Collaborative Courseware Authoring Support

1. Databases & Hypermedia Group, Department of Informatics Collaborative Courseware Authoring Support Darina Dicheva, Lora Aroyo & Alexandra Cristea CATE’02: May 20-22, 2002

2. Keywords • Ontology • Collaboration • Cooperation • Adaptivity • Adaptability • Web-based courseware • ODL C2 A2

3. Index • Background, Motivation and Ideas • AIMS • Layered Ontology-based Support to Courseware Authoring • Authoring tasks • Authoring Interaction & C2 support • Conclusion + Future research

4. Index • Background, Motivation and Ideas • AIMS • Layered Ontology-based Support to Courseware Authoring • Authoring tasks • Authoring Interaction & C2 support • Conclusion + Future research

5. Paradigm shift in Web learning courseware average student 1 author production different students courseware many authors production  C2 , custom design

6. Authoring requirements • Efficient organization • Building material from start to make C2 easy • Implementation/ facilitation of C2 tools • Domain, course, library authoring • Custom-design: • Student cognitive styles, motivation, background, etc.

7. Authoring goals • (semi)-automatic authoring activities support for A2 & C2 • other (intelligent) author assistance: • hints, recommendations, guidance, etc.

8. Key Ideas author support for concept-based Web courseware: • use system’s domain concept map(ontology)to capture semantics of subject domain terminology • additional ontology-based layers to courseware authoring architecture: allow intelligent assistance • support cooperative authoring • synchronous re-usage of authoring products: course materials, libraries, ontologies, etc.

9. Index • Background, Motivation and Ideas • AIMS • Layered Ontology-based Support to Courseware Authoring • Authoring tasks • Authoring Interaction & C2 support • Conclusion + Future research

10. AIMS domain, library & course models • domain M = subject-domain Ontology = CM of DC • DC are linked to documents; •  link has weight = document relevancy to DC • library M = info items collection + links to courses, domains • course materials & domain-related documents • course M = course structure (topics & tasks: in task library) •  course task = collection of DC, that student must learn

11. AIMS indexing • domain concepts (DC) = main linking component •  library doc : linked to 1, more DC •  course task : linked to several DC • user profile = overlay DC

12. AIMS authoring modules = Agent based Information Management System = Authoring concept-based Web courseware for: • Domain Editor, • Library Editor, • Course Editor

13. Index • Background, Motivation and Ideas • AIMS • Layered Ontology-based Support to Courseware Authoring • Authoring tasks • Authoring Interaction & C2 support • Conclusion + Future research

14. Layered Ontology-based Support to Courseware Authoring • Y-axis: main info objects • library objects, domains, courses • X-axis: system’s authoring support • GUI, Assisting -, Operation -, Information layer

15. Y X

16. 2 old layers Y X

17. X-axis: 2 old layers • GUI layer supports user-system communication • Info layer= layered info objects description + structure in coursewaresystem • educational metadata • subject domain ontology • course ontology

18. 2 new layers Y X

19. X-axis: 2 new layers • Assisting layer: • based on domain ontological map • courseware authoring help & hints e.g.: • editing course/domain structure, etc. • linking documents/course items to ontology, etc. • Operation layer: • for ontology data modelling (info layer operation) • helps create alternative goal-oriented course structures • handles fct.for info manipulation, consistency &C2 • 3 modules: course -, domain -,library engine • consistency check and co-operation support

20. Index • Background, Motivation and Ideas • AIMS • Layered Ontology-based Support to Courseware Authoring • Authoring tasks • Authoring Interaction & C2 support • Conclusion + Future research

21. Atomic operation Range ‘Add’ {To, Ta, Co, Li, Doc}, To {course topics}, Ta  {course tasks}, Co  {domain concepts}, Li  {domain links}, Doc  {library documents}. ‘Del’ as above ‘Edit’ as above ‘U’ {CM, CS, EML}, CM=Concept Map, CS=Course structure, EML=Educational Metadata Library. ‘L’ {DirLC, RelC, RelCo, RelTa, RelDoc}, DirLC = Directly linked concepts, Rel =Related courses, RelCo=Related concepts, RelTa= Related tasks, RelDoc= Related documents. ‘V’ {Graph, Text}, ‘Graph’ gives a graphical view over the results and ‘Text’ gives a textual list of the results. ‘Chk’ {Ta, To, Co, Li, Doc, RelCo ,RelTa ,RelDoc ,DirLC}

23. Index • Background, Motivation and Ideas • AIMS • Layered Ontology-based Support to Courseware Authoring • Authoring tasks • Authoring Interaction & C2 support • Conclusion + Future research

24. Primitive interaction activities among participants •    Planning/Execution/Creation •    Coordination/Control •    Initiative/Supervision •    Observation/Suggesting •    Data/Idea sharing •    Dialogue (with Interaction)

25. Required Resources • Individual (personal) workplace • Collaborative (shared) workplace / object space • Dialogue channel (implicit / explicit) • Technologically mediated remote communication (audio, visual) – optional

27. Index • Background, Motivation and Ideas • AIMS • Layered Ontology-based Support to Courseware Authoring • Authoring tasks • Authoring Interaction & C2 support • Conclusion + Future research

28. Conclusion • refined knowledge classif. + indexing (AIMS) • introduced ontology-oriented support for C2 courseware authoring • basis of formal semantics + reasoning in generic authoring tasks • concept-based structuring • 2 new layers: assisting + operation • opens way for C2 authoring

29. Future research • pure collaborative authoring environments: merge between re-usage based cooperative environments & collaborative work • as in previous researches on collaborative learning environments

30. Thank you for listening!

31. consistency modules • handling notions of semantic equivalence and conflict, • handling conflict resolution rules, • handling equivalence comparison rules, • enhancing the resulting ontology and defining additional constraints if necessary.

32. co-operation support modules • offer a set of operations for consistency check in alternative (simultaneous) course structure built by different authors • predefined functions (patterns & templates) to facilitate effective reusability of course structures built by different authors.

33. Reusability: merging ontologies • extract ontology portions to be merged with another, • Identifyframes to be extracted from source ontology, • determine if extracted info has semantic overlaps / conflicts with target ontology, • assistin merging ontologies, record sources of inserted sub-ontologies for later reference & update, • select patterns, templates in educational ontology, to present them as predefined objects for other authors.

34. Ex.: semantic overlaps and conflicts • semantically equiv. concepts w. different names, • semantically different concepts with same name, • semantically equivalent concepts w. same name but different definitions, • semantically equivalent concepts linked to different (conflicting) concepts, etc.

35. Task Course Assistant Course Engine Result Add (To, CS) §suggest options for the author: §add or delete courseengine results §give alternative presentation: -V (Text, RelC, Relevance %) -V (Graph, Course Trees, Matched Concepts) –highlighted -V (Graph, Domain Ontology, Matched concepts) – ‘you are here’ §notify other authors of adding To to CS §perform a keyword search on To expression within: - DO (domain &) - CO (course ontology) §store results for reuse §U (To) §U (CS) §L (RelC, keyword percentage) §L (RelCo, depth within DO) Add (Ta ,To) §if a new connection to the domain concept is discovered, options are: -Del (connection) -Add (Co, To) -Add (Co, Ta) -V (RelTa) -Copy (RelTa) §notify other authors of adding Ta to To §Chk (Ta, ) = true §Chk (To, Co, compatibility) = true §deduce assistant activity §Chk (RelTa, other courses) = true §U (To) U (CS) §L (RelTa, other courses) – ordered by their weight-related relevance §L (RelTa, same course) § Course Engine supported Tasks:

36. Task Course Assistant Course Engine Result § Add (Co ,Ta) §if Chk (Co, Ta, ) = true: -Notify the user -Change the weight of the Co §if Chk (Co, Ta, ) = false V (Co, Ta) §notify other authors of adding Co toTa §Chk (Co, Ta, ) = true §U (Ta, Co) §U (To) §U (CS) §L (Ta,  Co) §L (Ta, other courses) §L (RelCo) §L (all Co, Ta) Add (Co ,To) §if Chk (Co, To, ) = true §notify the user §if Chk (Co, To, ) = false §V (Co, To) §notify other authors of adding Co to To §Chk (Co, To, ) = true §U (To, Co) §U (CS) §L (To,  Co) §L (To, other courses) §L (RelCo) §L (all Co, To) §L (Ta,  Co) §L (Ta, other courses) E (Co Ta) §V (options to choose): -change (Co, weight) -Del (Co, Ta) -Del (Co, RelTo) §Notify other authors of editing Ta in Co §U (Co W) §U (Co) §U (Co Ta) within different system modules L (Co Ta) Del (Co ,To) §if Chk (Co, Ta, ) = true §notify the user §V (options to choose): -… §Chk (Co, Ta, ) = true §Chk (Co, To, ) = true §U (To) within different modules … L (RelCo, To) - updated Course Engine supported Tasks (cont):

37. Task Domain Assistant Domain Engine Result Add (C, CM) §suggest options for the author: - add or delete domainengine results §give alternative presentation: -V (Text, RelC, Relevance %) -V (Graph, Domain Ontology, Matched concepts) – ‘you are here’ §notify other authors of adding C to CM §Chk (C, CM, ) = true §perform keyword search on C within DO (domain ontology) §U (CM, C)+notify §L (synonyms, C, CM) §L (DirRelC, C, CM) §L (NonDirLinks, C, CM) Add (L, C1, C2, CM) §suggest options for the author: - add or delete domainengine results §notify if a concept missing from CM §notify if link, offer editing option §notify about indirect path between C1, C2give altern. Present. of DE results: -V (Text, RelC, Relevance %) -V (Graph, Domain Ontology, Highlighted paths) §notify other authors of adding L to CM §Chk (C1, CM, ) = true, §Chk (C2 CM, ) = true §Chk (L, CM, ) = true §Chk (C1-x-C2, CM, ) = true (indirectly linked with path ‘x’) §U (CM, L)+ notify §L (x, C1-C2, CM) § § § · Domain Engine supported Tasks:

38. § Del (L, C1, C2, CM) §give alternative presentation of all NonDirLinks: -V (Text, L, Relevance %) -V (Graph, Domain Ontology, Highlighted paths) ·Give user the option to either graphically or textually cut all segments or sub-sets of them ·Notify other authors of removing L from CM §Chk (C1-x-C2,  for L in CM) = true §Del (L) and U (CM) §L (x, C1-C2, CM) Del (C, CM) ·Notify the author if C has DirLinks ·Give alternative views with the option to delete them or cancel the delete action: -V (Text, DirLinks, Relevance %) -V (Graph, Domain Ontology, Highlighted paths) ·notify other authors of removing the C from CM §Chk (L,  for C in CM) = true §Del (C, CM) and U (CM) §L (DirRelC, C, CM) §L (DirLinks, C, CM) Domain Engine supported Tasks (cont):

40. Library Engine supported Tasks: • some common authoring tasks trigger interaction oflibrary assistant&- engine, e.g.: • ‘create/edit-existing-library’, • ‘add/delete-document’, • ‘link/unlink-document-to-domain concepts’, • ‘add/delete-keywords-to-document’, • ‘edit-weights-of-keywords’, • ‘link/unlink-document-to-course topic’ , • ‘link/unlink-document-to-course-task’.

41. Conclusion 2 • introduced layered approach for Web-based courseware authoring, transformed into collaborative ontology engineering process. • integrated our research into main courseware authoring research, stressed the need for C2 for Web authors, • based analysis on AIMS system • cooperation implies dividing course contents into re-usable parts. In AIMS : concepts, tasks and topics.

42. Conclusion 3 • shown AIMS authoring tools : allows cooperation but need improving • proposed additional semantic layer for intelligent authoring assistance • detailed various support types to provide for various authoring types possible in ontology-based courseware authoring environment • Focus: re-usage & cooperative info sharing + steps towards collaborative authoring