Semantic Technologies for the Enhancement of Case-Based Learning
Lead Research Organisation:
Liverpool John Moores University
Department Name: Fac of Education Community and Leisure
Abstract
Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.
Publications
Agustina Martinez (Author)
(2009)
The Ensemble Project : using Fedora to support the development of the semantic web for education
Brooks P
(2012)
Dancing with the Web: students bring meaning to the semantic web
in Technology, Pedagogy and Education
Carmichael P
(2012)
Semantic web technologies for education - time for a 'turn to practice'?
in Technology, Pedagogy and Education
Carmichael P
(2015)
Not just about gadgets: Habit, innovation and change in the design of learning technologies
in E-Learning and Digital Media
Carmichael P
(2011)
Cases, simulacra, and Semantic Web technologies
in Journal of Computer Assisted Learning
CARMICHAEL P
(2013)
Tribes, Territories and Threshold Concepts: Educational materialisms at work in higher education
in Educational Philosophy and Theory
Carmichael P
(2011)
Research Capacity Building in Education: The Role of Digital Archives
in British Journal of Educational Studies
Edwards R
(2012)
Secret codes: the hidden curriculum of semantic web technologies
in Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education
Edwards R
(2017)
Mobilities, moorings and boundary marking in developing semantic technologies in educational practices
in Research in Learning Technology
Irvine N
(2009)
Threshold concepts A point of focus for practitioner research
in Active Learning in Higher Education
| Description | The potential of semantic web and linked data in educational settings, have, to date, mainly be explored in the context of educational systems rather than in relation to pedagogical practices and discourses. It is in the latter area that the project has made significant contributions. The ability of teachers and students to draw on authentic and even 'real-time' data from across the world offers significant opportunities for learning - not just by working with 'big data' but in supporting inquiry, encouraging case-based learning, and allowing new forms of collaboration at individual, institutional and global levels. However this requires a new range of digital literacies and space for new teaching and learning practices to be developed. Teachers need to be supported to develop pedagogical expertise in engaging with rapidly changing, contested and complex data from multiple sources. Engaging students themselves as researchers and developers allows the development of technologies which reflect curricula and cases as 'experienced' rather than 'intended' or 'enacted' by teachers or course designers. Adoption of semantic web and linked data technologies and approaches will depend on the availability of easy-to-use authoring, archiving and publishing tools. The project has developed progressively more complex and useful web applications by building prototypes 'with' rather than 'for' students and teachers, and has developed and documented means by which these can be used by non-expert users. These tools and the applications that are built using them have enabled students and teachers to evolve more sophisticated understandings of complex issues and to understand how cases and examples related to broader settings and trends, suggesting in turn further directions for enquiry and exploration. |
| Exploitation Route | Many of the findings of the project, and the technological tools and approaches it has developed, are as applicable to non-academic contexts as the formal higher educational settings in which the research was conducted. Any field in which people wish to collect, curate, publish, share and annotate online resources can benefit from the insights and outputs of the project. Increasing interest in production, sharing and engagement with linked data - by policymakers, 'data journalists', third-sector and advocacy groups, and many others - makes our work particularly timely. Lowering the bar to participation in publishing, accessing, visualising and manipulating data offers the potential for wider involvement and the opportunity for diverse interests to be represented, not just 'on' the web, but as part 'of' a next generation global data space. The success of semantic web and linked data approaches depends, like other web technologies before them, on widespread adoption and support. Open-source release of code, supported by active user communities represents a key element of the project's dissemination strategy, with potential users able to access data, code, documentation and well-documented examples and technical demonstrators. The approaches to the design, development and deployment both of technological tools and the case based learning environments developed by the project can be replicated in other education settings, and the work of the project has already been used to support the development of online archives; reflective tools for students; collaborative video annotation; personal curation; and archiving environments and research management tools. The flexibility and extensibility of web tools informed by semantic web and linked data approaches allows teachers and students to develop customised teaching and learning content, enhanced publications and multimedia content in ways that are much less easy in proprietary and closed environments. |
| Sectors | Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Education,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| URL | http://www.ensemble.ac.uk/ |
| Description | Developing linked data infrastructures for open educational resources |
| Amount | £36,773 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Jisc |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 04/2012 |
| End | 10/2012 |
| Description | Faculty funding from Liverpool John Moores University |
| Amount | £38,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Liverpool John Moores University |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 10/2011 |
| End | 09/2012 |
| Description | Making the most of open data in school science |
| Amount | £5,000 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | GR00416 |
| Organisation | Higher Education Funding Council for England |
| Department | Research Excellence Framework |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 09/2012 |
| End | 06/2013 |
| Description | Ontology-based e-assessment for accounting education |
| Amount | £16,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) |
| Sector | Private |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 04/2011 |
| End | 07/2012 |
| Description | Remaking practice (ARC linkage project) |
| Amount | £116,000 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | LP100200435 |
| Organisation | Australian Research Council |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | Australia |
| Start | 10/2011 |
| End | 09/2014 |
| Description | Autonomy and social inclusion through mixed reality brain-computer interface |
| Organisation | BrainAble Project |
| Country | Spain |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | BrainAble is a EU-funded STREP involving partners from the UK, Spain, Portugal and Austria. It is developing new assistive technologies based around Brain Computer Interfaces, and has used Ensemble technologies and expertise to produce online case studies, enable collaborative data analysis and develop training materials for users of their products. The semantic web and linked data technologies have proved invaluable in the highly complex, mixed-methods research involving disabled people, a multidisciplinary team and a range of audiences. |
| Start Year | 2010 |
| Description | Continued development of semantic web tools |
| Organisation | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| Department | Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) |
| Country | United States |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Since the beginning of the Ensemble project, members of the Computer Science and AI Lab, and the University Libraries at MIT have been partners in our work. Mackenzie Smith (MIT Libraries) has been a member of our steering group and Prof. David Karger has been an academic advisor, spending time working with the project team in Liverpool. This collaboration has continued with subsequent funded projects also involving Prof. Karger as a consultant. Collaborative development of software has led to the release of project outputs as part of the established SIMILE project's codebase for more general use (http://www.simle-widgets.org) |
| Start Year | 2008 |
| Description | Developing online collections |
| Organisation | Economic and Social Research Council |
| Department | ESDS Qualidata |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | The ESDS have been involved as project partners and beneficiaries throughout the Ensemble project, and a series of meetings and seminars during 2009-10 led to a joint initiative to develop several of their online collections (teaching resources and 'Pioneers of Qualitative Enquiry') using the linked data approaches and tools developed by the project. The funding of a student researcher and ESDS commitment of a research assistant led to the development of two online resources which now form part of the ESDS website. |
| Start Year | 2011 |
| Description | Project technologies and expertise to develop web resources |
| Organisation | Bluecoat Chambers |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | The Bluecoat Arts Centre has made use of project technologies and expertise to develop web resources to support its 'Liverpool, City of Radicals' initiative which ran during 2011. During this two Bluecoat staff spent time seconded to the project for a week. |
| Start Year | 2011 |
| Description | Specializing in educational technologies and their implementation on different learning processes |
| Organisation | University of Murcia, Spain |
| Department | Educational Technology Research Group (GITE) |
| Country | Spain |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | The project team built on existing links with GITE the Grupo de Investigación de Tecnología Educativa at the University of Murcia and specializing in educational technologies and their implementation on different learning processes. During 2009, Dr Maria del Mar Sanchez from GITE was a visiting research fellow attached to the Ensemble project, working at the Centre for Applied Research in Educational Technologies and the Faculty of Education, Community and Leisure at Liverpool John Moores University. GITE and LJMU were subsequently coapplicants in a successful bid for funding from ACCA (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) and the International Association for Accounting Education and Research (IAAER) to explore the potential of semantic technologies in e-assessment (2011-2012). |
| Start Year | 2008 |
| Description | (Im)mobilities and (dis)locating practices in cyber education |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Presented at 'Cyber-spaces and virtual learning', seminar four of the ESRC-sponsored 'New spaces of education' seminar series. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | |
| Description | Case methods, pedagogical innovation and semantic technologies |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | This paper describes an approach to conducting research leading to technological development that is grounded in detailed empirical research and participant engagement. We describe our initial findings about the diverse conceptualizations of cases and their use that exist in a number of higher education settings and match this to considerations of the potential of semantic technologies to support these teaching and learning activities. In this way we develop the argument for developing technologies in parallel with empirical research about current practices and engagement of participants in educational settings in order to realize the full potential of semantic technologies to support case-based learning. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | |
| Description | Mobilities and moorings in cyber education |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | There is much discussion of the impact of the internet on education and the ways in which virtual learning breaks down the 'spaces of enclosure' of the institution, classroom, and curriculum. The potentialities for education seem expansive, yet alongside this sit the inevitable limitations of curriculum, assessment and audit regimes, existing cultures of teaching and learning, the humanistic values embedded in much education, and resource issues. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | |
| Description | Semantic technologies for teaching and learning |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Lecture at University of East Anglia |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
| Description | Semantic technologies in higher education |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
| Results and Impact | Eiger Seminar - presentation of emerging findings to audience working with other emergent technologies Opportunities for future collaboration identified. Further invitations to speak and become involved in networked events. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2009 |
| Description | Semantic technologies to support teaching and learning with cases : challenges and opportunities |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
| Results and Impact | Visions of a 'semantic web; and the technologies, standards and services associated with it have the potential to support and enhance teaching and learning. As yet, this potential has not been practically demonstrated in ways that are accessible to teachers and students. 'Ensemble: Semantic Technologies to Support the Teaching and Learning of Case Based Learning; is currently exploring the potential of semantic technologies to support and enhance teaching and learning in fields in higher education where knowledge is complex, changing or contested, and where as a result case based learning is the pedagogy of choice. This paper describes how the wide range of case based learning approaches has informed the selection, development and deployment of semantic technologies, and identifies a number of key challenges and areas for development which would enable more widespread adoption of semantic technologies by teachers and students. Academic collaboration, technology sharing |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2009 |
| Description | Semantic web, linked data and authentic learning |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Eiger Lecture, King's College London, a lecture by Patrick Carmichael on the work of the project and some emerging findings. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |