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Educational Robotics has emerged as a multidisciplinary field integrating Information and Communication Technologies, Engineering, and Artificial Intelligence areas in education. Furthermore, Educational Robotics offers an innovative approach to teaching and learning by incorporating the construction and programming of robots. However, the small number of platforms for sharing Educational Robotics Learning Objects with a large amount of well-described metadata poses a challenge for efficient search and retrieval of relevant educational content. This study presents an architecture for data processing and ingestion in the RepositORE system, a Learning Objects Repository for Educational Robotics that stores educational content and associated metadata based on the Dublin Core standard. Based on microservices architecture, the proposed system aims to facilitate the location and reuse of learning objects by adapting the RepositORE system to work as a client service. The theoretical framework explores the concepts of learning objects, repositories, and the significance of Educational Robotics in education, and reviews related works. The proposed architecture and system can potentially enhance the accessibility and discoverability of Educational Robotics Learning Objects, fostering effective teaching and learning experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information literacy (IL) open learning object repositories (LORs) provide a space for librarians to find and exchange instruction resources and lessons. Given many librarians enter the workforce with little or no formal training or educational opportunities to learn about pedagogy, these repositories are indispensable resources to the Library and Information Science field. This study explored the contents of two popular IL LORs, Project Cora and the Association of College and Research Libraries Framework for Information Literacy Sandbox, to uncover how users engage with the resources and how the repositories differ. This study's findings suggest that while resources within the LORs are being used, yearly submissions have stagnated. Intentional assessment of disciplinary and information literacy concept gaps, followed by targeted calls for resources, may improve and increase engagement with the repositories as communities of practice.

Information literacy (IL) open learning object repositories (LORs) provide a space for librarians to find and exchange instruction resources and lessons. Given many librarians enter the workforce with little or no formal training or educational opportunities to learn about pedagogy, these repositories are indispensable resources to the Library and Information Science field. This study explored the contents of two popular IL LORs, Project Cora and the Association of College and Research Libraries Framework for Information Literacy Sandbox, to uncover how users engage with the resources and how the repositories differ. This study's findings suggest that while resources within the LORs are being used, yearly submissions have stagnated. Intentional assessment of disciplinary and information literacy concept gaps, followed by targeted calls for resources, may improve and increase engagement with the repositories as communities of practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today, regarding content production in distance education, independent tools/software prepared for this purpose or the content production component of a Learning Management System, if any, are used. Access to the content, on the other hand, is provided either independently or through content repositories within Learning Management Systems, but is limited to the content provider or users of the system. This reduces the reusability of resources and produced educational content packages. In this study, a platform with functions such as detailed search at different levels, resource loading, meta-data entry, content organization creation, content packaging, previewing has been designed to make educational resources and content packages shareable and reusable. LCDM (Learning Content Design Manager) platform is a web-based platform with multilingual support and is designed for university level use. The platform that has a file repository and a content package repository, supports search, accessibility, preview and reusability between resources and content packages. A total of 12 modules are defined on the platform. Instructors can store the course content they have prepared using their own uploaded and/or shared resources as content packages. Moreover, students can search, preview and copy packages that are open to sharing within the scope of the course they are registered. LCDM is not a Learning Management System, it is a standalone platform and does not require any integration. Content packages created on the LCDM platform can be loaded and run on different Learning Management Systems with SCORM2004 support. LCDM eases the burden of content developers in search, access and sharing processes, and provides great convenience to students in terms of accessing and viewing the contents of the courses taken. This study is related to the doctoral thesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding of the driving factors to knowledge sharing activities in the Technical Education Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Institutions environment are required since these activities often experience failure as many instructors prefer to seek knowledge rather than to be the contributors. This study was conducted to identify contributing factors to knowledge sharing activities among instructors in TVET institutions. The study employs qualitative method using semi-structured interviews and content analysis. The sampling of the study was snowball sampling involving four TVET instructors. The findings identified four non-technical factors; i.e. organizational factors, individual factors, content factors and collaborative factors while one factor represents a technical approach i.e. technology that all contribute to knowledge sharing. How the identified factors may contribute to TVET institutions towards the development of knowledge sharing repositories to promote knowledge sharing among instructors were discussed.

This article is a case study that discusses the development and implementation of an internal learning object repository (LOR) for a large national organization with a distributed working environment. It describes the organizational environment and why an internal LOR was needed. It describes technical considerations, including the various document management systems (DMS) available, and why an open source DMS was selected to use as an internal LOR. Lastly, this article weighs the benefits and challenges of implementing a LOR across a distributed working environment and reflects on challenges associated with implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the problems connected with the development of meta-subject skills in school students is the lack of publicly available educational materials with a focus on such skills. A possible solution is the formation of a collection of meta-subject materials stored in the library of learning scenarios of the Moscow Electronic School — now there are over 40,000 learning scenarios that have undergone moderation. This article presents the results of research that identified a cluster of teachers most inclined to create meta-subject scenarios and suggested recommendations for motivating teachers to create such scenarios. To achieve this purpose, a sample of authors of such scenarios published by the Moscow Electronic School were analyzed and clustered with the help of machine learning methods. As a result of this work, a gradient boosting algorithm was developed, which produced the best results. The clusters of users described as a result of the application of the algorithm followed five main behavior strategies in terms of the activity related to the creation of new scenarios. Teachers that are most likely to create meta-subject scenarios show interest in their colleagues’ scenarios not only in their subject but also in other academic disciplines taught at school, willingness to copy and customize them. To develop teachers’ readiness for the creation of meta-subject scenarios, it is recommended to conduct teacher training including their introduction to the best practices of developing such scenarios presented by the Moscow Electronic School. The research results are used in the development of a recommender system enabling easier search and navigation among the scenarios published by the Moscow Electronic School.

Well-designed syllabus plays an important role in the Education Domain. A repository of learning objects that has a well-defined metadata structure can be used to customize and design creative syllabus to embody the exchange and re-use of syllabus. To satisfy the need of reusable syllabus learning objects, many researches have focused mainly on Learning Object Repository and Fuzzy XML based Rules. This paper reviews the work done so far in these areas and founds a need for a knowledge based system for syllabus learning objects to increase reusability, interoperability, accessibility and durability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the field of Technology-enhanced Learning (TeL), social tagging has been applied to Learning Object Repositories (LORs) mainly as a means:(a) to offer an alternative way of classifying the Learning Objects (LOs) based on the tag vocabulary created by the end-users of the LOs, and (b) to facilitate the enhancement of LOs' descriptions via collaborative tagging. However, in order to be able to understand how a social tagging system performs and whether it can deliver the aforementioned goals, it is important to be able to investigate the evolution of the tag vocabulary, which constitutes the core component of a social tagging system. Within this context, research has focused on different facets of social tagging systems such as the growth of the tag vocabulary, the frequency and reuse of tags, as well as the stability of the tag vocabulary but there are only sporadic studies for investigating these issues in the field of LORs. This paper aims to contribute in studying how social tagging systems perform in the context of LORs by investigating the evolution of the tag vocabulary in OpenScienceResources Repository, a science education domain specific repository with a rich dataset operating in Europe for 5 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As education providers increasingly integrate digital learning media into their education processes, the need for the systematic management of learning materials and learning arrangements becomes clearer. Digital repositories, often called Learning Object Repositories (LOR), promise to provide an answer to this challenge. This article is composed of two parts. In this part, we derive technological and pedagogical requirements for LORs from a concretization of information quality criteria for e-learning technology. We review the evolution of learning object repositories and discuss their core features in the context of pedagogical requirements, information quality demands, and e-learning technology standards. We conclude with an outlook in Part 2, which presents concrete technical solutions, in particular networked repository architectures.

In Part 1 of this article we discussed the need for information quality and the systematic management of learning materials and learning arrangements. Digital repositories, often called Learning Object Repositories (LOR), were introduced as a promising answer to this challenge. We also derived technological and pedagogical requirements for LORs from a concretization of information quality criteria for e-learning technology. This second part presents technical solutions that particularly address the demands of open education movements, which aspire to a global reuse and sharing culture. From this viewpoint, we develop core requirements for scalable network architectures for educational content management. We then present edu-sharing, an advanced example of a network of homogeneous repositories for learning resources, and discuss related technology. We conclude with an outlook in terms of emerging developments towards open and networked system architectures in e-learning.

The growing production of digital educational materials has encouraged the emergence in recent years of repositories that concentrate valuable resources for teachers, students and educational institutions in general, well as the importance of using these repositories in teaching and learning. At present projects Learning Object Repositories (ROA) has been increasing, which is why this paper addresses the issue of ROA and its use in the University of the East, for its development is a review of the concepts basic Learning Objects, since no one could speak of the ROA without mentioning these object types and then state why the use of this at the University of the East and the strategy for its implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electronic learning objects (LOs) are commonly conceived of as digital units of information used for teaching and learning. To facilitate their classification for pedagogical planning and retrieval purposes, LOs are complemented with metadata (e.g., the author). These metadata are usually restricted by a set of predetermined tags to which the classification schema must conform (e.g., IEEE LOM). In our experience, certain complex LOs need to be complemented with different types of domain-dependent information for their pedagogical planning and retrieval: (i) classification metadata for enhancing contextualisation, search and retrieval (e.g., the tagged structure of an archaeological site where an archaeological object has been found) and (ii) additional data that can enrich the LO (e.g., the weight and other dimensions of an archaeological artifact described in a podcast). We refer to LOs enhanced with domain-dependent information as hybrid learning objects (HLOs). However, most learning object repositories (LORs) only permit a predetermined, fixed set of metadata attributes to be used in the classification of LOs. This rigidity is inappropriate when domain-dependent information schemas are used for the browsing, retrieval, and domain-specific pedagogical sequencing of HLOs. Thus, custom software applications are needed to manage LOs that must be tagged with information belonging to specific domains. This paper presents a theoretical approach that permits the use of a single LOR for classifying and enriching LOs according to domain-dependent information schemas, which can be dynamically changed after their definition. The key issue in our approach is the presence of a meta-relational model for the dynamic definition of specific domain-dependent relational database schemas used for classifying and enriching LOs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The publisher of IRRODL, The Canadian Institute of Distance Education Research (CIDER), is pleased to link here to a series of eight online seminars that took place over Spring 2005, using Elluminate live e-learning and collaborative solutions. These interactive CIDER Sessions disseminate research emanating from Canada's vibrant DE research community, and we feel these archived recordings are highly relevant to many in the international distance education research community. To access these sessions, you must first download FREE software. Visit http://www.elluminate.com/support/ to download this software.

Abstract: Learning Object Repositories (LORs) are an important element in the management, publishing, location and retrieval of instructional resources. In recent times, the task of finding and recommending a list of learning objects that fits the specific user’s needs and requirements is a very active area of research. In this regard, this paper proposes DELPHOS, a framework to assist users in the search for learning objects in repositories and which shows an example of application in engineering. LORs can be used in engineering not only for learning and training for students, instructors and professionals but also for sharing knowledge about engineering problems and projects. The proposed approach is based on a weighted hybrid recommender that uses different filtering or recommendation criteria. The values of these weights can be assigned by the user him/herself or can be automatically calculated by the system in an adaptive and dynamic way. This paper describes the architecture and interface of DELPHOS and shows some experiments with a group of 24 civil engineering students in order to evaluate and validate the usefulness of this tool. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper describes the grammatical approach, an approach to the specification of XML processing tasks based on attribute grammars. This approach describes how to provide task-specific context-free grammars for XML documents, as well as how to decompose complex processing tasks into simpler ones with attribute-grammar fragments. The result is a high-level, syntax-directed declarative specification for the processing of XML documents, which facilitates the development and maintenance of complex XML processing applications while preserving the flexibility of general-purpose XML processing models. The grammatical approach is illustrated using Chasqui, an e-learning platform for building educational digital libraries of learning objects. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The development of learning objects which are smaller chunks of learning content is often time consuming and expensive. Recent efforts in producing learning objects that are reusable and sharable were not very successful due to the lack of interoperability between different learning systems. Semantic Web technologies together with ontologies provide rich medium for facilitating e-learning via the semantic annotated learning objects and shared repositories. However, Semantic Web technologies have not yet been applied widely to deliver learning objects. This paper introduces enabling technologies for developing next-generation learning object repository for construction. Semantic Web, ontology, reasoners, and associated technologies are discussed within the paper. This paper also demonstrates how the ontologies and Semantic Web technologies can be used to develop and deliver intelligent, sharable and dynamic learning objects. The paper also outlines the development of repository using the ontology-driven Semantic Web approach and discusses the construction education ontology and semantic databases. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper presents an ontology-based conceptual framework for effectively managing exploratory e-learning resources. The proposed framework has five significant novel features including authentication of retrieved resources, automatic ontology-based query refinement, reuse-oriented management of retrieved resources, adaptive retrieval of learning resources based on the style and preference of individual learners, and synthesisation of retrieval and management activities for creating reusable learning repositories. The applicability of the framework is demonstrated using a sample fragment of an ontology developed in the database domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the heterogeneous proliferation of mobile devices, the delivery of learning materials on such devices becomes subject to more and more requirements. Personalized learning content adaptation, therefore, becomes increasingly important to meet the diverse needs imposed by devices, users, usage contexts, and infrastructure. Historical server logs offer a wealth of information on hardware capabilities, learners' preferences, and network conditions, which can be utilized to respond to a new user request with the personalized learning content created from a previous similar request. In this paper, we propose a Personalized Learning Content Adaptation Mechanism (PLCAM), which applies data mining techniques, including clustering and decision tree approaches, to efficiently manage a large number of historical learners' requests. The proposed method will intelligently and directly deliver proper personalized learning content with higher fidelity from the Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM)-compliant Learning Object Repository (LOR) by means of the proposed adaptation decision and content synthesis processes. Furthermore, the experimental results indicate that it is efficient and is expected to prove beneficial to learners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to investigate elementary teachers' opinions on a learning object repository in an elementary school. For this purpose, a learning object repository is constructed including digital learning resources accessible to teachers, students, and other potential users. In the paper we introduce and describe properties of a new learning object repository developed specifically for teachers at the elementary school level in Turkey. Qualitative research model with an open-ended questionnaire was used assess how elementary teachers integrate a learning object repository into their educational environment. The study consists of a sample of 11 elementary school teachers in Turkey. Initial findings reveal that learning resources such ELOR can used effectively by teachers, especially when they become active participants of a learning environment by adding a learning object into the repository they have. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Knowledge Society is increasing the demand for tools to manage the didactic knowledge stored in Learning Objects Repositories, and needed by teachers to generate courseware. In this respect, still there is a lack of automated tools for the analysis and retrieval of learning resources from such repositories. Here we propose the use of the OLAP technique to help teachers to specify a didactic ontology by which performing quantitative and qualitative analysis of Internet-based Learning Objects Repositories. The related system is presented, together with a case study based on real repositories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a rich discussion on the history, definition, application, and evolution of learning object systems. A learning object is “any digital resource that can be reused to support learning” (Wiley, 2000). Learning object systems are based on the notion that multiple educational institutions could share the use and cost of the creation and management of the learning objects. The theoretical result of sharing learning objects leads to a much lower cost per educational institution. Learning objects are based on the generative and constructive learning theories that assert that learning is an active process of constructing rather than acquiring knowledge, and instruction is a process of supporting that construction rather than communicating knowledge. Learning objects are also based on sound design principles of the object-oriented paradigm. These combined theories provide a framework for learning object systems as: accessible, reusable, interoperable, adaptable, granular, versionable, cohesive, and loosely coupled. This paper will expand on these topics and provide two cases of learning object systems implemented as eLearning strategies. Closing remarks and implications are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A wide range of projects and organizations is currently making digital learning resources (learning objects) available to instructors, students, and designers via systematic, standards-based infrastructures. One standard that is central to many of these efforts and infrastructures is known as Learning Object Metadata (IEEE 1484.12.1-2002, or LOM). This report builds on Report #11 in this series, and discusses the findings of the author's recent study of ways in which the LOM standard is being used internationally.

The present paper describes architecture, design, and implementation details of a Web Crawler for learning objects. The Web Crawler developed provides a technical solution to mass downloading learning objects from digital libraries on the Web for further search and delivery of appropriate learning objects to learners using various e-Learning services (e.g. personalization). The task of mass downloading learning objects, which would be long if done manually, can be performed quickly using the present system. Throughout the development of the system, the main objective was to decrease the time and user interaction needed to obtain the desired information from the Web repositories containing learning objects. The present system implements features of finding, parsing, and downloading web pages with learning object metadata and content. The system has been developed with reusability in mind, so this system can be used as the basis for any other task related to downloading XML-based documents from the Web. The final result of the presented work is a functioning system that meets the objectives and requirements given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the birth of an open source learning object repository (OSLOR) from design to implementation. Critical design issues such as user interface, type of LOR, standards, metadata, and the programming language were considered in the process. These issues revolve around the essential characteristics of LOR, i.e., interoperability, reusability, and accessibility. Conclusion and recommendations are made for future advancement of the OSLOR and its sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multimedia data and application systems accessible over the Web are valuable assets for developing instructional materials for teaching, training, problem solving, and decision support. These assets can be used to construct learning objects, each of which is a reusable granule of instruction designed to meet a specific instructional objective. In order to find and use learning objects, an infrastructure for the registration, discovery, binding, and invocation of these objects is needed. Also, there is a need for an e-learning service infrastructure for people in a virtual e-learning community to construct, evaluate, and deliver learning objects. In this work, we model distributed and sharable learning resources by two types of Learning Objects (LOs): Atomic Learning Object and Composite Learning Object. Both types of LOs are published uniformly as Web services in a constraint-based broker in order to make them sharable and reusable. This article presents the learning object models for the specifications of these two types of LOs and an e-learning service infrastructure, which consists of authoring tools for constructing LOs, software components for processing LOs and performing assessments, and an extended Web services framework for the registration, discovery, binding, and invocation of LOs as Web services. This article also presents techniques such as dynamic binding of LOs, rule-based execution of learning processes, and model-based assessment used to make the processing of LOs active, flexible, customizable, and adaptive. The roles and functions of virtual e-learning community members are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]