JUCS - Journal of Universal Computer Science 19(14): 2054-2074, doi: 10.3217/jucs-019-14-2054
Cloud Services, Interoperability and Analytics within a ROLE-enabled Personal Learning Environment
expand article infoRocael Hernández Rizzardini, Byron H. Linares§, Alexander Mikroyannidis|, Hans-Christian Schmitz
‡ Galileo University, Guatemala, Guatemala§ Galileo University, Guatemala City, Guatemala| The Open University, Milton Keynes, United Kingdom¶ schmitz@ids-mannheim.de, Mannheim, Germany
Open Access
Abstract
The ROLE project (Responsive Open Learning Environments, EU 7th Framework Programme, grant agreement no.: 231396, 2009-2013) was focused on the next generation of Personal Learning Environments (PLEs). A ROLE PLE is a bundle of interoperating widgets - often realised as cloud services - used for teaching and learning. In this paper, we first describe the creation of new ROLE widgets and widget bundles at Galileo University, Guatemala, within a cloud-based infrastructure. We introduce an initial architecture for cloud interoperability services including the means for collecting interaction data as needed for learning analytics. Furthermore, we describe the newly implemented widgets, namely a social networking tool, a mind-mapping tool and an online document editor, as well as the modification of existing widgets. The newly created and modified widgets have been combined in two different bundles that have been evaluated in two web-based courses at Galileo University, with participants from three different Latin-American countries. We measured emotional aspects, motivation, usability and attitudes towards the environment. The results demonstrated the readiness of cloud-based education solutions, and how ROLE can bring together such an environment from a PLE perspective.
Keywords
responsive open learning environments, personal learning environment, widget bundles, cloud-based tools, cloud learning activities, cloud education environments