Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs)/E-Learning has been adopted extensively by Higher Education (HE) in the UK and in the case study Coventry University (CU). Frameworks predicated upon pedagogic considerations evaluate VLEs/E-Learning but the evaluation of the management of VLEs/E-Learning through Knowledge Management (KM) Critical Systems Heuristics (CSH) and Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) has not been considered. Furthermore there are no frameworks that seek to reconcile the intent of VLEs/E-Learning with the resultant instantiation. Therefore, a conceptual framework to evaluate the management of VLEs/E-Learning has been derived. Action Research has been used by exposing every stage of the development of the conceptual framework to critique by stakeholders. The drivers for the uptake of VLEs/E-Learning have been identified and classified according to two schema, one schema is into people, processes and technology and the other into strategic/tactical or operational types. Existing evaluative frameworks have, on review, been classified according to a schema incorporating a purpose, theory, context, evaluative criteria, evaluative processes and management activities. VLEs/E-Learning can be considered to be a specialized computer system and therefore the fields of Knowledge management (KM), Critical Systems Heuristics (CSH) and Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) have been investigated, salient concepts extracted. From KM, knowledge appositions (know why; know-what; know who; know-when; know-where and know-how) are mapped onto tacit and explicit knowledge; people, processes and technology. From SSM, CATWOE (customer, actor, transformation, weltanschauung, owner, environment); and from CSH the concept of ‘is’ and ‘ought’ has also been mapped across the knowledge appositions. The resultant framework can be used by HE organisations as a tool for self development and also by external auditing agencies which wish to evaluate the management of VLEs/E-Learning.

The use of technology-supported teaching and learning in higher education has moved from a position of peripheral interest a few years ago to become a fundamental ingredient in the experience of many if not most students today. A major part of that change has been wrought by the widespread introduction and use of ‘virtual learning environments’ (VLEs). A defining characteristic of VLEs is that they combine a variety of tools and resources into a single integrated system. To use a VLE is not just to employ a single intervention but to change the very fabric of the students’ experience of study and the university. Despite this, much of the literature on VLEs has concentrated on producing typologies by listing and comparing system functions, describing small scale and short duration applications or providing speculative theories and predictions. Little attention has so far been paid to analysing what effects a VLE’s use has on the participants and the context of use, particularly across a large group of users and over a substantial period of time. This work presents the evaluation of a VLE developed and used to support undergraduate medical education at the University of Edinburgh since 1999. This system is called ‘EEMeC’ and was developed specifically within and in support of its context of use. EEMeC provides a large number of features and functions to many different kinds of user, it has evolved continuously since it was introduced and it has had a significant impact on teaching and learning in the undergraduate medical degree programme (MBChB). In such circumstances evaluation methodologies that depend on controls and single variables are nether applicable or practical. In order to approach the task of evaluating such a complex entity a multi-modal evaluation framework has been developed based on taking a series of metaphor-informed perspectives derived from the organisational theories of Gareth Morgan(Morgan 1997). The framework takes seven approaches to evaluation of EEMeC covering a range of quantitative and qualitative methodologies. These are combined in a dialectical analysis of EEMeC from these different evaluation perspectives. This work provides a detailed and multi-faceted account of a VLE-in-use and the ways in which it interacts with its user community in its context of use. Furthermore, the method of taking different metaphor-based evaluation perspectives of a complex problem space is presented as a viable approach for studying and evaluating similar learning support systems. The evaluation framework that has been developed would be particularly useful to those practitioners who have a pressing and practical need for meaningful evaluation techniques to inform and shape how complex systems such as VLEs are deployed and used. As such, this work can provide insights not just into EEMeC, but into the way VLEs are changing the environments and contexts in which they are used across the tertiary sector as a whole.

Using the Internet for teaching and learning has become a trend in modern higher education, facilitated through the exploitation of advanced computing technologies. Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) applications support online learning over the Internet, and VLEs have thus emerged as e-learning domains that are essential prerequisites in cutting edge design and implementation technologies in education. Service Oriented Computing (SOC), as a novel software development and implementation approach, has become an active area of research and development. Web services, as an example of SOC, support the integration of software applications in an incremental way, using existing platforms and languages that utilize and adopt existing legacy systems. Thus, VLEs should be particularly well suited to Web services through the SOC approach. VLE services is a field subjected to continuous development but VLEs as Web services are still not generally accessible for academic institutions, although they have been adopted by some scientific projects. The next generation of VLEs should address the limitations of the current online systems by providing a richer context for online learning, one that is sensitive to the specific domain requirements of e-learning. Web Services Matching and Selection (WSMS), as a part of the functional requirements of Web services, has received less attention from SOC researchers. It involves discovering a set of semantically equivalent services by filtering a set of available services based on service metadata, and instantaneously selecting the best possible service. WSMS is the discovery of a service by a user, where correspondence is established between the objectives of the consumer and the capabilities of the service. It thereby aims to match and select the optimal service that best meets the requestor's needs. The main aim of this doctoral work is to explore novel architectural designs for VLEs, based on the SOC paradigm and its related techniques. In addition, this investigation aims to extend the core ideas behind VLE tools, which are gradually becoming dominant within academic institutes. Another aim is to devise a policy- based technique to enforce security requirements for VLEs and to build a test-bed for VLE security based on Modular Moodle. The fundamental contribution of this thesis that it demonstrates that VLEs can be considered as services, which can be published, discovered and composed as perceived in the SOC paradigm. An additional contribution to the knowledge is that it has built a new extension to the structure of Web services: the Web Services Matching and Selection (WSMS) system. Another contribution to the knowledge is that traditional security requirements have been modified to cater for the highly mobile and changeable environment of VLEs; this has been achieved through policy- based techniques. These contributions to the body of knowledge have been published in learned journals and at conferences.

A conectividade e interação proporcionada pela web 2.0 permitiu o desenvolvimento de Ambientes Virtuais de Aprendizagem que rapidamente tornaram-se amplamente empregados na educação a distância. Ao mesmo tempo, esta tecnologia vem ganhando espaço como ferramentas de apoio aos processos de ensino-aprendizagem também na educação presencial, em especial na educação superior, favorecendo o desenvolvimento de novas práticas pedagógicas. Assim, torna-se crescente a preocupação com os processos de adoção e difusão da tecnologia. Esta pesquisa objetiva investigar a adoção e a difusão dos Ambientes Virtuais de Aprendizagem em uma Universidade Federal que os disponibiliza para uso facultativo dos docentes. O fenômeno é investigado sob a ótica do adotante – o professor – a partir de uma abordagem multiteórica, valendo-se de elementos e conceitos da Teoria da Difusão da Inovação (IDT), do Modelo de Adoção Baseado em Preocupações (CBAM) e da Teoria Unificada de Aceitação e Uso da Tecnologia (UTAUT). Os resultados indicam um processo de difusão bastante desigual nas instâncias da Universidade, explicado pelas diferentes oportunidades de experimentação mediante incentivos externos e contato com tecnologia ao longo do tempo. Além disso, identificaram-se duas orientações básicas no uso dos ambientes – gestão e aprendizagem – e as respectivas preocupações dos docentes em relação à implementação da inovação. / The connectivity and interaction provided by the Web 2.0 allowed the development of Virtual Learning Environments that quickly became widely used in distance education. Simultaneously this technology has been used as a tool to support teaching and learning also in face-to-face education and it is stimulating the development of new pedagogical practices. Thus there is a growing concern with understanding adoption and diffusion process of virtual environments. This research aims to investigate the adoption and diffusion of this technology in a Federal University which provides it for teachers in a free and optional way. The phenomenon is investigated from the perspective of the adopter – the teacher – using a multitheoretical approach drawing on elements and concepts from the Innovation Diffusion Theory (IDT), Adoption Model Based Concerns (CBAM) and Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT). The results indicate very unequal diffusion in the University explained by academic units's differences in opportunities of experimentation with the technology by external incentives and contact with it over time. Furthermore, we identified two basic orientations in the use of the e-learning environments – managing and learning – and the faculty concerns regarding the implementation of innovation.

Virtual learning environments have become prevalent in the workplace to improve talent development. However, because there are so many different types of design options, not all learners are finding success in the virtual learning environment. This mismatch can negatively impact employees' motivation and learning outcomes. The purpose of this study was to explore how design features of a virtual learning environment impacted adult learners' motivation in the workplace. Constructivist and self-determination theories were used as theoretical frameworks. The research question in this study explored how social and external contextual factors influence an adult learner's motivation to learn in a virtual learning environment. A qualitative case study was used to explore the data collected from 8 federal employees who used a virtual learning environment for professional development. Data were collected from interviews, surveys, and direct observations and analyzed using inductive coding to determined patterns and themes for study. The results from the study indicated the participants viewed visual learning, learner control, ease of use, technical competence, instructor support, and technical support as critical factors that must be addressed when using a virtual learning environment to improve talent development. The findings from the study can provide insights that could be used by training developers for how to design virtual learning environments to provide a positive environment. The social change impact will be to improve the virtual learning environments for the federal workforce to improve motivation and create a culture of talent development for individual growth and organizational capabilities.

A distributed online curriculum and courseware (DONC2) development model is proposed in this study. Collaborative courseware development teams which may work in distributed academic or private institutions who need to develop higher quality, reduced cost, on time products are the users of DONC2 development model. The related features from the disciplines of instructional design and software engineering were combined and concepts like usability, especially in terms of formative and summative evaluation, interoperability and reusability were integrated into the model. The research is conducted as a collective case study, including four cases with distinctive characteristics to reveal the several practices in online curriculum and courseware development work. The DONC2 development model was proposed using the results gathered from the investigated cases and a literature survey. The model uses the iterative incremental and agile software development approaches in order to overcome the disadvantages of other linear system development approaches. This enables building releasable products in short time periods with increased quality. Furthermore, continuous communication, evaluation and feedback as well as good project management and readiness to adapt to changes are integrated as the essential characteristics. DONC2 development model is different than previous linear and non-adaptive models in all of these aspects.

Summary Distant Learning (DL) in Lithuania is rapidly developing, various Virtual Learning Environments (VLE) emerge. The most popular of them are WebCT, Moodle, Atutor. Therefore I have decided to analyse Moodle Virtual Learning Environment as it is widely used by many institutions of high and secondary education. Purpose of the paper To analyse the tools of virtual learning environments, in order to select those that could be added to Moodle environment and help achieve efficient usage of Moodle in creating and providing DL courses. Objectives: a) Analyse the concept and functions of VLE. b) Provide general analysis of VLE. c) Provide a comparative analysis of Moodle, File3, WebCT environments. d) Determine which functions should be added to VLE Moodle. e) Integrate the selected tools to Moodle environment. f) Prepare methodical material of Moodle environment for teachers and students. Methods of the study: a) Search and systemization of information. b) Analysis and generalization of scientific and informational material. c) Data processing. d) Comparative data analysis. In order to achieve the set objective I have compared Moodle and WebCT, which have proven to be the most popular VLE, as well as File3 – an average level VLE created in Finland. By comparing these VLE becomes apparent that Moodle VLE contains a number of various teaching and handling tools however the distributed versions of this program are short of some tools: they have no internal e-mail, which is... [to full text]

Submitted by Jos? Henrique Henrique (jose.neves@ufvjm.edu.br) on 2017-05-09T18:11:27Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) edson_batista_sena.pdf: 2251476 bytes, checksum: 028f563476a851ba89cf53a932fe2ba7 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Rodrigo Martins Cruz (rodrigo.cruz@ufvjm.edu.br) on 2017-05-16T18:51:42Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) edson_batista_sena.pdf: 2251476 bytes, checksum: 028f563476a851ba89cf53a932fe2ba7 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-05-16T18:51:42Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) edson_batista_sena.pdf: 2251476 bytes, checksum: 028f563476a851ba89cf53a932fe2ba7 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016 / Um dos grandes desafios dos dias atuais no desenvolvimento de tecnologias computacionais aplicadas ao processo educacional ? produzir solu??es que sejam capazes de atender corretamente ao processo de ensino e aprendizagem, al?m de definir a forma mais adequada de incorporar esses mecanismos no ambiente escolar. Esta inser??o deve ocorrer de forma que alunos e professores aproveitem ao m?ximo esses instrumentos, e passem a utiliz?-los com o intuito de agregar mais valor aos processos de ensino e aprendizagem. Para que isso ocorra, ? fundamental que os ambientes virtuais forne?am conte?do adequado, objetos de aprendizagem atraentes, al?m de serem din?micos e altamente adapt?veis ?s necessidades e interesses dos estudantes durante as sess?es de aprendizagem, visando a melhoria cont?nua do processo educacional para professores, tutores e estudantes. O presente trabalho tem como objetivo principal apresentar um modelo computacional probabil?stico, que pode ser incorporado ?s estruturas dos ambientes virtuais de aprendizagem, a fim de auxiliar no processo de detec??o autom?tica das tend?ncias e prefer?ncias dos estilos de aprendizagem do estudante, utilizando uma combina??o do modelo proposto por Felder e Silverman para estilos de aprendizagem, o FSLSM, com as t?cnicas de infer?ncia probabil?stica dos modelos ocultos de Markov (HMM). Para a valida??o do modelo, foram realizados experimentos em um simulador computacional capaz de reproduzir parcialmente o processo de intera??o do estudante com o ambiente virtual de aprendizagem, realizando um processo de infer?ncia com base no comportamento do estudante, ao qual foi utilizado o algoritmo de Viterbi para este prop?sito. Ao final, os resultados dos experimentos s?o apresentados e demonstraram um elevado grau de precis?o no processo de infer?ncia do estilo de aprendizagem probabil?stico. / Disserta??o (Mestrado Profissional) ? Programa de P?s-Gradua??o em Educa??o, Universidade Federal dos Vales do Jequitinhonha e Mucuri, 2016. / The great challenges of the present day in the development of computer technologies in educational process is to produce solutions that are able to respond properly to the teaching and learning methods, and define the most appropriate way to incorporate these mechanisms at school. This integration should take place so that students and teachers make the most of these instruments, and start to use them in order to add more value to teaching and learning processes. For this to happen, it is critical that virtual environments provide appropriate content, appealing learning objects, and are dynamic and highly adaptable to the needs and interests of students during the learning sessions, aimed at continuous improvement of the educational process for teachers, tutors and student. This study aims to present a probabilistic computational model, which can be incorporated into the structures of virtual learning environments, auxiliary order in the automatic detection process of the trends and preferences of student learning styles using a combination of the proposed model by Felder and Silverman to learning styles the FSLSM, with the probabilistic inference techniques of hidden Markov models (HMM). To validate the model, experiments were performed on a computer simulator able to partially reproduce the student interaction process with the virtual learning environment, making an inference process based on the student?s behavior, where we used the Viterbi algorithm to this purpose. At the end, the results of the experiments are presented and demonstrated a high degree precision in the process of inference of probabilistic learning style.

Este trabalho de tese apresenta o Modelo Presença Plus (PPlus) para identificação de pistas textuais denotadoras de presença social em interações discursivas feitas por alunos em fóruns e chats educacionais. O grau de presença social (PS) é um indicativo de como os sujeitos interagem entre si e com o ambiente de aprendizagem; sendo considerado, na literatura, significativo para o desenvolvimento de relacionamentos e fortalecimento de sentimento de pertencimento no grupo. O trabalho se baseia na vertente Pragmática da Linguística, campo que enfatiza a importância de se considerar o contexto de produção dos eventos comunicativos e a dinâmica dialógica entre os interlocutores. Considerando que o mapeamento das interações dos discentes para detectar e avaliar seu grau de presença pode se constituir uma tarefa complexa e morosa para tutores de cursos a distância, desenvolveu-se um software para realizar o processamento automático das mensagens eletrônicas visando torná-lo uma funcionalidade a ser adicionada a ambientes virtuais de ensino e aprendizagem (AVEAs). Apesar de alguns impasses referentes, particularmente, aos aspectos sintáticos dos textos, os resultados obtidos no processamento, por lexicometria, das postagens foram satisfatoriamente semelhantes aos levantados na análise manual. O modelo PPlus e a escala de graus de PS foram também testados em um segundo ambiente disponibilizado na plataforma Moodle, tendo apresentado resultados equivalentes. A sondagem com professores e tutores de cursos a distância forneceu dados que corroboram a proposta de uma ferramenta a ser inserida em AVEAs de modo a facilitar o acompanhamento de estados afetivos, grau de envolvimento e interação entre os participantes no e com o ambiente. / This thesis presents Presence Plus (PPLus), a model for identifying indicators of social presence in text-based interactions made by students in educational forums and chats. The degree of social presence (SP) can be an indicator of how individuals interact among themselves and with the learning environment, and is considered by the literature to be relevant for the development of relationships and the strengthening of the sense of belonging in the group. This study is based on Pragmatics, an area of Linguistics that emphasizes the importance of the context in communicative events and the dialogic dynamics among speakers. Considering that mapping students’ interactions, as well as detecting and evaluating their degree of SP, may be a complex and time-consuming task in distance learning tutoring, a software was developed to do the automatic processing of posts, aiming at making it a possible functionality in virtual learning environments (VLEs). Despite the few conflicting results, mostly related to textual syntactic relations, data from processing tests using lexicometrics were satisfactorily similar to those obtained by manual analysis. The PPlus model and the SP scale were also tested in a different course in the Moodle platform. Results from this experiment presented equally positive data. Feedback from the questionnaire answered by teachers and tutors working in distance learning courses support the proposal of a tool that may facilitate their assessment of affective states, involvement and text-based interaction dents within the environment.

Ontology is a term originated in Philosophy through the Greek terms "ontos" (being) and "logos" (study), which means the study of being qua being. This term was brought to Computer Science as a computational artifact that represents knowledge of a certain universe of discourse. One way to do this is through the five roles of knowledge representation: substitute, ontological commitment, intelligent reasoning, computational efficiency and human expression. In computer science, ontologies are applied in many areas such as Requirements Engineering, Database, Semantic Web and Linked Data. The subarea responsible for ontology building process is ontology engineering, which has about twenty methodologies. However, knowing well the domain, defining the concepts involved in it correctly and at the same time comply the knowledge representation roles make ontology modeling an arduous task. Thus, how bigger is the complexity of ontology, the more its quality tends to decrease, reducing the reuse’s potential. Consequently, the quality of the evaluation process of an ontology becomes a fundamental task. The literature of this area proposed different approaches for ontology evaluation, but they are based on quality metrics that do not guide the evaluators in decision making about the quality of ontology. As a result, the establishment of ontology quality becomes more dependent on the experience of the evaluator and less dependent on the knowledge representation criteria. One way to simplify this process is to guide the evaluator about what criteria are related to each role of knowledge representation. This work establishes a methodology for ontology evaluation, which is based on a match between the roles of knowledge representation with the main quality criteria for the ontology. This match is built by Goal, Question, Metric approach. This methodology consists of three phases: Ontology Type Verification; Questions Verification and ontology Quality Verification. This methodology was validated by conducting an experiment that aims to show that the methodology leads evaluators with different experiences in ontology to the same evaluation result. As a result of the experiment, was possible create a formula for global and partial scores for the quality of ontology, validating it. / Ontologia é um termo originado na Filosofia através dos termos gregos “ontos” (ser) e “logos” (estudo), que significa o estudo do ser enquanto ser. Este termo foi trazido para a Ciência da Computação como sendo um artefato computacional que representa o conhecimento de determinado universo do discurso. Uma das formas de se fazer isto é através dos cinco papeis da representação do conhecimento: substituto, compromisso ontológico, raciocínio inteligente, eficiência computacional e expressão humana. Em ciência da computação, as ontologias são aplicadas em muitas áreas como, por exemplo, em Engenharia de Requisitos, Banco de Dados, Web Semântica e Dados Conectados. A subárea responsável pelo processo de construção de ontologias é a engenharia de ontologia, que conta com aproximadamente vinte metodologias. Entretanto, conhecer bem o domínio, definir corretamente os conceitos envolvidos nele e ao mesmo tempo cumprir os papeis da representação do conhecimento tornam modelar ontologia uma tarefa bastante árdua. Desta forma, quanto maior a complexidade da ontologia, mais a sua qualidade tende a cair, reduzindo o seu potencial de reuso. Por consequência, o processo de avaliação da qualidade de uma ontologia se torna uma tarefa fundamental. A literatura da área propôs diferentes abordagens para avaliação de ontologias, porém as mesmas são baseadas em métricas de qualidade que não guiam os avaliadores na tomada de decisão sobre a qualidade da ontologia. Como resultado, o estabelecimento da qualidade da ontologia se torna uma tarefa mais dependente da experiência do avaliador e menos dependente de critérios de representação de conhecimento. Uma forma de simplificar este processo é guiar o avaliador sobre quais critérios estão relacionados com cada papel da representação do conhecimento. Este trabalho estabelece uma metodologia para avaliação de ontologias, a qual tem como base uma correspondência entre os papeis da representação do conhecimento com os principais critérios de qualidade para a avaliação de ontologia. Esta correspondência é construída através da abordagem Goal, Question, Metric. Este método consiste em três fases: Verificação do Tipo da Ontologia; Verificação das Questões e Verificação da Qualidade da ontologia. Este método foi validado através da realização de um experimento que objetiva mostrar que a metodologia conduz avaliadores com diferentes experiências em ontologia para o mesmo resultado de avaliação. Como resultado do experimento, foi possível criar uma fórmula para escores global e parcial para a qualidade da ontologia, validando-a.