1. Online Presence for Learning – project background Jelena Jovanovic, jeljov@gmail.comjeljov@gmail.com

2. Online Presence

3. Online Presence : temporary description of a user’s presence in the online world an image that a person projects about him/herself into the online world

4. Online Presence on the Social Web

5.  Status Message  Online Status (Busy, Available, Away, …)  Image (avatar)  Current location  Current Music, Activities  …

6. Online Presence on the Social Web  Sources:  IM platforms,  Online Social Networks (e.g., Facebook, LinkedIn),  Microblogging services (e.g.,Twitter),  Online (location-aware) games (e.g., Foursquare, Gowalla),  Social Web sites (e.g., Digg, Technorati, Flickr, etc.),  Online communities (e.g., Web Forums),  e-Learning environments (e.g., Elgg, Moodle)

7. Social Web: the Web of Walled Gardens Source: http://www.economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10880936http://www.economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10880936

8. Social Web: the Challenges  interoperability  integration  interaction i3i3

9. Interoperability gTalkgTalk Facebook

10. Integration status messages online statuses location activities (context) an overall image of presence

11. Interaction Adapting interaction to the state of presence E-mail Call Chat notifications blocked

12. Online Presence Ontology http://online-presence.net/opo/spec/ http://online-presence.net/opo/spec/

13. Online Presence Ontology More information at: http://online-presence.net/http://online-presence.net/

14. OPO Server - OPOS Application 1 (e.g., gTalk) Application 2 (e.g., Twitter) Application 3 (e.g., FB) OPOS  interoperability  integration  interaction i3i3

15. OPO Server - OPOS OPOS

16. OPOS demo

17. The notion of presence in online learning

18.  Extensively studied topic  Different kinds of presence were explored  e.g., the Community of Inquiry framework recognizes  cognitive presence,  social presence and  teaching presence  The primary focus, in general, is on social presence

19. Social Presence in Traditional Learning Environments  F2F contact and communication  informal (verbal) communication  nonverbal cues  physical proximity,  body language,  facial expressions,  gestures,  dress,  …

20. Social Presence in Online Learning Environments “… the point of frequent messages is not information sharing; it is emotional connecting. They are ways of saying to one another, “I am here”, “you are there” …” “The real power of IM isn’t the message (though that is a key attribute) but it’s the presence detection.” Emotional Design, Don Norman 2004

21. Social Presence in Online Learning Environments  Online presence offers 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,  …

22. Social Presence in Online Learning Environments  Previous studies have proven the educational benefits of social presence  improves instructional effectiveness  helps in building of a group’s online sixth sense  significantly improves group cohesion  promotes collaborative learning  helps initiate in-depth discussions  increases overall learner satisfaction with the course, the instructor and the perceived learning ……

23. Social Presence in Online Learning Environments  Previous studies  considered exclusively the presence established through forums and IM tools of online learning environments  did not explore the students’ use of diverse Web tools and services as means for establishing presence in the online world this is what we are going to do

24. Semantic Web Technologies for Context-awareness in PLEs

25. Current Online Learning Practices  ‘Fragmented’ approach  Individual use of software systems/tools/services  Lack of means for exchanging data about students activities among different system/tools/services  The major drawback: poor support for personalized context-aware learning

26. Desired Online Learning Practices  Personal Learning Environment (PLE) a self‐defined collection of services, tools, and devices that helps a learner build his/her Personal Knowledge Network encompassing different kinds of learning resources Source: http://blog.mojoemedia.com/?p=47http://blog.mojoemedia.com/?p=47

27. Desired Online Learning Practices  Learning at the pace and in a place that fits one the best  Support for collaborative learning  Recommendation of peers to collaborate with  Recommendation of communities of practice  Proper routing of help seeking requests  Recommendation of relevant learning content  content from online repositories of educational resources  messages exchanged in online communication channels  bookmarked and shared educational resources  Feedback provision

28. The Suggested Approach Development of a context-aware PLE by integrating learning context data from different learning systems/tools/service, using a flexible ontology-based model.

29. Learning Context  A specific learning situation characterized by:  the learning activity that was performed or the learning- related even that occurred,  the content that was used and/or produced,  the individual(s) involved (e.g., learners, teachers, experts),  the (online) environment where it took place, and  the time when it took place

30. Learning Context Ontologies  A network of ontologies that formalizes the notion of learning context  Initially developed as the LOCO framework  Learning Object Context Ontologies  Recently extended and refined within the IntelLEO EU FP7 project (http://intelleo.eu)http://intelleo.eu

31. Learning Context Ontologies  Integration of data and content from diverse sources

32. Learning Context Ontologies  Identification of (implicitly present) social relations

33. DEPTHS: a context-aware PLE

34. DEPTHS: DEsign Patterns Teaching Help System  The Goal  Improve the process of collaborative teaching/learning design patterns (DPs) with context-aware learning services  The Approach  Make use of semantic technologies to integrate learning context data across learning apps and offer advanced educational services that support collaborative learning

35. DEPTHS: DEsign Patterns Teaching Help System  Integrates data and resources from diverse learning apps that students interact with  the LOCO ontological framework  Provides context-aware recommendation of:  DP resources from online repositories  learning artifacts produced and shared by peers  software projects, discussion threads, chats, …  other students, experts and/or teachers  to offer help in the given situation

36. An example learning scenario with DEPTHS: problem-based, collaborative learning

37. DEPTHS: Architecture and Implementation OATS - Open Annotation and Tagging System Loco- Analyst D2RQ Sesame Java API

38. Online demo: http://zoranjeremic.org/depths/ http://zoranjeremic.org/depths/

39. Going further with OP4L: Online Presence in Context-aware PLEs

40. Online Presence in Context-aware PLEs  Better adaptation of student’s interactions with his/her social environment (i.e., other students and teachers)  Higher quality recommendations  e.g., not recommending collaboration with a peer who is currently busy and does not want to be disturbed  Location-awareness  e.g., recommending peers who are nearby and could be contacted for an ad-hoc F2F meeting

41. Scenario 1: Who is Online? …But, they don’t seem to be online! OP4L Service Ask Stan or Kyle for help? Who is online? Stan and Kyle are Available !

42. Scenario 2: Who to Contact? The observer pattern… Who to ask for help? Request for Peer Recommendation Work overload! Available only 4 friends! Available ! OP4L Service Butters could help Eric needs help

43. OP4L Service Scenario 3: How to Contact? The observer pattern… Ask Kyle for help? E-mail Call Chat Request for Kyle’s assistance Work overload! Don’t disturb! Check Kyle’s online presence Choose the best communication mode Send help request to Kyle

44. Who is nearby to help with bridge pattern? OP4L Service Scenario 4: Who is Nearby? The bridge pattern… If only someone would be nearby to help with this… Enjoying my favorite coffee at Starbucks! Notification of presence (geo-location included) Notification of peer’s presence

45. The Suggested Approach To formally represent relevant data about students’  online presence,  mutual interactions,  interactions with learning resources Learning Context Ontologies + Online Presence Ontology

46. The Suggested Approach  Extend the DEPTHS’ recommendation algorithms to account for learners’:  online presence  overall social graph  physical location

47. Thank you for your presence ! Questions?