IMCL & ICBL 2017

DIFFERENT PROBLEMS, DIFFERENT SOLUTIONS AND ONE GOAL

(an improvisation from a managerial point of view!)

Ana Pavani Member IEEE

LAMBDA/CCPA Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro Brazil apavani@puc-rio.br https://www.maxwell.vrac.puc-rio.br/

Thessaloniki, Greece

A traditional view of the university

Brick and Mortar Classrooms Halls Libraries Laboratories Auditoria Offices Dorms Cafeteria …

Contents Books Journals Maps Manuals Theses Dissertations Monographs …

Players Students Instructors Researchers TAs Lab technicians Administrative staff …

Goals Create Disseminate Enhance the learning process

A current view of the university – with the same goals!

Players Students Instructors Researchers TAs Lab technicians Administrative staff Content experts Instructional designers Web designers IT support team …

ICCT Supported Infrastructure added to brick & mortar LMS – Learning Management Systems

Classrooms Virtualrooms Remote Labs (an environment for students, instructors

and TAs) Chats Discussion forums Bulletin boards Mailing lists Scheduling Agenda …

Information, Communication and Computational Technologies. Froyd, 2012.

IR – Institutional Repositories (to manage contents)

RL – Remote Labs (the equipment + software)

General purpose numeric solution software products (MATLAB®, Maple®, SciLab®, GeoGebra…)

Specific numeric solution software products (CircuitLab®, LTSpice, Cadence®, LabView®…)

Networks Administrative systems …

Digital contents added to traditional collections eBooks Online journals Hypermedia learning objects Simulator learning objects Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality objects Games Apps Online tests Online maps Online manuals …

A personal view of ICCT suported learning

ICCT supported learning must integrate the different aspects of the

“life at the university” so that students and instructors can

seamlessly migrate among solutions to best suit their needs.

The integration is to be provided by the university with the necessary

technological solution(s) and team.

Hardware, software and peopleware. Kelmanson, 199x

An initial assumption: Learning Environment + Digital Library

This combination is “universal” for all areas of learning – not only to S&T

When students are far from the university, they may want to access text books, references, articles, etc

Contents that are in a library may be used by anyone and not only the students in a class

Contents on a digital library (IR) have only one instance

Courses can point to contents instead of storing them on folders – no replications!

New or revised editions are updated only once

New or revised editions in a library become accessible to all users at the same time

Is this the only solution? Surely not!!

There are different types of solutions to choose from: On-premise LMSs – an institutional installation of

Moodle is an example SaaS LMSs – software as a service to be hired

from a vendor Cloud-hosted LMSs – similar than the SaaS but

with wider services

Each institution must define the best solution according to its profile.

There are many LMS solutions – some examples: Moodle (https://www.moodle.org/) is the most

popular and widely used open source solution Blackboard (http://www.blackboard.com/learning-

management-system/blackboard-learn.html) is a commercial and widely used solution

Canvas (https://www.instructure.com/) is a commercial cloud-based product

There are many IR solutions – some examples: DSpace (https://www.dspace.org/) is the most

popular and widely used open source solution Eprints (http://www.prints.org/) is the oldest and a

very used open source solution Digital Commons

(https://www.bepress.com/products/digital-commons/) is a hosted commercial solution developed at UC Berkeley

Each institution must define the best solution according to its profile.

Can two open source solutions be integrated?

Yes!

Some one must decide to do it

The original solutions will be lost and a new product will have to be supported

Going back to Rio...

The Maxwell System is An Institutional Repository (IR)

A Learning Management System (LMS)

As an IR it manages:

All courseware for the LMS – they are items of a

digital collection and course independent A collection of 4 interactive books A small collection of Research Data (13 data sets)

A collection of scholarly communication with over 16K items (ETDs, monographs, articles, journals, etc)

Registered at the Brazilian Patent Office # 990003015 on Nov 19, 1999.

As an IR it: Is compliant with DCMES (ISO 15836)

Is an OAI-PMH data provider Assigns DOIs to ETDs, monographs, senior

projects, data sets, articles, numbers and journals

As an LMS it: Is compliant with PUC-Rio administrative system Offers three learning environments: Classroom

(to support face-to-face courses), Virtualroom (for b-

and e-learning) and Remote Lab Has the functions of traditional LMSs: activities

scheduling, agenda, chat, discussion forums, mailing list, bulletin board, mini CV, photos, etc

Offers administrative functions to instructors – grades, resources usage, etc

Was integrated with SciLab to offer students online simulations designed and implemented by faculty and interns

Allows online tests to be performed (MathML was

implemented to allow expressions to be used)

Started in 2016!

https://www.maxwell.vrac.puc-rio.br/

All functions did not come at the same time: 1995 – first item of the courseware collection (Z

Transform)

From 1995 to 1999 – enhancement of the functionality

1999 – v.2 – registered at the Brazilian Patent 2000 – the ETD (Electronic Theses and Dissertations)

collection was launched 2001 – PUC-Rio helped found and joined the

Brazilian union catalog of ETDs 2002 – the OAI-PMH Protocol for Metadata

Harvesting was implemented 2003 – PUC-Rio joined NDLTD – the international

union catalog of ETDs

2003 – Revista escrita (journal in literature) started being published

2006 – interactive books started 2009 – v.4 accessible to the blind and visually

impaired was launched 2011 – series publications and Elétrica On-line

started 2011 - first on-line extension courses 2013 – additional series of courseware started

preparing for… 2014 – blended-learning (b-learning) added to

support traditional courses

2015 – integration with SciLab® to offer online simulation from the system

2015 – first data sets made available 2015 – PUC-Rio joined CrossRef and DOIs

started being assigned 2016 – VISIR (a Remote Lab) was integrated

to the system 2016 – a special shortcut was added to

access OER – Open Educational Resources available on the IR (https://www.maxwell.vrac.puc-

rio.br/oer.php)

Where can we find OER?

Some examples of OER in S&T:

AGORA – Ayuda a la Gestión de Objectos Reutilizables de Aprendizage (http://www.agora.uady.mx/)

ARIADNE – Alliance of Remote Instructional Authoring and Distribution Networks for Europe (http://www.ariadne-eu.org/)

BIOE – International Database of

Educational Objects (http://objetoseducacionais2.mec.gov.br/)

Coursera (https://www.coursera.org/)

edX (https://www.edx.org/)

Fondation unit – Université Numérique

Ingénierie et Technologie (http://www.unit.eu/)

NSDL – National Science Digital Library

(https://nsdl.oercommons.org/)

MERLOT – Multimedia Educational

Resources for Learning and Online Teaching (https://www.merlot.org/)

MOOC Técnico de Lisboa (http://mooc.tecnico.ulisboa.pt/)

OpenStax CNX (https://cnx.org/)

sup-numerique.gouv.fr – Le portail du numérique d’ans l’enseignment supérier (http://www.sup-numerique.gouv.fr/)

And Remote Labs?

Some examples of Remote Labs:

GOLDi (http://www.goldi-labs.net/)

LabVad (http://labvad.nce.ufrj.br/labvad2/)

UNILabs – University Network of Interactive Labs (http://unilabs.dia.uned.es/course/view.php?id=24

OpenLabs Electronics Laboratory (http://physicslabfarm.isep.ipp.pt/)

RExLab – Remote Experimental Laboratory (https://rexlab.ufsc.br/news/en/home/)

weblabdeusto

(http://weblab.deusto.es/website/)

Online Experimentation @ FEUP

(https://remotelab.fe.up.pt/)

Problems, where are they?

Faculty teach in different styles – both in the traditional and the b-learning modes – some examples at PUC-Rio

Circuits – one of the instructors uses videos for

his classes addressing the syllabus topics; they are all in Open Access

Circuits – the same instructor uses videos to cover topics that are not in the syllabus but nice for the students to learn; they are all in Open Access

Circuits – the same instructor addresses other topics using hypermedia and simulator objects because he wants interactivity; they are all in Open Access

Signals & Systems – one instructor uses a course guide (a hypermedia object that guides the students

through topics, contents, objects, activities, etc) that is restricted to the students of the course

Signals & Systems – one instructor uses hypermedia and simulator objects; they are all in Open Access

Signals & Systems – one instructor uses online problems assignments with online checking (implemented using MathML)

Signals & Systems – one instructor uses discussion forums (implemented using MathML) along with office hours to support students

Probability & Statistics – all 4 instructors use online tests with online checking

Probability & Statistics – all 4 instructors use the system to manage restricted courseware

Power Electronics – the instructor uses the system to manage restricted courseware

Control Systems Lab – the instructor uses the system to manage restricted courseware

Power Systems – one instructor teaches three courses using videos and accompanying texts for his classes addressing the syllabus topics; they accessible to his students only

General Electricity – the instructor uses the system to manage restricted courseware

General Electricity – the instructor uses hypermedia objects; they are all in Open Access

General Electricity – all 14 classes use VISIR (Remote Lab)

How do we see our mission at PUC-Rio?

The Maxwell team has the mission of serving the university – to fulfill this mission it must: Offer an environment with options for faculty to

choose the best solution for their needs and/or styles

Search and examine solutions that may be useful for learning and teaching, and presenting them to faculty

Implement additional functions that are necessary when they request

Be compliant with international standards Be inserted in the international communities of

ICCT suported learning and of IRs to make sure we are compliant with best practices

Publish scholarly communication (input and output

of higher education at the same time) because this enhances international visibility

Be compliant with PUC-Rio’s administrative systems

What are the challenges?

To have many different functions that allow the styles to be supported from the platform

To support faculty in choosing from available functions

To implement suggestions of faculty and students

To keep up with standards and best practices To keep the system up-to-date To keep the system in good operating conditions To keep the commitment of replying in, at most,

24 h during week days

What are our weaknesses?

Not to have finished the development of a responsive interface so that mobile devices have good accesses (they are bad!)

Not to have finished the interfaces that allow users to find contents in an easier way – I agree it is confusing!! (historical reasons – library type search

and adding specialized content with the proper organization on the interfaces)

Not to have finished the interfaces that allow users to create a “My Maxwell” type environment

Not have developed contents MOOC style (I am

not sure about this!)

What is our strength?

Our commitment to serve and solve problems

THANK YOU!

MUITO OBRIGADA!