2013 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE), 2013
Reusing Learning Objects saves time and reduces development costs. Hence, achieving their interop... more Reusing Learning Objects saves time and reduces development costs. Hence, achieving their interoperability in multiple contexts is essential when creating a Learning Object Repository. On the other hand, novel web videoconference services are available due to technological advancements. Several benefits can be gained by integrating Learning Objects into these services. For instance, they can allow sharing, co-viewing and synchronized co-browsing of these resources at the same time that provide real time communication. However, several efforts need to be undertaken to achieve the interoperability with these systems. In this paper, we propose a model to integrate the resources of the Learning Object Repositories into web videoconference services. The experience of applying this model in a real e-Learning scenario achieving interoperability with a web videoconference service is also described.
Learning Objects facilitate reuse leading to cost and time savings as well as to the enhancement ... more Learning Objects facilitate reuse leading to cost and time savings as well as to the enhancement of the quality of educational resources. However, teachers find it difficult to create or to find high quality Learning Objects, and the ones they find need to be customized. Teachers can overcome this problem using suitable authoring systems that enable them to create high quality Learning Objects with little effort. This paper presents an open source online e-Learning authoring tool called ViSH Editor together with four novel interactive Learning Objects that can be created with it: Flashcards, Virtual Tours, Enriched Videos and Interactive Presentations. All these Learning Objects are created as web applications, which can be accessed via mobile devices. Besides, they can be exported to SCORM including their metadata in IEEE LOM format. All of them are described in the paper including an example of each. This approach for creating Learning Objects was validated through two evaluations: a survey among authors and a formal quality evaluation of 209 Learning Objects created with the tool. The results show that ViSH Editor facilitates educators the creation of high quality Learning Objects.
2013 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE), 2013
Education can take advantage of e-Infrastructures to provide teachers with new opportunities to i... more Education can take advantage of e-Infrastructures to provide teachers with new opportunities to increase students' motivation and engagement while they learn. Nevertheless, teachers need to find, integrate and customize the resources provided by e-Infrastructures in an easy way. This paper presents ViSH Editor, an innovative web-based e-Learning authoring tool that aims to allow teachers to create new learning objects using e-Infrastructure resources. These new learning objects are called Virtual Excursions and are created as reusable, granular and interoperable learning objects. This way they can be reused to build new ones and they can be integrated in websites or Learning Management Systems. Details about the design, development and the tool itself are explained in this paper as well as the concept, structure and metadata of the new learning objects. Lastly, some real examples of how to enrich learning using Virtual Excursions are exposed.
Design is very important when creating e-learning tools. Especially in authoring tools where the ... more Design is very important when creating e-learning tools. Especially in authoring tools where the user has to use a single application to create content and has to learn to use a lot of functionalities that combine and help each other to produce the final result. The user, when utilizing the application, will create a mental model that should fit the conceptual model that the developing team designed. If this does not happen the application will be very difficult to learn and there will be misunderstandings and mistakes. This paper presents the use case of an authoring tool called ViSH Editor, its design process and how mental models and related Human Computer Interaction concepts have been taken into account when designing the tool.
2013 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE), 2013
Reusing Learning Objects saves time and reduces development costs. Hence, achieving their interop... more Reusing Learning Objects saves time and reduces development costs. Hence, achieving their interoperability in multiple contexts is essential when creating a Learning Object Repository. On the other hand, novel web videoconference services are available due to technological advancements. Several benefits can be gained by integrating Learning Objects into these services. For instance, they can allow sharing, co-viewing and synchronized co-browsing of these resources at the same time that provide real time communication. However, several efforts need to be undertaken to achieve the interoperability with these systems. In this paper, we propose a model to integrate the resources of the Learning Object Repositories into web videoconference services. The experience of applying this model in a real e-Learning scenario achieving interoperability with a web videoconference service is also described.
Learning Objects facilitate reuse leading to cost and time savings as well as to the enhancement ... more Learning Objects facilitate reuse leading to cost and time savings as well as to the enhancement of the quality of educational resources. However, teachers find it difficult to create or to find high quality Learning Objects, and the ones they find need to be customized. Teachers can overcome this problem using suitable authoring systems that enable them to create high quality Learning Objects with little effort. This paper presents an open source online e-Learning authoring tool called ViSH Editor together with four novel interactive Learning Objects that can be created with it: Flashcards, Virtual Tours, Enriched Videos and Interactive Presentations. All these Learning Objects are created as web applications, which can be accessed via mobile devices. Besides, they can be exported to SCORM including their metadata in IEEE LOM format. All of them are described in the paper including an example of each. This approach for creating Learning Objects was validated through two evaluations: a survey among authors and a formal quality evaluation of 209 Learning Objects created with the tool. The results show that ViSH Editor facilitates educators the creation of high quality Learning Objects.
2013 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE), 2013
Education can take advantage of e-Infrastructures to provide teachers with new opportunities to i... more Education can take advantage of e-Infrastructures to provide teachers with new opportunities to increase students' motivation and engagement while they learn. Nevertheless, teachers need to find, integrate and customize the resources provided by e-Infrastructures in an easy way. This paper presents ViSH Editor, an innovative web-based e-Learning authoring tool that aims to allow teachers to create new learning objects using e-Infrastructure resources. These new learning objects are called Virtual Excursions and are created as reusable, granular and interoperable learning objects. This way they can be reused to build new ones and they can be integrated in websites or Learning Management Systems. Details about the design, development and the tool itself are explained in this paper as well as the concept, structure and metadata of the new learning objects. Lastly, some real examples of how to enrich learning using Virtual Excursions are exposed.
Design is very important when creating e-learning tools. Especially in authoring tools where the ... more Design is very important when creating e-learning tools. Especially in authoring tools where the user has to use a single application to create content and has to learn to use a lot of functionalities that combine and help each other to produce the final result. The user, when utilizing the application, will create a mental model that should fit the conceptual model that the developing team designed. If this does not happen the application will be very difficult to learn and there will be misunderstandings and mistakes. This paper presents the use case of an authoring tool called ViSH Editor, its design process and how mental models and related Human Computer Interaction concepts have been taken into account when designing the tool.
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Papers by E. Barra