 1
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY 6
Annotated Bibliography
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Button, D., Harrington, A., & Belan, I. (2014). E-learning & information communication technology (ICT) in nursing education: A review of the literature. Nurse Education Today, 34(10), 1311-1323.
There is need for constant updating of informatics in fields such as nursing so as to help those in the fields to be able to learn and utilize the skills they learn in positive development of children and personal development. This resource is aimed at performing a study spread out across a ten year period identifying the issues which arise and affect both tutors and students in the context of e-learning systems. This study has been significantly the largest change in the field of medicine and nursing education where hospital training was moved to the tertiary sector. Also, the existing differences between computers and systems dealing with informatics depending on their use can prove successful to the users. Technology has also enabled for the creation and use of online data sources and libraries for purposes of referencing and gaining knowledge.
From this reference I will be able to review how technology has been used in developing an online database which can be used by learners and tutors in the field of nursing to gain information.
FernáNdez-LóPez, Á. RodríGuez-FóRtiz, M. J., RodríGuez-Almendros, M. L., & MartíNez-Segura, M. J. (2013). Mobile learning technology based on iOS devices to support students with special education needs. Computers & Education, 61, 77-90.
Recent advancements in technology have assisted in creation of avenues for students with special needs to be able to access equal education opportunities. Mobile applications can be developed for children especially with cognitive disabilities and other difficulties which may arise in the process of learning to help them gain knowledge and education better. These applications can be used as a tool for improvement and betterment of behaviors, helping them interact with the environment and other aspects of holistic growth such as helping in communication. These applications can be designed for Apple iOS devices due to their increased use in the American market however developments can be made to incorporate other platforms. However, there exists a number of applications which have already been implemented and have proven to be successful in helping in positive growth n children.
I intend to use this source to sow how technology can be used to teach children with disabilities and difficulties in learning. Technology can be harnessed and channeled to be used as a tool for education outside the school to help for better growth and development of a child.
Lai, K. W., Khaddage, F., & Knezek, G. (2013). Blending student technology experiences in formal and informal learning. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 29(5), 414-425.
There is need for im ...
The document discusses the foundations of educational theory for online learning. It argues that effective online learning is influenced more by instructional strategy and design than the delivery technology. While technologies provide access to materials, it is how the content is designed and delivered that impacts learning. The document reviews different learning theories like behaviorism and constructivism that can inform online instruction. It proposes a model for developing online learning that integrates various theories to guide design. Specifically, online materials should motivate learners, facilitate interaction and feedback, and support learners during the process.
The document discusses how instructional blogging can be used as an effective e-learning tool in online and hybrid courses. It promotes interactivity, student-centered learning, and peer input. The author explains how blogging can be used as a knowledge-centered, learner-centered, and community-centered instructional tool. It allows for receptive, directive, and guided discovery learning techniques. Student responses were initially mixed but improved when blogging became mandatory and students were required to comment on each other's posts. Overall, blogging enhanced the online learning experience when integrated appropriately into the course pedagogy and curriculum.
Pre-service Teachers’ Perceptions of the Effectiveness of Multi-Author Bloggi...Dr. Almodaires
Multi-author blogs have created new opportunities for the construction and dissemination of knowledge. However, very few studies have examined the effect of multi-author blogging in pre-service teacher education and little is known about this phenomenon. This study argues that multi-author blogging can provide student-teachers with opportunities for experiential learning......
The document discusses two social constructivist programs - Fostering a Community of Learners (FCL) and Schools for Thought (SFT). FCL focuses on literacy and biology development through reflection, discussion, and collaboration between students and experts. SFT combines aspects of the Jasper Project, FCL, and CSILE to emphasize problem-based learning, extended inquiry projects, and collaboration using technology. Both programs aim to develop deeper understanding through social interaction and real-world problem solving rather than traditional instruction.
This document provides an introduction to emerging technologies for learning by discussing major trends driving change in education, what is known about learning, and the role of technology in teaching and learning. It covers fragmentation of information, how learners now piece together content, and challenges for education in clarifying information. Research shows distance education can be as effective as face-to-face learning when pedagogical excellence is provided. The document aims to serve as a resource for educators on incorporating technologies into teaching.
This document summarizes an evaluation of an online postgraduate course on sexual and reproductive health research offered by the Geneva Foundation for Medical Education and Research from 2010-2012. The evaluation found that the majority (98%) of respondents had utilized the knowledge gained in their work, nearly half (47%) had published papers, about a third (39%) implemented their course research project, and three quarters (74%) had participated in additional research projects. Over three quarters (81%) said the course contributed to career advancement and nearly half (46%) received career promotions. The course was successful in providing educational opportunities for health professionals in low-and middle-income countries constrained by resources.
This document summarizes a study that developed a model called the Evidence in the Learning Organization (ELO) model to help healthcare organizations address the gap between knowing best practices and implementing them. The researchers reviewed literature on learning organization frameworks from business and identified 7 relevant frameworks. They integrated these frameworks with concepts from evidence-based medicine to develop the ELO model. The ELO model is intended to help organizations understand how to learn, share knowledge, and implement evidence-based practices.
This document discusses learning organizations and organizational commitment in elementary schools. It finds that:
1) Teachers' perceptions of learning organization dimensions were highest for team learning and mental models, and lowest for personal mastery.
2) Teachers' organizational commitment was highest for internalization and lowest for compliance.
3) Regression analysis found that the learning organization dimensions of shared vision, team learning, and personal mastery predicted 36% of identification commitment and 25% of internalization commitment. Shared vision and team learning predicted 18% of compliance commitment.
This document summarizes research on learning organizations and organizational commitment. It discusses key concepts such as how learning organizations acquire new knowledge and share information to solve problems. It also defines organizational commitment as believing in an organization's values and goals and wanting to continue working there. The document then examines the relationship between learning organization perceptions and organizational commitment. Research has found higher levels of commitment in employees who perceive their workplace as a learning organization. The summarized study aims to compare these factors between faculty at private and public universities.
Teachers' perspectives on their involvement in selecting learning experiences and implementing curriculum in Kenyan secondary schools was examined. The study found that while teachers play an important role in curriculum implementation, the centralized curriculum development process in Kenya means teachers are not adequately involved in curriculum development. As a result, teachers' expertise is underutilized and they have less ownership over the curriculum. The study recommends giving teachers a greater role in curriculum planning and development to improve implementation.
How to Build a Module in Odoo 17 Using the Scaffold MethodCeline George
Odoo provides an option for creating a module by using a single line command. By using this command the user can make a whole structure of a module. It is very easy for a beginner to make a module. There is no need to make each file manually. This slide will show how to create a module using the scaffold method.
June 3, 2024 Anti-Semitism Letter Sent to MIT President Kornbluth and MIT Cor...Levi Shapiro
Letter from the Congress of the United States regarding Anti-Semitism sent June 3rd to MIT President Sally Kornbluth, MIT Corp Chair, Mark Gorenberg
Dear Dr. Kornbluth and Mr. Gorenberg,
The US House of Representatives is deeply concerned by ongoing and pervasive acts of antisemitic
harassment and intimidation at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Failing to act decisively to ensure a safe learning environment for all students would be a grave dereliction of your responsibilities as President of MIT and Chair of the MIT Corporation.
This Congress will not stand idly by and allow an environment hostile to Jewish students to persist. The House believes that your institution is in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, and the inability or
unwillingness to rectify this violation through action requires accountability.
Postsecondary education is a unique opportunity for students to learn and have their ideas and beliefs challenged. However, universities receiving hundreds of millions of federal funds annually have denied
students that opportunity and have been hijacked to become venues for the promotion of terrorism, antisemitic harassment and intimidation, unlawful encampments, and in some cases, assaults and riots.
The House of Representatives will not countenance the use of federal funds to indoctrinate students into hateful, antisemitic, anti-American supporters of terrorism. Investigations into campus antisemitism by the Committee on Education and the Workforce and the Committee on Ways and Means have been expanded into a Congress-wide probe across all relevant jurisdictions to address this national crisis. The undersigned Committees will conduct oversight into the use of federal funds at MIT and its learning environment under authorities granted to each Committee.
• The Committee on Education and the Workforce has been investigating your institution since December 7, 2023. The Committee has broad jurisdiction over postsecondary education, including its compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, campus safety concerns over disruptions to the learning environment, and the awarding of federal student aid under the Higher Education Act.
• The Committee on Oversight and Accountability is investigating the sources of funding and other support flowing to groups espousing pro-Hamas propaganda and engaged in antisemitic harassment and intimidation of students. The Committee on Oversight and Accountability is the principal oversight committee of the US House of Representatives and has broad authority to investigate “any matter” at “any time” under House Rule X.
• The Committee on Ways and Means has been investigating several universities since November 15, 2023, when the Committee held a hearing entitled From Ivory Towers to Dark Corners: Investigating the Nexus Between Antisemitism, Tax-Exempt Universities, and Terror Financing. The Committee followed the hearing with letters to those institutions on January 10, 202
How to Manage Your Lost Opportunities in Odoo 17 CRMCeline George
Odoo 17 CRM allows us to track why we lose sales opportunities with "Lost Reasons." This helps analyze our sales process and identify areas for improvement. Here's how to configure lost reasons in Odoo 17 CRM
Executive Directors Chat Leveraging AI for Diversity, Equity, and InclusionTechSoup
Let’s explore the intersection of technology and equity in the final session of our DEI series. Discover how AI tools, like ChatGPT, can be used to support and enhance your nonprofit's DEI initiatives. Participants will gain insights into practical AI applications and get tips for leveraging technology to advance their DEI goals.
it describes the bony anatomy including the femoral head , acetabulum, labrum . also discusses the capsule , ligaments . muscle that act on the hip joint and the range of motion are outlined. factors affecting hip joint stability and weight transmission through the joint are summarized.
How to Fix the Import Error in the Odoo 17Celine George
An import error occurs when a program fails to import a module or library, disrupting its execution. In languages like Python, this issue arises when the specified module cannot be found or accessed, hindering the program's functionality. Resolving import errors is crucial for maintaining smooth software operation and uninterrupted development processes.
MATATAG CURRICULUM: ASSESSING THE READINESS OF ELEM. PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHERS I...NelTorrente
In this research, it concludes that while the readiness of teachers in Caloocan City to implement the MATATAG Curriculum is generally positive, targeted efforts in professional development, resource distribution, support networks, and comprehensive preparation can address the existing gaps and ensure successful curriculum implementation.
This slide is special for master students (MIBS & MIFB) in UUM. Also useful for readers who are interested in the topic of contemporary Islamic banking.
A Strategic Approach: GenAI in EducationPeter Windle
Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies such as Generative AI, Image Generators and Large Language Models have had a dramatic impact on teaching, learning and assessment over the past 18 months. The most immediate threat AI posed was to Academic Integrity with Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) focusing their efforts on combating the use of GenAI in assessment. Guidelines were developed for staff and students, policies put in place too. Innovative educators have forged paths in the use of Generative AI for teaching, learning and assessments leading to pockets of transformation springing up across HEIs, often with little or no top-down guidance, support or direction.
This Gasta posits a strategic approach to integrating AI into HEIs to prepare staff, students and the curriculum for an evolving world and workplace. We will highlight the advantages of working with these technologies beyond the realm of teaching, learning and assessment by considering prompt engineering skills, industry impact, curriculum changes, and the need for staff upskilling. In contrast, not engaging strategically with Generative AI poses risks, including falling behind peers, missed opportunities and failing to ensure our graduates remain employable. The rapid evolution of AI technologies necessitates a proactive and strategic approach if we are to remain relevant.
A review of the growth of the Israel Genealogy Research Association Database Collection for the last 12 months. Our collection is now passed the 3 million mark and still growing. See which archives have contributed the most. See the different types of records we have, and which years have had records added. You can also see what we have for the future.
2. issue, our approach is to integrate self-directed learning into community-based learning
through which the learners are able to have informal community-centered communications
(Fujimoto et al. 2006; Farooq et al. 2007). Community-based learning also attracts attention
along with the rapid growth of the web technology. In particular, there are number of re-
searches on social bookmarking which indicate that the community-based learning re-
sources organized by community members with a similar learning interest are expected to
be valuable and effective (Millen et al. 2007; Noll and Meinel 2007). However, it is difficult
for the learners to access suitable learning resources from community-based learning since
the learning goals vary from learner to learner, which leads to the necessity of proper rec-
ommendation for community learning resources. In order to address this problem, we have
designed the proposed model, the Multi-layer Map Model (Li and Hasegawa 2010) based
on an ISO standard named Topic Maps (ISO/IEC 13250 2002). This model enables the
learners to visualize common learning behaviors employed on the web, such as locating
learning resources, categorizing found resources, and sharing the resources among commu-
nity members. We have proposed a resource organization system (Li et al. 2012) which con-
nects web contents and learning topics by means of multi-layer map visualization. A case
study intended to determine whether the learners could improve the efficiency of their self-
directed learning was conducted to assess the effectiveness of this system (Li et al. 2013).
After analysis of the experiment data, some encouraging conclusions were drawn which in-
dicated that through topic map representations provided by the system, learners were able
to locate appropriate learning resources faster, organize learning resources in a more mean-
ingful way, and collect learning resources inside their learning community more easily and
effectively.
Issue addressed
Self-directed learning
Knowles (1975) described self-directed learning as a process in which individuals take the
initiative, with or without the help of others, to diagnose their learning needs, formulate
learning goals, identify the learning resources, select and implement learning strategies,
and evaluate learning outcomes. For identifying learning resources nowadays, learners can
navigate a vast volume of web-based resources to achieve their individual learning goals.
Such resources usually provide them with hyperspace which enables them to navigate in a
self-directed way by following links among the pages as shown in Fig. 1. Self-directed
Fig. 1 Self-directed learning
Li et al. Research and Practice in Techology Enhanced Learning (2015) 10:14 Page 2 of 28
3. learning is expected to enhance their information literacy by encouraging the selection of
suitable resources, each of which may have a different credibility and/or viewpoint of the
same topic (Hasegawa et al. 2003; Dabbagh and Kitsantas 2004).
Community-based learning
In this paper, community-based learning is defined as the process of communication by
community members who share the similar learning goals for the purpose of encouraging
each other’s self-directed learning activity. Figure 2 shows the process that involves not
only sharing resources but also performing peer review of the resources found.
Ordinarily, it is not so easy for self-directed learners to obtain adequate supports since
the learning resources and the processes vary from learner to learner (Ota et al. 2005).
However, community-based learning makes it possible for the learners to engage in
informal communication as feedback in their individual self-directed learning processes
(Cook and Smith 2004).
Difficulties in self-directed and community-based learning
The large amount of information available on the web makes it very difficult for the
learners to locate suitable learning resources for particular topics of interests. They
may have experienced the tedious job of trying to find a link out of pages of listings
triggered by Google. Even in some websites exclusively designed for learning, the num-
bers of pages are so large that it normally takes a learner so much time to find his/her
needed information. Traditional search engines only generate lists of pages ranked ac-
cording to a matching algorithm. The learners therefore often have to click into certain
web pages to find out whether they are appropriate or not to achieve their learning
goals, and may miss the opportunity to learn if, after two or three useless clicks, they
give up. If the learners do finally successfully locate sufficient learning resources from
several URLs as a learning hyperspace, they have to organize these resources and to
construct their knowledge by navigating the hyperspace. Inexperienced self-directed
learners sometimes lose sight of their learning goals because of the complexity of the
hyperspace. Such navigation problems have been recognized as major issues, and
have been discussed in the context of educational hypermedia/hypertext system
Fig. 2 Community-based learning
Li et al. Research and Practice in Techology Enhanced Learning (2015) 10:14 Page 3 of 28
4. development (Brusilovsky 1996). It has indeed become easiest ever to find like-minded
people as community members on the web, and the learning resources organized by
them seem more reliable and beneficial to self-directed learners since they share the
same learning interests, the benefit of which has been proved more than once by social
bookmarking (Carmel et al. 2010). However, from the perspective of community-based
learning which, from the point of view of this paper, means people with similar learning
interests who are willing to review and share learning information on the similar learn-
ing topics, it is difficult to pass on learning resources and get feedback among mem-
bers, for redundancy of learning information is hard to detect, and the viewpoints of
each community member are often different.
Related work
As web-based self-directed learning has become more and more eye-catching, attention
from many researchers are being drawn. Being aware of the fact that it is difficult to
provide adaptive learning resources to self-directed learners, Pythagoras and Demetrios
(2005) introduced a methodology which generated all possible learning paths while
matching the learning goals, enabling the learners to select the desired resources from
the paths proposed; on the other hand, Kashihara et al. (2002) proposed a similar ap-
proach of providing the learners with the adaptive preview of a sequence of web pages
as potential navigation path. Dragan and Marek (2006) adopted a different method of
mapping ontology for the improvement for resource searching from a semantic web.
For resource management, there were tools for constructing local indexes for learning
resources found from the web (Hasegawa et al. 2003), in which a framework for re-
organizing existing web-based learning resources with indexes representing their char-
acteristics was designed, which consist of “How To Learn” indexes and “What To
Learn” indexes, in order to build a learning resource database. As for community-based
learning, the learning opportunities of social bookmarking service have also been dis-
cussed (Liu and Chang 2008).
Although these researches relating to web-based learning have greatly enhanced the
learning situation on the web from various points of view, they either targeted an
enclosed learning environment, or certain educational hypermedia which involved not
only the learner but also the instructor. Meanwhile, the basic learning behaviors of
web-based self-directed learning usually occur in procession, but these research only
focused on one or two learning situations and did not take into consideration the seam-
less combination of learning activities such as resource finding and organization.
Concept map (Novak and Gowin 1984) and knowledge map (O’Donnell et al. 2002)
are diagrams that represent ideas as node-link assemblies which has been prevalently
studied in many researches. Back in the late 90s, Dansereau and Newbernm (1997)
pointed out that semantic displays, such as knowledge maps, were becoming more
prevalent in educational settings, and an experiment conducted by Chmielewski and
Dansereau (1998) indicated that training participants on the construction and use of
knowledge maps made participants recall more macro and micro level ideas from text
passages than those without taking the training. Not only in educational setting but in
learning contexts, there were also researches proving the concept/knowledge map to be
more effective for attaining knowledge retention and transfer than reading text-based
learning contents (McCagg and Dansereau 1991; John and Olusola 2006), and more
Li et al. Research and Practice in Techology Enhanced Learning (2015) 10:14 Page 4 of 28
5. beneficial working as navigational aids than a contents list (McDonald and Stevenson
1998). Meanwhile, there were also research indicating that the use of concept map can
facilitate meaningful learning and be of value as a knowledge acquisition and sharing
tool (Coffey et al. 2003). From the perspective of community-based learning, Fischer
et al. (2002) found that by being provided with a content-specific visualization tool,
both the process and out of the cooperative effort improved. Furthermore, collaborative
concept mapping in a digital learning environment was also proved to be effective in over-
all learning gains and knowledge retention (Lin et al. 2012). As a result, the concept/
knowledge mapping, as a visualization tool, has proved to be effective in both self-
directed and community-based learning. For these reasons, in order to help those who
constantly use the web for resource finding and organization, this research is setting off
from the basis of visualizing the basic learning behavior of the learners such as searching
for suitable information, organizing found learning information, and getting easier access
to community-based well-organized learning resources through superimposed map repre-
sentations. We target the open-ended learning resources on the web, with the purpose of
providing learners with a user-friendly interface which intends to integrate self-directed
learning into community-based learning.
Research requirements
By analyzing these three difficulties described above and the contexts in which the self-
directed learners regularly occur, we come up with three corresponding requirements,
which if satisfied, could greatly enhance the current learning situation. These require-
ments are as follows:
(1)More semantically structured representations for web resources in order to locate
the candidates of learning resources more swiftly and correctly.
(2)More sophisticated methods of resource organization. The learners often use web
browsers for information management by simply adding interesting links to their
favorite lists; however, this does not facilitate later learning activities such as
reviewing to build knowledge structures. Here, one point needed to be stressed is
that supporting learners with the process of building knowledge structure is not the
focus of our research, as it requires considerations such as the attitudes, skills, and
competences of the learners as well as reflection and self-construction which will be
considered in our future work. We simply provide the learners with a meaningful
structure of the learning resources as a visual aid for their knowledge building while
reviewing the learning resources they have organized.
(3)A visual space not only where the status of other learners’ resource collections can
be explicitly represented but also where sharing resources and exchanging feedback
can take place.
The following sections discuss how difficulties arising from the three requirements
can be effectively addressed.
Method
Visualization is one of the keywords in this research, for its advantages of making com-
plicated things seem simpler and easy to understand. As the purpose of this research is
Li et al. Research and Practice in Techology Enhanced Learning (2015) 10:14 Page 5 of 28
6. to visualize the basic learning behaviors of web-based self-directed learning, we pro-
posed a model called Multi-layer Map Model aiming to realize basic learning behaviors
on the web via map representation. The Multi-layer Map Model is the core of the pro-
posed learning environment, which is intended to perform as a GUI for self-directed and
community-based learning. Figure 3 shows the four layers of the model; each has different
functions, yet is dependent on the services provided by their nearest layer. The contents
layer is the lowest layer of this model, where actual web contents in various digital forms
are located. The resource map layer is the place where the structure of the web contents is
visualized as learning resources. The personal map layer is where the learners engage in
their self-directed learning. They can define topics, build up connections between topics,
and include the learning resources represented on the resource map layer in the topics they
create. The community map layer merges the personal topic maps with those of other
community members by displaying bubble charts based on their features and relations.
The model provides members of the community with a communication basis via su-
perposed map representation. It primarily focuses on visualizing the structure of the
learning contents in terms of a resource map and then enables the learners to edit or
reconstruct their personal maps according to their learning processes. Moreover, this
model includes a community map where the personal maps are merged, viewed, and
used by other community members who have similar interests. This model is based on
the concept of Topic Maps which is explained in the next subsection.
Topic maps
Topic maps is an ISO standard for describing knowledge structures and associating them
with information resources (ISO/IEC 13250 2002). The web enables us to create virtually
unlimited quantities of information and to make it immediately available to the world.
We do not suffer from lack of information availability, but we do suffer from finding the
information we really need. Topic maps provide a standard approach to create and inter-
change finding aids (Park and Hunting 2002). While it is possible to represent immensely
Fig. 3 Multi-layer map model
Li et al. Research and Practice in Techology Enhanced Learning (2015) 10:14 Page 6 of 28
7. complex structures using topic maps, the basic concepts of the model—Topics,
Associations, and Occurrences (TAO)—are easily grasped (Pepper 2000). Although by
comparison, Wisse (2006) raised questions toward topic maps for its isolation resulted
from unfamiliar wordings to members of the new information professions, we focus on its
capability of representing complex structures in the context of learning which only in-
volves learners with similar learning interests and goals.
Figure 4 illustrates how the three basic concepts relate to the topic maps and how
this ISO standard is applied to our research. Topics represent concepts of a certain
field in which a learner is concerned. Association links represent hyper-graph relation-
ships between the topics. Occurrence links represent the actual web contents relevant
to a particular topic. In Fig. 4, there are three topics of the learners’ interests: Learning
Technology, ICT, and E-learning. The solid lines among these three topics are associa-
tions which depict the various relationships the three topics have with each other. The
dotted lines under these three topics are occurrences which represent the actual web
contents in various digital forms. Topic maps can be used to qualify the contents and/
or data contained in information objects as topics, to enable navigation tools and to
link topics together with multiple, concurrent views on sets of information objects. A
detailed discussion of how the concept of topic maps is applied in every layer of Multi-
layer Map Model is held in the following.
Contents layer and resource map layer
Contents layer is the lowest layer of this model. It means the actual web contents such
as web pages, documents, and media files of the web-based learning resources. Re-
source map layer is the place to visualize structures of the web contents by a bunch of
nodes in a one-to-one manner as shown in Fig. 5. This map is intended to provide the
learners with an overall perspective of the learning resources which is expected to en-
able them to grasp the main content of web information more swiftly and precisely
(Herman et al. 2000; Roto et al. 2006). Every node will be labeled with a typical word
such as the title of the web page existed. The learning behaviors of searching for suit-
able learning resources and categorizing selected ones are conducted at this layer.
Fig. 4 Basic concepts of topic maps
Li et al. Research and Practice in Techology Enhanced Learning (2015) 10:14 Page 7 of 28
8. Personal map layer
Personal map layer is aimed to support the learner’s self-directed learning. It helps the
learners to edit and reconstruct their personal topic maps based on the spatial maps
created on the resource map layer. At this layer, the learners are capable of defining the
topics, adding/deleting the occurrence links under the certain topic, building up the as-
sociation links among the topics, and navigating organized learning resources using the
semantic structures of their personal topic maps.
Community map layer
For the purpose of sharing the learning resources in the community, community map
layer merges the personal topic maps with that of other community members by dis-
playing bubble form charts based on their features and relations as shown in Fig. 6. For
Fig. 5 Relationship diagram among the layers of personal map, resource map, and contents
Fig. 6 Concept of community map
Li et al. Research and Practice in Techology Enhanced Learning (2015) 10:14 Page 8 of 28
9. the purpose of providing the learners sufficient information on community-based learning
resources, the features of the bubble are containing useful information. The size of each
bubble represents the number of occurrence links in a topic. The relative positions of the
bubbles are calculated by the number of the association links among the topics, and the
color of each bubble represents the relevancy to that of the learners’ learning topics. As the
effectiveness of sharing and managing community-based knowledge through the application
of knowledge map has been indicated in the related research (Lin and Hsueh 2005; Lin
et al. 2006), in this research, all the topics and learning resources in the community will also
be presented in map-oriented manner which is expected to enable the learners to locate
and compare useful learning information more conveniently. The size and color of each
bubble can be easily managed. However, the distance among the bubbles and the position
of each bubble are difficult to calculate. As the bubbles represent the topics created by the
learners, the distances among them are perceived as the level of relevancy among the topics.
The closer the bubbles are, the more related the represented topics might be, which is ex-
pected to give the learners hints of priority for reference. In the next section, we introduce
how to position the bubbles by adapting a spring model approach.
Sequential spring model map for visualization of community map layer
In this section, we introduce how to visualize the topics as a concept map for the
community by adapting the spring model approach sequentially (Hasegawa and Li 2012).
This is expected to inform the learners of the relationships among the topics in terms of
community map generated automatically, which has multi-dimensional input without ex-
plicit links.
General spring model algorithm
As the distances among the bubbles are affected by the ever-changing personal topic maps
of each individual, the relevance among the topics is constantly changing all the time. Some-
times they might be closely related with each other and need to be brought nearer, but
sometimes they might turn out to be less related and need to be brought further from each
other. As a result, we adopted Eades’s (1984) spring model to satisfy this need. This model
is based on force-directed graph drawing algorithms which are a class of algorithms for
drawing graphs. It aims to position nodes of a graph by assigning forces among the set of
edges and the set of nodes, based on their relative positions. In this spring model, spring-
like attractive/repulsive forces based on Hooke’s law are used to attract pairs of endpoints of
the graph’s edges toward each other, and by using related algorithms, the places for all the
nodes can be decided. We believe that by using this method, maps with fewer number of
nodes and edge lapping are possible to be generated in a higher speed. However, as there
are no edges in the community map and the necessity of calculation time, we have made
changes to the original method Eades proposed to meet the needs of this research.
Proposed arranging algorithm
By referring to a related research on sequentially applying the spring model for fast
node arrangement, in this research, we firstly set the importance of each node, then
take into account of no explicit edge among the nodes, and finally propose the arranging
algorithm for the community map. As we used bubble form chart in the community
map, we refer the nodes as bubbles in the following paragraphs.
Li et al. Research and Practice in Techology Enhanced Learning (2015) 10:14 Page 9 of 28
10. Calculating the importance of each topic First of all, as the quality of an object is an
important factor in Hooke’s law and the need for assigning importance to each topic,
we decide each bubble’s quality and size by using the following formula. The import-
ance WI of topic i in the community map can be calculated by the following formula.
Wi ¼
X
aj
X
Ci;j;k ð1Þ
Ci,j,k is used to standardize parameter j which is related to the topic i created by a
learner k. j represents the frequency of topic appearance and the number of web pages
contained in the topic i. On the other hand, αj indicates the weight which is set before-
hand according to each parameter. This formula calculates the size and quality of every
bubble in the community map, indicating the popularity and information volume of
each topic.
Calculating the relevancy among topics After deciding the quality of each bubble, we
need to place the bubbles into proper position to show the relevancy among the topics.
The nearer they are, the more related the two topics might be. The relevancy Rm,n
among the topics can be calculated using the following formula.
Rm;n ¼
X
βldl;m;n ð2Þ
In this formula, dl,m,n is used to standardize parameter l which is related to the rele-
vancy between topic m and n. l represents the types of parameters which could be per-
ceived as the relevancy among the topics. It could be the number of web pages
mutually contained in different topics and the number of the association links among
topics. We use the number of association links among topic to indicate the relevancy.
βl stands for the weight set initially for each parameter. This formula is used to calcu-
late the distance among the bubbles in the community map.
Setting the initial position for each bubble Firstly, the bubble with the biggest import-
ance value calculated by the formula 1 will be put in the center of the community map.
Then the other bubbles will be placed sequentially according to their importance (which
means from the second largest bubble), and the distances among all the bubbles are
calculated by the formula 2. As to attain their exact positions, the following equations of
motion are applied.
Approximate calculation of motion equations based on Euler’s method Because
there are no explicit edges among the bubbles in the community map, we suppose that all
the bubbles are linked with invisible springs. By following Hooke’s law (3), the spring that
has both ends attached to two bubbles, the free end is being pulled by a force that magni-
tude is F. Suppose that the spring has reached a state of equilibrium, where its length is
not changing anymore. Let X be the amount by which the free end of the spring was
displaced from its relaxed position (when it is not being stretched or compressed).
F ¼ KX ð3Þ
As a result, we have come up with the below equation with which the force moving
bubble m and n can be calculated.
Li et al. Research and Practice in Techology Enhanced Learning (2015) 10:14 Page 10 of 28
11. Fm;n ¼ −K Dm;n−Rm;n
À Á
ð4Þ
K is the spring coefficient, and Dm,n is the distance between bubble m and n, and Rm,n
is the desired distance between m and n calculated by the formula 2. From the mo-
tion equation, we have learned as the following, we can deduce the equation to calcu-
late the position of the bubble pulled or propelled by the force F.
F ¼ ma ð5Þ
a ¼ v0
ð6Þ
v ¼ r0
ð7Þ
r} ¼ F=m ð8Þ
Here, supposedly bubble i is pulled/repelled by the force Fi, while the position of i is
Xi, and the quality of the bubble is Wi. We can repeatedly use the following motion
equation to decide the proper position of the bubble i.
WiXi} ¼ Fi ð9Þ
However, because we do not need to complete a perfect physical simulation, we
approximate the speed and position during Δt for t + 1. According to the Euler method
(Euler 1768) which calculates the approximate value of speed difference between the
starting point and the end point of the time period Δt, we can get the following
formulas to get the value of speed at the time of t + 1, and the according position at
that time.
Vtþ1 ¼ Vt þ Ft=Wt⋅Δtð Þ ð10Þ
Xtþ1 ¼ Xt⋅ Vt⋅Δtð Þ ð11Þ
Moreover, in the actual calculation, to control the bubbles from overlapping and the
non-stop motion, we adopt the frictions decided by the velocity of each bubble. When
Rm,n reaches a certain point at which the velocity of the bubble is near to zero or on
the verge of overlapping with others, the calculation stops.
Resource organization system for self-directed and community-based
learning
System architecture
Figure 7 shows a block diagram of the whole learning environment which contains main
functions of the system. The learners are interacting with the system through the user
interface where the three Map Plug-ins (RM, PM, and CM) are responsible for providing
them with superimposed map representation. The local crawler is for collecting informa-
tion from the web and storing the information in the form of Topic Maps (XTM) into the
database through data interface which, at the same time, is also the channel for data com-
munication with RM. Among all the functions in the system, two distinctive ones which
are Local Crawler and Map Controller are worth to be discussed here.
The traditional search engines like Google is the first thing we can think of using
when it comes to searching information. Therefore, in order to find related lists of
URLs, it is necessary to embed some common search engine into this learning environ-
ment. As soon as the embedded search engine outputs a bunch of related URLs, the
Li et al. Research and Practice in Techology Enhanced Learning (2015) 10:14 Page 11 of 28
12. learners can select the link with the most relevance. Local crawler gathers the informa-
tion of URLs of the web pages contained in the selected link and their titles, and then
stores the gathered information to the database in the format of XML files according to
the Topic Maps standard.
Map Controller is responsible for map editing and visualizing through layers of the
resource, personal, and community map. As maps created at the upper three layers
have their own features, each layer has their own map plug-ins. Resource map plug-in
(RM) generates spatial maps automatically based on the results from the local crawler.
It shows the structure of the crawled URLs in the form of nodes labeled with the titles
representing the actual contents of the selected link. By clicking each node, the learners
can access to the actual web page. Personal map plug-in (PM) drafts the personal topic
map initially. The learners can edit their own personal topic maps by adding or deleting
certain nodes, building association and occurrence links. Several association types are
defined in the plug-in as super-sub (is-a), related terms, synonym, antonym, etc.
Community map plug-in merges the personal maps created by community members and
represents the maps with conclusive bubble form charts. The representation itself is ex-
pected to provide hints to the learners about the relevance of all the topics in the commu-
nity with their own learning topics and information volume of all topics created.
System overview
Based on the Multi-layer Map Model, we also developed a pilot system (resource
organization system (ROS)) using Microsoft.Net and Silverlight which visualized the
basic learning behaviors when searching for information on the web. ROS is a support-
ing tool designed to assist web-based self-directed learning. It visualizes the basic learn-
ing behaviors when learners searching and organizing learning information from the
web, and at the same time, making it possible to collect well-organized learning re-
sources from a learning community.
Interface of contents and resource map layer
The spatial map introduced by Kashihara et al. (2002) in their navigation planning system
visualized all the web pages contained in one website in the form of nodes labeled with
the titles. Gaines and Shaw (1995) took a different approach which generated one node
at a time following the learners’ clicking activity on the web. We combined the both
Fig. 7 System architecture
Li et al. Research and Practice in Techology Enhanced Learning (2015) 10:14 Page 12 of 28
13. methods for generating the maps in our system. ROS not only provides the spatial map of
the current selected links but also expands the spatial map generated interactively by the
learners’ clicking activity. After logging into the ROS, the learners first use the embedded
search engine API to select links most relevant to their interests from the web. The local
crawler next gathers URLs and titles from the selected links. ROS subsequently generates
the spatial map as a resource map automatically based on the results gathered by the local
crawler. Figure 8 shows the interface of contents and resource map layer. On one side of
the window (block 1), it shows both the structure of the selected Url in the form of nodes
labeled with their page titles, and the actual web page of the selected link on the other side
of the window (block 2). By checking the real web pages and their semantic representa-
tions at the same time, this arrangement is intended to increase the speed and accuracy of
the learners’ comprehension of the main contents of the links. On the one hand, the
learners can access the contents by clicking on a node as shown in Fig. 9 by a pop-up win-
dow where the web page of the selected node will display. While on the other hand, they
can generate the corresponding resource map on the right correspondingly by clicking a
link of the web page on the left.
When the learners have viewed enough, it is time for them to organize the web pages
interested in them through the creation of personal topic maps. As Fig. 10 shows, they
can create new topics or use the existing ones and build the associations among the
topics. When they have decided on the learning topic, a little icon will appear on the
left upper corner of the right block symbolizing the current learning topic, and they
can drag and drop the nodes selected into the icon indicating that the chosen web
pages have been stored and categorized as shown in Fig. 11.
Interface of personal map layer
Personal topic map in this research bears resemblances to the concept of knowledge
maps/concept maps which have been frequently adopted in other learning systems.
Fig. 8 The interface of the contents and resource map layer
Li et al. Research and Practice in Techology Enhanced Learning (2015) 10:14 Page 13 of 28
14. However, it is neither automatically generated (Chen and Xia 2009) nor created with
the assistance of domain experts (Lin and Hsueh 2005). In the ROS, the learners’ con-
ception of their learning goals and the learning resources prompt the creation of the
topics which perform as both indexes and concepts/knowledge. The learners can view
all the personal maps they have created as shown in Fig. 12. Block 1 shows all the
learning topics one learner has created. By clicking one topic in block 1, the according
personal topic map will appear in block 2 where not only the chosen topic will be
shown in the middle but also the other topics related to the selected one and the types
Fig. 9 Viewing contents at resource map layer
Fig. 10 Creating topic and its association
Li et al. Research and Practice in Techology Enhanced Learning (2015) 10:14 Page 14 of 28
15. of the associations. By clicking into each topic in the personal topic map, the links the
learner has stored in terms of nodes labeled with the link titles will appear as shown in
Fig. 13. The learner can also check the contents of the corresponding web page by
clicking into the selected node. The learners are expected to get to know the content of
their chosen links by using this interface. The structures indicating relationships among
the topics aim to provide the learners with an option of checking the contents of other
related topics beside the chosen one.
Fig. 11 Store links by drag and drop
Fig. 12 The interface of the personal map layer
Li et al. Research and Practice in Techology Enhanced Learning (2015) 10:14 Page 15 of 28
16. Interface of community map layer
In a sense, community topic map in this research can also be taken as some sort of
concept map. Unlike using concept map as a navigation tool in hypertext environments
(Puntambekar and Stylianou 2003), or a means for measuring content understanding
(Herl et al. 1999), we consider the community topic map of ROS as a conclusive pres-
entation for community-based learning resources, combined with topics (concepts)
existed among the learners of a learning domain. As shown in Fig. 14, ROS merges
Fig. 13 Viewing the content of personal map
Fig. 14 The interface of the community map layer
Li et al. Research and Practice in Techology Enhanced Learning (2015) 10:14 Page 16 of 28
17. necessary information (number of learners under a same topic, number of learning
resources under every topic, and the number of shared learning resources and asso-
ciations among topics) of the personal topic maps and presents them in the form of
a community topic map. Relevance to the topics of the current learner (colors of
bubbles), relevancy among topics in the community topic map (distance between
bubbles), and the number of learning resources under one topic (size of each
bubble) give the learners hints for choosing learning resources of interest. We have
applied the spring model discussed in the previous section for placing the bubbles
which represent all the topics created in the learning community. After clicking a
bubble, the learning resources will be presented in terms of nodes of a different
shape labeled with their titles, which also can either be collected or ranked by the
current learner as shown as in Fig. 15. As a result, the learners create their personal
maps by referencing both the resource map and the community topic map.
Learners’ personal topic maps contribute to the community topic map as well.
System flow
To sum up, at the beginning, the learners input keywords into Google API in order to
get related search results so that they can look for the topics of interest at the content
layer. If they select an interesting link from the search results, the local crawler gathers
information of the web page selected and has it presented as resource map where they
can create topics and drag and drop the selected nodes to the topics they have created.
As community-based learning, the learners search some topics from the community
map where all the topics and the according learning resources will be shown. They can
also drag and drop the nodes under a certain topic and, at the same time, add new
learning resources they have organized from the resource map. The system flow is
shown in Fig. 16.
Fig. 15 Viewing learning resources in community map
Li et al. Research and Practice in Techology Enhanced Learning (2015) 10:14 Page 17 of 28
18. Preliminary case study
In order to assess the effectiveness of this pilot system, especially by referencing the
three requirements proposed, we conducted a quantitative case study followed by a
qualitative one consisting of a questionnaire as an important component of this re-
search. Sixteen graduate students participated in the case study. As the experimental
environment (UI and experimental resources) is written in English, they are also
required to have the similar level of English proficiency.
Quantitative case study
Given that many self-directed learners are accustomed to using Microsoft Internet
Explorer (IE) to search, organize, and learn information on the web, we designed a con-
trast evaluation plan in order to compare the advantages of using ROS versus IE for re-
source searching, organizing and sharing activities. From a series of preliminary
experiment for making the rules for the official one, we designed the evaluation to be:
the participants were required to use both IE and ROS respectively to conduct web-based
self-directed learning on two different learning themes—E-learning and Environmental
Protection from two websites (previously prepared, working as learning resources) within a
fixed amount of time (30 min each) as shown in Table 1. For the control condition, 20
keywords working as subthemes were prepared for each learning theme. There were at least
10 web pages available to be checked on average for each subtheme, which makes a total of
more than 200 web pages in each website, ensuring the participants’ impossibility to read
through all pages within 30 min for the sake of control condition. One team containing four
participants was required to complete their learning by using ROS or IE in different order
Fig. 16 System flow
Table 1 The experiment arrangement
Phase 1 Phase 2
Participant 1, 5, 9, 13 ROS(E-learning) IE(PE)
Participant 2, 6, 10, 14 ROS(PE) IE(E-learning)
Participant 3, 7, 11, 15 IE(E-learning) ROS(PE)
Participant 4, 8, 12, 16 IE(PE) ROS(E-learning)
Li et al. Research and Practice in Techology Enhanced Learning (2015) 10:14 Page 18 of 28
19. to ensure adequate data samples were obtained (shown in Table 1). Since time for instruc-
tion for the participants and the refreshment time between phases was given, an extra
30 min were added to the experiment time, requiring a total of 1.5 h for a complete session.
As a result, each participant was asked to conduct self-directed learning by using either IE
or ROS under the themes of both E-learning and Environmental Protection within 1.5 h.
Experiment procedures and evaluation factors
The learning goals for each participant were finding web pages and creating a know-
ledge structure based on the web pages found. The participants were first asked to
find the web pages they considered appropriate from the two websites provided by
using IE and ROS separately. In the case of IE, the pages found needed to be saved
in the favorite list. In the case of ROS, by viewing the web pages and their generated
resource maps simultaneously, the participants were asked to save the found pages
in terms of personal topic maps by dragging and dropping the nodes to the topics
created by themselves. Based on the contents stored in the IE favorite list or sys-
tem’s personal topic map, the participants were asked to draw keyword maps on a
paper; the keywords written were either extracted from stored content or created by
the participants themselves while reviewing the web pages they had found. Here, we
want to emphasize that those topics in the personal topic maps were created by the
participants for categorizing found web pages and that the keywords written in key-
word maps were those extracted or summarized from the web pages stored to de-
scribe the learning content. Finally, the participants were asked to review the web
pages collected by the community members and add new keywords into the key-
word map they had drawn previously. Here, as a control condition, we previously
prepared two resource bases of community-based learning. All the subthemes were
covered in the two bases, and each of them contained averagely 10 web pages which
were all from the two previously prepared websites, making it impossible for the
participants to read though all the contents within the time of community-based
learning. As a result, only the situation of using community topic maps was evalu-
ated in this experiment, not the function for generating community topic maps,
which will be considered in a future study. In IE, the pre-prepared community-
based learning resources were represented in terms of bookmark lists, and in ROS
they were represented in terms of community topic maps. In summary, the
participants were asked to conduct three procedures for the learning of the two
themes respectively while using IE or ROS. The three procedures are as follows:
“Finding learning resources (procedure 1)”→Drawing keyword map (procedure 2)→Sup-
plementing keyword map (procedure 3)” as vividly shown in Fig. 17, there were evaluation
factors indicating the learning effectiveness of the corresponding processes for each of these
procedures.
Number of web pages found in procedure 1: this evaluation factor was chosen based
on the first requirement listed in our research requirements. The semantic representa-
tions of the resource map offered by ROS are supposed to help the participants more
swiftly and accurately locate potential learning resources, and the number of web pages
found in a fixed time can best illustrate the efficiency of doing so.
Number of keywords drawn and web pages viewed in procedure 2: the sec-
ond research requirement suggests that the learners need a more sophisticated
Li et al. Research and Practice in Techology Enhanced Learning (2015) 10:14 Page 19 of 28
20. way to organize and review found learning resources than using the favorites
list of a web browser. The personal topic maps in ROS provide the partici-
pants with a more semantic management and a representation of learning re-
sources, which are intended to facilitate later review. Therefore, the number of
keywords drawn by reviewing the found resources is believed not only to filter
out the irrelevant pages accidentally stored due to the rush, but also to evalu-
ate the accessibility of the found learning resources represented by the ROS’s
personal topic map. Moreover, by counting the number of web pages viewed
from which the keywords were written, we can evaluate the efficiency of
reviewing found web pages when using IE or ROS. One point that needs to be
stated is that it must be the number of pages from which keywords are drawn,
not those viewed without keywords having been extracted.
Number of keywords added and web pages viewed in procedure 3: based on the
third research requirement, we designed the third procedure as community-based
learning. The community topic maps in ROS give the participants overviews of the
status of resource collections of other learners and the ratings (number of stars) as
feedback for each learning resource. We considered the number of keywords
newly added into the keyword map created previously and the web pages viewed
for writing these new keywords valuable evaluation factors, in evaluating the effi-
ciencies for resource sharing and searching in a learning community via map
representation.
Number of keyword islands drawn within the keyword map eventually: this
evaluation factor was not initially considered. However, when viewing the keyword
maps drawn by all the participants, we found that the number of keyword islands
(cluster of keywords) by using IE and ROS was very different. This might best
Fig. 17 The experimental procedures and tasks
Li et al. Research and Practice in Techology Enhanced Learning (2015) 10:14 Page 20 of 28
21. describe the difference between the knowledge structures generated while using
IE or ROS.
Results and discussion
Details are shown in Table 2. From the average data itself, we can easily see the
difference in the use of IE and ROS in each group of data. However, we used a
T-test to determine whether the means of the two groups were statistically differ-
ent from each other and to assess whether the difference was meaningful or not.
We can easily see from this table that t critical two-tail < |T stat.| and p < 0.01
from every group of data indicated that differences within each group were statis-
tically significant.
In this experiment, we evaluated the effectiveness of using ROS for the partici-
pants in their web-based self-directed learning combined with community-based
learning. Before getting into the discussion of the experimental results, we need to
address that although we have evaluated the community-related function which is
using the community topic map of the ROS to support the participants’ self-
directed learning in resource searching and organization in a learning community,
we did not examine the effectiveness of community-based learning which requires
further evaluation of the process for generating community topic map. In this case
study, we only used determined expert data for condition control. In the future, we
will take account of this factor to evaluate how the creation of community topic
map affects community-based learning.
Based on the results of the data analysis, the following conclusions have been drawn:
ROS enables the participants to find more web pages. This conclusion indicates that
the visualization of the explicit structure of selected links and enhanced semantic
representation of its contents on the resource map of ROS enabled them to overcome
the complexity and obtain learning resources they thought appropriate to their
learning goals faster and more correctly.
ROS enables the participants to write more keywords from more web pages viewed.
Due to the limitations of organizing information using browser’s favorite lists, ROS
simplified the process by enabling them to create personal topic maps, to which
interesting web pages (occurrences) were added and relationships among topics
(associations) were built. The data suggest that, due to its easy accessibility and
meaningful structure, the personal topic map of ROS played a positive role in the
process of reviewing the learning resources.
Table 2 Experiment data with T-test
Ave. (ROS) Ave. (IE) T stat T critical two-tail P(T ≤ t) two-tail
Web pages found 64 17.875 19.654 2.131 4.06E-12
Keywords drawn/
pages viewed
48.312/14.437 21.6875/6.75 10.052/11.181 2.131/2.131 4.67E-08/1.13E-08
Keywords added/
pages viewed
35.437/12.5 16.1875/6.5625 7.066/6.188 2.131/2.131 3.83E-06/1.74E-05
Islands 1.812 4.8125 −7.745 2.131 1.28E-6
Li et al. Research and Practice in Techology Enhanced Learning (2015) 10:14 Page 21 of 28
22. ROS enables the participants to write more keywords from more web pages viewed in
community-based learning. The community topic map of ROS gave the participants
overviews of all the learning topics and the learning resources of their learning
community, which enabled them to quickly locate the necessary learning resources,
and because of which, as the result indicated, more keywords had been written.
ROS enables the participants to draw less keyword islands eventually. This result was
unexpected and thus had not been considered as an evaluation factor at the outset.
However, when examining keyword maps drawn by every participant in aggregate, we
found that the number of keyword islands was 62 % less when using ROS than that of
using IE, as shown in Figs. 18 and 19. Not only that, the average number of keywords
(drawn in procedure 2) in every keyword island created using ROS was 26.66, greater
than that of keyword islands created using IE which was only 4.50. There were
relatively few connections among main keywords in the drawings created by IE users;
however, when the meanings of most keywords were considered, it seemed reasonable
to think that connections should have been made. Comparatively, ROS users
performed well as indicated by the number of connections that had been drawn and
the number of keywords added. This change, after consulting each participant about
the reason those connections were being made, is due to the structure of personal
topic maps where the basic connections (associations among the topics) were
already present. They were conducting self-directed learning with the awareness of
the connections among topics; therefore, the connections were made among
keywords extracted in their learning. Take the example created by one participant
(as shown in Fig. 19) for instance: in his/her personal topic map in ROS, there were
topics of E-learning, Adult learning, M-learning, and Distance learning. E-learning
seems to be the main topic, and the others seem to be the topics related to it. We
can see these connections among these topics in his/her keyword map, and the
keywords around these topics were extracted from web pages stored in these topics
in his/her personal topic map. This accidental finding indicates that semantically
structured representation of learning resources can give the learners positive impact
while reviewing their learning materials for knowledge construction.
Fig. 18 Example of keyword map when using IE
Li et al. Research and Practice in Techology Enhanced Learning (2015) 10:14 Page 22 of 28
23. Qualitative case study
Followed by the quantitative case study, we also conducted a qualitative one requesting
each participant to fill a questionnaire after the quantitative experiment. The question-
naire was designed to investigate the participants’ thoughts on their use of ROS and IE
during their tasks and the reasons for their performance. Furthermore, their customs of
searching and organizing learning resources on the web were asked to further address
our research purposes. Meanwhile, their expectations on the improvement of system
functions were also inquired in order to collect practical suggestions on future system
development to ensure user acceptance.
Questionnaire content
Table 3 shows all the questions in the questionnaire. Q1 to Q5 were designed to ask
the participants’ thoughts on their use of ROS and IE during their tasks and the rea-
sons for their performance. Especially, Q5 was aimed to reflect their future acceptance
of the learning support system like ROS, which was intended to make us evaluate our
research from the practical aspect. Q6 and Q7 were simply to investigate the partici-
pants learning habit when it comes to using IE or other browsers for resource searching
and organization, basically to grasp the learning situations for web-based self-directed
learners. Q8 was mainly to collect the participants’ practical suggestions on system im-
provement, which will be taken into account for our future development and remedy
of the system, aiming to ensure user acceptance of the system developed.
Results and discussion
From the results of the questionnaire as shown in Table 4, we have drawn the following
conclusions:
From Q1 to Q4 which were asked to evaluate the usefulness of ROS for executing the
learning tasks regarding the requirements as described in the previous section, we
concluded: Firstly, all participants considered ROS more helpful for their searching
Fig. 19 Example of keyword map when using ROS
Li et al. Research and Practice in Techology Enhanced Learning (2015) 10:14 Page 23 of 28
24. for related web pages. According to the reasons written down by some of them, we
can conclude that the ROS’s resource map was playing a positive role in this
procedure, and the two screens for displaying resource map and the actual web page,
pointed out by 3 participants, were helpful also. Secondly, all participants consider
ROS more helpful when saving the links they found useful. Some participants noted
Table 3 Questionnaire
Content Items
Q1 Which functions were more helpful for you in searching for web
pages related?
A. Strongly ROS;
B. ROS;
C. Mildly ROS;
D. Similar;
E. Mildly IE;
F. IE;
G. Strongly IE;
Reasons for the choice:_____
Q2 Which functions were more helpful for you for saving the links you
find useful?
Same as above
Q3 Which functions were more helpful for you when reading pages for
keyword drawing?
Same as above
Q4 Which functions were more helpful for you when reading pages in
community-based learning for adding keywords to your keyword map?
Same as above
Q5 Are you willing to use ROS for searching and organizing web pages
for self-directed learning?
A. Strongly yes;
B. Yes;
C. No;
D. Strongly no;
Q6 Did you always save the links you find useful into IE favorite list? A. Yes;
B. Sometimes Yes;
C. Sometimes No;
D. No;
Q7 Did you always categorize the links you found in your IE favorite list? A. Yes;
B. Sometimes Yes;C. Sometimes No;
D. No;
Q8 What are your suggestions for the improvement of ROS in the future? A. About resource map:____
B. About personal map:____
C. About community map:__
D. Others:_______________
Table 4 Result of questionnaire (item/number of participants)
A B C D E F G
Q1 7 7 2 0 0 0 0
Q2 6 9 1 0 0 0 0
Q3 1 11 3 1 0 0 0
Q4 5 4 7 0 0 0 0
Q5 6 5 5 0
Q6 1 5 10 0
Q7 1 0 10 5
Li et al. Research and Practice in Techology Enhanced Learning (2015) 10:14 Page 24 of 28
25. that it was due to the easy operation of dragging and dropping nodes from resource
map that facilitated the number of links stored using ROS surpassed that of using IE.
Meanwhile, as a participant pointed out that the compulsive operation of creating
topics and building connections among them made their search more targeted.
Thirdly, 15 participants considered ROS more helpful when reading pages for keyword
drawing. The reasons for this choice, according to some participants’ comments, were for
the structure of learning topics whose connections were built by themselves previously
presented by ROS’s personal topic maps. As a participant stated: “When I looked at the
personal topic maps, I can recall the reasons for adding these learning resources to the
topics and also be reminded of the relationships among all the learning topics I had
created. This helped a lot when trying to figure out the contents of the web pages,
making the drawing keyword map easier.” However, only one participant found it similar
whether using ROS or IE, the reason for this was that he/she did not find it more
convenient reading pages from personal topic maps than IE’s favorite list as both needed
them to selectively read through for keywords. Finally, all participants considered ROS
more helpful when reading pages in community-based learning resources for adding key-
words to their keyword maps. For those who had written down the reasons for this
choice, they attributed their better performance using ROS to the clearer representation
of topics and learning resources of the community map.
The results of Q5 indicated that 11 participants were willing to use ROS for searching
and organizing web pages for their self-directed learning based on their experiences in
the case study. However, there were still 5 participants who clearly expressed their
unwillingness toward the idea of using ROS for future resource searching and
organization. They explained that it was true that using ROS proved to be better to
perform the learning tasks designed in the experiment, but the ROS’s supporting
functions were not convenient enough to replace IE or the likes which they had been
accustomed to use. The reasons were revealed in Q8 of the questionnaire.
From the results of Q6 and Q7, we can see that most participants (10/15) seemed that
they seldom saved the links they considered useful to the favorite list of IE or other
browsers they might be accustomed to use. Moreover, it also showed that most
participants did not have the habit of categorizing the web pages they stored in the
favorite lists. By mandatorily making the participants create topics and build
relationships among the topics, ROS can improve learners’ awareness for saving and
organizing the learning resources found on one hand but has the possibility of causing
hesitations and anxieties in the learners having not decided on the topics and
associations. We will add more flexibility in the future.
Finally, from the comments on the future improvement of ROS, we received several
practical advices related to the changes and expected functions on the three map
representations. As to the resource map, they thought it would be better to show
more information on the map besides nodes and page titles; some suggested that it
would be better if the system would recommend some related links by lightening up
certain nodes. Some pointed out that it was necessary to provide the learners with the
option of dig deeper into the links selected with more layers of nodes other than just
one layer. As to the personal map, they wanted more supporting functions to take
more actions such as taking node, viewing the whole picture of all the topics created
and their relations, editing the content of the web pages by adding or trimming
Li et al. Research and Practice in Techology Enhanced Learning (2015) 10:14 Page 25 of 28
26. particular parts, and the option of viewing other learners personal topic maps. For
community map, some pointed out that it was better if they were able to evaluate the
learning resources by typing text messages besides using star icon, and if the system
could recommend some related learning resources to them before getting started on
viewing all the resources. We will take these suggestions into consideration and resolve
to reflect them in our future development of the system.
Conclusions
This research proposed a Multi-layer Map Model by employing the methodology of topic
maps to address several difficulties in web-based self-directed learning. We also developed a
resource organization system by using Microsoft.Net and Silverlight which enabled the
visualization of the basic learning behaviors of searching for and organizing information
from the web. Based on the results of the case study presented, we are able to conclude that
the learners using the proposed model performed better on tasks that required them to lo-
cate and organize learning resources. We can also tentatively state that building connections
among learning topics not only provides a better means of resource management but also is
subconsciously helpful in the creation of knowledge structures. And the qualitative study
further addressed that ROS helped the participants in every aspect during their execution of
the learning tasks.
In the future, we will improve the current model’s functionality by introducing another
ISO standard (ISO/IEC 19788 2002) which is to use metadata for better descriptions and
retrieval of learning resources besides the web page title both in self-directed and
community-based learning, enable the learners not only to categorize the learning resources
they found on the web, but also to locate their needed learning resources in the learning
community. We also want to focus more closely on community-based learning (CBL). The
community here means a group of people sharing similar learning interests but with
different knowledge levels and learning goals. Such diversity inside the community makes
interaction among community members possible; if such interactions could be better
utilized and community knowledge or skill shared and inherited, each individual’s learning
activity can be expected to improve. However, the current learning environment does not
enable the learners to take complete advantages of CBL activities, as communications can-
not be passed promptly, advanced learning skills cannot be properly observed, and
community-level knowledge structure is difficult to recognize. Combined with the results of
current research, we want to emphasize more on factors of CBL, which is expected to play
an important role in people’s learning activities.
Competing interests
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Authors’ contributions
All authors participated in the research design. HL executed the research under the supervision of SH an AK. All
authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Acknowledgements
This work is supported in part by Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B) (No. 22300284), (C) (23501141) from the
Ministry of Education, Science, and Culture of Japan.
Author details
1
School of Information Science, Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, 1-1, Asahidai, Nomi, Ishikawa
923-1292, Japan. 2
Center for Graduate Education Initiative, Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, 1-1,
Asahidai, Nomi, Ishikawa 923-1292, Japan. 3
Graduate School of Informatics and Engineering, The University of
Electro-Communications, 1-5-1, Chofugaoka, Chofu, Tokyo 182-8585, Japan.
Li et al. Research and Practice in Techology Enhanced Learning (2015) 10:14 Page 26 of 28
27. References
Brusilovsky, P. (1996). Methods and techniques of adaptive hypermedia. Journal of User Modeling and User- Adapted
Interaction, 6, 87–129.
Carmel, D, Roitman, H, & Yom-Tov, E. (2010). Social bookmark weighting for search and recommendation. The
international Journal on Very Large Data Bases, 19(6), 761–775.
Chen, Y. and Xia, H. (2009). Research on the auto-construction methods of concept map. Proceeding of international
conference on intelligent human-machine systems and cybernetics (pp.75-77). ZheJiang, China: IEEE.
Chmielewski, TL, & Dansereau, DF. (1998). Enhancing the recall of text: knowledge mapping training promotes implicit
transfer. J Educ Psychol, 90(3), 407–413.
Coffey, JW, Canas, AJ, Reichherzer, T, Hill, G, Suri, N, Carff, R, et al. (2003). Knowledge modeling and the
creation of E1-Tech: a performance support system for electronic technicians. Expert System with
Applications, 25(4), 483-492.
Cook, J, & Smith, M. (2004). Beyond formal learning: informal community E-learning. Comp Educ, 43, 35–47.
Dabbagh, N, & Kitsantas, A. (2004). Supporting self-regulation in student-centered web-based learning environments.
International Journal on E-Learning, 3(1), 40–47. Norfolk, VA: Association for the Advancement of Computing in
Education (AACE).
Dansereau, D. F. & Newbern, D. (1997). Using knowledge maps to enhance teaching. In W. E. Campbell & K. A. Smith
(Eds.), New Paradigms for college teaching, pp.125-147.
Dragan, G, & Marek, H. (2006). Ontology mappings to improve learning resource search. Br J Educ Technol, 37(3), 375–389.
Eades, P. (1984). A heuristic for graph drawing. Congressus Numerantium, 42, 149–160.
Euler, L. (1768). Institutionum Calculi integralis, 3 vols. petropoli: Impensis Academia Imperialis Scientiarum. In (Euler,
OO, Series 1, 11-13).
Farooq, U, Ganoe, HC, Xiao, L, Merkel, BC, Rosson, BM, & Carroll, MJ. (2007). Supporting community-based learning: case
study of a geographical community organization designing its website. Behav Inform Technol, 26(1), 5–21.
Fischer, F, Bruhn, J, Grasel, C, & Mandl, H. (2002). Fostering collaborative knowledge construction with visualization
tools. Learn Instr, 12, 213–232.
Fujimoto, R., Hasegawa, S., Miura, M., and Kunifuji, S.. (2006). Development of community based learning system
at a university", Information and Creativity Support Systems. Information and Creativity Support Systems
(KICSS2006), 66–71.
Gaines, B. R., Shaw, M. L. G. (1995). WebMap: Concept Mapping on the Web. Proceeding of Second International WWW
Conference, Boston, MA.
Hasegawa, S, & Kashihara, A. (2006). A support for adaptive navigation planning in hyperspace. Transactions of the
Japanese Society for Artificial Intelligence, 4(21), 406–416.
Hasegawa, S. and Li, H., (2012). A proposal for sequentially spring-model map for visualization of concept space.
Proceeding of JSAI-SIG-ALST-B202 (pp.55-58) (2012 in Japanese).
Hasegawa, S, Kashihara, A, & Toyoda, J. (2003). A local Indexing for learning resources on WWW. Systems and
Computers in Japan, John Wiley & Sons, Inc, 34(3), 1–9.
Herl, HE, O’Neil, HF, & Chung, GKWK. (1999). Reliability and validity of a computer-based knowledge mapping system to
measure content understanding. Comput Hum Behav, 15(1999), 315–333.
Herman, I, Melancon, G, & Marshall, MS. (2000). Graph visualization and navigation in information visualization: A survey.
Visualization and Computer Graphics, IEEE Transactions on, 6(1), 24–43.
ISO/IEC 13250 (2002). Topic Maps. Second Edition.
ISO/IEC 19788. (2002). Information technology-Learning education and training-Metadata for learning resources.
John, CN, & Olusola, OA. (2006). Learning with concept and knowledge maps: a meta-analysis. Review of Educational
Research. Fall 2006, 76(3), 413–448.
Kashihara, A, & Hasegawa, S. (2005). A model of meta-learning for web-based navigational learning. International Journal
of Advanced Technology for Learning, 2(4), 198–206.
Kashihara, A, Hasegawa, S, & Toyoda, J. (2002). Adaptive hypermedia and adaptive web-based systems. Second International
Conference. AH 2002. Malaga, Spain: Springer 2002.
Knowles, MS. (1975). Self-directed learning. A guide for learners and teachers. Chicago: Follett Publishing Company.
Li, H, & Hasegawa, S. (2010). Multi-layer Map-oriented learning Environment for Self-directed/ community-based Learning.
Workshop of the 18th
International Conference on Computers in Education (pp. 109–116). Putrajaya, Malaysia:
Asia-Pacific Society for Computers in Education.
Li, H, Hasegawa, S, & Kashihara, A. (2012). A resource organization system for self-directed/community-based learning.
Proceeding of the 20th
International Conference on Computers in Education (pp. 1–4). Singapore: Asia-Pacific Society
for Computers in Education.
Li, H, Hasegawa, S, & Kashihara, A. (2013). A resource organization system for self-directed/community-based learning.
Proceeding of the 21th
International Conference on Computers in Education (pp. 329–338). Bali, Indonesia: Asia-Pacific
Society for Computers in Education.
Lin, F, & Hsueh, C. (2006). Knowledge map creation and maintenance for virtual communities of practice. Inf Process
Manag, 42(2006), 551–568.
Lin, CY, Wang, CL, & Tserng, PH. (2006). Enhancing knowledge exchange through web map-based knowledge
management system in construction: Lessons learned in Taiwan. Knowledge Enabled Information System
Application in Construction, 15(6), 693–705.
Lin, CP, Wong, LH, & Shao, YJ. (2012). Comparison of 1:1 and 1:m CSCL environment for collaborative concept
mapping. J ComputAssist Learn, 28, 99–113.
Liu, E., Chang, Y. (2008). The learning opportunities of social bookmarking service: an example of Funp. WSEAS
TRANSACTION on SYSTEMS.
Li et al. Research and Practice in Techology Enhanced Learning (2015) 10:14 Page 27 of 28
28. McCagg, EC, & Dansereau, DF. (1991). A convergent paradigm for examining knowledge mapping as a learning
strategy. J Edu Res, 84(6), 317–324.
McDonald, S, & Stevenson, RJ. (1998). Navigation in hyperspace: An evaluation of the effects of navigational tools and
subject matter expertise on browsing and information retrieval in hypertext. Interacting with Computers, 10(1998),
129–142.
Noll, G. M., Meinel, C. (2007). Web search personalization via social bookmarking and tagging. Proceedings of the 6th
International Semantic Web Conference, 2nd
Asian Semantic Web conference, Busan, Korea, pp.367-380.
Novak, JD, & Gowin, DB. (1984). Learning how to learn. New York: Cambridge University Press.
O’Donnell, AM, Dansereau, DF, & Hall, RH. (2002). Knowledge maps as scaffolds for cognitive processing. EducPsychol
Rev, 14, 71–86.
Ota, K, Kashihara, A, & Hasegawa, S. (2005). A navigation history comparison method for navigational learning with web
contents. J Inf Syst Educ, 4(1), 14–23.
Park, j., & Hunting, S. (2002). XML Topic Maps. Creating and Using Topic Maps for the Web: Addison-Wesley.
Pepper, S. (2000). The TAO of Topic Maps. Retrieved January, 1, 2000, from http://www.topicmap.com/resources/-tao-
topic-maps-finding-way-age-infoglut
Puntambekar, S, & Stylianou, A. (2003). Improving navigation and learning in hypertext environments with navigable
concept maps. Human-Computer Interaction, 2003, 18, 395–428.
Pythagoras, K, & Demetrios, S. (2005). Adaptive learning resources sequencing in educational hypermedia system.
Educational Technology & Society, 8(4), 128–147.
Roto, V., Popescu, A. Koivisto, A. and Vartiainen, E. (2006). Minimap: a web page visualization method for mobile
phones. Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. pp 35–44. Montreal Canada:
Mobile Surfing nd Effects of Wearables.
Schnackenberg, HK, Sullivan, HJ, Leader, LF, & Jones, EEK. (1998). Learner preferences and achievement under different
amounts of learner practice. Educ Technol Res Dev, 42(2), 5–15.
Thuering, M, Hannemann, J, & Haake, JM. (1995). Hypermedia and cognition: Designing for comprehension. Commun
ACM, 38(8), 57–66.
Wisse, PE. (2006). Topic maps uprooted. Sprouts: Working Papers on Information Systems, 6, 18.
Yang, M, Whittaker, S, Feinberg, J, & Millen, RD. (2007). Social bookmarking and exploratory search (pp. 21–40). Limerick,
Ireland: Proceedings of the 10th European Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work.
Submit your manuscript to a
journal and benefit from:
7 Convenient online submission
7 Rigorous peer review
7 Immediate publication on acceptance
7 Open access: articles freely available online
7 High visibility within the field
7 Retaining the copyright to your article
Submit your next manuscript at 7 springeropen.com
Li et al. Research and Practice in Techology Enhanced Learning (2015) 10:14 Page 28 of 28