OFFICE OF LEARNING TECHNOLOGIES2009 PROJECTS REPORTOffice of the Vice President for TechnologyUniversitat Oberta de Catalunya

learningtechnologies.uoc.edu

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UNIVERSITAT OBERTA DE CATALUNYA (UOC)

Office of Learning Technologies · learningtechnologies.uoc.edu0UNIVERSITAT OBERTA DE CATALUNYA

•Headquarters in Barcelona, Spain•Fully online university (BAs, MAs, PhD)

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•Founded 15 years ago as an online university•47.000 students, 500 f-t faculty, 2000 p-t faculty•Faculty as Mentors•Students as Teachers

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MISSION OF THE OFFICE OF LEARNING TECHNOLOGIES (OLT)

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“The OLT’s mission is to fulfill the needs to design, develop and deliver an open and high quality UOC virtual environment which enables fruitful and engaging student centered learning experiences.”

LLorenç Valverde, Vice-rector for Technology, UOC

Magí Almirall, Director of the Office of Learning

Technologies

OLT RESPONSABILITIES2.1 UOC online learning environment improvement and maintenance

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2.2Exploratory Initiatives

2.3Dissemination Actions

2.4Projects

OLT METHODOLOGIES

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RECOGNITION

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“CENTER OF EXCELLENCE” FROM THE NEW MEDIA CONSORTIUM (NMC) 2009

“BEST LEARNING PORTAL 2009” BY THE IMS GLOBAL LEARNING CONSORTIUM

TEAM

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PROJECTS REPORT

3D SIMULATORAdding this tool to a virtual classroom automatically creates a 3D world, where users can record a video of their interaction in the 3D world. In the 3D Simulator project, users connect to the 3D world using the SecondLife client, but the server is not SecondLifebut OpenSim. Francesc Santanach, fsantanach@uoc.edu

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E-Learning tools

APERTIUMAn Open Source Translation Platform adapted to the UOC.Lluís Villarejo, lvillarejo@uoc.edu

CONTENT SEARCH ENGINEA content search engine that indexes all the components gathered in UOC virtual classrooms. In addition, this project entails an evaluation in terms of usefulness, functionality and usability.Josep Rivera, jrivera@uoc.edu

CRISIS COMMITTEA simulator tool that monitors decision making and shows the global consequences derived from individual decisions.Jordi Casamajó, jcasamajo@uoc.edu

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E-Learning tools

E-TRANSFOLIAssessment tool based on competencies. It serves as a student virtual space where the state of the student learning process is reflected in terms of achieved competences and personal CVs. Muriel Garreta, murielgd@uoc.edu

FACEBUOCA 5 week course through Facebook, evaluating the educational possibilities of open social learning platforms in the e-learning field. ResultsEva Gil, egilrod@uoc.edu

LANGBLOGA tool for practicing orals skills of foreign languages, with posts and replies on audio and video. DemoFrancesc Santanach, fsantanach@uoc.edu

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E-Learning tools

LEARNING TOOLS FOLLOW-UPThis tool provides tutors with an integrated environment to receive the students’activities, grade them and provide individual and group feedback. Web, Demo virtual classroomsMuriel Garreta, murielgd@uoc.edu

MY WAYDevelopment and use of software that automatically generates different format files (pdf, html, Epub, Mobipocket, Daisy - audiobook - and karaoke - videobook -) for each of the materials available in a SVN repository. Demo videobookJosep Rivera, jrivera@uoc.edu

The RAC tool provides tutors with an integrated environment to receive the students’ activities, grade them and provide individual and group feedback. Demo

Muriel Garreta, murielgd@uoc.edu

OPENCAST MATTERHORN PROJECTS

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E-Learning tools

RAC (Continuous Assessment Evaluation Tool)

RUN TIME SCORMThe RunTime SCORM is a tracking tool for SCORM materials at the UOC, integrated into to the existing infrastructure of the UOC.Francesc Santanach, fsantanach@uoc.edu

Open source project working within the Opencast Community to develop an end-to-end, open source platform that supports the scheduling, capture, managing, encoding and delivery of educational audio and video content. WebJosep Rivera, jrivera@uoc.edu

TANDEMTool that aims to develop technological and pedagogical mechanisms that allow students to interact online with native speakers of foreign languages in order to practice their oral communication skills.Jordi Casamajó, jcasamajo@uoc.edu

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E-Learning tools

TALAIAAn observatory devoted to the standardization of Catalan terminology. Web

Josep Rivera, jrivera@uoc.edu

UOC VIDEO PLAYERPlatform to manage the needs to broadcast educational contents in video format. Pilot

Josep Rivera, jrivera@uoc.edu

UOC VIRTUAL NOTEBOOKSApplication that aims to adapt the format of traditional exercise notebooks into electronic ones.Muriel Garreta, murielgd@uoc.edu

VIDEOBlog for FDPTool for submitting Final Degree Projects (FDP) that allows uploading and visualizing video registrations directly from a web application using Flash.Francesc Santanach, fsantanach@uoc.edu

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E-Learning tools

WIKISpaces MANAGERThis tool consists of incorporating the online wiki application WikiSpaces (www.wikispaces.com) into the UOC Virtual Classrooms. DemoMuriel Garreta, murielgd@uoc.edu

WIRISA handy online scientific calculator service.Demo

Jordi Casamajó, jcasamajo@uoc.edu

CAMPUS PROJECT STABLE VERSIONThe Campus Project Stable Version develops software components that contribute to the better interoperability between the UOC online learning environment and e-learning tools from different Learning Management System (LMS) such as Moodle or sakai. Web, VideoFrancesc Santanach, fsantanach@uoc.edu

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Interoperable Open Source Projects

FLUID ENGAGEInternational project that creates a service layer that provides a mesh for existing applications available to museums and cultural institutions. Web

Eva de Lera, edelera@uoc.edu

FREE TECHNOLOGY ACADEMY (FTA)An European educational initiative which aims to create an advanced virtual campus that offers online courses on free software by using open educational. Webresources.Josep Rivera, jrivera@uoc.edu

MOODLE CLASSROOMSThis tool integrates Moodle classrooms into the UOC online learning environment.Francesc Santanach, fsantanach@uoc.edu

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Interoperable Open Source Projects

SUMAThis project develops a set of services for the better interoperability between the LMS and e-learning tools. It contains a set of OKI service implementations and a portfolio of tools for e-learning. This project also explores the possibilities and feasibility of systems based on interoperability in the enterprise. WebEvaristo de Frutos, edefrutos@uoc.edu

E-Book USABILITY PILOTSTesting of the usability of eBooks contextualized for postgraduate courses.Eva Gil, egilrod@uoc.edu

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Portability-Based Projects

edit@edit@ consists of automatically transforming digital contents into innovative formats like audio, daisy, e-book and mobile device formats. WebEva Gil, egilrod@uoc.edu

E-PAPERThe e-Paper project entails to jointly develop with Orange a student-oriented prototypeof an e-book suitable for studying in virtual universities. Magí Almirall, malmirall@uoc.edu

MY WAYGo to Page 9

EDUWAIEduWai entails the development of learning environments accessible for disabledpeople. The role of the OLT in EDUWAI is to collect requirements from users withdisabilities while they interact with virtual environments. Web, Video about OLT Lab of AccessibilityEva Gil, egilrod@uoc.edu

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Disabled-Access Projects

FLUID ENGAGEGo to Page 12

MY WAYGo to Page 9

ENJOY GUIDELINESSet of guidelines to promote the design of virtual learning environments that are more satisfying, rewarding, motivating and exciting. WebEva de Lera, edelera@uoc.edu

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Affective Computing

TEN EMOTIONS HEURISTICSThe Ten Emotion Heuristics entails the creation of a guide to easily and effectively evaluate the emotional state of users from their facial and bodily reactions during their interaction with online applications and interfaces. WebEva de Lera, edelera@uoc.edu

MYUOC HOMEPAGEThe homepage of the new UOC online learning environment, named MyUOC, was designed to enhance personalization and flexibility. Based on iGoogle’s standards, it acts as a widget container. Ultimately, the goal of this project is to enhance the degree of personalization of MyUOC homepage. DemoXavi Aracil, xaracil@uoc.edu; Eva Gil, egilrod@uoc.edu

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E-Learning Personalization

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