Linked Data as a new environment for Learning Analytics and education

Mathieu d’Aquin (@mdaquin, mdaquin.net)(Knowledge Media Institute, The Open University, UK)Stefan Dietze (L3S Research Center, DE)

Linked Data

Open University Website

Open UniversityVLE

KMi Website

Mathieu’s Homepage

Mathieu’s List of

PublicationsMathieu’s

Twitter

The Web

M366 Coursepage

Person: Mathieu

Publication: Pub1

Organisation:The Open University

Course: M366

Country: Belgium

Book: Mechatronics

author

workFor

availableIn

offers

setBook

The Web of Linked Data

From Linked Data to the Semantic Web

Gene Ontology

FMA OntologyLODE

BIBO

Geo Ontology

DBPedia Ontology

Dublin Core

FOAF

DOAP

SIOC

Music Ontology

Media Ontology

rNews

Example: data.open.ac.uk

Data.open.ac.uk

Course information: 580 modules/ description of the course, information about the levels and number of

credits associated with it, topics, and conditions of enrolment.

Research publications: 16,000 academic articles / information about authors, dates, abstract and venue of the

publication.

Podcasts: 2220 video podcasts and 1500 audio podcats / short description, topics, link to a

representative image and to a transscript if available, information about the course the podcast might relate to and license information regarding the content of the podcast.

Open Educational Resources: 640 OpenLearn Units / short description, topics, tags used to annotate the resource, its

language, the course it might relate to, and the license that applies to the content.

Youtube videos: 900 videos / short description of the video, tags that were used to annotate the video,

collection it might be part of and link to the related course if relevant.

University buildings: 100 buildings / address, a picture of the building and the sub-divisions of the building

into floors and spaces.

Library catalogue: 12,000 books/ topics, authors, publisher and ISBN, as well as the course related.

Others…

A global data space for education data

The Open University

University of Bristol

University of Southampton

mEducator

University of Muenster, DEOrganicEduNet

Data.gov.uk education

Orgs., Buidings, Locations

Learning resources

Research ouputs

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http://data.linkededucation.org/linkedup/catalog

What’s the use in Learning Analytics

/* Naïve view */Learning Analytics is an application of data analytics on educational data, in

learning environment and for the purpose to improve the learning and teaching experience.

So, Linked Data used to find, collect and process large amounts of interconnected data to be used in analytics. But It is not only the input! Can be used to complete local data, enrichment them, or for interpretation of the results.

Considering Bienkowski, Feng, and Means areas of LA/EDM application (Week 3):• Modeling user knowledge, behavior, and experience… and connect them to information

about the context of learning• Creating profiles of users… that can be interlinked through common objects• Modeling knowledge domains… through online knowledge sources that can be numerous

and collectively built• Trend analysis… that can be interpreted through related them to external sources of

information• Personalization and adaptation… using indirect connections to other reference entities

Example of simple application: Map of OU buildings

Interactive map of Open University Buildings in the UK

Each dot is a location where buildings can be found. Going over the dot give information about the building there (floors, spaces, car-parks, etc.)

Spaces

Floors

ID Address Post-code

Buildings

bat1

bat1-address

Postcode-mk76aa

name “Berrill building”

data.open.ac.uk

Milton Keynes

inDistrict

Buckinghamshire

inCounty

Mk76aa-location

location

lat long

52.024924 -0.709726

data.ordnancesurvey.co.uk

Simple recommendation: Study at the OU

Each topic as a linked data URI. Each course as a linked data URI. Each resource as a linked data URI. They are all connected. Use SPARQL to answer the question:

“What are the resources related to this topic or to courses on this topic”

Less simple recommendation: Talis Aspire

Lecturers from different universities put their reading lists online. Publishing using the principles of linked data means that all resources are globally identified, creating a network of resources and reading lists.Recommendations can then trivially exploit globally all these local contributions.

Even less simple recommendation:DiscOU

data.open.ac.uk

Semantic Indexing

Semantic Index

Named Entity

Recognition

Podcasts, OpenLearn Units and Articles

Semantic Entities (Dbpedia)

Indexes

BBC Programme or iPlayer page

Synopsis

Similarity-Based Search

Indexes

Interface

Resource descriptions

Resources URIs + common topics

Not one scenario: An infinite recombination of data and purposes

Complex analytics in a lightweight way

http://uciad.info

Analytics across datasets

Academics in “Arts and Humanities” most often involved with the media (in number of news items)

Topics most commonly mentioned by news outlets own by the BBC (in number of news items)

From the Open University From news clippings From DBpedia.org

Complex analytics with rich background information

Conclusions

Linked data essential to learning analytics: interconnected sources of information to analyze learning activities and their context.

- Use of local data together with reference data- Informed recommendation mechanisms- Re-purposing of open data- Lightweight ways to integrate data in rich analytics interfaces- Analytics combining insight from multiple sources of

information - Ways to explore results through the lens of external,

background information

A few links can open the way to numerous new forms of analytics. Can be overwhelming Managing heterogeneity, consistency and noise becomes even

more of an issue Still requires specialized, technical skills

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Links and References

http://linkeddata.org - http://linkeddatabook.com http://data.open.ac.uk - http://lucero-project.info http://linkeduniversities.org - http://linkededucation.orghttp://linkedup-project.eu - http://linkedup-challenge.orghttp://data.linkededucation.org/linkedup/catalog http://talisaspire.com/ - http://discou.info - http://uciad.info

d'Aquin, M. and Jay, N. Interpreting Data Mining Results with Linked Data for Learning Analytics: Motivation, Case Study and Direction, LAK 2013, http://oro.open.ac.uk/36660/

Kessler C., d’Aquin M. and Dietze S. (eds) Semantic Web Journal Special Issue on Linked Data for Science and Education. http://iospress.metapress.com/content/m87017012802/

d’Aquin M. Linked Data for Open and Distance Learning. Commonwealth of Learnin report. http://www.col.org/resources/publications/Pages/detail.aspx?PID=420

d'Aquin, M., Allocca, C. and Collins, T. DiscOU: A Flexible Discovery Engine for Open Educational Resources Using Semantic Indexing and Relationship Summaries, Demo ISWC 2012. http://data.open.ac.uk/applications/iswc2012-demo.pdf

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