Modeling and Monitoring Online Conversations Data with SCORM

1. Modeling and Monitoring Online Conversations Data with SCORM Supervisor: Dr. Stephen Chan Student: Yim Wai Hin Student Number: 05763655G

2. Agenda Introduction Background Research Execution Case studies Conclusion

3. Introduction Objective 文字 • Evaluation if using SCORM to monitor forum activities • Develop a HTML to SCORM converter • Develop a method to monitor online communication with different structures 文字

4. Introduction Motivation • Online module tutor is hard to gather feedback • Student taking online course is hard to get support • We need to find a way to bridge the gap between tutor and student 文字 文字

5. Introduction Difficulty • Forum or chat contains valuable resources • However, tutors have to consume lot of time to read those messages • They need a report to get high level information 文字 文字

6. Introduction Solution proposed • Convert the forum or chat to SCORM • Inject useful information to SCORM metadata • Use reporting features to promote existing learning management system to generate reports • Evaluate the benefit of the approach 文字 文字

7. Background Why we need Elearning Standard • We need to port the online module across different platforms • We need to reuse learning content across different online modules • We need to obtain learning objective / sequence of learning from online modules from different vendors 文字 文字

8. SCORM Background • Proposed by US Department of Defense at 1997 • Consist of 3 main components: • Content Aggregation Model — describes packaging of content and Learning Object • Run-Time Environment — describes runtime API and data model used for communication between content objects and learning management systems • Sequencing and Navigation — describes how sequencing between learning activities is defined and interpreted 文字 文字

9. Background SCORM • Strict defined • Consist of a conformance test suite. • Wide support in Elearning industry • Basically support all learning management system • We only focus on the Content Aggregation Model 文字 文字

10. Background Content Aggregation Model • XML provides the metadata of the online module • Context-independent • Usually refer to immutable metadata for digital assets, content objects • Context-dependent • Authors, Size, Keywords … etc • Extendable 文字 文字

11. Background Resources • Existing converters: 1, 2, 3 • Researches: • Extending existing e-learning platforms to support automatic conversion of learning content to SCORM • Discussion Board: A Learning Object • Clicker Sets as Learning Objects – Clicker is one of the student response systems 文字 文字

12. Background Learning Management System • The backend system of online course • Provides following functions: • User ( role and group ) management • Scheduling • Enrollment • Learning record management • Course management • Course launching • Assessment management: quiz, test, exams • Reporting and administration 文字 文字

13. Background - Technology DOCBOOK • Markup language for general document • Presentation nature, focus on logical structure • Allow output to different formats • As a bridge between forums / chat data and SCORM 文字 文字

14. Background - Technology Mozilla XULRunner • Core Engines of Firefox browser • HTML parsing • DOM management • CSS rendering • Javascript interpreter and runner • Misc browsing tools like link downloader • We use the HTML parsing and DOM management 文字 文字

15. Background - Technology Eclipse SWT • IBM version of AWT+Swing • More native components • Swing using Java to draw those components • Interface closer to native application • Can drag and drop to other window applications • Different API design approach • Likely better than AWT + Swing, because it learns from it and the team is led by Erich Gamma • We use this library for our GUI development 文字 文字

16. Research Execution Initial Design • A web application consists of a form • Easier for user to access • The work flow: 文字

17. Research Execution Functional detail • Stateless web application • Press auth. Information using HttpClient • Get the result package from server or provide a download link • May be deployed to LMS directly 文字 文字

18. Research Execution • The design:

19. Research Execution Issues • Difficult to handle authentication • Difficult to support SSL • Problem of handling some HTML like iframes • Using HttpClient to login is usually considered an attack and resulted in IP blocking 文字 文字

20. Research Execution Solutions • Develop a GUI converter • Handle authentication and SSL by XULRunner • DOM engine of XULRunner can handle most HTMLs • XULRunner is same as Firefox so won’t be considered an attack 文字 文字

21. Research Execution • New design:

22. Demo of the converter

23. Case Studies • Convert few forums as SCORM package • Analyze the content • Evaluate the possibility of getting useful information from the data • Evaluate the level of convenience of retrieving those information from SCORM

24. Case Studies Forums selection • We use the following forums: • http://www.discuss.com.hk • http://www.uwant.com • http://www.uforum.com • http://www.failforum.net • http://digitcafe.hkwebs.net • http://eyny.com • http://www.sina.com.hk • Focus on general discussion among university students 文字 文字

25. Case Studies 1: Pareto’s Principle – 80/20 rule • To find out if 80% of posts contributed by 20% of posters • To find out the forums are dominated by minority of users • We can get username by the links with word viewpro.php 文字 文字

26. Case Studies Without convert to SCORM • Need to design the Database schema to store the data • Need to figure out how to import the data to database • Need to write report system / config the report engine to output the report 文字 文字

27. Case Studies How SCORM helping us • Manage the metadata with XML which supports further reuse: 文字 文字

28. Case Studies How SCORM helping us • Directly generate report from LMS 文字 文字

29. Case Studies The result 文字 • Only one forum compilance with the Pareto’s Principle - 80% of posts posted by 20% of posters 文字

30. Case Studies Other case studies • We have run 2 more case studies to study the depth of the discussion • We measure the no. of replies and the length of discussion • Comparing discussion from HKU student with PolyU student in different forums • We find that the results are similar, but we don’t go into details here. 文字 文字

31. Case Studies SCORM metadata for no. of replies • The relation of content item and content organization: 文字 文字

32. Case Studies SCORM metadata for content size • There is a XML tag: 文字 文字

33. Conclusion • According to the paper “Content Analysis of Online Discussion in an Applied Educational Psychology”, research of forum communication is time consuming • SCORM is able to save time to get a high level report from the forum • We can extend SCORM metadata according to our custom requirement • Possibly, there is LMS report supporting SCORM metadata extension.

34. Evaluation and Future work • Study the reuse ofthe discussion content as online module • Study the suitability of existing content to the package • Study the flow of converting content to the SCORM • Study the archiving aspect of the SCORM package.

35. Q & A