MOOCs實現了高等教育的跨國性、大量性與開放性，成功將世界各地的學習者、教學者與相關機構帶進全球網絡，為全球知識與傳播提供一個全新的平台。這場由世界頂尖大學所引發的MOOCs風暴，短時間內便席捲全球，在高等教育界掀起一陣波瀾。《紐約時報》甚至將MOOCs形容成一場「校園海嘯」，以迅雷不及掩耳的速度，衝擊高等教育的百年現場。 然而，究竟這場MOOCs風暴是如何一路延燒到世界各地？不同階段的影響因素又有何不同？為了釐清這些問題，本研究利用複雜理論「系統性」與「動態性」的觀點，探討MOOCs創新擴散之動態歷程，分析相關因素如何影響各個階段的歷程演變，以及因素之間互動後所產生的回饋關係。 本研究採用歷史研究法，並參考王美雅（2005）的創新擴散之動態模型，做為研究架構之基礎，探討MOOCs各階段擴散歷程之初始狀態、演化與正向回饋效果以及自我組織的現象。 研究結果發現，MOOCs的擴散事實上是一個自我組織的過程。在MOOCs擴散過程中，以「創新者的網路位置」與「理解創新的難易程度」兩項變數的影響尤其顯著。而各項變數之間不僅擁有正向回饋效果，亦存在著負向回饋效果，進而影響MOOCs的擴散與演化。 / MOOCs successfully brought global students, educators, and related organization into a global network, forming a platform for global diffusion of knowledge. Started by top universities around the globe, MOOCs’ forces have swept around the globe in a short amount of time, creating ripples in the higher education web. The New York Times describes MOOCs as a “Campus Tsunami,” sweeping through the sectors of higher education. How did this “Campus Tsunami” sweep around the globe? What are the factors that affect its dynamic diffusion process? In order to clarify these questions, this study employs the systematic and dynamic point of view of the complex theory to analyze how the factors influence each of MOOCs diffusion stages and what effects the factors create after interaction. This study employs the historical study method and Mei Ya, Wang’s (2005) dynamic innovation diffusion model as the fundamental structure to explore the initial conditions, evolution and positive reinforcements, and self-organization of each diffusion stage. The results demonstrate that MOOCs’ diffusion is based on self-organization. Within the seven factors, innovator networks and the difficulties in understanding innovation are the foremost influential factors. During MOOCs diffusion stages, the different factors interact with each other, producing both positive reinforcements and negative reinforcements, thus influencing MOOCs continuous diffusion and development.

Τα τελευταία χρόνια η αυξανόμενη σημασία της πληροφορίας και της συνεχιζόμενης μάθησης έχει καταστήσει τη χρήση των τεχνολογιών πληροφορικής και επικοινωνιών (Τ.Π.Ε.) στην εκπαίδευση καθώς και την εξ αποστάσεως εκπαίδευση μέσω e-learning συστημάτων, ως επιτακτική ανάγκη. Το κυριότερο πλεονέκτημα των e-learning συστημάτων είναι ότι παρέχουν τη δυνατότητα στον κόσμο να παρακολουθήσει ένα μάθημα, ακόμα κι ένα ολόκληρο πρόγραμμα σπουδών εξ αποστάσεως, μέσω της σύγχρονης και παγκοσμίως πλέον διαδεδομένης μεθόδου των online courses. Τα περισσότερα μεγάλης εμβέλειας και αναγνωρισιμότητας, πανεπιστήμια του εξωτερικού προσφέρουν online μαθήματα μέσω τεχνολογιών του διαδικτύου, χρησιμοποιώντας διαφάνειες, βιντεο-διαλέξεις και online εκπαιδευτικές δραστηριότητες. Ένας τομέας όμως στον οποίο υστερεί η εκπαίδευση εξ αποστάσεως, ακόμα και στα πιο πρόσφατα ανεπτυγμένα e-learning συστήματα, είναι ο τομέας της προσωποποίησης του σπουδαστή και εξατομίκευσης του συστήματος στις ανάγκες του. Η παρούσα διπλωματική εργασία παρουσιάζει τις δυνατότητες που παρέχονται από τα ήδη υπάρχοντα συστήματα e-learning, την τωρινή κατάσταση με τα παρεχόμενα online μαθήματα από πανεπιστήμια του εξωτερικού και το ερευνητικό κενό που υπάρχει σχετικά με την «προσωποποίηση» (personalization) του σπουδαστή και την προσαρμογή (adaptation) του συστήματος στις ανάγκες του. Μελετάται η μοντελοποίηση του χρήστη (user modeling), τα μαθησιακά προφίλ, ο εμπλουτισμός του προφίλ του σπουδαστή ώστε να παρέχει περισσότερες και αξιόλογες πληροφορίες, καθώς και οι δυνατότητες εξατομίκευσης του συστήματος στον εκάστοτε σπουδαστή, ώστε να επιτευχθεί η επιτάχυνση και αποτελεσματικότητα της ηλεκτρονικής μάθησης. Στα πλαίσια της παρούσας διπλωματικής εργασίας σχεδιάστηκε και υλοποιήθηκε ένα σύστημα ηλεκτρονικής μάθησης, το οποίο στηρίζεται στο λογισμικό Moodle και έχουν αναπτυχθεί σε αυτό, νέες υπηρεσίες εξατομίκευσης και προσαρμοστικότητας του συστήματος στις ανάγκες και προτιμήσεις του εκπαιδευομένου. Το Moodle LMS (Modular Object Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment) είναι ελεύθερο λογισμικό διαχείρισης εκπαιδευτικού περιεχομένου και χρησιμοποιείται από πολλά πανεπιστήμια παγκοσμίως. Είναι ευέλικτο, εύκολο στην εκμάθηση και αρκετά ασφαλές για την ασύγχρονη εκπαίδευση από απόσταση. Ενσωματώνει πληθώρα λειτουργιών και δυνατοτήτων που επιτρέπουν στο διδάσκοντα να διαμορφώσει ένα καλά οργανωμένο και ευχάριστο μάθημα με ευρεία κλίμακα δραστηριοτήτων. Στο εξατομικευμένο και προσαρμοστικό σύστημα ηλεκτρονικής μάθησης που αναπτύχθηκε, διαμορφώθηκε ένα μάθημα με πλούσιο εκπαιδευτικό υλικό, το οποίο απαρτίζουν πολλά και διαφορετικού τύπου μαθησιακά αντικείμενα (πηγές πληροφόρησης, δραστηριότητες, κ.α.). Εμπλουτίστηκε το προφίλ χρήστη με περισσότερες προσωπικές πληροφορίες γι αυτόν και στη συνέχεια αναπτύχθηκαν μαθησιακά μονοπάτια που στηρίζονται είτε στα πεδία προφίλ χρήστη, είτε στο μαθησιακό στυλ του εκπαιδευομένου, είτε σε άλλους παράγοντες που παρουσιάζονται αναλυτικά στην εργασία. Για την εξατομίκευση του συστήματος αναπτύχθηκε μία ενότητα «Pre-course test» η οποία περιλαμβάνει δύο νέες υπηρεσίες για την άντληση πληροφοριών του χρήστη, μορφωτικό υπόβαθρο, μαθησιακό στυλ, προηγούμενη γνώση στο αντικείμενο του μαθήματος κ.α. Τα αποτελέσματα που προκύπτουν από εκεί, αξιοποιούνται κατάλληλα για τη διαμόρφωση ομάδων των εκπαιδευομένων και για τις υπηρεσίες προσαρμοστικότητας του συστήματος. Επίσης, στο διαδικτυακό αυτό σύστημα ηλεκτρονικής μάθησης έχουν αναπτυχθεί μαθησιακά αντικείμενα που ενισχύουν στη συνεργατική μάθηση, βελτιώνουν την ποιότητα του μαθήματος και έτσι αυξάνεται το κίνητρο του σπουδαστή. / Nowdays, e-learning environments have become increasingly popular in educational establishments. The rapid growth of e-learning has changed traditional learning behavior and presented a new situation to both educators (lecturers) and learners (students). The majority of current e-learning systems are based on Learning Management Systems (LMS), which allow students attending courses free from space and time limitations. They can attend the class anytime they are available and regardless of the place. LMS are web-based educational systems that offer students an active role in their own education through a variety of learning activities and different kinds of learning content, that the educator has produced. Although this fact, most Learning Management Systems lack of personalization and adaptivity features. The modern trend in education is the production and organization of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) from large and internationally recognized Universities. So, they focus on gathering too many people in these courses (MOOCs) and not on personalization and adaptivity. Personalization in web-based systems means “attention to the user and his needs”. Web-based systems, such as e-commerce sites, focus on personalization by observing the user, his common actions and navigation paths, in order to understand his preferences and what he is looking for. So they differentiate each individual according to his interests, preferences, and generally his “profile”. Then, they adapt the content appropriately to his needs, and the user watches first the content that may interest him. Traditional and commonly used e-learning platforms offer to their users same educational content, same learning activities and possibilities, and generally exactly the same content, with no further personalization support. Some existing open source e-Learning systems may support, under certain circumstances adaptation and personalization features, but need extension and elaboration to acquire sufficiently these characteristics. Especially in the case of distance learning, that teacher and students have no face-to-face communication, learner’s personalization is essential in order the teacher to be aware of each learner’s characteristics. In e-learning systems, personalization could be achieved with an integrated user profile (student profile), which would include except from the classic information (name, surname, email) more specific and useful information. If the teacher had more information about each student, he could be able to guide him more effectively and evaluate him more correctly. In addition to that, if teacher was aware of each learner’s profile, meaning his learning style, interests, preferences and his previous knowledge of the course topics, he would be able to adapt the learning content to his needs. That would increase student’s satisfaction, motivation and consequently his participation in the course. In this master thesis, a personalized and adaptive e-learning system has been developed. The development of this integrated personalized e-learning system, is based on a very popular open source LMS, which in this case is used for further extension and development of new features. The most suitable LMS for implementing those new features is Moodle (Modular Object-oriented Dynamic Learning Environment), due to its modularity and extensibility as well as its vast community of users. There have been added new features in order to enrich student’s profile and adjust learning material to the learner, depending on his profile and learning progress. The teacher has the ability to organize suitable learning objects and learning paths for each student, depending on particular user profile fields, learning styles and student’s performance. This personalized and adaptive e-learning system increases student’s motivation and participation.

This thesis contributes to knowledge about how Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) as educational online platforms can be utilized in achieving the purposes of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). Starting out from a view that, in the face of global challenges every individual is an important actor with agency to drive for necessary social changes, the overall ambition of this thesis is to investigate the role of MOOCs, as a specific form of online learning, in empowering and enabling learners to acquire the competences needed to take responsible actions and informed decisions in a rapidly changing, interdependent and unequal world. More specifically, this thesis aims at providing a deeper insight into the question of whether the pedagogic approaches used in ESD (learner-centered, action-oriented and transformative learning) and the learning processes that they promote, can be incorporated in the MOOC environment. This issue holds importance due to the global and intergenerational character of ESD where providing access to training and learning for sustainable development for all is vital. In this respect, MOOCs have been envisioned as revolutionary in the provision of access to education to a wider audience. Nevertheless, the “massive” part of MOOCs could pose a challenge in connection to ESD, due to the fact that ESD is not easily generalized and aims at upholding local relevance. Therefore, this thesis also looks into the question of the implications posed by scale and the issue of scalability when investigating how MOOCs can enable the application of ESD pedagogic approaches, thus also contributing to the achievement of the purposes and learning objectives of ESD and Climate Change Education as its constituent part. Utilizing a case study methodology, the MOOC in Climate Change Leadership at Uppsala University is chosen as a case example of the MOOC learning environment and learning circumstances. By conducting a content analysis of the MOOC materials as presented on the online platform, and developing an analytical framework based on the ESD pedagogic approaches, this thesis reaches the conclusion that some aspects of the ESD approaches benefit from the networked environment and large-scale participation in the MOOC environment, while the incorporation of others is more challenging and asks for further research and improvement of the MOOC learning environment in order for them to provide for the optimal learning circumstances and outcomes in connection to ESD.

As habilidades e os conhecimentos necessários para a prática docente geram mudanças em todo o processo educacional. Incluir indivíduos na sociedade, possibilitando que estes tenham uma profissão e uma vida digna é um processo de colaboração que perpassa o meio educacional. Os programas de ensino profissionalizante têm como objetivo aumentar as oportunidades educacionais aos trabalhadores por meio de cursos de formação inicial e continuada, bem como de qualificação profissional. Com base nisso, a pesquisa apresentada nesta tese teve como problema de pesquisa: Investigar como estruturar um Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) de Tecnologia Assistiva (TA) que apoie o processo de formação de professores do Ensino Profissionalizante que atuam na preparação para a inclusão no mercado de trabalho. A pesquisa está enquadrada como pesquisa qualitativa, utiliza o método estudo de caso, combinado com o desenvolvimento de um ambiente tecnológico, utilizando como base o conceito de MOOC. Uma ampla pesquisa bibliográfica foi desenvolvida, a qual, juntamente com o ambiente tecnológico desenvolvido torna capaz a realização de um estudo exploratório e descritivo, que permitiu confrontar os dados empíricos obtidos com as teorias previamente estudadas. O estudo de caso se estrutura a partir do desenvolvimento de um curso de formação de professores, o MOOC SolAssist Learning. Os resultados obtidos por meio da realização do estudo exploratório e do estudo final possibilitaram a criação de um processo de desenvolvimento dos MOOCs. Por meio dos dados coletados nos questionário aplicados durante o curso, foi possível obter informações sobre o perfil dos participantes e de suas ações em sala de aula, informações essas que foram confrontadas com as teorias apresentadas nos capítulos iniciais da tese. / The skills and knowledge required for teaching practice generate changes throughout the educational process. Including individuals in society, enabling them to have a profession and a decent life is a process of collaboration that permeates the educational environment. Vocational education programs aim to increase educational opportunities for workers through initial and continuing training courses and professional qualification. Based on this, the research presented in this thesis had as a research problem: To investigate how to structure a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) of Assistive Technology (TA) that supports the process of training teachers of Vocational Education that work in the preparation for inclusion in the business market. The research is framed as qualitative research, uses the case study method, combined with the development of a technological environment, using as basis the concept of MOOC. An extensive bibliographic research was developed, which together with the developed technological environment makes it possible to carry out an exploratory and descriptive study that allowed to confront the empirical data obtained with the theories previously studied. The case study is structured from the development of a teacher training course, the MOOC SolAssist Learning. The results obtained through the exploratory study and the final study allowed the creation of a process to develop the MOOCs. Through the data collected in the questionnaire applied during the course, it was possible to obtain information about the profile of the participants and their actions in the classroom, which information was confronted with the theories presented in the initial chapters of the thesis.

As habilidades e os conhecimentos necessários para a prática docente geram mudanças em todo o processo educacional. Incluir indivíduos na sociedade, possibilitando que estes tenham uma profissão e uma vida digna é um processo de colaboração que perpassa o meio educacional. Os programas de ensino profissionalizante têm como objetivo aumentar as oportunidades educacionais aos trabalhadores por meio de cursos de formação inicial e continuada, bem como de qualificação profissional. Com base nisso, a pesquisa apresentada nesta tese teve como problema de pesquisa: Investigar como estruturar um Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) de Tecnologia Assistiva (TA) que apoie o processo de formação de professores do Ensino Profissionalizante que atuam na preparação para a inclusão no mercado de trabalho. A pesquisa está enquadrada como pesquisa qualitativa, utiliza o método estudo de caso, combinado com o desenvolvimento de um ambiente tecnológico, utilizando como base o conceito de MOOC. Uma ampla pesquisa bibliográfica foi desenvolvida, a qual, juntamente com o ambiente tecnológico desenvolvido torna capaz a realização de um estudo exploratório e descritivo, que permitiu confrontar os dados empíricos obtidos com as teorias previamente estudadas. O estudo de caso se estrutura a partir do desenvolvimento de um curso de formação de professores, o MOOC SolAssist Learning. Os resultados obtidos por meio da realização do estudo exploratório e do estudo final possibilitaram a criação de um processo de desenvolvimento dos MOOCs. Por meio dos dados coletados nos questionário aplicados durante o curso, foi possível obter informações sobre o perfil dos participantes e de suas ações em sala de aula, informações essas que foram confrontadas com as teorias apresentadas nos capítulos iniciais da tese. / The skills and knowledge required for teaching practice generate changes throughout the educational process. Including individuals in society, enabling them to have a profession and a decent life is a process of collaboration that permeates the educational environment. Vocational education programs aim to increase educational opportunities for workers through initial and continuing training courses and professional qualification. Based on this, the research presented in this thesis had as a research problem: To investigate how to structure a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) of Assistive Technology (TA) that supports the process of training teachers of Vocational Education that work in the preparation for inclusion in the business market. The research is framed as qualitative research, uses the case study method, combined with the development of a technological environment, using as basis the concept of MOOC. An extensive bibliographic research was developed, which together with the developed technological environment makes it possible to carry out an exploratory and descriptive study that allowed to confront the empirical data obtained with the theories previously studied. The case study is structured from the development of a teacher training course, the MOOC SolAssist Learning. The results obtained through the exploratory study and the final study allowed the creation of a process to develop the MOOCs. Through the data collected in the questionnaire applied during the course, it was possible to obtain information about the profile of the participants and their actions in the classroom, which information was confronted with the theories presented in the initial chapters of the thesis.

In the last decade, development of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) thatsupports online learning has increased the demand for e-learning and Massive Open OnlineCourses (MOOCs). Despite their increased popularity, MOOCs are struggling with highdropout rates and only a small percentage of learners complete the courses they enrolled in. Thepurpose of this thesis is to gain knowledge about MOOC learner behaviour. The aim of thestudy is to identify the motivations of learners and how these differ between learners whocompleted a course and those who dropped out. Research on MOOC learners has mostly beencarried out using a quantitative approach. While quantitative methodologies are effective inhandling the large amount of data produced by MOOCs, qualitative methods can give deeperinsights into online learners’ motivations. Therefore, this thesis employs an explanatorysequential mixed methods research, in which sentiment analysis and topic modeling of learnerreviews from the platform Coursera are further explained by qualitative interviews with MOOClearners. In the study 28,000 reviews scraped from five courses within the fields of data sciencewere analyzed and ten interviews were held with learners who either completed, dropped outfrom or both completed and dropped out from a MOOC. In the quantitative analysis nine coursefactors were found that learners wrote about: content, delivery, assessment, learning experience,tools, video material, teaching style, instructor skills and course provider. In addition, eighteenthemes were yielded from the interviews: self-discipline, just for fun, certificates, personaldevelopment, knowledge, career, time, equipment, practical exercise, interaction, instructor,reality, structure, external material, cost, community, degree of difficulty and other. In thediscussion the empirical findings are reflected upon using the theoretical framework of theresearch and the literature review. The result does not reveal any differences in motivationsbetween learners who completed a course and those who dropped out, however, it does identifyfactors that caused learners’ to drop out and the topics that most negative learner reviews wereabout. This research contributes to the body of knowledge in the field of research on MOOClearner retention and motivations. The topic is relevant for research in education informaticsand for continued improvements in delivery of MOOCs.

[ES] Durante los últimos años, los repositorios multimedia en línea se han convertido en fuentes clave de conocimiento gracias al auge de Internet, especialmente en el área de la educación. Instituciones educativas de todo el mundo han dedicado muchos recursos en la búsqueda de nuevos métodos de enseñanza, tanto para mejorar la asimilación de nuevos conocimientos, como para poder llegar a una audiencia más amplia. Como resultado, hoy en día disponemos de diferentes repositorios con clases grabadas que siven como herramientas complementarias en la enseñanza, o incluso pueden asentar una nueva base en la enseñanza a distancia. Sin embargo, deben cumplir con una serie de requisitos para que la experiencia sea totalmente satisfactoria y es aquí donde la transcripción de los materiales juega un papel fundamental. La transcripción posibilita una búsqueda precisa de los materiales en los que el alumno está interesado, se abre la puerta a la traducción automática, a funciones de recomendación, a la generación de resumenes de las charlas y además, el poder hacer llegar el contenido a personas con discapacidades auditivas. No obstante, la generación de estas transcripciones puede resultar muy costosa. Con todo esto en mente, la presente tesis tiene como objetivo proporcionar nuevas herramientas y técnicas que faciliten la transcripción de estos repositorios. En particular, abordamos el desarrollo de un conjunto de herramientas de reconocimiento de automático del habla, con énfasis en las técnicas de aprendizaje profundo que contribuyen a proporcionar transcripciones precisas en casos de estudio reales. Además, se presentan diferentes participaciones en competiciones internacionales donde se demuestra la competitividad del software comparada con otras soluciones. Por otra parte, en aras de mejorar los sistemas de reconocimiento, se propone una nueva técnica de adaptación de estos sistemas al interlocutor basada en el uso Medidas de Confianza. Esto además motivó el desarrollo de técnicas para la mejora en la estimación de este tipo de medidas por medio de Redes Neuronales Recurrentes. Todas las contribuciones presentadas se han probado en diferentes repositorios educativos. De hecho, el toolkit transLectures-UPV es parte de un conjunto de herramientas que sirve para generar transcripciones de clases en diferentes universidades e instituciones españolas y europeas. / [CAT] Durant els últims anys, els repositoris multimèdia en línia s'han convertit en fonts clau de coneixement gràcies a l'expansió d'Internet, especialment en l'àrea de l'educació. Institucions educatives de tot el món han dedicat molts recursos en la recerca de nous mètodes d'ensenyament, tant per millorar l'assimilació de nous coneixements, com per poder arribar a una audiència més àmplia. Com a resultat, avui dia disposem de diferents repositoris amb classes gravades que serveixen com a eines complementàries en l'ensenyament, o fins i tot poden assentar una nova base a l'ensenyament a distància. No obstant això, han de complir amb una sèrie de requisits perquè la experiència siga totalment satisfactòria i és ací on la transcripció dels materials juga un paper fonamental. La transcripció possibilita una recerca precisa dels materials en els quals l'alumne està interessat, s'obri la porta a la traducció automàtica, a funcions de recomanació, a la generació de resums de les xerrades i el poder fer arribar el contingut a persones amb discapacitats auditives. No obstant, la generació d'aquestes transcripcions pot resultar molt costosa. Amb això en ment, la present tesi té com a objectiu proporcionar noves eines i tècniques que faciliten la transcripció d'aquests repositoris. En particular, abordem el desenvolupament d'un conjunt d'eines de reconeixement automàtic de la parla, amb èmfasi en les tècniques d'aprenentatge profund que contribueixen a proporcionar transcripcions precises en casos d'estudi reals. A més, es presenten diferents participacions en competicions internacionals on es demostra la competitivitat del programari comparada amb altres solucions. D'altra banda, per tal de millorar els sistemes de reconeixement, es proposa una nova tècnica d'adaptació d'aquests sistemes a l'interlocutor basada en l'ús de Mesures de Confiança. A més, això va motivar el desenvolupament de tècniques per a la millora en l'estimació d'aquest tipus de mesures per mitjà de Xarxes Neuronals Recurrents. Totes les contribucions presentades s'han provat en diferents repositoris educatius. De fet, el toolkit transLectures-UPV és part d'un conjunt d'eines que serveix per generar transcripcions de classes en diferents universitats i institucions espanyoles i europees. / [EN] During the last years, on-line multimedia repositories have become key knowledge assets thanks to the rise of Internet and especially in the area of education. Educational institutions around the world have devoted big efforts to explore different teaching methods, to improve the transmission of knowledge and to reach a wider audience. As a result, online video lecture repositories are now available and serve as complementary tools that can boost the learning experience to better assimilate new concepts. In order to guarantee the success of these repositories the transcription of each lecture plays a very important role because it constitutes the first step towards the availability of many other features. This transcription allows the searchability of learning materials, enables the translation into another languages, provides recommendation functions, gives the possibility to provide content summaries, guarantees the access to people with hearing disabilities, etc. However, the transcription of these videos is expensive in terms of time and human cost. To this purpose, this thesis aims at providing new tools and techniques that ease the transcription of these repositories. In particular, we address the development of a complete Automatic Speech Recognition Toolkit with an special focus on the Deep Learning techniques that contribute to provide accurate transcriptions in real-world scenarios. This toolkit is tested against many other in different international competitions showing comparable transcription quality. Moreover, a new technique to improve the recognition accuracy has been proposed which makes use of Confidence Measures, and constitutes the spark that motivated the proposal of new Confidence Measures techniques that helped to further improve the transcription quality. To this end, a new speaker-adapted confidence measure approach was proposed for models based on Recurrent Neural Networks. The contributions proposed herein have been tested in real-life scenarios in different educational repositories. In fact, the transLectures-UPV toolkit is part of a set of tools for providing video lecture transcriptions in many different Spanish and European universities and institutions. / Agua Teba, MÁD. (2019). CONTRIBUTIONS TO EFFICIENT AUTOMATIC TRANSCRIPTION OF VIDEO LECTURES [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/130198 / TESIS

Submitted by Maria Medeiros (maria.dilva1@ufcg.edu.br) on 2018-06-04T15:11:46Z No. of bitstreams: 1 RANILSON OSCAR ARAÚJO PAIVA - TESE (PPGCC) 2017.pdf: 11842712 bytes, checksum: ac3058f290c36c90ab21ce1a9820b601 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-06-04T15:11:46Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 RANILSON OSCAR ARAÚJO PAIVA - TESE (PPGCC) 2017.pdf: 11842712 bytes, checksum: ac3058f290c36c90ab21ce1a9820b601 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017 / Vivemos uma mudança no paradigma educacional onde se busca prover educação de qualquer lugar, a qualquer momento e para qualquer pessoa, utilizando tecnologias digitais da informação e comunicação. Há um interesse global no ensino à distância, mas não há um aumento equivalente de suporte aos professores e tutores responsáveis por manter tais cursos. Essa deficiência acentua os problemas e desafios existentes na gestão de cursos a distância, pois com o tempo mais estudantes aderem ao ensino a distância, requerendo a criação de novos cursos e turmas, incrementando a quantidade de estudantes sendo sub-servidos em termos de apoio pedagógico. Isso é evidenciado pelo grande número de desistências e falhas em tais cursos, particularmente, nos MOOCs (Cursos Online Massivos e Abertos), que os estudantes justificam como falta de suporte. Esta tese propõe uma solução de autoria para guiar a tomada de decisões pedagógicas em ambientes online de aprendizagem, tendo sido aplicada em um MOOC. A proposta visa auxiliar professores e tutores (1) a descobrir situações de interesse pedagógico ocorrendo em seus cursos; (2) compreender essas situações; (3) tomar decisões para aborda-las e; (4) monitorar e avaliar o impacto da decisão tomada. As interações em tais cursos geram grande quantidade e diversidade de dados, sendo possível extrair informações pedagogicamente relevantes. Entretanto, professores e tutores não dominam a tecnologia necessária para utilizar esses dados, nem é prático ou apropriado solicitar que sejam treinados para tanto. A proposta se fundamenta na tomada de decisões informada por dados educacionais, na visualização de dados e nos sistemas de autoria para promover a cooperação entre a inteligência artificial e a inteligência humana. Realizamos dois experimentos para: (1) avaliar se o processo auxilia professores e tutores a tomar decisões pedagógicas úteis e em tempo de curso; (2) avaliar se a solução de autoria guia a tomada de decisões pedagógicas de professores e tutores. Os resultados sugerem que o processo trouxe benefícios à tomada de decisões pedagógicas e que a solução de autoria foi capaz de guiar a tomada de decisões pedagógicas em tempo de curso e que sua utilidade e facilidade foram percebidas positivamente por professores e tutores. / We are experiencing changes in the educational paradigm. There is a quest to provide education from anywhere, at any time and for anyone, using digital information and communication technologies. There is a global interest in distance learning, but there is no equivalent increase in support for teachers and tutors responsible for maintaining such courses. This difference accentuates the problems and challenges in managing distance courses once that, over time, more students join distance learning, requiring the creation of new courses and classes, increasing the number of distance students being sub-served in terms of pedagogical support. This is evidenced by the large number of dropouts and faiilures in such courses, particularly in MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses), that students justify as lack of support. This thesis proposes an authoring solution to guide the pedagogical decision making in online learning environments, which was applied in a MOOC. The proposal aims to help teachers and tutors (1) to discover situations of pedagogical interest occurring in their courses; (2) understand these situations; (3) make decisions to address them; (4) monitor and evaluate the impact of the decision made. The interactions in such courses generate considerable quantity and diversity of data,allowing the extraction of pedagogically relevant information. However, teachers and tutors do not master the technology needed to use this data, nor is it practical or appropriate to ask them to be trained to do so. Our proposal is based on informed decision making by educational data, data visualization and authoring systems to promote cooperation between artificial intelligence and human intelligence. We conducted two experiments to: (1) evaluate whether the process helps teachers and tutors to make useful and time-course pedagogical decisions; (2) to evaluate if the authoring solution guides the pedagogical decision making of teachers and tutors. The results suggest that the process brought benefits to pedagogical decision making and that the authoring solution was able to guide the pedagogical decision making in course time and that its usefulness and ease of use were positively perceived by teachers and tutors.

<p>Innovations in technology are changing not only everyday life for many individuals around the world but are also influencing the expansion of online learning opportunities at an accelerated rate (Collins & Halverson, 2<a></a>018; Mah, 2016). Online learning platforms allow for scalability, flexibility, greater global access, and innovative and new ways to deliver education (Goodman, Melkers, & Pallais, 2019; Kizilcec et al., 2019). Enrollments in online learning programs and opportunities have seen significant growth in recent years (Seaman, Allen, & Seaman, 2018; U.S. Department of Education, 2018) with continued and steady growth expected into the future. The ubiquity and newness of new online learning formats present a challenge in linking research and practice. Through three separate academic papers, the following dissertation discusses and considers key questions and topics with regards to the use of digital badges and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), two types of emerging online innovations and platforms, and aspects of their efficacy. The three papers respectively 1) identify and discuss the theoretical and empirical foundations digital badges use in specific learners groups by reviewing current literature; 2) highlight the application of a use case in which digital badges have been implemented as a means to offer training; and 3) explore the perceptions of MOOC instructors toward quality learning in their courses in a case study. Conclusions are drawn and solutions as well as potential future directions for research and practice of discussed. </p>

Cette thèse porte sur les tests adaptatifs dans les environnements d’apprentissage. Elle s’inscrit dans les contextes de fouille de données éducatives et d’analytique de l’apprentissage, où l’on s’intéresse à utiliser les données laissées par les apprenants dans des environnements éducatifs pour optimiser l’apprentissage au sens large.L’évaluation par ordinateur permet de stocker les réponses des apprenants facilement, afin de les analyser et d’améliorer les évaluations futures. Dans cette thèse, nous nous intéressons à un certain type de test par ordinateur, les tests adaptatifs. Ceux-ci permettent de poser une question à un apprenant, de traiter sa réponse à la volée, et de choisir la question suivante à lui poser en fonction de ses réponses précédentes. Ce processus réduit le nombre de questions à poser à un apprenant tout en conservant une mesure précise de son niveau. Les tests adaptatifs sont aujourd’hui implémentés pour des tests standardisés tels que le GMAT ou le GRE, administrés à des centaines de milliers d’étudiants. Toutefois, les modèles de tests adaptatifs traditionnels se contentent de noter les apprenants, ce qui est utile pour l’institution qui évalue, mais pas pour leur apprentissage. C’est pourquoi des modèles plus formatifs ont été proposés, permettant de faire un retour plus riche à l’apprenant à l’issue du test pour qu’il puisse comprendre ses lacunes et y remédier. On parle alors de diagnostic adaptatif.Dans cette thèse, nous avons répertorié des modèles de tests adaptatifs issus de différents pans de la littérature. Nous les avons comparés de façon qualitative et quantitative. Nous avons ainsi proposé un protocole expérimental, que nous avons implémenté pour comparer les principaux modèles de tests adaptatifs sur plusieurs jeux de données réelles. Cela nous a amenés à proposer un modèle hybride de diagnostic de connaissances adaptatif, meilleur que les modèles de tests formatifs existants sur tous les jeux de données testés. Enfin, nous avons élaboré une stratégie pour poser plusieursquestions au tout début du test afin de réaliser une meilleure première estimation des connaissances de l’apprenant. Ce système peut être appliqué à la génération automatique de feuilles d’exercices, par exemple sur un cours en ligne ouvert et massif (MOOC). / This thesis studies adaptive tests within learning environments. It falls within educational data mining and learning analytics, where student educational data is processed so as to optimize their learning.Computerized assessments allow us to store and analyze student data easily, in order to provide better tests for future learners. In this thesis, we focus on computerized adaptive testing. Such adaptive tests which can ask a question to the learner, analyze their answer on the fly, and choose the next question to ask accordingly. This process reduces the number of questions to ask to a learner while keeping an accurate measurement of their level. Adaptive tests are today massively used in practice, for example in the GMAT and GRE standardized tests, that are administered to hundreds of thousands of students. Traditionally, models used for adaptive assessment have been mostly summative : they measure or rank effectively examinees, but do not provide any other feedback. Recent advances have focused on formative assessments, that provide more useful feedback for both the learner and the teacher ; hence, they are more useful for improving student learning.In this thesis, we have reviewed adaptive testing models from various research communities. We have compared them qualitatively and quantitatively. Thus, we have proposed an experimental protocol that we have implemented in order to compare the most popular adaptive testing models, on real data. This led us to provide a hybrid model for adaptive cognitive diagnosis, better than existing models for formative assessment on all tried datasets. Finally, we have developed a strategy for asking several questions at the beginning of a test in order to measure the learner more accurately. This system can be applied to the automatic generation of worksheets, for example on a massive online open course (MOOC).