=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=None
|storemode=property
|title=Cloud Services within a ROLE-enabled Personal Learning Environment
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-945/paper13.pdf
|volume=Vol-945
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/ltec/RizzardiniRMS12
}}
==Cloud Services within a ROLE-enabled Personal Learning Environment==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-945/paper13.pdf
1st International Workshop on Cloud Education Environments (WCLOUD 2012)
Cloud Services within a ROLE-enabled Personal Learning Environment
Rocael Hernandez Rizzardini Byron Linares Alexander Mikroyannidis Hans-Christian Schmitz
GES department, GES department, Knowledge Media Institute, The Fraunhofer FIT
Galileo University, Galileo University, Open University St. Augustin, Germany
Guatemala, Guatemala Guatemala, Guatemala Milton Keynes, United Kingdom hans-
roc@galileo.edu bhlr@galileo.edu A.Mikroyannidis@open.ac.uk christian.schmitz@fit.fraunhofer.
de
Abstract— The ROLE project (Responsive Open Learning the learner is provided with the facilities to incorporate the
Environments) is focused on the next generation of Personal use of new services and tools in a simple manner while at the
Learning Environments (PLE). In this paper, we first describe same time has the control over the environment. It is
the engineering process used to create either a new widget opposed to the monolithic approach on integrating all the
bundle, a group of applications or service widgets. The widgets services into a single architecture [1].
integrated in a ROLE PLE consist of two cloud-based services, The ROLE project aims to enable learners to assemble
a social networking and a mind-mapping tool, where learners and re-assemble their own learning environments which
can perform and collaborate on learning activities. We also become advanced Personal Learning Environments (PLE)
modified other widgets to create a complete learning
[3]. ROLE technology is centered around the concept of
experience. The whole platform is running on a cloud-
computing infrastructure and one of the services is using a
Self-regulated learning, aiming at creating responsible and
cloud-based database. Additionally, we describe the initial
thinking learners that are able to plan their learning process,
experiences from using this cloud education environment in search for the resources independently, learn and then reflect
Galileo University, Guatemala, in a web-based course with on their learning process and progress. Using ROLE’s
students from three different Latin-American countries. We techno-pedagogical infrastructure, we have built a psycho-
measured emotional aspects, motivation, usability and pedagogical setting adapted to the specific needs of our
attitudes towards the environment. The results demonstrated course and our students.
the readiness of cloud-based education solutions, and how
ROLE can bring together such an environment from a PLE II. CLOUD SERVICES WITHIN ROLE INFRASTRUCTURE
perspective. In this section, we briefly discuss the key points of the
technical realization of the widget bundle that was
Keywords- Responsive Open Learning Environments,
specifically designed for this experience. This widget
Personal Learning Environment, Widget bundle, Cloud-based
tools, Cloud Learning Activities, Cloud Education Environments. bundle involved the development of two new widgets: the
mind-mapping widget that integrated the cloud service
MindMeister [12] and the Facebook discussion widget, both
I. INTRODUCTION
of which are compliant with the OpenSocial specification
Cloud computing is a major trend nowadays, with recent [7]. We also proposed a number of improvements to the
studies positioning it as one of the short-term adoption specifications of two existing widgets: ObjectSpot [8] and
technologies for education [2]. Cloud computing is MediaList. The improved specifications regarded the
essentially about expandable and on-demand services, tools addition of Inter-widget Communication and Monitoring
and content that are served to users via the Internet from and the testing of a fresh ROLE SDK installation.
specialized data centers. Cloud computing resources support In order to address the requirements of our course and
virtualization, grow on-demand, collaboration and many
provide a complete learning experience to our students, we
applications now rely on cloud technologies.
offered them a widget bundle consisting of the following 6
Cloud-based tools for collaboration have the potential to
engage students, by allowing them to interact and brainstorm widgets: ObjectSpot, Binocs Media Search, MediaList,
solutions, elaborate reports, and create conceptual designs. EtherdPad, Mind Map and Facebook.
This approach has the potential to enable and facilitate both The ObjectSpot search widget allows learners to find
formal and informal learning for the learner. It also promotes online resources from a variety of bibliographic sources,
the openness, sharing and reusability of learning resources including CiteSeer and Google Scholar. Binocs focuses on
on the web [16]. media search, allowing users to search for learning content
In this work, we foster the potential of cloud-based tools in various Web 2.0 platforms like YouTube, SlideShare, and
into a Personal Learning Environment (PLE). The PLE Wikipedia. Additionally, both widgets provide access to
enables an individual learner to access, aggregate, configure repositories of Open Educational Resources (OER),
and manipulate assets of their own current educational containing free learning material of high quality. Some of
experiences. The PLE has a student-based orientation where these repositories are OpenLearn
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1st International Workshop on Cloud Education Environments (WCLOUD 2012)
(http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/), OpenScout used the MindMeister RESTful services provided by the
(http://learn.openscout.net/), and Globe (http://www.globe- cloud-based application, and to be able to use them was
info.org/). necessary to create a middleware (gateway) web service for
The Media List Widget allows the user to create custom access the aforementioned services. Additionally, the
media lists based on the search results from the Binocs Facebook discussion widget was implemented according to
widget. OpenSocial Gadget specification.
The EtherPad widget is a text editor that allows users to To push forward the envisioned ROLE real-time
write a document collaboratively with their peers in real- communication and collaboration infrastructure, it was
time. When multiple authors edit the same document necessary to provide communication between widgets,
simultaneously, any changes are instantly reflected on especially to send events originating in various widgets
everyone's screen. This is particularly useful for meeting (ObjectSpot, Binocs Media Search, MediaList, EtherdPad)
notes, drafting sessions, education, team programming, and to the mind-mapping widget. Likewise in the case of the
more. ObjectSpot widget, it was necessary to add communication
The Mind Map widget is a tool that delivers the through events according to the Open Application
functionality to create collaborative mind maps and reuse specification. In the case of MediaList widget, however, it
previously created maps as learning resources. The Mind was hoped to be able to add a new broadcast event to send
Map widget uses the OpenSocial specification, as well as items stored in a list to the mind-map and reflect them as
the MindMeister embed API [10]. new nodes in the map. Figure 1 shows the widget bundle
architecture and Figure 2 a screenshot of the widget bundle
in action.
Finally, it is worth mentioning that a complete cloud-
based education environment was enabled, both at the
infrastructure and the application level. The cloud-
computing infrastructure of Amazon’s Elastic Compute
Cloud (EC2) [5] and the Google Fusion Tables [6] was used
to store and manage token identity across multiple services.
III. THE TEST-BED
A. The Galileo University Test-bed
Figure 1. The widget bundle architecture. In this section we present a different test-bed for the
ROLE technologies, compared to previous experiences [1].
This is the first one in Latin-American countries, and it also
represents a different cultural context.
The test-bed was set up in the Institute Von Neumann
(IVN) of the Galileo University, Guatemala. IVN is an
online Higher Education Institute (HEI) that delivers
educational programmes across Guatemala. These
programmes are also available for other Spanish speaking
countries around their hinterland.
B. Test-bed description
Students at IVN are mostly adult learners who also are
in employment at the same time. The IVN courses are
similar to any other University course, although the most
significant difference is that IVN students do most of their
learning during the evening or at weekends. IVN offers fully
online learning programmes, which generally do not contain
Figure 2. The widget bundle in action.
any synchronous sessions. Thus students are expected to
spend around 10 hours for studying the supplied materials.
The mind-mapping editor enables the user to create and This also includes carrying out any learning activities as
edit maps, ideas, nodes, and other different actions. To well as interacting online with other students. All the
achieve the desired operation and to receive elements from courses are organized in weekly units, based on a variety of
other widget and incorporate them automatically into the online materials (e.g. multimedia, interactive animations,
map the Open Application specification was utilized [11]. etc), downloadable material in addition to the learning
For the publication and listening of widget events (i.e. add activities. All the course material is delivered to IVN
an item to a map, a map published for discussion, etc.), we students using a customized version of the LRN Learning
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1st International Workshop on Cloud Education Environments (WCLOUD 2012)
Management System (LMS) [9]. Student-to-student for this experience. All learning activities required a
communication is also supported through dedicated online research part first, therefore, the students were asked to
forums. Teachers and instructional designers are able to search using the previously mentioned search widgets, then
create and upload all teaching and learning material into the collect relevant resources in the list widget. They were then
LMS. asked to create a report using the EtherPad widget, select
In this test-bed, a series of experiments were deployed relevant terms, and their relations then represent them in the
with respect to ROLE and a specially developed widget mind-mapping widget. Finally, the “students” published
bundle, that was designed to support the learning activities their mind-maps in the dedicated course LMS space and
for the course “Building online activities” was made then discussed their use of them using the social networking
available. This course is part of the e-Learning certification feature that had been provided.
programme of the university. It is particularly targeted to
D. The Learning Activities
meet the needs of practitioners, i.e. university professors,
and instructors who want to create and deploy their Four learning activities were assigned to the students.
experiences using e-Learning delivery methods. The The first one was searching for web services that enabled
students participating in this case study originated from the creation of learning material or use of tools for learning
three different countries: 15 from Guatemala, 6 from El activities. This task was followed by summarizing the
Salvador, and 9 from Honduras. All students had previously characteristic and potential educational benefits and
used cloud-based learning activities and tools in other classifying them using an initial taxonomy given by the
courses, thus they were quite familiar with online services Professor in a shared mind-map. In addition all the
and tools. “students” (who were Professors themselves) were also
The Professor teaching the course introduced the given the opportunity to discuss each others contributions
students to new concepts, including the PLE, self regulated and how they, as individuals, might apply the pedagogical
learning (SRL) and the ROLE project, with the purpose of approach in their own classrooms.
raising awareness about the benefits of them with a premise The second learning activity contributed to the overall
of potentially engendering mindset change amongst them. research about how to measure course quality through
The students were then guided to engage in an interactive online surveys with a target group of students. In this case
learning process that was presented as having benefits for study, it was decided that each student would search, list,
long term knowledge acquisition. It also was relevant for summarize and reflect knowledge by recording them in a
their forthcoming assessment in relation to the assigned mind-map. This included a link to relevant (and provided)
learning activities [3]. This also helped to encourage them to Google forms representative of the forthcoming online
use the ROLE system. Observation of the students’ usage of survey but based on a design previously proposed for the
the PLE and collected feedback from both the Professor and actual course survey. In this instance the mind-map to be
the students, through interviews and questionnaires, also created would be individual, and could be shared without
took place. It is important to note that the “students” in the the intervention of administrative permissions to the rest of
group were mostly active HEI Professors in their home the students. At this stage the students were asked to discuss
universities rather than conventional undergraduate two or three of their published mind-maps using the social
students. The course lasted for four weeks. network widget.
The third and fourth activities were similar in process to
C. Scenario the second. The objective of the third learning activity was
The following scenario was designed to test the ROLE to summarize a proven process for the creation of
cloud-based learning activities that had been defined. The storytelling educational activities and then to present one set
Professor assembled the widget bundle for each student as of learning materials based on that process by using one of
shown in Figure 1. The first row shows the search widget the following online tools: goanimate.com, pixton.com,
“Binocs Media Search” and also the “ObjectSpot” widget. xtranormal.com. The fourth learning activity focused on
The third widget is the media list. The second row had the modelling a process for creating visually attractive digital
mind-mapping tool and the EtherPad widget, and the third posters with educational themes. Each student had to present
row contained the social network widget for discussion. It his or her work and discuss an aspect of that work with each
had been decided beforehand to use a social networking site other.
for discussion, based on previous experiences [13]. No
E. Specific Technical Deployment
further ROLE collaboration features were used in this part
of the case study because of the short time available to In order to facilitate the adoption and usage of the
deploy the learning activities. system, we decided to allow students to use Google
During the first learning activity assigned to students, accounts to register to the PLE, and also to the MindMeister
the PLE and related concepts were introduced to the mind-mapping tool. The Google accounts were provided by
students, with supportive material such as: step by step the professor to the students, and were created only with the
instruction, video-tutorials and user manuals custom made purpose to be used on this specific course. The Facebook
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1st International Workshop on Cloud Education Environments (WCLOUD 2012)
authentication was done with the students’ personal IV. LESSONS LEARNED
accounts. Observations of the prescribed activities and the use of
F. Evaluation results the ROLE tools indicated that the participants were
somewhat overwhelmed with this new learning scenario. The
The participants to the evaluation of the ROLE-enabled reason being that this was a totally new setting for the
PLE were asked to answer a short online survey. The participants - they had not previously used such an
purpose of this survey was to gather user feedback both environment. Additionally, the type and style of the learning
specifically about the ROLE widgets, as well as more activities were also new to the participants. Unfortunately no
generally about the perceived usefulness and ease of use of time was made available to them to become acquainted with
PLEs, via questions based on the Technology Acceptance the ROLE technologies before executing the learning
Model (TAM) [14, 15]. Since all of the participants were activities either. Consequently this was reflected in the
also teachers, the survey contained questions about the participants’ negative responses in the survey. In retrospect,
perceived usefulness and ease of use of PLEs both from the it would have been better if the participants were introduced
perspectives of the learner and the teacher. A total of 19 to PLEs and the ROLE tools ahead of the activities and be
participants responded to this survey. provided with sufficient documentation and guidance before
With relation to the perceived usefulness and ease of use attempting to complete the learning activities.
of PLEs from the learner’s perspective, the responses were
generally positive. Interestingly the groups’ strongest V. CONCLUSIONS AND OUTLOOK
opinion related to the statement “I would consider using a
PLE useful for my work” where 68% of the participants This paper has described a test-bed of cloud-based
registered an agreement to this premise. Other strong services within a PLE. The widgets integrated in this PLE
opinions were also voiced in respect of the statements consisted of two cloud-based services, a social networking
“Using a PLE would improve my motivation for learning” and a mind-mapping tool, where learners can perform and
where some 42% agreed and “Using a PLE would enable me collaborate on learning activities. A complete cloud-based
to learn in an independent manner” invited a 42% agreement education environment was enabled, both at the
to be recorded, with an additional 10% expressing strong infrastructure and at the application level.
agreement to the statement. The experiences of the authors in setting up this test-bed
A negative opinion towards PLEs, however, was have shown that the technologies provided by the ROLE
recorded in the statement “I think the system was easy to project enable the development a truly cloud-based PLE.
use”, where 42% of the participants expressed disagreement Initial results from evaluating this PLE with students from
and 21% strong disagreement. This would suggest that many three different Latin-American countries have shown that
of the participants recognised that using a PLE required this is generally perceived as a useful learning platform.
some effort initially along with a discerning thought process However, given the novelty of this approach, the need to
but such effort would offer individuals greater benefits in the provide guidance and scaffolding to new users was clearly
long run. The remaining statements in this question invited a outlined.
more evenly spread set of responses. VI. REFERENCES
With relation to the perceived usefulness and ease of use
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of PLEs from the teacher’s perspective, the responses were learning: a shift to knowledge networking and social software,”
much more varied. Some 42% of the participants disagreed International Journal of Knowledge and Learning, vol. 3, pp. 404-
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responses that the participants would expect their students to
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[10] http://www.mindmeister.com/es/developers/embed [15] Venkatesh, V. and Davis, F. D. A theoretical extension of the
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