D 1.3 The role of online presence in online learning environments Technical faculty Čačak Mirjana Brković

Skopje, May 30, 2011 Introduction  User’s presence in the online world  Learners can get insights into their classmates’ activities, emotional state, likes...  Social interactions can engage learners’ active involvement in the learning process and construction of knowledge  Data is highly relevant for improving social and collaborative aspects of online learning environments  Complement learner models with online status  Better personalization and higher-quality recommendation  Enable students post on global social networking sites from learning environments

Skopje, May 30, 2011 Online presence status messages online statuses location activities (context) an overall image of presence

Skopje, May 30, 2011 Online presence  Social networks, blogging and microblogging –an overall image of user presence in the online or even a real world Status Message Online Status (Busy, Available, Away, …) Image (avatar) Current location Current activities...  Exchange of presence information enhances emotional bonding and community building  Complement learner models with online status  Better personalization and higher-quality recommendation  Enable students’ post on global social networking sites from learning environments

Skopje, May 30, 2011 Applications  Twitter –a public stream of short messages, updated in real-time –published to inform people who are observing the stream  Instant Messaging Systems –the exchange of availability statuses, –also has the emotional and practical implications  Facebook –online/offline status, –activity status “...real power of IM isn’t the message but it’s the presence detection”

Skopje, May 30, 2011 Kinds of online presence  Community of inquiry –cognitive presence, construct meaning through sustained communication –social presence project personal characteristics into the community –teaching presence design educational experience and facilitate learning process  Online presence –online status (activity, disturbability, visibility and contactability) –notifiability - willingness to be notified by an application –findability - access a person’s contact details and online presence data.

Skopje, May 30, 2011 Online Presence in Online Learning Environments  Semantic descriptions of users’ presence information and their personal characteristic + group description  Status messages offer cues about: –who is currently present in the learning environment, –what are other students currently doing, –who is available for communication, –who is occupied and should not be distracted, –how other students feel, –what is currently interesting to them, –what do they like or dislike, and so on.

Skopje, May 30, 2011 Online Presence in Online Learning Environments  E-learning environments that provide online presence and status messages should support users in addressing their status messages to people based on: –their social graph (their relationships with other students, teachers) –their affiliation with a certain institution, as well as with people who are members of a certain online community (e.g., an online forum) –their interests and competences (including languages spoken and knowledge about locations visited) –the intensity of relationship between the status message publisher and the recipients

Skopje, May 30, 2011 Related projects  meNow Schema  XMPP protocol  IETF Simple specification  SMOB