The document summarizes a presentation about technology enhanced learning and trends in the Institute of Information Technologies in Bulgaria. It describes the LOGOS EU project which created an authoring studio and platform for ubiquitous learning. It also discusses evaluation of the LOGOS functionality and usability. Finally, it outlines a current national research project on semantic technologies for web services and technology enhanced learning.

1. IMI Seminar, Vilnius, 15.04.2009 1
Technology Enhanced Learning –
Some Results and Trends
in IIT – BAS
Danail Dochev
Institute of Information Technologies -
Bulgarian Academy of Sciences

2. IMI Seminar, Vilnius, 15.04.2009 2
Plan of the presentation
Short information for IIT – BAS.
Brief presentation of the EU project LOGOS
“Knowledge-on-demand for ubiquitous learning”:
 aims and target groups;
 Authoring studio data models;
 LOGOS platform architecture, repositories, tools;
 evaluation of functionality and usability.
Aims of a current national research project “Semantic
Technologies for Web Services and Technology
Enhanced Learning”.

3. IMI Seminar, Vilnius, 15.04.2009 3
IIT – BAS – brief presentation
Founded 1994 /successor of the Institute
of Engineering Cybernetics - BAS –
1964 and the Institute of Engineering
Cybernetics and Robotics – BAS – 1978/
Total staff: 104
Research staff: 60 (31 full and assoc.
professors)
www.iit.bas.bg

4. IMI Seminar, Vilnius, 15.04.2009 4
IIT – BAS Departments
Eight research departments:
* Information Processes and Systems
* Artificial Intelligence – Knowledge Processing
* Pattern Recognition and Biometrics
* Decision Support Systems
* Modelling and Optimisation
* Intelligent Control Systems
* Signal Processing * Soft Computing

5. IMI Seminar, Vilnius, 15.04.2009 5
INTERNATIONAL RTD PROJECTS
IN THE LAST YEARS (1)
 FP6 IST/P-027451 LOGOS “Knowledge-on-demand for
ubiquitous learning” /2006-2009/
 FP6 IST/ P-511723 INTRAWEBS “Intelligent Frame-
work for Generating Open (Adaptable) Development
Platforms for Web-Service Enabled Applications Using
Semantic Web Technologies, Distributed Support Units
and Multi-Agent Systems” /2004-2007/
 6FP INCO-CT-20030003401 HUBUSKA “Networking
Centres of High Quality Research on Knowledge
Technologies and Applications” (2004 – 2007)
 LdV PP JASON “On-the-job e-training Skills to deal
with Digital Cultural Heritage Content (2004-2006)

6. IMI Seminar, Vilnius, 15.04.2009 6
INTERNATIONAL RTD PROJECTS
IN THE LAST YEARS (2)
 LdV EL/2002/B/F/114025 KNOSOS “New Media
Knowledge Village for Innovative e-learning Solutions”
(2003 – 2005)
 LdV HU/01/B/F/PP-136029 ADONIS: “Advanced On-the-
job e-Training Solutions in e-Business for SMEs” (2002 –
2004)
 4FP PL961060 ARCHIMED "Advanced Multimedia System
Architectures and Applications for Educational Telematics"
(1998 – 2000)
 4FP PL961104 AGILE "Automatic Generation of Instruct-
ions in Languages of Eastern Europe" (1998 – 2000)
 4FP PL977069 EMG-NET "European Research Network for
Intelligent Support of EMG Studies“ (1998 - 2000)

7. IMI Seminar, Vilnius, 15.04.2009 7
LOGOS project
FP6 IST STREP LOGOS “Knowledge-on-
demand for ubiquitous learning” /2006-
2009/. 15 partners from 8 countries:
Hungary(3), France (4), Greece (1),
Bulgaria (2), United Kingdom(2), Italy(1),
Finland (1) and Slovakia (1).
Coordinator: Antenna Hungaria, Budapest.
EU funding – 2,6 MEuro

8. IMI Seminar, Vilnius, 15.04.2009 8
LOGOS aims and target groups
Main objective - to create a platform for ubiquitous learning that
combines: 1/ an authoring studio for creation of learning
materials from existing digital repositories and 2/ facilities for
cross-media courseware delivery through IP-based, digital
video broadcasting and mobile communication channels.
Primary target group - eLearning actors (authors of courses,
lecturers, advanced learners, learning content providers),
creating courseware materials for university students and/or
for adult learners in non-formal and informal education
Secondary target group - eLearning providers (companies and
training institutions) and technology providers (DTV-
companies, mobile operators), interested of cross-media
delivery of learning materials.

9. IMI Seminar, Vilnius, 15.04.2009 9
LOGOS Outputs
1/ A set of learning scenarios for ubiquitous learning in
different settings (home, classroom, work and on-the-
move learning).
2/ An environment for transforming digitised knowledge
from existing digital archives in courseware objects
(authoring studio) with emphasis on semantic annota-
tion and access.
3/ An ubiquitous learning platform, integrating learning
resources, generated by means of the authoring studio
and combining platform communication spaces which
integrate IP-based, DVB and mobile technologies.
4) Platform validation by extended experimentation of its
functionality and usability by end-users - authors/
lecturers and learners in multiple national contexts.

10. IMI Seminar, Vilnius, 15.04.2009 10
LOGOS Authoring Studio /1/
Integrates tools for pre-processing of multi-
media objects (format transformation,
segmentation, indexing, annotation, semantic
description etc.) and blocks for building-up
courseware objects for cross-media delivery
on the base of learning designs, implement-
ing the developed scenarios.
Uses repositories of digital objects with
metadata descriptions and of learning
materials (learning objects and courseware
objects).

11. IMI Seminar, Vilnius, 15.04.2009 11
LOGOS Authoring Studio /2/
Based on hierarchy of information objects:
- ‘Raw’ multimedia objects;
- Digital objects – MM objects, annotated and
semantically indexed (based on domain
ontologies) with attached metadata (MPEG7);
- Learning objects - digital objects enriched
with educational metadata (LOM);
- Courseware objects - graphs of learning
activities associated with learning objects.

12. IMI Seminar, Vilnius, 15.04.2009 12
User roles in the LOGOS platform
 Knowledge Managers: create and maintain
domain-specific ontologies, necessary for the
semantic description of MM content.
 Annotators: annotate, segment and semantically
index the raw MM material in order to create and
maintain digital objects /DO/.
 Educationalists: create reusable learning objects by
sets of DO enriched with educational metadata.
 Learning Designers: create abstract learning
scenarios for dynamic creation of personalized
courseware.
 Courseware Developers: create, maintain and
publish static courseware for learners

13. IMI Seminar, Vilnius, 15.04.2009 13

14. IMI Seminar, Vilnius, 15.04.2009 14
LOGOS platform repositories
 Media Server - manages Media Objects coming from external
content archives;
 Digital Objects Repository - manages Digital Objects created
on top of Media Objects or parts of them, annotated and indexed
with administrative and semantic metadata;
 Learning Objects Repository - manages Learning Objects
built on top of Digital Objects and enriched with educational
metadata;
 Assessment Objects Repository - manages Assessment
Objects (Assessment Items or Tests) enriched with educational
metadata.
 Courseware Objects Repository - manages Courseware
Objects utilizing the underlying Learning Objects and
Assessment Objects and corresponding to learning experiences
that can be delivered using different delivery devices.

15. IMI Seminar, Vilnius, 15.04.2009 15
Authoring Studio tools /1/
 Ontology Management Tool: for creation and management
of multilingual domain ontologies with graphical, intuitive and
user friendly interfaces that could be efficiently used by domain
experts (knowledge managers). The tool can create and
manage knowledge inference rules, constraints and templates
in order to reduce the indexation effort. Uses Conceptual
Graphs formalism.
 Content Description Tool: Produces LOGOS Digital Objects
by segmentation and indexing of the MM objects, their
annotation, se-mantic description and necessary format
transformations. Uses semantic indexing templates created by
the OMT to guide the annotation process.
 Description Tool for Learning Objects: Produces reusable
LOGOS Learning Objects by pre-selection and organization into
a hierarchy of relevant Digital Objects for a given pedagogical
use. Provides means to create educational (LOM) metadata.

16. IMI Seminar, Vilnius, 15.04.2009 16
Authoring Studio tools /2/
 Learning Designs Editor: Produces Learning Designs (abstract
training scenarios) used for the automatic creation of personalized
learning experiences to be used by courseware developers.
 Courseware Objects Editor: Produces static Courseware
Objects, including quizzes (learner assessments), by combining
appropriate Learning Objects.
 Publishing Tool: Publishes indexed, annotated, translated and
enhanced audiovisual segments in appropriate formats to be used
by Learners using different devices such as PCs (SCORM objects),
mobile phones and ITV.
 Dynamic Courseware Creation Middleware: for automatic
creation of personalized courseware (eventual further editing by
Courseware Objects Editor) according to specific learning needs
expressed in Learner Profiles and using a set of Learning Designs.
 Learning Management System components: for delivery of
courseware to Learners encapsulating functionality to adapt the
learning material to user needs/delivery devices (not part of the
Authoring studio).

17. IMI Seminar, Vilnius, 15.04.2009 17

18. IMI Seminar, Vilnius, 15.04.2009 18
Evaluation of the LOGOS implementation
functionality and usability
The methodology combines specific inspection
technique with user-testing.
“Formative evaluation” is an evaluation of an unfinished
user interface, which aims to expose usability
problems that exist in the development iteration;
made by IT experts.
"Summative evaluation" of a complete interface with
"human factors testing," done by end-users: 17
Authors and 90 Learners in 8 countries (Bulgaria,
Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, United
Kingdom and Slovakia) with a common shared
methodology.

19. IMI Seminar, Vilnius, 15.04.2009 19
Author’s assessment /1/
3,24
3,35 3,33
3,44
3,56
3,74
3,57
3,00
3,10
3,20
3,30
3,40
3,50
3,60
3,70
3,80
3,90
4,00
S
uitability
forthe
task
S
elf-descriptiveness
C
ontrollability
C
onform
ity
w
ith
userexpectations
E
rrortolerance
S
uitability
forindividualizationS
uitability
forlearning

20. IMI Seminar, Vilnius, 15.04.2009 20
Author’s assessment /2/
The suitability for the Task dimension reached the
acceptance (3,57) as well as Controllability of the
system (3,74) and Suitability for individualization
(3,56), the most improvements are needed in the
Self-descriptiveness (3,24), Conformity with user
expectation (3,24) and Error tolerance (3,33).
76% of the Authors declared they have not detected
any problems (38% find 0 problems, 38% not
reported anything significant).

21. IMI Seminar, Vilnius, 15.04.2009 21
Learner’s assessment /1/

22. IMI Seminar, Vilnius, 15.04.2009 22
Learner’s assessment /2/

23. IMI Seminar, Vilnius, 15.04.2009 23
Semantic Technologies for Web Services
and Technology Enhanced Learning
Starting project (2009-11), funded by the
National Science Fund.
Continues some R&D trends of LOGOS and
another 6FP IST project INFRAWEBS
“Intelligent structure for generating open
(adaptable) platforms for the development of
distributed applications, based on Internet
services in decision making and multi-agent
systems” (2004-07).

24. IMI Seminar, Vilnius, 15.04.2009 24
Rationale of the project
Limitations of current approaches for authoring learning content :
• Limited reusability across different learning contexts, and
metadata standards.
• Limited dynamic adaptability to actual learning context.
• High labour intensiveness of learning content preparation and
hence high development costs.
Possible approach to increase the effectiveness of preparation and
use of adaptable learning content - to change the current data-
and metadata-based paradigm to a dynamic service-oriented
approach based on Semantic Web Service technologies.
Tendency to provide the learner with a dynamic supply of
appropriate functionalities in order to enable a dynamic
adaptation to the learning context at runtime of a learning
process.

25. IMI Seminar, Vilnius, 15.04.2009 25
Project objectives
• Developing new application-oriented methods and
end-user oriented tools for description of Semantic
Web Services and Goals
• Developing new methods for dynamic composition of
Semantic Web Services suited for eLearning
• Developing a new Semantic SOA-based Framework
oriented to eLearning applications facilitating
reusability and repurposing of learning objects.
• Developing new methods and tools for creation and
semantic annotation of learning objects compatible
with SWS methodology