This study investigates existing learning management systems practices, in this case Canvas and Moodle in relation to user personalization and students’ learning styles as both factors are closely contribute to the design of a meaningful learning experience for learners. With the expansion of these teaching tools and methods, it seems crucial to determine to what extent they actually serve the learner and what role is really given to the student using these online platforms. Factors such as instructors’ feedback, peer communication, learning objects and follow-up will be examined. This study is anchored in a Swedish academic setting, and aims to provide a comprehensive overview of learners' needs, expectations, and preferences to benefit educational institutions as well as LMS developers. The goal is to assess how such factors play an essential role in the personalization of learning tools and to suggest that their consideration can lead to the development of more intuitive LMS platforms that do not solely rely on content uploaded by teachers, but that can in turn potentially offer relevant content tailored to each user. / Den här uppsatsen undersöker befintliga praxis för lärande hanteringssystem, i detta fall Canvas och Moodle, i förhållande till användaranpassning och studenternas inlärningsstilar, eftersom båda faktorerna bidrar till utformningen av en meningsfull inlärningsupplevelse för studenterna. På grund av expansionen av dessa undervisningsverktyg verkar det avgörande att bestämma i vilken utsträckning de faktiskt tjänar inläraren och vilken roll studenten verkligen får när hen använder dessa plattformar. Faktorer som lärarnas återkoppling, kommunikation med andra elever, lärandeobjekt och uppföljning kommer att undersökas noggrant. Studien är förankrad i en svensk akademisk miljö och syftar att ge en heltäckande översikt av inlärarnas behov, förväntningar och preferenser. Målet är att förstå hur dessa faktorer spelar en väsentlig roll i personaliseringen av lärverktyg och att föreslå att deras beaktande kan leda till utveckling av mer intuitiva LMS-plattformar som inte enbart förlitar sig på innehåll som laddas upp av lärare, utan som i sin tur potentiellt kan erbjuda relevant innehåll som är skräddarsytt för varje användare.

ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis sets out to examine Moodle use to assist Deaf and Hard of Hearing Grade 9 learners with understanding mathematics problem-solving. The methodology used in this research project is that of formative evaluation. In this qualitative data analysis I worked as a participant-observer with three Deaf and H/H Grade 9 learners from a local school for the Deaf and H/H. These learners engaged in a course constructed in Moodle based on ratio and rate. The course was designed along the lines of a constructivist pedagogical model, different levels of learning as well as including multi representational features. Through the qualitative analysis of the interviews conducted with learners who participated in the research project and observation done by the teacher researcher, three categories emerged i.e. Weaknesses, Potential strengths and Learner suggestions. Although the findings indicate that different factors negatively impact Deaf and H/H learners’ ability to solve mathematics problems, it also highlights the representational features of mathematics content via Moodle, and how it can assist Deaf and H/H learners with the struggle with mathematics problem-solving. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die doel van hierdie navorsingsprojek is om te evaluereer of Moodle gebruik deur Dowe en Hardhorende graad 9 leerders hulle kan help met moeilikhede wat hulle ondervind met wiskunde probleem oplossing. Die navorsing is ‘n formatiewe evaluering. Binne hierdie kwalitatiewe data ontleding werk ek as ‘n deelnemer-navorser met 3 Dowe en Hardhorende graad 9 leerders by ‘n plaaslike skool vir Doof en Hardhorende leerders. Hierdie leerders het deelgeneem in leeraktiwiteite wat ontwerp is in Moodle en wat gebasseer is op verhouding en koers. Die leeraktiwiteite is ontwerp inlyn met ‘n konstruktivistiese pedagogiese model, verskillende vlakke van leer en multi voorstellings formate. Drie kategorieë o.a Tekortkominge, Moontlike Sterkpunte en Leerder voorstelle, het onstaan tydens die kwalitatiewe data ontleding waar onderhoude met die deelnemers gevoer asook observasie wat gedoen is deur die deelnemer-navorser. Alhoewel die bevindinge daarop dui dat verskillende faktore negatief inwerk op Dowe en Hardhorende leerders se vermoë om wiskunde problem op te los, wys dit ook uit die vermoë van Moodle om wiskunde probleme voor te stel en hoe hierdie voorstellings Dowe en Hardhorende leerders kan help met wiskunde probleem oplossing.

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.

Creation of electronic materials for chemistry education Bc. Petra Váňová Faculty of Science, Charles University in Prague, 2014 The theme of my thesis is formation of educational instruments/tools for distance education and e-learning which at the same time can be inspirational for teachers of present learning. The theoretical section elaborates on the problems of distance education and e-learning. Furthermore, it describes Moodle, the system for teaching management. For the purpose of the applied section two teaching units were created during the class of Didactics of Organic Chemistry (MC280P06) at Department of Teaching and Didactics of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Charles University in Prague. The two units focus on the problematic of carboxylic acids and their derivatives. Beside the information about these topics, the contents of the teaching units should provide the students with an insight into modern study tools which increase the effectiveness of distance education as well as present learning. The teaching units are supplemented by study texts, Power Point presentations, handouts with key answers, projects/designs of chemical experiments applying theoretical knowledge to practical level, and a test designed for verifying the improvement of the course participants. The study tools were...

Master of Science / Department of Computing and Information Sciences / Mitchell Neilsen / The Biosecurity Research Institute (BRI) facility at Kansas State University is a huge biocontainment facility to conduct research on infectious diseases that pose a threat to plant, animal and human health. The BRI Training and Education Program is currently offline; i.e., classroom sessions are taken to provide this training and education. The objective behind taking up this project was to move the entire training and education module of Biosecurity Research Institute online, instead of having a classroom session for each training course, with an subject matter expert (SME) to come and take the training session. The aim is to develop an online training system which is synchronized with the information in the BRI Research Project Database. The employees will only have to login to the website, scroll through the list of courses they are enrolled in, take the courses, write the assignments/quizzes assigned to the course and then submit the quizzes. They can also self-enroll themselves into courses, if they are given the permission to do so. The SME’s of the courses can create new courses, upload the course materials, enroll users into the courses, and assign deadlines to course completion. Once the student submits the course quiz or assignments, the SME’s can grade the quiz, assign a final grade to the students, and give feedback on their performance. They can even reassign the course in case of poor performance by the student. The administrators of the website can assign roles to different personnel, give permissions according to need and requirement, add/delete courses, and change the appearance of the website. The project is to be done using a Learning Management System called Moodle. Moodle (Modular Object Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment) is an online learning management system designed to allow interaction between teachers and students. The back-end database used is SQL Server 2008 R2 and additional tools used are Adobe Presenter (with Microsoft Power Point 2010) to create the courses in SCORM format.

Orientador: Carlos Antonio Caramori / Banca: Beatriz Matsubara / Banca: Deilson Elgui de Oliveira / Banca: Monica Parente Ramos / Banca: Daniela Melare Vieira Barros / Resumo: Os profissionais da saúde necessitam de métodos efetivos de educação continuada, com estratégias de capacitação objetivas, flexíveis e dinâmicas. Desse modo, proposta de ensino/aprendizado baseadas na Web podem ser bem sucedidas na sua atualização. Levantamos a hipótese de que o emprego da plataforma Moodle de educação on-line pode viabilizar a criação de portal eletrônico para educação médica continuada e pode ser uma ferramenta viável e simples para a formulação de segunda opinião em saúde nas hepatites virais. Assim, este trabalho descreve a criação de plataforma voltada ao aprendizado em hepatites virais, empregando o sistema Moodle de gerenciamento de cursos. O portal foi desenvolvido de acordo com proposta de Cook & Dupras, que descreve 10 recomendações na elaboração de sites educacionais: análise das necessidades, metas e objetivos; determinação de recursos técnicos e necessidades; avaliação de sistemas similares pré-existentes; assegurar compromisso de todos os participantes e identificar potenciais barreiras à implantação do projeto; desenvolvimento de conteúdo em íntima coordenação com o design do site; criação de materiais que estimulem o aprendizado ativo; encorajamento no uso do site pelo usuário; avaliação dos usuários e do curso; promoção de estudo piloto; monitoração da comunicação on-line e atualização periódica. O conteúdo incluiu consensos científicos nacionais e internacionais, aulas, animações, tutoriais, suporte para segunda opinião médica e links de interesse na Web. Acredita-se que esta ferramenta ofereça uma alternativa interativa de educação e ratifique a necessidade de se promover estudos adicionais para validar estratégias efetivas de educação continuada. / Abstract: Health workers need effective methods of continuing education, with objective, flexible and dynamic strategies. Thus, teaching and learning based on Web can be successful in upgrading those professionals. We hypothesized that the use of Moodle for online education can facilitate the creation of an electronic portal for continuing medical education and it is a viable tool to formulate queries for viral hepatitis second opinion. This paper describes the creation of a learning platform focused on viral hepatitis, using the Moodle system of course management. The portal was developed according to Cook & Dupras proposal, following ten recommendations: perform a needs analysis and specify goals and objectives; determine technical resources and needs; evaluate preexisting software; secure commitment from all participants and identify potential barriers to implementation; develop content in close coordination with website design; encourage active learning; facilitate use by the learner; evaluate learners and course; pilot the website, and plan to monitor online communication periodically. The contents include national and international guidelines, presentations, support for second medical opinion and links of interest on the Web. It is expected that this tool offers an interactive alternative for education and encourage further studies to validate effective strategies for continuing education. / Doutor

Orientador: Lizete Maria Orquiza de Carvalho / Banca: Lizete Maria Orquiza Carvalho / Banca: Daisi Teresinha Chapani / Banca: Wilson Massashiro Yonezawa / Banca: Elson Henrique Muhl / Banca: Ernandes Rocha de Oliveira / Resumo: Com esse trabalho pretendemos investigar como o uso das novas tecnologias da informação e comunicação, em particular o Moodle e outros recursos da web 2.0, podem contribuir para a ampliação do agir comunicativo de um grupo de professores da área de ciências, em processo de formação inicial e continuada, vinculados a um grupo de pesquisa. Para tal intento, adotamos a Teoria da Ação Comunicativa, de Jürgen Habermas, como referencial teórico e metodológico da pesquisa, aliado ao método da investigação-ação crítica e estudo de casos múltiplos. Os dados obtidos a partir de questionários, observações, gravações em áudio, entrevista e registros das interações no ambiente virtual sugerem que assim como as interações face a face, as comunicações virtuais mediadas por computador estão igualmente sujeitas aos imperativos sistêmicos limitadores da autonomia e da ação docente. Tal constatação suscitou a necessidade de buscarmos elementos para o enfrentamento dessa situação mediante a instauração de um processo de institucionalização da racionalidade comunicativa e o estabelecimento de grupo autônomos de estudo pesquisa no ambiente escolar / Abstract: Within this work we intend to investigate how the new information and communication technologies, as the Moodle and others web 2.0 resources, can contribute to the enhancement of the communicative action of a group of science teachers in process of pre-service and permanent education, taking part in a research group. For this purpose we adopt the Communicative Action Theory of Jürgen Habermas as the main theoretical and methodological framework, associated with the critical action research method e multiple case studies method. The data obtained through questionnaire, observation, audio recording, and interactions among people in the virtual environment suggest that, as face to face interactions, virtual communication mediated by computers equally submitted to systemic imperatives that limit the teacher's autonomy and action. That fact arose the importance of searching elements to fight this situation through the instauration of a process of institutionalization of the communicative rationality and the establishment of autonomous research groups in the scholar environment / Doutor

Submitted by Maicon Juliano Schmidt (maicons) on 2015-07-08T19:53:19Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Lívia Fernanda Nery da Silva.pdf: 7313065 bytes, checksum: c5e52184c02141613113e1473e4c8377 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-07-08T19:53:19Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Lívia Fernanda Nery da Silva.pdf: 7313065 bytes, checksum: c5e52184c02141613113e1473e4c8377 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-11-29 / Nenhuma / Esta pesquisa se propôs a descrever e analisar as apropriações, interações e produções digitais dos estudantes/comunicantes EaD do semiárido piauiense. As questões que são discutidas ao longo deste texto buscam identificar as apropriações, interações e produções comunicacionais e educacionais dos estudantes EaD/UFPI. Além disso, visam descobrir quem são os estudantes/comunicantes da Educação a Distância no Semiárido piauiense; quais as ressignificações de tempo, espaço e aprendizagem construídas pelos discentes na modalidade EaD e a relação que eles desenvolvem com a tecnologia, o Moodle e as redes sociais no cotidiano. Para tanto, realizamos uma pesquisa transmetodológica que envolveu diversas fases. Dentre elas, uma fase exploratória, na qual foi realizada a análise documental e aplicados questionários. Na fase seguinte, realizamos uma (n)etnografia que proporcionou o acompanhamento presencial e também do ethos comunicacional digital dos discentes. Para apreendermos elementos do cotidiano digital acompanhamos as migrações digitais dos discentes no Moodle e rede de modo geral. No sentido de aprofundar as informações realizamos entrevistas semi estruturadas pela internet que foram registradas nos chats inbox do Facebook. Os referenciais que balizaram os conceitos e análises foram Certeau (1998), de quem relativizamos o conceito de modos de fazer às produções comunicacionais dos discentes, bem como a definição de tática, pois os discentes/comunicantes utilizam diversas táticas para conseguirem se conectar à internet. Ademais, com os trabalhos de Castillo (2010) identificamos a definição de textos paralelos, a qual confluiu para a acepção do conceito de textos paralelos digitais como forma de produção comunicacional dos discentes. Nos trabalhos de Freire (1983); Vygotsky (1994, 2000) e Bakhtin (2002) destacamos as definições de interação como um processo de alteridade. Ao final deste estudo, entendemos que os discentes ressignificam os conceitos de tempo e espaço. Além disso, ampliam as formas de produção comunicacional ao longo do processo de formação EaD. Nesse sentido, verificamos que os discentes/comunicantes assinam tacitamente um Contrato de Educação Midiatizada, o qual possibilita transformações no uso da tecnologia e dos processos comunicacionais. / This research aims to describe and analyze allocations, interactions and digital productions of EaD students/communicants in Semiarid of Piauí. The issues that are discussed throughout this paper seek to identify appropriations, interactions and communication productions and students' educational EaD/ UFPI. Furthermore, aim to find out who are the students/communicant Distance Education in semiarid Piauí, which the reinterpretation of time, space and learning built by students in the distance education mode and the relationship they develop with technology, Moodle and social networks in everyday. Therefore, we performed a transmetodologic search involving several stages. Among them, an exploratory phase, which was held in the documentary analysis and questionnaires. In the next phase, we performed a (n) ethnography provided the monitoring attendance and the ethos of digital communication students. To apprehend everyday elements accompany digital migration of students in Moodle and networking in general. In order to improve the information we conducted semi-structured interviews that were recorded by internet chats in Facebook inbox. The benchmarks that guided the concepts and analyzes were Certeau (1998), who relativize the concept of modes of communication to the productions of the learners as well as the definition of tactics, because the students/communicating using various tactics to get connect to interne. Moreover, the work of Castillo (2010) identified the definition of parallel texts, which came together for the purposes of the concept of parallel texts as a way of producing digital communication of students. In the work of Freire (1983), Vygotsky (1994, 2000) and Bakhtin (2002) highlight the settings of interaction as a process of alterity. At the end of this study, we believe that students reframe the concepts of time and space. In addition, methods of production extend along the communication process of EaD formation. Accordingly, we find that the students/communicants tacitly sign a Contract of Education Mediatized, which allows changes in the use of technology and communication processes.

As melhorias alcançadas na Educação através do uso das tecnologias de informação e comunicação são inegáveis. Entretanto, os avanços em direção a um ensino personalizado e direcionado às preferências, ao nivelamento (saneamento das dificuldades e pré-requisitos de conteúdo) e aos interesses dos estudantes são pequenos. Desta forma, através da identificação dos conhecimentos prévios dos alunos, bem como dos conteúdos (conceituais) buscou-se aprimorar o processo de ensino para que cada aluno alcance, a seu modo (de forma personalizada) o aprendizado e possa avançar na disciplina/ano em questão. Como é humanamente impossível um professor conhecer as características e dificuldades de conteúdo de todos os seus alunos, é interessante que o ambiente virtual que apoia o professor possa auxiliar para um atendimento mais personalizado, permitindo que o aluno interaja no seu próprio ritmo de estudo, acesse os conteúdos necessários ou aprofunde-se em algum conteúdo que ele já domine. Esta tese propõe um método de uso das ferramentas disponíveis de ambientes virtuais, principalmente do MOODLE, para alcançar a personalização do ensino e conduzir o aluno em sua própria trajetória individual rumo ao aprendizado significativo, sanando dificuldades de conteúdo. Seguindo o objetivo de melhorar a qualidade do ensino sem necessidade de grade investimento de desenvolvimento de ambiente nem aporte financeiro. Para validar o método foi realizado um projeto piloto mais dois experimentos, todos no Colégio Militar de Porto Alegre que totalizaram a participação de 256 alunos. Os resultados demonstraram a viabilidade do método, medido através da melhora nas notas (análise quantitativa) e da análise qualitativa dos dados e dos questionários (respondidos pelos alunos e professores). Destaca-se como vantagem educacional o desenvolvimento do método que pode ser aplicado a qualquer disciplina ou modelo de ensino e como vantagem computacional o uso do MOODLE para personalizar o ensino. / The use of information and communication technologies made undeniable advances in education. However, advances towards personalized learning and directed to the preferences, the leveling (improvement of difficulties and prerequisites) and to the interests of students are small yet. Thus, it is intended, by identifying the students' prior knowledge and content (conceptual) to improve the process so that each student reach, at their mode (personalized) the learning and make progress in discipline/year in question. We know that is humanly impossible for a teacher to know the characteristics and difficulties of content of all his students. So, the virtual environment that supports the teacher should have the flexibility to customize interactions with each student, which allows the student to interact at his/her own study pace, access the necessary content or deepen in some content that he/she has mastered. This thesis proposes a method for using the available virtual environments tools, especially the MOODLE, to achieve the personalization of teaching and to lead the student in his own individual trajectory toward meaningful learning, healing content difficulties. Following the objective of improving the quality of education without the need for large investment in environmental development or financial contribution. To validate the method was carried out a pilot project plus two experiments, all occurred at Military College of Porto Alegre, with a total of 256 students. The results showed the viability of the method, measured by the improvement in grades (quantitative analysis) and the qualitative analysis of data and questionnaires (answered by students and teachers). It is highlighted as an educational advantage, the development of the method that can be applied to any discipline or teaching model and as computational advantage, the use of MOODLE to customize teaching.

This thesis has conducted interpretive qualitative research to investigate the impacts and limitations of LMS Moodle in distance students’ learning process from distance students’ perspectives. The qualitative data was collected from mediated semi-structured interviews with distance students participating in a Master program at Linnaeus University. Through empirical findings and analysis, the positive experiences and limitations of using Moodle in facilitating distance learning process have been revealed from distance students’ perspectives. The positive experiences include that LMS Moodle was used by distance students for interacting with other students, teachers and accessing study contents during their distance learning process. Moodle was used to know new classmates, teachers and the new learning system, recruit group members for the collaborative works, communicate with teachers and other classmates, and obtain significant information about courses. Especially, accessing study contents in Moodle easily was critical for distance students' learning. However, there were still some limitations. Distance students preferred Facebook to Moodle for student-student interaction during the process of collaborative works. The interaction with teachers was not adequate and timely for distance students. The limitations also include unsatisfactory Moodle interface design and poor usability of Moodle.   Some suggestions about improving LMS Moodle in different ways had also been acquired from the research. The suggestions from distance students mainly focus on integrating Moodle with other web conferencing platforms for improving the quality of student-student, student-teacher interaction in Moodle, ameliorating the interface design of Moodle, and adding Moodle tutorials. The result will help the development of LMS based on distance students' needs and finally benefit distance students' learning process.