Enosha Hettiarachchi

ABSTRACT This paper describes the development of an open source Learning Object Repository (LOR), named eNOSHA (eLearning Neutral Object Storage with a Holistic Approach.), at University of Colombo School of Computing (UCSC), Sri Lanka. The e-Learning Centre (eLC) at UCSC has been developing learning content for a nationwide e-Learning Bachelor of Information Technology degree (eBIT) and a preparatory programme for the eBIT program (The Foundation in Information Technology, FIT). Since eBIT started in 2002, a lot of learning content has been developed in-house and there was a need for a repository to support storing and reusing of learning content. The aim of the paper is to present the development of eNOSHA in regards to three key concepts, flexibility, reusability and user-friendliness. Based on a requirement analysis carried out in December 2008, a plan was drafted for the development and implementation of the system. A participatory approach was used where users have been involved in the design, evaluation and implementation. Based on the testing of the system we gained a positive response regarding the searchability and reuse of content. Tests have, however, shown that additional features are needed to be implemented to improve the usability of the system, Even though the system has been developed based on the needs of UCSC, one of the objectives has always been to make it context independent. Internal tests conclude that the system is flexible enough to work in different contexts but the design may need some minor changes once tested in other organizations or cultures.

During the COVID-19 pandemic period, all the Sri Lankan universities delivered lectures in fully online mode using Virtual Learning Environments. In fully online mode, students cannot track their performance level, their progress in the course, and their performances compared to the rest of the class. This paper presents research work conducted at the University of Colombo School of Computing (UCSC), Sri Lanka, to solve the above problems and facilitate students learning in fully online and blended learning environments using Learning Analytics. The research objective is to design and create a Technology Enhanced Learning Analytics (TELA) dashboard for improving students’ motivation, engagement, and grades. The Design Science research strategy was followed to achieve the objectives of the research. Initially, a literature survey was conducted analyzing features and limitations in current Learning Analytic dashboards. Then, current Learning Analytic plugins for Moodle were studied to...

Universities tend to design, create and evaluate new learning activities to enhance the learning environment for both students and teachers. Furthermore, higher educational institutes are finding solutions to create more personalized learning environments. There is an opportunity to improve the learning environment by applying Learning Analytics to educational data generated by learners interacting with Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) and other digital learning tools. More personalized learning environments can be implemented by applying Learning Analytics on Learning Designs. Students' learning progress can be captured through Learning Dashboards in real-time by applying Learning Analytics during the course run-time. We can improve Blended Learning through the synergy between Learning Analytics and Learning Design. This paper provides an outline of a research project which aims to link Learning Design with Learning Analytics in order to enhance the learning environments and improve both teachers and student satisfaction. The paper provides the proposed framework of a Digital Learning Tool (Intelligent Interactive Visualizer) and sets out the program of research and development. The expected outcomes of the research project also discussed.

Improving the User Experience (UX) of mobile devices is of vital importance due to the advent of emerging technologies and the prevalence of using mobile devices. This research aims to develop a model for a mobile device that can suggest adaptive functionalities, based on the current user emotion and the context by changing the user’s negative emotions (sadness and anger) into positive ones. As a proof of concept, a keyboard named “Emotional Keyboard” was developed through five prototypes iteratively using Evolutionary Prototyping. Action Research was adopted as the methodology along with User-Centered Design (UCD) which further included two user surveys. The first three prototypes were implemented to decide the most optimal perception from facial expressions and text analytics. Subsequent prototypes provided affective functions to the user such as listening to music, playing a game, chat with friends, based on the detected negative emotion and the context. The evaluation of each of...

A university is a center of knowledge creation, and industry can be a vibrant place for innovation. This paper examines the key factors influencing university-industry collaboration (UIC) innovation catalysts in Sri Lanka. The study employed a systematic procedure based on the Grounded Theory to investigate the factors contributing to the success of UICs, and attributes for innovation capacities. The investigation was guided by the research question: what factors of UICs influence ICT innovations in Sri Lanka? A total of 41 research papers was selected from Science Direct, Scopus, and Ebscohost based on the availability of full text, and their relevance for the research question. The results of the study revealed that management directives, financial support, policies, proximity dimension, and heterogeneity are key factors for a successful UIC

Advancements in technology offer new challenges and opportunities for online education. The interaction design of digital learning and assessment tools directly influence the learning experience. The aim of this work is to show the process of user-centered design and development of an online assessment tool that allows setting, monitoring and displaying the achievements of educational skills and competences. The main challenges addressed were: dealing with a rich and complex educational context; researching the actual needs of the actors involved and managing the different requirements for the tool; the process to generate design solutions and the evaluation of the tool. It was evaluated in a real case scenario in a virtual learning environment of a fully online higher education institution.

E-assessment hasbecome increasingly interesting in higher education. However, it is notan easy matter.It does not work totransfer, directly, face-to-face assessment models to online education. Indeed, the nature of such assessments has oftenbeen limited to automatically corrected quizzes, compounds of simple type of questions such as ‘multiple choice questions’.This kind of e-assessment can be considered knowledge-based but not skill-based because cognitive skills and practicalabilities cannot be assessed via such a kind of simple type of question. On the other hand, formative e-assessment, whichassists the learning process by being part of it, and not just occurring at the end of it, like the traditional face-to-faceexamination, seems to be the best kind for assessing skills acquisition. Thus, when it comes to an e-assessment in computerengineering education, where skill-based assessment is needed, there is no general system that can be used for both skill andknowledge formative e-...

The aim of this work is to present the design and development of an e-assessment tool that allows setting and indicating the monitoring and achievement of educational skills. This tool, called e-compass, is designed to be used in a fully virtual learning environment. Currently the whole educational scenario is changing according to the European Higher Education Area and the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). On the one hand the European higher education institutions are introducing a competence model centered on learners’ performance and activities. Competences represent a combination of attributes (with respect to knowledge and its application, attitudes, skills and responsibilities) that describe the level or degree to which a person is capable of performing them. On the other hand the educational context of this work is a fully online university with a learning environment that includes, among others, virtual classrooms where courses take place, different kinds of learning resources and e-assessment tools. The virtual campus provides learners with full access to knowledge, above and beyond the usual scheduling and location constraints. In this rich learning environment, different users are interacting with educational purposes based on competences acquisition. Learners are performing activities that have to be assessed by teachers. Teachers have to provide a useful feedback focused on the achievement of learners’ competences and levels of them. In this learning scenario is needed a tool to capture, store and represent data with the main goal of providing learners with the right feedback in a useful and simple way. The work is focused on two main types of needs or requirements: educational and technological. Educational requirements come from three actors: institutions, teachers and learners. Educational institutions receive regulations for the administration on how to organize the teaching, especially in relation to the acquisition of competences. Teachers receive instructions and indications from their educational institution, making them fit into specific educational plans for each course. Finally, learners should understand the process of skills and competences achievement while they develop the activities proposed in the courses where they are enrolled. Regarding to the technological requirements, it is important to note that they are partially predefined by the university system architecture, although some learning tools and features may be added if the interoperability is ensured. The design process of the e-compass follows the principles of user centered design approach. Once requirements were collected, a prototype was developed. To test the tool in a real scenario, a pilot study regarding the e-assessment process based on competences and the usability of the online educational tool was conducted. The main contribution of this paper is to present a guideline to teachers about how to assess competences and how to give feedback to learners based on their performance, as well as to share the e-assessment pilot results and the methodology behind the e-compass tool.

Emotions of a person depend on several factors like personality, relationships, mental health, and among them, context also plays a major role. The acceptability and usability of a system can be enhanced when the user emotions are considered based on the context. Most of the past research has been carried out related to the detection of emotions using facial expressions, gaze direction, heart rate analysis, Electroencephalogram (EEG) signals, text analytics, and keystroke dynamics along with mouse movements. This paper is a literature review which summarizes the previous research work in order to identify the critical success factors of the existing approaches when detecting user emotions through facial expressions and text data along with the context. Finally, as a conclusion, considering the advantages and drawbacks of the existing applications, the novel approaches that need to be followed to analyse user emotions to improve the usability of systems are proposed.

The use of blended learning environments in higher education has rapidly increased in the 21st century. Tools and techniques that initially were used in experimental distance education courses are today part of mainstream education with blended learning as a continuum between traditional face-to-face teaching and pure online courses. In this wide variety of course design there are success stories, but at the same time examples with low pass rates and poor learning outcomes. The research question for the study is: Which aspects have to be considered in the design and implementation of blended learning in higher education? To answer this question, 15 selected publications were analysed in a I iterature review with the aim to identify important and critical factors when implementing blended learning in higher education. As a result of the inductive analysis around 50 found factors have been grouped into 10 Categories of critical factors and 4 Blended learning perspectives in a strive t...

E-assessment is the process where technologies are used for the management of the end-to-end assessment process. It involves the use of any technology-based method that allows systematic inferences and judgments to be made about the student's skills, knowledge and capabilities acquisition. In online learning, technology is used to facilitate the implementation of the appropriate models that can be used for both teaching and learning. In addition, e- assessment technologies allow creating tools able to improve student engagement and performance, offer possibilities to practice competences and skills, provide personalized feedback and improve student motivation. This paper presents a general e-assessment tool with a formative e-assessment model. The e-assessment tool under a formative assessment model is integrated into the learning process and provides aligned and authentic learning experience, focused on skill and knowledge acquisition. Results show that the e-assessment tool an...

Affective computing is an imperative topic for Human-Computer Interaction, where user emotions and emotional communication can be utilized to improve the usability of a system. Several strategies are available to detect user emotions but it is questionable when identifying the most suitable and compatible strategy which can be used to detect emotions when using mobile devices. Multimodal emotion recognition paves the path to detect emotions by combining two or more strategies in order to identify the most meaningful emotion. Emotion identification through facial expressions and text analytics has given high accuracies but combining them and practically applying them in the context of a mobile environment should be done. Three prototypes were developed using evolutionary prototyping which can detect emotions from facial expressions and text data, using state of the art APIs and SDKs where the base of the prototypes was a keyboard known as "Emotional Keyboard" which is compa...

Availability of various geospatial data has increased with the recent growth of geospatial information on the web. Integrating or conflating multiple geospatial datasets have become an important aspect in modern geographic information processing as it can provide insights that are not capable to obtain from an individual dataset. However, positional inconsistencies or misalignments can occur during the conflation process as different geospatial datasets could have different accuracy levels, different geospatial data types (vector or raster), and different projections when they originate from different sources. Thus, making the conflation process a challenging task. In this paper, we present a novel alignment algorithm which uses the concept of Bézier curves to refine the positional inconsistencies that occur during the vector to imagery conflation process of road vector data. A novel evaluation model which considers the area of the polygon bordering the actual road and the vector la...

Technology-Enhanced Assessment (TEA) has become increasingly attractive in higher education. However, the nature of such assessments has often been limited to simple type of questions such as MCQs, which are usually knowledge-based. Cognitive skills and practical abilities cannot be assessed via simple types of questions. This raised the need to introduce interactive and intelligent dimensions into e-assessment. This research provides a new learning experience for students in both skill and knowledge assessment in online education. This was achieved through a design of a general TEA system which can be adapted to any context and an architecture that allows interoperability, security and integration of modules. The system also provides student, interactivity and the opportunity to act on the feedback through a proposed formative e-assessment model. After application of the system in the real context, it was observed that the use of the TEA system and the formative e-assessment model ...

A framework that can adjust and blend its activities or setups to satisfy users’ needs continuously in real-time by considering the status of the user and the status of the system based on the present properties can be defined as an adaptive framework. Proposing an adaptive framework which can suggest functions by considering user emotions and context parameters such as location, time and current user activity can be used to improve the User Experience (UX) to enhance the usability of a mobile device. This paper introduces a research approach and an architectural framework to design an adaptive system. A prototype named "Emotional Keyboard" was developed as a proof of concept. It can suggest adaptive functions by detecting emotions from facial expressions and text data while considering the context parameters in real-time. Two user surveys have been conducted to strengthen the background of this research and five prototype evaluations have been carried out.

eNOSHA is an open source Learning Object Repository (LOR) developed at the University of Colombo School of Computing (UCSC) in a collaboration between UCSC in Sri Lanka, and two universities from Sweden during 2009 and 2010. eNOSHA is a system where content developers and instructional designers can store and reuse learning objects on 4 different aggregation levels. The system was built based on a need analysis at UCSC in late 2008 and was taken into use at the eLearning Centre at UCSC in early 2010. The system has so far been successful and supported the organisation and reuse of e-learning content at the UCSC eLearning Centre (eLC). However, there still exist several reasons for further improvements when it comes to usability and user-friendliness. Moodle is one of the most popular open-source Course Management Systems (CMS) and has been used in the daily work at UCSC during the last 5 years. Moodle is an effective system for building courses and structure course material but feat...

e-Assessment has become a very integral part of study programmes which are mainly conducted in an online environment. Carrying out e-assessments for subjects that require a high level of skill in an online environment is a very demanding task. In this case, the temporal component of e-assessment plays a major role. Mathematical education in online higher education can be taken as one such example where e-assessment will be conducted as a combination of formative and summative assessment to access both skills and knowledge with rich feedback in a timely manner. In this paper we will be discussing some temporal aspects in e-assessments systems for mathematics, where the need for rich feedback goes beyond typical multiple-choice online questionnaires.

The use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in Blended education has rapidly increased in the 21st century. As a result, there is a growing interest in understanding to what extent innovative and interactive educational tools and technologies can be used for designing learning content to support Blended Learning. These tools are used in different courses, however, there is no possibility of tracking whether students are obtaining the maximum benefit. Learning Analytic tools can be used for tracking purposes. However, the data obtained from these tools alone will not offer benefits for improving Learning Designs. Therefore, it is important to build a synergy between Learning Analytics and Learning Design where it is possible to improve learner performance, engagement, interactions, and satisfaction. Accumulated research in these collaborative learning technologies has proposed and evaluated multiple models, frameworks, and implementation tools that engage learners in Blended Learning Environments. However, it is unclear to what extent the synergy between Learning Analytics and Learning Design can support Blended Learning. This paper contributes with a literature review that aims at providing an answer to this by offering insights about the context of use, technologies, types of activities, and collaboration mechanisms developed that can be used to improve Blended Learning in higher education.

Abstract This chapter presents a literature review of e-assessment in online higher education with a special focus on skill acquisition in engineering education. Skill acquisition is important in engineering education, especially skills involving practical problem solving to cater to the demands of a rapidly changing industry. Therefore, knowledge and understanding gained from learning materials alone is not enough without gaining the higher-order cognitive skills needed to solve practical problems. In this case, assessment can be used to evaluate whether students are capable of achieving the required skills as well as for continuously improving engineering education. This chapter first addresses the general aspects: assessment in the form of e-assessment; skill and knowledge assessment; supporting learning through formative e-assessment; standards, specifications and models to design and develop e-assessment systems that are interoperable and secure; previous research on skill acquisition in engineering education; and, as the focus point, the challenges and opportunities in skill acquisition in online engineering education.

The use of blended learning environments in higher education has rapidly increased in the 21st century. Tools and techniques that initially were used in experimental distance education courses are today part of mainstream education with blended learning as a continuum between traditional face-to-face teaching and pure online courses. In this wide variety of course design there are success stories, but at the same time examples with low pass rates and poor learning outcomes. The research question for the study is: Which aspects have to be considered in the design and implementation of blended learning in higher education? To answer this question, 15 selected publications were analysed in a literature review with the aim to identify important and critical factors when implementing blended learning in higher education. As a result of the inductive analysis around 50 found factors have been grouped into 10 Categories of critical factors and 4 Blended learning perspectives in a strive to...

The main objective of this paper is to tackle the introduction of formative e-assessment on courses with a high level of skill acquirement, at a fully online university. In particular, the paper presents the overall e-assessment system on student performance in a particular course with those characteristics: a Logic course in a Computer Science degree of the Open University of Catalonia. E-Assessment has become increasingly attractive in Higher Education where providing useful feedback to large number of students can be difficult. However, the nature of such assessment has often been limited to objective questions such as multiple choice questions (MCQ). Cognitive skills that evaluate students’ practical abilities and skills by doing a particular task cannot be assessed via those simple kinds of questions. On the other hand, practice is an important aspect when dealing with high-level cognitive skills. Formative e-assessment model, which include both practice and assessment facilities can be appropriate for cognitive skills. In this work, formative e-assessment for skills was implemented through the proposed e-assessment system. To do that, intelligent type of questions, beyond the usual MCQ, for skill assessment were needed. Intelligent tutoring systems functionalities were introduced for this purpose. The design process of this work follows the principles of user centred design approach. Once requirements were collected, a prototype was developed. For testing the system in a real scenario, a pilot study was carried-out in a real classroom of the online university. Results of the evaluation of both the system and the formative assessment model implemented are presented in this work. They show a positive impact on students’ performance. The main contribution of this work is to present a system to provide formative e-assessment for cognitive skills in an online university. From the concrete experience a general e-assessment system for high-level cognitive courses at a fully online educational environment is, also, presented.

eNOSHA is an open source Learning Object Repository (LOR) developed at the University of Colombo School of Computing (UCSC) in a collaboration between UCSC in Sri Lanka, and two universities from Sweden during 2009 and 2010. eNOSHA is a system where content developers and instructional designers can store and reuse learning objects on 4 different aggregation levels. The system was built based on a need analysis at UCSC in late 2008 and was taken into use at the eLearning Centre at UCSC in early 2010. The system has so far been successful and supported the organisation and reuse of e-learning content at the UCSC eLearning Centre (eLC). However, there still exist several reasons for further improvements when it comes to usability and user-friendliness. Moodle is one of the most popular open-source Course Management Systems (CMS) and has been used in the daily work at UCSC during the last 5 years. Moodle is an effective system for building courses and structure course material but feat...

The main objective of this paper is to tackle the introduction of formative e-assessment on courses with a high level of skill acquirement, at a fully online university. In particular, the paper presents the overall e-assessment system on student performance in a particular course with those characteristics: a Logic course in a Computer Science degree of the Open University of Catalonia. E-Assessment has become increasingly attractive in Higher Education where providing useful feedback to large number of students can be difficult. However, the nature of such assessment has often been limited to objective questions such as multiple choice questions (MCQ). Cognitive skills that evaluate students’ practical abilities and skills by doing a particular task cannot be assessed via those simple kinds of questions. On the other hand, practice is an important aspect when dealing with high-level cognitive skills. Formative e-assessment model, which include both practice and assessment facilities can be appropriate for cognitive skills. In this work, formative e-assessment for skills was implemented through the proposed e-assessment system. To do that, intelligent type of questions, beyond the usual MCQ, for skill assessment were needed. Intelligent tutoring systems functionalities were introduced for this purpose. The design process of this work follows the principles of user centred design approach. Once requirements were collected, a prototype was developed. For testing the system in a real scenario, a pilot study was carried-out in a real classroom of the online university. Results of the evaluation of both the system and the formative assessment model implemented are presented in this work. They show a positive impact on students’ performance. The main contribution of this work is to present a system to provide formative e-assessment for cognitive skills in an online university. From the concrete experience a general e-assessment system for high-level cognitive courses at a fully online educational environment is, also, presented.

... On-line assessment, from Centre of the Study of Higher Education : The University of Melbourne: http://www.cshe.unimelb.edu.au/assessinglearning/03/online.html [2] Moodle, http://moodle.org/ ... http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/themes/elearning/effpraceassess.pdf ...

Abstract: The idea of storing and sharing digital content for e-learning has been widely discussed. At the University of Colombo, School of Computing (UCSC) a lot of learning objects have been developed during the last decade. Even in a well structured university environment it is not possible to have a rational control of content for hundreds of different e-learning courses without an appropriate system that provides searching and a metadata markup of the learning objects. This paper will analyze the eNOSHA Learning Object ...

Abstract: The idea of storing and sharing digital content for e-learning has been widely discussed. At the University of Colombo, School of Computing (UCSC) a lot of learning objects have been developed during the last decade. Even in a well structured university environment it is not possible to have a rational control of content for hundreds of different e-learning courses without an appropriate system that provides searching and a metadata markup of the learning objects. This paper will analyze the eNOSHA Learning Object ...