PHD THESIS UNIVERSITY OF SALAMANCA DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCES AND AUTOMATION ADAPTIVE HYPERMEDIA KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT ELEARNING SYSTEM (AHKME) – MANAGEMENT AND ADAPTATION OF LEARNING OBJECTS AND LEARNING DESIGN IN A WEB-BASED INFORMATION SYSTEM TOWARDS THE THIRD GENERATION OF WEB Author HUGO MIGUEL GONÇALVES REGO Supervisor Dr. FRANCISCO JOSÉ GARCÍA PEÑALVO October, 2011 RESEARCH GROUP IN INTERACTION & ELEARNING (GRIAL) Universidad de Salamanca. Instituto Universitario de Ciencias de la Educación Paseo de Canalejas, 169. 37008 Salamanca (España) Tel. (+34) 923 29 45 00 Ext. 3433 – Fax (+34) 29 45 14 [email protected] - http://grial.usal.es El Dr. D. Francisco José García Peñalvo, Profesor Titular del Departamento de Informática y Automática de la Universidad de Salamanca, en calidad de Director del trabajo de tesis doctoral titulado “ADAPTIVE HYPERMEDIA KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT E- LEARNING SYSTEM (AHKME) – Management and adaptation of learning objects and learning design in a Web-based information system towards the third generation of Web” y realizado por D. Hugo Miguel Gonçalves Rego, HACE CONSTAR Que dicho trabajo tiene suficientes méritos teóricos contrastados adecuadamente mediante las validaciones oportunas, publicaciones relacionadas y aportaciones altamente novedosas. Por todo ello considera que procede su defensa pública. En Salamanca, a 25 de octubre de 2011 Dr. Francisco José García Peñalvo Director del Grupo de Investigación GRIAL Universidad de Salamanca PHD THESIS UNIVERSITY OF SALAMANCA DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCES AND AUTOMATION ADAPTIVE HYPERMEDIA KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT ELEARNING SYSTEM (AHKME) – MANAGEMENT AND ADAPTATION OF LEARNING OBJECTS AND LEARNING DESIGN IN A WEB-BASED INFORMATION SYSTEM TOWARDS THE THIRD GENERATION OF WEB Author HUGO MIGUEL GONÇALVES REGO Supervisor Dr. FRANCISCO JOSÉ GARCÍA PEÑALVO Presented at the Department of Computer Sciences and Automation Faculty of Sciences University of Salamanca The Supervisor The doctoral student Dr. Francisco José García Peñalvo Hugo Miguel Gonçalves Rego October, 2011 AKNOWLEDGEMENTS This work was supported by Spanish Government projects TSI2005-00960 and TIN2010-21695-C02-01 and by the Castile and Lion Regional Government through GR47. To Dr. Francisco J. García Peñalvo and Tiago Moreira for these years of working together And, especially Lucia Pato and my parents for their love and support. ABSTRACT The World Wide Web commonly known as Web as evolve and nowadays passes through a transition to a third generation, Web 3.0. In parallel, different areas of application as also evolve. One of them was eLearning, with the development of several systems and tools. However, despite many years of research and the appearance of the concept of Semantic Web for quite a time, the Web and consequently eLearning systems and mainly the user’s still seem not to be prepared for this transition. There are different reasons for this situation. First, the application of concept requires specialized technical knowledge of the users to design the systems and resources accordingly to the educational standards and semantic technologies. Consequently, their dissemination outside experimental contexts is limited. Moreover, since they lack application in eLearning systems of Semantic Web, and lack some basic knowledge regarding standardization of learning design, resources and also reusability and the stability of these concepts before go a step forward to semantic web. Thus, lacks for application systems that make the transition easier for the users. In order to solve these problems, this thesis proposes the development of a web-based information system – AHKME (Adaptive Hypermedia Knowledge Management Elearning System) - that combines concepts of Web 2.0 and 3.0, regarding advanced collaboration, social networks, interoperability, standardization and adaptation, in a concept that we prefer to call Web/eLearning 2.5. The objective of this system is to prepare the users for the new paradigm and the application of concepts regarding reusability, giving flexibility to the users by offering tools to facilitate the learning design and even the creation of their own personalized schemas/structure for instructional design. AHKME is based on schemas of standards and specifications (e.g. IMS) for standardization of resources, data mining and workflow for adaptation, and user’s interactivity with learning resources and collaboration through social networks and players. Morevoer, an evaluation of this proposal was performed through laboratory tests to evaluate the results and behaviour of AHKME, simulating a real learning situation. The main goal of this study is to open the way for new researchs and systems for preparing the users for this new generation of Web, and by this mean introduce the semantic technologies, cross-platforms systems and “intelligent web”. KEYWORDS: Web, eLearning, Learning Design, Standards, Adaptation, Collaboration. ÍNDICE 1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................... 1 1.1. Presentation ................................................................................................................................ 3 1.2. Problems and justification ........................................................................................................ 4 1.3. Objectives ................................................................................................................................... 5 1.4. Methodology ............................................................................................................................ 10 1.5. Context of the thesis ............................................................................................................... 14 1.5.1. In the research group ......................................................................................................... 14 1.5.2. In a general context ............................................................................................................ 16 1.6. Presentation of the following chapters ................................................................................ 17 2. WEB AND ELEARNING SYSTEMS .................................................................19 2.1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 21 2.2. Web and eLearning ................................................................................................................. 24 2.2.1. Web 3.0 ................................................................................................................................ 29 2.2.1.1. Semantic web ........................................................................................................................... 32 2.2.1.2. Social semantic web ................................................................................................................ 34 2.2.2. eLearning ............................................................................................................................. 36 2.2.2.1. eLearning 3.0 ........................................................................................................................... 41 2.2.2.2. eLearning systems and tools ................................................................................................. 44 2.2.2.2.1. Current eLearning approaches ........................................................................................... 44 2.2.2.2.2. Instructional design tools .................................................................................................... 46 2.2.2.2.3. LOM Tools ........................................................................................................................... 53 2.3. Markup technologies standards and specifications for education ................................... 54 2.3.1. Marking technologies for educational metadata ............................................................ 57 2.3.1.1. Standards, specifications and application profiles ............................................................. 58 2.3.1.2. Learning objects and metadata ............................................................................................. 61 2.3.1.3. Brief summary of standards, specifications and application profiles ............................. 65 2.3.2. Standardized description of the teaching process ......................................................... 68 2.3.2.1. Instructional design or the learning definition ................................................................... 68 2.3.2.2. IMS learning design (IMS LD) ............................................................................................. 70 2.3.2.2.1. Features ................................................................................................................................. 70 2.3.2.2.2. Main elements ...................................................................................................................... 73 2.3.2.3. Other initiatives related to IMS LD ..................................................................................... 74 2.3.3. Schemas ................................................................................................................................ 76 2.3.4. Weaknesses .........................................................................................................................