Teaching and learning programming, and especially Object-Oriented Programming (OOP), is a complicated and challenging task. Students have to comprehend various OOP concepts and utilize them for designing object-oriented programs. Various types of educational programming environments, such as microworlds and educational games, have been devised for…

Adaptive learning is an area of educational technology that consists in delivering personalized learning experiences to address the unique needs of each learner. An important subfield of adaptive learning is learning path personalization: it aims at designing systems that recommend sequences of educational activities to maximize students' learning…

This book presents 28 practical case studies in detail and 49 case studies in brief. The collection of these case studies focuses on one or more aspects of exploration and practice on the following topics: smart campus and smart classroom, resource construction and sharing, new teaching mode, comprehensive quality evaluation of students, teacher…

Large-sized repositories of learning objects (LOs) are difficult to create and also to maintain. In this paper we propose a way to reduce this drawback by improving the classification mechanisms of the LO repositories. Specifically, we present a solution to automate the LO classification of the Universia repository, a collection of more than 15…

Electronic Blocks are a new programming environment designed specifically for children aged between 3 and 8 years. These physical, stackable blocks include sensor blocks, action blocks, and logic blocks. By connecting these blocks, children can program a wide variety of structures that interact with one another and the environment. Electronic…

The use of swarm intelligence techniques in e-learning scenarios provides a way to combine simple interactions of individual students to solve a more complex problem. After getting some data from the interactions of the first students with a central system, the use of these techniques converges to a solution that the rest of the students can…

This paper describes how digital talking books (DTBs) with embedded functionality for learners can be generated from content structured according to the OU OpenLearn schema. It includes examples showing how a software transformation developed from open source components can be used to remix OpenLearn content, and discusses issues concerning the…

This paper introduces Ontoolsearch, a new search system that can be employed by educators in order to find suitable tools for supporting collaborative learning settings. Current tool search facilities commonly allow simple keyword searches, limiting the accuracy of obtained results. In contrast, Ontoolsearch supports semantic querying of tool…

As recently as ten years ago, it may have seemed like science fiction to imagine collaborative spaces on the Internet. Today, collaborative websites have proliferated: (1) blogs; (2) social networking; (3) image sharing; (4) video sharing; (5) open educational resources; and (6) popularity websites. Another type is called a wiki, an online…

The main scientific problems investigated in this article deal with technical evaluation of quality attributes of the main components of e-Learning systems (referred here as DLEs--Digital Libraries of Educational Resources and Services), i.e., Learning Objects (LOs) and Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs). The main research object of the work is…

It is argued elsewhere that online learning environments constitute new conditions for carrying out collaborative learning activities. This article explores the roles of a series of online meetings in such an environment. The online meetings are arranged as part of a net-based course on object-oriented programming, and constitute a recurring…

The challenge of the semantic web is the provision of distributed information with well-defined meaning, understandable for different parties. Particularly, applications should be able to provide individually optimized access to information by taking the individual needs and requirements of the users into account. In this paper we propose a…

The sharable content object reference model (SCORM) includes a representation of distance learning contents and a behavior definition of how users should interact with the contents. Generally, SCORMcompliant systems were based on multimedia and Web technologies on PCs. We further build a pervasive learning environment, which allows users to read…

E-learning leads to evolutions in the way of designing a course. Diffused through the web, the course content cannot be the direct transcription of a face to face course content. A course can be seen as an organization in which different actors are involved. These actors produce documents, information and knowledge that they often share. We…

Within all institutions, Web developers are beginning to utilize technologies that make sites more than static information resources. Databases such as XML (Extensible Markup Language) and XSL (Extensible Stylesheet Language) are key technologies that promise to extend the Web beyond the "information storehouse" paradigm and provide…