Enabling adaptive, personalised and context-aware interaction in a smart learning environment: Piloting the iCollab system

Abstract

Smart learning environments (SLE) provide students with opportunities to interact with learning resources and activities in ways that are customised to their particular learning goals and approaches. A challenge in developing SLEs is providing resources and tasks within a single system that can seamlessly tailor learning experience in terms of time, place, platform, and form. In this paper we introduce the iCollab platform, an adaptive environment where learning activities are moderated through conversation with an intelligent agent who can operate across multiple web-based platforms, integrating formal and informal learning opportunities. Fifty-eight undergraduate computer science students were randomly assigned to either an intervention or control group for the 12 weeks of the pilot study. Learning analytics were used to examine their interactions with iCollab, while their course performance investigated the impact of using iCollab on learning outcomes. Results from the study showed a high level of interaction with iCollab, especially social interaction, indicating an interweaving of formal learning within their informal network spaces. These findings open up new possibilities for ways that SLEs can be designed to incorporate different factors, improving the ability of the system to provide adaptive and personalised learning experiences in relation to context and time.

Same graph, different data: A usability study of a student-facing dashboard based on self-regulated learning theory

“…This suggests that participants were aware of the incomplete nature of the data presented in this dashboard and took this information into consideration when interpreting the data presented. This finding complements current studies on the need to bring other data sources into the LMS (Kitto et al, 2015), or distribute student data out of the LMS (Oliveira et al, 2021), to provide more effective and comprehensive support to students.…”

Impact of anxiety and confidence in virtual reality‐mediated learning transferred to hands‐on tasks

“…However, in the current learning field, especially in courses that require practice, there may be only one teacher in the course, thus limiting the support that is immediately available to learners. Martín‐Cuadrado et al (2021) believe that by properly adjusting the teaching content and materials to provide learners with a learning environment in which immediate assistance is available, learners solve problems more directly, improving the process of acquiring knowledge and promoting improved learning outcomes (Oliveira et al, 2021).…”

Development of an online teaching-focused professional development program for junior teaching staff

“…However, not all is perfect in the online landscape. Educators continue to report many challenges involving content creation and delivery, which can take more time and effort than when compared to traditional face-toface approaches (Oliveira et al, 2021;de Barba et al, 2020;Allen & Seaman, 2015).…”

“…Students face an increasingly uncertain environment, where financial and health shocks (for example, lack of resources to complete their studies or fear of becoming seriously sick), along with the transition to online learning may have affected their academic performance, educational plans, current labour market participation, and expectations about future employment (Aucejo et al, 2020). Educators have also had to quickly transition to online teaching, which meant learning to use digital tools to promote interaction and collaboration, nurturing a sense of community by redesigning their curriculums and activities, and making use of asynchronous tools to allow communication with offshore students (Oliveira et al, 2021). The "presence" theme identified and discussed by Dunlap and Lowenthal (2018) has become even more necessary and urgent due to this rapid and large-scale shift to online delivery.…”