[in Japanese]

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[in Japanese]

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Trends and the future roles of technology standardization and "open movements" in the e-learning field are described by comparing with movements in the ICT field. Standardization and open movements provide a competitive and cooperative framework through which anyone can contribute to the rapid and diverse evolution and promotion of technology. Since the significance of standardization and the open movement has been well recognized in the e-learning field, international efforts to develop e-learning technology standards and open source e-learning platforms are emerging. Standardization and the open movement largely affect Web 2.0, which has the characteristics of bi-directional communication, the capability to manage various user needs, and the use of collective knowledge. These are similar to the learner-centered characteristics of recent e-learning activities.

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This paper describes Course Management Systems (CMSs) from the viewpoint of Open Source and Open Standard in terms of Software Architecture. CMS is a key information infrastructure for supporting teaching and learning in higher educational institutions. The effective use of CMS requires the integration with Student Information Systems (SIS), e-Library and other information infrastructures, along with strategic planning and sustainable development. In this paper, we also introduce our latest activities to develop next-generation CMS since 2004.

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We developed a feedback system of leaning strategies based on models created by using data mining technology which is applied to the data obtained from high school students. After trial use of this system, we evaluated the system from the point of view as follows. a.Validity of the models. b.The effectiveness of metaphors built into the system. c.Subjective evaluation from users. The results were as indicated below. (a) Validity of the models was verified, because the difference of academic ability estimated from the models was observed in the data obtained from monitor test. (b) The signal metaphor which represents the achievement levels of learning strategies was turned out to be effective, because the length of the time spent to read the explanation of leaning strategies differed according to the color of signal, while the direct road metaphor which represents the order of learning strategies was understood by nearly half of the students. (c) Some users insisted the animations used in the system were too long, but the evaluation as a whole system was favorable.

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This study describes the development and evaluation of a report-grading assistance map. The map was designed to visualize scores graded for reports assigned to a class at the university level and their similarities. Initially, the authors reviewed some visualization techniques for text information in this paper by utilizing real report papers written by the university students. The authors then developed and evaluated the report-grading assistance map with a circular cone based on Deerwester et al's technique. The map is a new visualization technique to show the amount of words and word use. The validity of the map was then assessed by the grading of reports using the map by raters as well as responses from a questionnaire survey. The findings showed that raters were able to grade the reports more efficiently by referring to reports graded in advanced using the report-grading assistance map. Furthermore, accuracy of visualization for reports graded A and D was also observed. On the other hand, we observed that such visualization had a cognitive inducing effect to mislead raters and therefore, it is an important aspect to focus upon in our future research.

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In this research, we target students' photos for school use. When using students' photos in a class newspaper, teachers have to treat students equally. Usually in this case, the teacher counts the number of times a student appears in the photos. However, by only using this method it is difficult to feature students equally, since there are various kinds of photos, such as individual photos, group photos, etc. Considering this particularity of school use of photos, we propose the concept of "presence," which expresses the impact of the face in a photo, by examining every subject in the photo, and measuring the students equally using the "presence" points of each subject. In this paper, we present a regression formula of "presence" using simple and objective items. Next, we present an experiment we conducted which measured perceptions of equality of student exposure in photos using the sum of "presence" points. The result of the experiment was the group of photos where "presence" points were within the predicted "range of equality" was judged to be fair.

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The "Period of Integrated Study" program began in elementary and secondary education in 2002. The "Period of Integrated Study" program emphasizes cultivating the ability to solve various problems in society. Most goals of this program involve meta-ability, which cannot be fully learned by traditional Japanese instructional methods. For this reason, it is necessary and important to provide instructors with a powerful help system that can locate and provide access to a variety of useful information resources. To this end, we have proposed a framework that reconstructs the resources according to various viewpoints based on ontologies which define the practical ability. Further, we proposed a Goal Transition Model to show a skeleton of the transition of instructional goals based on ontologies and built a system that provides teachers with lesson plans effectively by applying this Model. In this paper, we describe support functions of this system and report results of an experiment carried out for evaluation of the functions.

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In recent years, with rapid development of the information society, the number of the people who learn a programming language in companies and universities are increasing. The role of programming education becomes more important in the organizations. Until now, variety of researches on effective programming education has been carried out from various viewpoints. In order to solve the problems of the "pile-up" teaching method, this research proposed the "motivation-oriented" teaching method based on the two instructional design theories: 1) ARCS Motivation Model for raising study volition and 2) Gagne's Nine Events of Instruction. Then, to clarify the feature of the proposed method, the two e-Learning materials, the "motivation-oriented" material and the "pile-up" material for Java e-Learning were developed and the comparative study with the two materials was carried out. The teaching materials were then published on the Web, allowing anonymous novice learners learn Java programming. Each learner was provided a material randomly selected from the two materials. Then, the effect of the "motivation-oriented" teaching method was investigated by analyzing the data on learning activities and the answers to questionnaires. The result shows that we can expect the "motivation-oriented" teaching method has relatively better educational effect compared to the "pile-up" teaching method.

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Inspired by rapid growth and notable developments of Complex Networks Sciences, whose indispensable pillars are statistical mechanics, probability theory, and graph theory, researchers have in recent years found out that there are many interesting properties of real networks such as the Internet, social networks, a number of biological networks, the electric power grid, and so on. The purpose of this paper is to analyze log data recorded on a bulletin board system used in e-Learning faculty courses and to investigate, based on complex networks sciences, characteristic properties of communication networks in e-Learning environments. In this paper, we clarify the following matters: 1) the Small-World property (in the sense of Watts and Strogatz) is observed in most of communication networks. 2) The rich-club phenomenon is observed in some networks. 3) Communication networks whose nodes represent participants in e-Learning courses are disassortative, which means those communication networks are somewhat similar to nonhuman networks, artificial networks, or biological networks, not to social networks. In addition to those empirical evidences, we present some hypotheses concerned with communication networks structure in e-Learning environments.

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We proposed the method of revising an evaluated score in considering of the evaluator's characteristic for an impartial feedback in a peer evaluation. Because it is difficult to evaluate all learners, peer evaluation data include many missing responses. In the proposal method, we assumed the evaluators' characteristic modeling based on the item response theory, and the evaluated score is revised by using the difference of estimated evaluator's characteristic and the evaluator of an average evaluation. In the proposal method, we assumed the evaluators' characteristic modeling based on the item response theory, and an evaluated score is revised by using the difference of estimated evaluator's characteristic and the evaluator of an average evaluation. It was confirmed that the revised score was appropriate evaluation by real data. We practiced peer evaluation five times in our class. As a result of practice, it was found that the evaluators received feedback with revised score improved the evaluation ability, but the evaluator received only evaluation value before revision did not improved. Because the above-mentioned result, it was shown that proposed revision method was effective to an impartial evaluation and the improvement of the evaluation ability.

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This research is a part of developing a search system providing a suitable retrieval among categorized useful information for higher education. This paper focuses on automatic categorization, that is, automatic extraction of information from the Web sites using keywords contained in the anchortext and page link structures. The information in the laboratory pages in Tsukuba University can be extracted with high precision by gathering not only the starting page linked from the anchortext but also other pages linked from the starting page within the same URL directory. This method using anchortexts and page link structures would be applied to the automatic extraction of web pages of which text and context analysis are not applicable.

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The Federated Search System was developed to make it possible to search by keyword reciprocally between the Japanese learning gateway (NIME-glad), which stores LOM (Learning Object Metadata) created for Learning Objects on the internet, and gateways in the USA, Canada, Australia and the EU. This Federated Search System defined the function and method of exchanging LOM, according to international standard, between gateways, and using this method, gateways are collaborating with each other. As a result of developing this Federated Search System, it has become possible to search not only Japanese Learning Objects by keyword, but at the same time, overseas Learning Objects on overseas gateways also, using the Japanese gateway. What's more inversely, it has become possible to search not only overseas Learning Objects by keyword, but at the same time, Japanese Learning Objects also, using the overseas gateways.

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