This thesis focuses on three of the main components of an e-learning system: Infrastructure model, data integration and personalization. For the infrastructure model, our aim is to get best use of heterogeneously structured, geographically distributed data resources. Therefore, a detailed analysis of the available infrastructure models is carried out and an open source reference implementation based on grid technology is implemented. Furthermore, a simple data integration mechanism is proposed for the suggested reference implementation. For personalization, a statistical algorithm is proposed based on extracting and utilizing the learner model. The learner model based on Felder-Silverman learning style is extracted automatically using NBTree classification algorithm in conjunction with Binary relevance classifier for basic science learners. Experimental results show that the performance of the proposed automated learner modelling approach is consistent with the results, obtained by the questionnaires traditionally used for learning style assessment. In the thesis, the classification results are further utilized for providing the user with personalized queries. Keywords: Interactive learning environments / personalization in e-learning

El coneixement professional és epistemològicament diferent a d'altres tipus de coneixement; el coneixement professionalitzador ha de permetre als estudiants gestionar situacions de la seva pràctica professional. En aquest sentit, el coneixement professionalitzador implica unes demandes superiors en comparació a d'altres tipus de coneixement. L'objectiu d'aquesta tesi doctoral és analitzar la naturalesa del coneixement professionalitzador i el canvi en el discurs professionalitzador en entorns l'aprenentatge en línia. Analitzar la naturalesa del discurs professionalitzador permet conèixer quins factors estan implicats en la construcció del coneixement professional i ajustar els entorns d'aprenentatge en línia. Aquesta tesi doctoral descriu els resultats de l'anàlisi de quatre casos relatius a la construcció del coneixement professionalitzador en el camp educatiu. Els resultats obtinguts ens mostren que el discurs professionalitzador construït amb mediació de les tecnologies de la informació i la comunicació (TICs) està estructurat entorn una part molt petita dels tòpics de discurs professionalitzador (menys del 5%). També hem evidenciat diferencies rellevants evidenciades en funció del tipus d'activitat d'aprenentatge, el tipus de contingut i l'escenari de la tasca (tàcit o explícit). Pel que fa al canvi del discurs professionalitzador, els estudiants expressen tensions en la seva concepció de la pràctica i interaccionen com una comunitat de pràctica professional amb diferents característiques depenent del tipus d'activitat, el tipus de contingut i l'escenari de la tasca. / Professional knowledge is epistemologically different from other kinds of knowledge. Students are considered to have built academic discourse when they are able to produce speech based on concrete academic content whereas professional knowledge should enable students to manage situations in professional practice. In this sense, professional knowledge is more demanding than other kinds of knowledge. Our objective was to analyze the nature of professional knowledge and change in professional discourse in the framework of online learning environments. Analyzing the nature of professional discourse helps us understand the characteristics that make it special and that relate to managing situations in professional practice. Analyzing change in professional discourse enables us to know which factors are involved in building professional knowledge and to adjust online learning environments accordingly. This paper describes the results of an analysis of different cases related to the construction of professional knowledge in the educational field. The results we obtained show us that professional discourse built using ICT is structured by a very small fraction of identified topics of professional discourse (less than 5%), furthermore, relevant differences are evidenced depending on the type of learning activity, kind of content and task scenarios conducted (tacit or explicit). Regarding change in professional discourse, students expressed tensions in their conception of practice and interacted as a structured professional community although different characteristics depending on the type of activity, kind of content and task scenarios were observed in all cases.

This dissertation presents the design and development of an agent-based interactive learning environment based on the Mathema Model. Such model adopts a problem-based learning approach as a pedagogical method that is achieved in an interaction environment that is populated by software and human agents (students and teachers), working together in favour of the human learners. This interaction occurs aiming at helping human learners to solve problems into given knowledge domain. This model aims to help learners during several phases involved in the build solution process, including the problem analysis. With this sense, the interaction between three agent categories was modeled: human learner agent, teacher and artificial tutoring agent. This work proposes a platform for building agent-based interactive learning environments, supporting as framework to developers/software engineers as authoring to non developers users like teachers and knowledge engineers. In addition, the platform has collaborative tools, an ontology-based infrastructure and an agent society that help at the domain modeling and problem solving process (through artificial intelligence techniques). It was conducted two case studies (at legal domain and health domain) and an initial investment at mathematical domain that demonstrate that the proposed platform is feasible. / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / O presente trabalho aborda a concepção e desenvolvimento de ambientes interativos de aprendizagem (AIAs) baseados em agentes, mais especificamente, seguindo o modelo de arquitetura multiagente do Mathema. Tal modelo é definido com base em uma estratégia de aprendizagem baseada em problemas, disposta em um cenário onde agentes artificiais e humanos (alunos e professores) interagem com vistas a ajudar aprendizes humanos a resolver problemas em um determinado domínio de conhecimento. Nesse sentido, esse modelo propõe-se a ajudar os aprendizes durante as várias fases para a construção de uma solução, incluindo a análise do problema. Para tanto, modelou-se três categorias de interações: o agente aprendiz humano, o professor e o agente tutor artificial. Neste trabalho, propõe-se uma plataforma para construção de ambientes interativos de aprendizagem baseados em Agentes, dando suporte tanto de um framework, para os engenheiros de software/desenvolvedores, quanto de um sistema de autoria para os usuários não programadores poderem configurar o domínio de ensino. Além disso, tal plataforma possui ferramentas de colaboração, infraestrutura baseada em ontologia e uma sociedade de agentes que auxiliam na modelagem do domínio e resolução de problemas (através de técnicas de Inteligência Artificial). A fim de experimentar e validar a plataforma proposta foram desenvolvidos dois estudos de casos, um na área de direito e o outro em medicina, além de ter sido iniciado um investimento em matemática.

Teaching model of the Police Negotiation Process Based on Petri Nets is a study that aims to help the teaching process of strategic negotiation in critical situations involving hostages, allowing the improvement of the Military Police of the State of Alagoas in non-routine police reports. Two types of research were used in the methodology construction of this study: literature research through printed and electronic sources, as well as field research, questionnaires and interviews with military policemen working at the Center of Crisis Management, Human Rights and Community Police (CGCDHPC) in the State of Alagoas. Initially, it discussed the Learning Environment, focusing them as a support system to the learning process. Strategies of persuasion are formally defined in order to be applied in the police negotiation process. We understood the process of strategic negotiation in situations where hostages are involved. We studied different teaching models of the strategic negotiation process. At the end of the study the following results were achieved: proposal for a working model of the persuasion techniques, propose an organizational model of strategic negotiation process and formalization of the model of negotiation process where hostages are involved, based on Petri Nets. / Modelo de Ensino do Processo de Negociação Policial Baseado em Redes de Petri é um estudo que tem como meta auxiliar o ensino do processo de negociação estratégica em situações críticas envolvendo reféns, permitindo o aprimoramento de Policiais Militares do Estado de Alagoas em ocorrências policiais não rotineiras. Na construção metodológica desse estudo foram adotados dois tipos de pesquisas: a pesquisa bibliográfica, mediante fontes impressas e fontes eletrônicas, e a pesquisa de campo, questionários e entrevistas com Policiais Militares lotados no Centro de Gerenciamento de Crise, Direitos Humanos e Polícia Comunitária (CGCDHPC) do Estado de Alagoas. Inicialmente, abordam-se os Ambientes de Aprendizagem, enfocando esses como um sistema de apoio em aprendizagem. Definem-se formalmente estratégias de persuasão com a finalidade de aplicá-las no processo de negociação policial. Compreende-se o processo de negociação estratégica em situações envolvendo reféns. Estudam-se os diversos modelos de ensino do processo de negociação estratégica. Ao final da pesquisa foram alcançados os seguintes resultados: proposta de um modelo de funcionamento das técnicas de persuasão, proposta de um modelo organizacional do processo de negociação estratégica e formalização do modelo do processo de negociação, envolvendo reféns, baseado em Redes de Petri.

Cette thèse en informatique se situe dans le domaine des Environnements Informatiques pour l’Apprentissage Humain (EIAH). Dans ce cadre, nous avons abordé la question de la personnalisation de l’apprentissage. Nos travaux de recherche consistaient à identifier un processus qui permette à la fois de personnaliser des séances de travail sur papier et des séances de travail sur des logiciels pédagogiques. Nous souhaitions que ce processus permette de prendre en compte les spécificités de chaque apprenant en s’appuyant sur son profil, mais qu’il prenne également en compte les buts et les habitudes pédagogiques des enseignants. Enfin, nous souhaitions que ce processus soit implémentable dans un système externe aux logiciels à personnaliser. Notre problématique s’est donc décomposée en trois points : comment exploiter les profils d’apprenants pour prendre en compte les individualités des apprenants ? Comment adapter une activité pour prendre en compte les besoins et habitudes pédagogiques d’un enseignant ? Et enfin, comment attribuer une activité à un apprenant ? Pour répondre au premier point, nous avons proposé le modèle cPMDL. Ce complément du langage de modélisation des profils PMDL permet de contraindre les profils des apprenants afin de sélectionner ceux ayant les caractéristiques requises par les contraintes. cPMDL nous permet donc d’exploiter les informations contenues dans les profils au sein du processus de personnalisation. Pour répondre au deuxième point, nous avons proposé l’approche GEPPETO. Cette approche s’appuie sur des modèles et des processus génériques permettant d’adapter les activités en fonction des intentions pédagogiques des enseignants grâce à la définition de contraintes sur les activités. Nous avons décliné cette approche pour permettre l’adaptation des activités papier (GEPPETOP), ainsi que pour l’adaptation des activités logicielles et de la configuration des environnements qui les supportent (GEPPETOS). Pour répondre au troisième point, nous avons proposé le modèle PERSUA2 qui permet de lier les contraintes sur profils de cPMDL aux contraintes sur activités de GEPPETO. Ces liens, nommés règles d’affectation, sont ensuite hiérarchisés selon leur degré de priorité pour former une stratégie pédagogique qui sera associée { un ou plusieurs contextes d’utilisation. Nous avons mis en oeuvre ces différentes contributions théoriques dans Adapte, un module de l’environnement informatique du projet PERLEA. Le rôle de cet environnement est d’assister l’enseignant dans la gestion de profils créés par l’enseignant lui-même ou issus de logiciels pédagogiques. Adapte est l’une des exploitations possibles des profils : le module réalisé permet de fournir à chaque apprenant des activités adaptées à son profil tout en respectant les choix pédagogiques de son enseignant. Ces activités peuvent être des activités papier proposées par le système ou des activités logicielles personnalisées par Adapte, mais effectuées dans un autre EIAH. Ce module, pleinement opérationnel, a montré la faisabilité technique de nos contributions théoriques et nous a permis de conduire des mises à l'essai auprès d'enseignants / This thesis in computer science belongs to the field of Interactive Learning Environments (ILE). In this context, we have addressed the issue of personalization of learning. Our research has consisted in identifying a process allowing one to personalize both paper working sessions and working sessions on educational software. Our goal was to design a process able to take into account the specificities of each learner, based on their profiles, but also to take into account the pedagogical goals and habits of teachers. Moreover, we had to design this process such as it could be easily implemented in a software external to the system being personalized. Our problem was therefore decomposed into three points: how to use learners’ profiles to take the individuality of learners into account? How to adapt a pedagogical activity to take the teaching needs and habits of a teacher into account? And finally, how to assign an activity to a learner? To answer the first point, we have proposed the cPMDL model. This complement of the profiles modelling language PMDL allows one to constrain the learners’ profiles to select those with the characteristics required by the constraints. cPMDL allows us to exploit the information contained in the profiles during the personalization process. To answer the second point, we have proposed the GEPPETO approach. This approach relies on generic models and processes to adapt activities according to the teachers' intentions, by defining constraints on activities. We have instantiated this approach to enable on the one hand the adaptation of paper activities (GEPPETOP) and on the other hand to enable the adaptation of software activities and the adaptation of configuration of environments that support them (GEPPETOS). To address the third point, we have proposed the PERSUA2 model which links cPMDL constraints on profiles with GEPPETO constraints on activities. Next, these links, called assignment rules, are organized into a hierarchy according to their priority degree in order to form a pedagogical strategy. This pedagogical strategy is then associated with one or more contexts of use. We have implemented these different theoretical contributions in Adapte, a module of the environment associated to the PERLEA project. The role of this environment is to assist teachers in the management of profiles created by themselves or coming from pedagogical software. Adapte is one of the possible uses of profiles: the module developed provides each learner with activities suited to their profiles, while respecting the teaching choices of the teacher. These activities may be paper activities proposed by the system or software activities personalized by Adapte but made within another ILE. This module, fully operational, has demonstrated the technical feasibility of our theoretical contributions and has allowed us to conduct experiment with teachers.