S3-Post 02

Reflection on Practice

The MSc Applied eLearning has been a wonderful learning experience over two years, from September 2016 up until July 2018. It provided me with a learning framework to acquire new skills, knowledge, and perspectives. The course allowed me to revisit areas of education, such as learning theories, that I first encountered during pre-service teacher education and later built on during a MEd degree in Trinity College Dublin. The Instructional Design (ID) module gave me an understanding and appreciation of ID models, as well as a conceptual framework to design, develop and evaluate eLearning resources. The timetabled tutorials and workshops guided me on my research pathway that ultimately led to my research proposal at the end of Year 1, and my Applied Project in Year 2.

Learning Theories
During the lectures for this first module of Year 1, and in researching my paper, I greatly enhanced my knowledge and understanding of learning theories. I researched how the various learning theories, such as behaviourism, can be applied to eLearning. Applications that utilise elements of gamification are often behaviourist in orientation (Zichermann & Cunningham, 2011). My Assistant Principal post of responsibility is ICT Co-ordinator, and for future discussions relating to the eLearning Plan, it was good to learn that two of the apps that are widely in my school, Socrative and Kahoot, utilise a behaviourist paradigm. However, if quizzes developed using these apps are designed to encourage group or whole class discussion, then it is possible that some of the learning that occurs can be explained in the context of social constructivism (Vygotsky, 2008).

Currently, my favoured learning theories are constructivism and social constructivism. In constructivism, learning is perceived as an active process where knowledge is constructed, not acquired. I teach post-primary mathematics to 12 to 18-year-old students, and the interconnectedness of the various fields of mathematics taught at this level requires a constructivist approach to teaching and learning. This is something that was crystallised for me during the interviews with the mathematics key informants.

The paper I submitted for the Learning Theories module in Year 1 was called The van Hiele Model and Learning Theories: Implications for Teaching and Learning Geometry. The research I conducted during the process of creating this paper greatly enhanced my understanding of how geometry is learned and how the van Hiele Model was adopted in the post-primary Mathematics syllabi in the US, Russia and Ireland. The model is set in the context of two of the major learning theories, cognitivism and constructivism. The van Hiele levels are similar to Piaget’s stages (Piaget, 1953). I already have a constructivist approach to the use of an application called GeoGebra to support the teaching and learning of geometry in my school. I intend to incorporate the van Hiele theory into future digital content that I create with GeoGebra. Here is the link to this paper from my ePortfolio:

Instructional Design and eAuthoring

As part of the assessment of the second module of Year 1, I designed, developed and evaluated an eLearning resource called ‘Composting’ as part of a four-person group. I volunteered to carry out the development work using Adobe Captivate 9. Before I began the MSc course, my personal research had identified Adobe Captivate as one of the most popular tools used in commercial eLearning development. Subsequently, I discovered it to be a bloated amalgam of disparate software components, and that it is unwieldy and difficult to use. Nonetheless, I did become quite proficient in using this software application. However, I am unlikely to use Adobe Captivate to create future eLearning material relating to my practice.

During the literature review for my Applied Project, I began the process of researching and evaluating alternatives to Adobe Captivate for future use. A comprehensive list of these tools, with accompanying descriptions, may be found in a PDF document available online and updated regularly (McIntosh, 2018). The list contains links to sophisticated adaptive learning authoring tools developed by two Irish companies, RealizeIt and FishTree (Fishtree, 2018; Realizeit, 2018). Prior to Year 2 of the MSc, I was not aware of the existence of authoring tools specific to adaptive learning. I had meetings to discuss these authoring tools with the co-founders of both companies towards the end of my Applied Project. In the meantime, here is the link to the eLearning resource I developed for this module:

Technology Enhanced Learning, Teaching, and Assessment (TELTA)
The TELTA module was fully online and this made it very interesting and challenging. This was my first time to extensively collaborate online using audio and video. Each week for eight weeks there was a project to be completed, sometimes individual and other times group-based.

For Topic 1 of the TELTA Module, I wrote a response to the key reading What’s the use of a VLE. On reflection, I considered this to be an important piece of learning, as it enlightened me in relation to current thinking about, and use of, the VLE (aka LMS). Given that much of the TELTA module involved using the collaborative technology integrated into Blackboard, it was interesting to discover that in a survey of DIT lecturers, only 5% used it to collaborate via webinars (O’Rourke, Rooney, and Boylan, 2015). The main thing that I learned from the TELTA module is how difficult it is to collaborate online with Blackboard.

Over the past few years, I have been trying to move my school towards adopting a single institutional LMS. During that time, a variety of LMSs including Edmodo and Schoology have been explored and trialled. For one of the individual projects in this module, I developed a screencast demonstrating how to set up new users on Moodle. I did this because I was interested in encouraging my work colleagues to migrate to Moodle as the school’s LMS of choice. I used Adobe Captivate 9 to create the screencast, and I then published it on Vimeo, as well as uploading it to my ePortfolio. This was a very useful learning experience as I had not created a screencast before and I wasn’t quite aware of how useful it is as an eLearning tool to train people how to use a specific software application. I can see how beneficial it will be for my work colleagues and I to create and use screencasts in the future.

It was interesting and informative to use the application Slack to collaborate with the other students and lecturers during this module. I had used Slack during the previous module (Instructional Design), after it was recommended to me by one of my group members. Many of my class colleagues preferred to use Slack to the collaborative tools in Blackboard. During Year 2 of the MSc, I began using Microsoft Teams for online collaboration as part of a new Digital Leaders group I created in my school. Microsoft Teams is similar to Slack, and the reason we chose Teams is that it is part of the corporate Office 365 productivity suite that my school already uses.

At the end of the TELTA module, I had to submit an annotated mind map as a capstone task. I designed an eight-week module called Synthetic Geometry for Transition Year Students, and technology was heavily embedded in this module. I created an annotated mind map using Mindomo to demonstrate how the devices, apps, learning theories, research, syllabus and scheme of work could be integrated for the teaching, learning and assessment of Transition Year Geometry. The first ever mind map I created was also during the TELTA module. As part of the class, I was encouraged to use Coggle to create this mind map. However, I wasn’t terribly impressed by Coggle, and this led me to research other mind mapping applications including Mindomo. I think that mind mapping apps are great learning tools because they allow the learner to categorise and organise ideas, and to identify relationships between concepts. I am fairly sure I wouldn’t have used Mindomo to create a domain model as part of my Applied Project in Year 2 if I hadn’t prior experience of mind maps during Year 1. Here is the link to the assessments for this module:

Research Proposal
I had spent a lot of time working on my research proposal during Year 1 of the MSc and this work paid off. The time and effort was worth it because the resulting document was a very good roadmap for the actual research project itself. The feedback I received in the ‘Research Proposal Marksheet’ was very positive, and I took the decision to submit an unchanged document as my final proposal.

The most substantial piece of learning for me was the insight and knowledge I developed in the area of adaptive learning and personalisation during my literature review. I knew hardly anything about this area up until March 2017.

I didn’t wait until the start of the Educational Research Design module in April 2017 to begin work on my research proposal. It began a month earlier with some Google searches on the key phrase “adaptive learning.” I discovered the existence of a new EU Horizon Project called Newton (EU Horizon, 2018) and emailed a number of the Irish participants from Dublin City University, National College of Ireland, and a company called Adaptemy. Dr Ioana Ghergulescu, Head of Adaptive Learning, Adaptemy agreed to meet me at their company offices in Lower Mount Street, Dublin 2 on 13th April 2017, and she suggested that I start reading the work of Peter Brusilovsky (University of Pittsburgh, and particularly a seminal 2007 work co-authored with Eva Millán (Brusilovsky & Millán, 2007).

This really was the key to unlocking the entire field of adaptive learning for me. This piece by Brusilovsky and Millán ultimately lead to me reading the work of his close colleague Professor Paul de Bra (Technical University Eindhoven) and Professor Vincent Wade (Trinity College Dublin). A series of emails between de Bra and I led to me using the GAM AT authoring tool developed by a Masters student of de Bra (Marc Craenen). The following year, I interviewed Professor Vincent Wade as one of my Adaptive Learning Key Informants for my Year 2 Applied Project case study.

Applied Research Project (Year 2)
It is important to create a realistic schedule and to stick to it. During the actual Applied Project itself in Year 2, I discovered that I was able to adhere to most of the schedule I had created during the Research Proposal in Year 1. The specific research question for my project, evaluating a domain model, arose from a brainstorming session I had with Dr Glenn Strong and Dr Richard Millwood (both Trinity College Dublin) in the Science Gallery in 19th April 2017.

I designed, developed and evaluated five domain model artefacts for a possible future adaptive learning system during Year 2. This provided me with some great insights into the relationships between concepts, topics, and learning outcomes. The evaluation process, especially the interviews with key informants, was invaluable in informing me about the strengths and weaknesses of my artefacts. The evaluation provided evidence that the screencast I developed to explicate these artefacts was very effective. I was very impressed with how much I learned by using an exploratory case study research design.

I learned many new things from the Applied Project. The most important piece of learning for me was augmenting and refining my new knowledge in the area of adaptive learning and personalisation. I was able to do this through further research, and through the interviews with the Adaptive Learning Expert key informants. I discovered how exciting and difficult it is to develop domain model artefacts. The tools that I used were effective in producing domain model artefacts. However, the user interfaces and paradigms they use, as well as their lack of sophistication, mean that I won’t use any of the three applications (GAM AT, Mindmo and Rhumbl) to create more sophisticated and useful domain models in the future. The problem is that, as I learned from the Adaptive Expert key informants, there isn’t any decent application software available academically or commercially to develop the type of domain models I wish to create as the base layer of adaptive learning courseware for mathematics.

I developed great insight into how other Maths professionals believe mathematics should be taught and learned through my interviews with the seven Maths Education Professional key informants. The most interesting thing to discover was that they all believed that making connections between the various parts of the mathematics courses was the most important thing to be achieved for the successful teaching and learning of mathematics. Creating these connections is one of the key components of a domain model.

I was happy to be able to write a journal paper that had a coherent thread that connected the research questions to the research design, and right through to the results and conclusions. The writing of the research paper required considerable effort and focus. My editing skills were greatly tested, and my understanding of how to write an academic paper for a research journal was greatly improved during this process.

Overall, the two years I spent on the MSc course has greatly improved my knowledge of eLearning and adaptive learning in particular. I have a better perspective of the different roles for eLearning in education. I now hope to do further research by pursuing a PhD in the area of adaptive learning, and I have already had a number of meetings with Professor Vincent Wade (Trinity College Dublin) in relation to this. I would also like to design and develop commercial grade adaptive learning courseware for post-primary mathematics, something I had vague notions about before completing the two-year MSc in Applied eLearning!

References:

Attwell, G. (2006). Evaluating E-learning: A Guide to the Evaluation of E-learning. Evaluate Europe Handbook Series2, 1610-0875.

Brusilovsky, P., & Millán, E. (2007). User Models for Adaptive Hypermedia and Adaptive Educational Systems. In P. Brusilovsky, A. Kobsa, & W. Nejdl (Eds.), The Adaptive Web (pp. 3-53, Retrieved from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/55cfe/fc79fb172d179c186c117dd172dc171fb176c18786666.pdf). Berlin Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.

EU Horizon (2018). EU Horizon 2020 Project: Newton. Retrieved from http://www.newtonproject.eu/

Fishtree. (2018). Fishtree. Retrieved from https://www.fishtree.com/

McIntosh, D. (2018). Adaptive Learning Platforms. In Vendors of Learning Management and eLearning Products (pp. 221-225). Retrieved from https://teachonline.ca/sites/default/files/pdfs/vendors_of_elearning_products_march2018.pdf

O’Rourke, K.C., Rooney, P. and Boylan, F.  (2015). What’s the Use of a VLE? Irish Journal of Academic Practice, 4(1),11.

Piaget, J. (1953). The Origin of Intelligence in the Child. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.

Realizeit. (2018). Realizeit. Retrieved from http://realizeitlearning.com/

Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Zichermann, G., & Cunningham, C. (2011). Gamification by design: Implementing game mechanics in web and mobile apps. ” O’Reilly Media, Inc.”.

 

S3-Post 01

Year 2 Project Reflection

Reflections on, and lessons learnt, from the various project milestones and phases from September to December 2017.

Figure 1: Gantt Chart (September – December 2017)

Milestone 1: Finalising your proposal and schedule (Deadline: 26/09/17)
A lot of time and effort went into my research proposal during Year 1 of the MSc, and the initial proposal submitted on 29/06/17 was very positively received as evidenced in the ‘Research Proposal Marksheet’. Only minor changes were suggested, so I took the decision to submit an unchanged document as my final proposal. My plan was to incorporate these minor changes with any other changes required later in the Applied Project. This turned out to be a good plan, as the there were important changes required later in the year. Changes were necessitated by a new Junior Cycle Mathematics syllabus that was unexpectedly published in November 2017, the addition of three new key informants (NCCA, Project Maths, Adaptive Learning Expert) to improve the quality and variety of interviews, and the use of three different domain model authoring tools (NCCA, 2017). These changes could easily be incorporated into the initial proposal. I learnt that a solid research proposal, combined with a well thought out and realistic timetable (Table 1), were key components in the success of the overall Applied Project.

Milestone 2: Ethics Submission/Approval (Deadline: 31/10/17)
I began work on my Ethics Submission on 04/11/17 and made an online submission to DIT’s Research Ethics and Integrity Committee (REIC) on 14/11/17. I discovered that I had to carry out work on my project that I had planned for later in the year for this submission. Detailed information was required by REIC in relation to the survey and interview questions, and this is something I had not anticipated. In preparing for a future Ethics Submission, I would schedule two weeks for it in my Research Proposal. Approval was granted for this research to be undertaken on 06/02/18 (Table 2).

Milestone 3: Literature Review and Interim Report (Deadline: 17/11/17)
I submitted an interim report to my supervisor on 19/11/17 as well as a literature review on 10/12/17 (Table 2). A very comprehensive literature review pertaining to domain model and adaptive learning had already been carried out for the Research Proposal. This review dealt with conceptual understanding of a function, and referenced the “function concept” as “one of the most important topics in high school mathematics” (Dubinsky & Wilson, 2013). It also alluded to an experimental study suggesting that conceptual and procedural knowledge in mathematics should be taught iteratively (Rittle-Johnson, Siegler, & Alibali, 2001). However, I could not discover literature that demonstrated a specific link between functions and sequences. Part of my domain model used this link and I was somewhat frustrated and disappointed not to find references in the literature.

Milestone 4: WIP Presentation 1 (28/11/17)
The formative feedback that I received the day after my presentation was very positive. It was great to receive the feedback so quickly, as I find formative assessment is important for my own motivation. The link between formative assessment and the motivation and self-esteem of students was brought into sharp focus with the publishing of a seminal paper by Paul Black and Dylan Wiliam at the end of the twentieth century (Black & Wiliam, 1998). I learnt that I included too much technical detail, and I didn’t tell the overall ‘story’ of my project as well as I could (Table 2). In future, I will try to make my presentations shorter, make the narrative a ‘story’, and not assume that my audience has prior knowledge of my field of research.

Phase 1 – Design and Develop Digital Artefacts (01/09/17 to 31/12/17)
In May 2017, I envisaged using a single domain model authoring tool (GAT) from the GRAPPLE project (GRAPPLE, 2011). However, in June 2017 Professor Paul de Bra informed me by email that a new authoring tool (GAM AT) to replace GAT was being developed by a Masters student of his in Eindhoven. I made the decision to use the newer GAT AT, and this delayed the start of my domain model development work from early September to early October 2017. When it finally become available for me to use, I discovered that it contained bugs and no user manual. Getting the software to work at all was extremely challenging. The developer (Marc Craenen) was very helpful though and I spent a number of hours talking to him on WhatsApp. He remotely logged into my Mac using TeamViewer, and there were many emails exchanged between us. I don’t think there are any lessons to learn from this other than using early versions of software is riskier than using mature applications. I didn’t have much choice in the matter as there aren’t many domain model authoring tools to choose from. Paul de Bra advised me not to use the older GAT tool.

Ultimately, I ended up using three different authoring tools: GAM AT, Mindomo, and Rhumbl Maps (Craenen, 2017; Mindomo, 2018; Rhumbl, 2018). This is not something I envisaged or anticipated at the start of the project. I used Mindomo because the user interface of GAM AT did not allow me to draw a domain model. I ended up sketching models with pen and paper, and I discovered that these sketches looked like mind maps. This is why I decided to use a mind mapping application, and since I had a positive experience using Mindomo during the TELTA module in Year 1, I opted to use it again in Year 2. Rhumbl is something I almost ‘accidentally’ discovered and I decided to use it as it was described as a concept-mapping tool. However, I later discovered that it simply maps learning outcomes and topics, whereas domain models link concepts to other concepts. I am still happy that I used Rhumbl in my evaluation because it allowed me to further explore the relationships between concepts, topics and learning outcomes.

I feel I learnt more about different design and development approaches to domain model authoring by using different tools. The different design paradigms utilised by these tools led to different domain model designs that provided me with a greater insight into domain modelling. Microsoft Access and Excel were the two software applications that were of great assistance in the learning outcome decomposition process. I hadn’t anticipated how valuable Excel would be before the project commenced. I discovered myself working interdependently, rather than chronologically, with these five applications. Therefore, to a large extent the domain models were developed concurrently. It would be great if a single domain model authoring tool that has a mind mapping interface as well as some basic spreadsheet functionality became available in the future. The five domain model artefacts (three Mindomo, one GAM AT, one Rhumbl Maps) were developed between 07/10/17 and 15/02/18 (Tables 1, 3). According to my schedule, the domain model artefacts should have been completed by 31/12/17. This meant that my project was behind schedule by approximately six weeks. However, I had spent two weeks working on other aspects of my project during the ethics submission process, so this meant that I was really about four weeks behind schedule.

Phase 2 – Design online survey, interview format, topics/questions (01/09/17 to 31/12/17)
The early versions of the survey questionnaires and interview themes were created during the ethics submission preparation period between 04/11/17 and 14/11/17. It was invaluable to have draft versions of these created early in the research project. This made it easier to improve their quality later in the project. If I am to embark upon a similar project in the future, I will try to schedule the work so that draft and pilot versions of work, for different components of the project, are carried out earlier rather than later. The final versions of the questionnaires were ready by 27/02/18 (Mk 2 – School) and 05/03/18 (Mk 3 – IMTA) (Tables 1, 3).

Reflections on, and lessons learnt, from the various project milestones and phases from January to June 2018.

Figure 2: Gantt Chart (January – June 2018)

Milestone 5: Implementing and evaluating the project with your target user group (16/03/18)
This involved completing Phases 3, 4, 5 (see below) (Table 2).

Phase 3 – Implement online survey of IMTA members (01/01/18 to 31/01/18)
As detailed in my research proposal, I suggested that I would invite teachers from the Irish Mathematics Teachers’ Association (IMTA) to participate in my survey. I had hoped “to get upwards of fifty responses” using this method. Ultimately, I only got 26 responses and I think this was due to the onerous time demands on the survey participants. They were required to view a screencast that was 41 minutes long, as well as complete a Google Forms survey that would have taken approximately 20 minutes to complete. If I carry out surveys in future research, I will significantly reduce the time demands on participants.

Prior to implementing the IMTA survey, I decided to carry out a ‘test survey’ using Mathematics teachers from the post-primary school where I worked. I received 10 responses between 27/02/18 to 03/03/18. Having reflected on the ‘test questionnaire’ and responses, I decided to add six extra questions for the IMTA survey. It took from 05/03/18 to 06/04/18 to get 26 responses from IMTA participants.

Since the number of participants was lower than the anticipated 50 responses, I decided to combine the two surveys so that I had 36 responses to the common 30 questions in both questionnaires, as well as 26 responses to the extra six questions. It was also necessary to ‘manually’ merge the two sets of data that had each been imported from Google Forms to Microsoft Excel. I consider this to be a minor methodological limitation to my Applied Project.

Before the online survey and interviews could take place, one further artefact needed to be created. I wasn’t aware that I was required to create this artefact, as well as the domain model artefacts, until a meeting with my project supervisor. Originally, I tried to create an eLearning tutorial using Adobe Captivate 9 but I discovered that this wasn’t working out. The tutorial courseware I created during the instructional design module was successful. However, this time around I was concerned that the stage ‘actors’ and general methodology I was using in the tutorial was in danger of treating the adult participants as children. I then remembered the screencast I had created during the TELTA module, and after some experimentation, this is the design paradigm I ultimately decided to use.

The screencast I produced explicated the learning outcome decomposition process and domain model artefacts for the participants. The screencast turned out to be both useful and necessary in relation to educating them so that they could answer the survey and interview questions.

I used the 10-day mid-term break in February 2018 to complete a significant amount of work on the screencast. This was cognitively and technically challenging as well as very time consuming. It was difficult to tell the complex story of domain models and adaptive learning to a non-expert audience. The graphic output produced in the Adobe Captivate 9 output was originally of poor quality. Eventually, I surmounted this technical challenge by using Adobe Reader, Microsoft PowerPoint and alternative ways of processing the graphics in Captivate. The development of the screencast seemed to go on forever! The screencasts were developed using Adobe Captivate 9 between 23/01/18 and 04/03/18 (Tables 1, 3).

A total of 134 emails were exchanged between the IMTA and me between 19/11/17 and 05/04/18 with the two surveys completed between 27/02/18 and 06/04/18 (Table 3). These emails were to and from eight different branches of the IMTA (Clare, Donegal, Dublin, Galway, Kerry, Midlands, Waterford, Kerry). This exercise was required to maximise the response and to aim for nationwide participation. This was challenging, but there wasn’t any easier method of accessing these teachers. It might have been a little easier if IMTA used an online forum with instant messaging.

Phase 4 – Implement interviews with key informants (01/01/18 to 31/01/18)
Most of the interviews took place between 06/03/18 and 21/03/18. Nine key informants agreed to be interviewed, six of whom were referenced in my initial research proposal. I decided to use two extra Mathematics Educations Professionals (MEPs), sourced from Project Maths Development Group (PMDG) and National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA), instead of two Mathematics teachers. These two additional MEPs had a lot of experience with designing and implementing new Mathematics syllabuses in Ireland (Tables 1, 3). These were important additions as my domain model was based on the new syllabus. Both MEPs provided me with important insights into curriculum development during the interviews.

The most interesting thing to discover from the MEPs was that they all believed that making connections between the various parts of the mathematics courses was the most important thing to be achieved for the successful teaching and learning of mathematics. Creating these connections is one of the key components of a domain model. This is consistent with my philosophical standpoint that the interconnectedness of the various fields of mathematics requires a constructivist approach to teaching and learning.

Phase 5 – Data Analysis (01/01/18 to 31/01/18)
I personally carried out all of the transcribing, and this took an enormous amount of time. It required in the region of 12 to 15 hours to transcribe one hour of interview audio. The transcribing process took the entire month of April to complete. This included working full time on this activity for the two week Easter holiday period in April 2018. I had been made aware in advance that transcribing would be time consuming but I didn’t really appreciate the considerable and tedious work involved until later.

I had not transcribed interviews before, so it was interesting to learn Google Voice and use it, in conjunction with ‘parroting’, for some of the transcribing process. However, I found that using headphones and listening to the audio played via VLC Player on a computer at half speed while simultaneously word processing the text in Google Docs was the most effective method.

The advantage of personally transcribing the interviews was that it allowed me to take notes and do some initial data analysis. If I were to carry out interviews for a future research study, I would definitely try to save time by either outsourcing the transcribing process, or preferably find a suitable software application to automatically transcribe the interviews.

The actual analysis of the interview data by theme and by question mainly took place during May 2018 (Tables 1, 3). The use of semi-structured questions meant that most of the themes were pre-ordained and this was very helpful.

The data analysis of the Google Forms survey was greatly assisted by Microsoft Excel. It still took a considerable amount of time, especially having to merge two surveys and triangulate with the interview data. For a future survey, I would try to ensure that I only have one survey to deal with.

Milestone 6: WIP Presentation 2 (15/05/18)
The formative feedback that I received the day after my presentation was fairly positive. However, it appeared that I could have provided more information about the findings and responses of the participants, and provide less information on the technical details of the project (Table 2). I don’t think that I fully learned from WIP Presentation 1 (28/11/17) that I need to make the narrative a ‘story’. I went in with the idea that I could just bring my audience on a whistle-stop tour of my ePortfolio.

Milestone 7: Applied e-learning Project Submission (24/05/18)
This was submitted to my Supervisor and First Reader well in advance of the deadline date 4th June 2018 (Table 2).

Milestone 8: Journal Paper Submission (09/07/18)
This was emailed to the Supervisor and First Reader a week after the deadline date of 2nd July 2018, having been granted an extension of one week (Table 2). I worked on the journal paper full time for just over five weeks, from 1st June until 9th July 2018. I learnt that I should have provided my supervisor with a first full draft of my paper a little bit earlier. This might have avoided a certain amount of restructuring, and the one-week extension. The formative feedback from both the Supervisor and First Reader was excellent and helped to produce a better quality final paper. The Microsoft Word markup tool that they both used is a great way to receive and utilise formative feedback. However, interactive conversation via telephone was also very useful during the paper restructuring process.

Milestone 9: e-Portfolio Submission (09/07/18)
The URL was submitted to the Supervisor and First Reader a week after the deadline date of 2nd July 2018 having been granted an extension of one week (Table 2). I received an email on 20th August 2018 from them suggesting a number of changes to my ePortfolio. I learnt that my Project Reflection and Reflection on Practice were not properly following a reflective model. Rolfe, Freshwater, & Jasper, 2001 suggested a model based upon three simple questions: What? So what? Now what? After an exchange of a small number of emails, and a 40-minute telephone conversation with my Supervisor and First Reader on 22nd August 2018, I felt that I understood what changes I needed to make to the two reflective pieces, my eLearning Philosophy statement, and also what revisions were required to make my ePortfolio easier to navigate and look more professional.

Tables

References

Black, P., & Wiliam, D. (1998). Inside the Black Box: Raising Standards through Classroom Assessment. The Phi Delta Kappan, 80(2), 139-148. https://www.rdc.udel.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/InsideBlackBox.pdf

Craenen, M. (2017). GAM Authoring Tool: An authoring tool for GALE. (Master’s thesis), Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, Netherland. Retrieved from https://pure.tue.nl/ws/files/91106245/Craenen_Marc_Thesis_CSE.pdf

Dubinsky, E., & Wilson, R. T. (2013). High school students’ understanding of the function concept. The Journal of Mathematical Behavior, 32(1), 83-101. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmathb.2012.12.001

GRAPPLE. (2011). Welcome to the GRAPPLE project Website. Retrieved from http://grapple.win.tue.nl/home.html

Mindomo. (2018). Collaborative mind mapping, concept mapping, outlining. Retrieved from https://www.mindomo.com/

NCCA. (2017). Draft Specification for Junior Cycle Mathematics. Dublin: NCCA Retrieved from https://www.ncca.ie/media/3163/jcmathematics_draft_specification.pdf

Rhumbl. (2018). Interactive data visualization for exploration, engagement and analytics. Retrieved from https://rhumbl.com/

Rittle-Johnson, B., Siegler, R. S., & Alibali, M. W. (2001). Developing conceptual understanding and procedural skill in mathematics: An iterative process. Journal of Educational Psychology, 93(2), 346-362. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.93.2.346

Rolfe, G., Freshwater, D., & Jasper, M. (2001). Critical reflection in nursing and the helping professions: a user’s guide. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Lightbulb Ideas

Semester 2 (Week 5)

Theses are lightbulb ideas and discoveries I had on 28th April 2018.

Lightbulb Ideas

Lightbulb Idea 1:
Key concepts, or pervasive ideas, like RATIO and FUNCTIONS will be MAJOR CITIES on my Google Maps of Mathematics.

Lightbulb Idea 2:
Patterns will be a TOWN that will have similar FEATURES as the similar CITY called FUNCTIONS. These FEATURES will include TABLES, GRAPHS, FUNCTION DIAGRAMS, EQUATIONS. However, EQUATIONS will probably have to exist as a concept (TOWN) or more likely a pervasive idea (CITY) as well.

Discoveries

Discovery 1
Use LEAFLET open-source JavaScript library for mobile-friendly interactive maps.  This can be found at:

http://leafletjs.com/

This is used by:

GitHub foursquare Pinterest Facebook Evernote Etsy Flickr 500px Data.gov European Commission The Washington Post Financial Times NPR USA Today National Park Service IGN.com

Discovery 2
Web Mapping with Python and Leaflet

https://programminghistorian.org/lessons/mapping-with-python-leaflet

Discovery 3
How to build a map of the London Underground.

Building Gorgeous 3D Maps with eegeo.js and Leaflet

Building Gorgeous 3D Maps with eegeo.js and Leaflet

S2-Week 4-Class

Semester 2 (Week 4)

Theses are the notes I took during the Tuesday afternoon workshop that took place from 14:00 to 17:00 on 24th April 2018.  The tutor was Dr Claire McAvinia.

Topic for today’s workshop

– Publishing Journal Papers

Your chosen journal
– Which journal(s) does your research draw on?
– What journal is the leader in your field?
– Where is the journal published?
– Who publishes the journal?
– Are authors you have read on the editorial board?
– Does the journal publish

Computers and Education
– Brendan Tangney is on the editorial board

The Guardian
– How to get published in an educational journal

Structuring a Journal Paper
– Abstract / Summary
– Introduction
– Background / Literature Review
– Research Methods / Methodology
– Findings
– Analysis / Discussion
– Conclusions (including future work)
– References
– Appendices (Depends on Journal)

Brown and Murray

Using Murray’s 10 prompts (2009, p.1)

Do a full draft
Then do a rewrite
Keep stuff for a possible PhD.

Review Process
– Publish as is
– Publish with minor changes
– Major revisions required
– Reject

S2-Week 3-Class

Semester 2 (Week 3)

Theses are the notes I took during the Tuesday afternoon workshop that took place from 14:00 to 17:00 on 20th March 2018.  The tutors were Dr Claire McAvinia and Dr Ita Kennelly.

Topics for today’s workshop

– The Introduction
– Abstract
– Conclusion

Previous MSc student publications
http://dit.ie/aadlt/lttc

Some Measures of Academic Research

Is there a difference between analysis and interpretation of data
Informed / contextualised
Explicit about aims

The Introduction

Pat Thomson highlights the work that the thesis should have

Warrant (setting out your stall)

The introduction has to clearly set the warrant for the thesis- the mandate or rationale for doing the research. Identify the gap in the research.

We need to understand a particular phenomenon, process or practice better…

Justify your research topic/question

Focus

Sets out specific focus for the research in the form of a thesis statement, aims and objectives.

Approach

This includes methodology and methods.

Outline and Definitions

Outline or road map
Clarification of any key definitions.
Some theses and papers use a glossary.

Researcher

This is about locating the researcher in the research. This varies according to the discipline, the topic,the epistemology, etc.

Definitions

Boundaries

Establishing boundaries around the research makes it clear what aspects of a topic and those you haven’t.

It’s about setting expectations that you meet in the thesis.

Abstracts

What the abstract has to do

It is a mini-statement of the thesis or paper.
It presents ALL the key aspects of the larger text
The biggest problem examiners have is the writer not providing the results of the project.

What the abstract is not

The abstract is not a trailer or a
It’s not a foreword

Abstracts – what the MSc handbook says

This will depend on the target journal paper so different rules apply!
You may be given a word limit or you may be instructed to provide a structured abstract with specific bullet points.

Issues with Abstracts

They are very short – not easy to stick to word limit
They are very short – you need to get everything in there

Abstract questions to ask

What’s the research question
How do I locate the significance of the work
What conversation am I in?
What approach have I undertaken to address the research question
What do I offer to existing research? So what…
What’s my argument?
Does my abstract make sense as a stand-alone

Conclusions

Summarise
Future areas for further exploration
Significant / important finding and highlighting
Make sure there is no new material

Limitations/delimitations
Based on your own experience, what is the purpose?
What do you expect to find out from reading it?

Guidelines from Wallace and Wray
(1) a summative claim that reflects the conclusions of your findings and discussion and briefly identifies the key claims and observations from your research literature
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)

Don’t be repetitive
Save a really good quote or fact for the end of the paper…for impact
Instead of just summing up, try going further and predict.
Or you could add personal thoughts on the subject, if you have any personal knowledge. What do you think can or should be done about something.
Consider implications.
Answer “now what?”
Consider qualifications: are there qualifications/limits to your argument.
N.B. A strong finish!

Checklist

All necessary features
Research question
Summary

Introduction
– tell them what you are going to tell them (research question)

Body
– tell them

Conclusion
– tell them what you have just told them (restate research question)

S2-Week 2-Class

Semester 2 (Week 2)

Theses are the notes I took during the Tuesday afternoon workshop that took place from 14:00 to 17:00 on 6th March 2018.  The tutors were Dr Claire McAvinia and Dr Ita Kennelly.

Topics for today’s workshop

– Interpreting Qualitative Data
– Writing and Presenting your Findings

From Analysis to Interpretation

Is there a difference between analysis and interpretation of data?

It is useful to understand that these are separate but interconnected processes.

Recap – Quantitative Data Analysis

Bar Charts, Pie Charts
Mean, Mode, Median

Be very careful about causal versus correlation.

Recap – Qualitative Data Analysis

The analysis process begins with reading all the data at once and then dividing the data into smaller, more meaningful units.

Become familiar with the data and identifying potential themes
– reading, memoing
Examine the data in depth to provide descriptions of the setting, participant and activity (describing)
Think about granularity:
– code pieces of data and group them into themes?
– look for major themes only

Recap – suggested steps

(1)

Strategies used to interpret qualitative data

(1) Identify themes
(2) Code your data
(3) Ask key questions
(4) Do an organisational review
(5) Do concept mapping
(6) Analyse antecedents and consequences
(7) Display findings
(8) Be honest – state what’s missing

Academic Paper

5,000 to 7,000 words.

Note: Make sure you have decided on your journal by 1st May 2018.

Recap: Reliability

Reliability relates to the consistency and trustworthiness of research findings.
– applies to all stages of the research design, not just data analysis
– what checks were employed?
Finished studies: is the work replicable/reproducible by others?
‘One has to ensure the research problem, research methods and statistical analyses are in alignment.’ (Brown & Edmunds, p.13).

Strategies for Data Interpretation

Question your study
Connect findings with personal experiences
Seek advice from “critical friends” if possible
But also contextualise findings in the literature
Turn to theory as a means to: link to broader issues, move away from a purely descriptive account, and providing a rationale for your work.
Know when to offer an interpretation from the data

Note: It is rare for qualitative researchers to use all of their data for the task is to identify important themes or meanings, not necessarily inclusi

N.B. Braun & Clarke: paper on thematic analysis.
Braun, V. and Clarke, V. (2006) Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3 (2). pp. 77-101. ISSN 1478-0887

Credibility

Persuasiveness is strengthened when the investigator’s theoretical claims are supported with evidence from informants’ accounts, negative cases are included, and alternative interpretations considered.
(Riessman cited in Silverman)

Evaluating the credibility of research (Silverman 2006, p.276)

(1) Are the methods of research appropriate to the nature of the question being asked?
(2) Is the connection to an existing body of knowledge or theory clear?
(3) Are their clear accounts of the criteria used for the selection of cases for study, and of the data collection and analysis?
(4) Does the sensitivity of the methods match the needs of the research question?

Writing and presenting your findings

Can you present all your findings?

Do you need to present all your findings?
– if so, how will you do that in an accessible way for your reader
– if not, how will you select which findings to present

What is the purpose of the discussion?
To return to your research question:
– To what extent do your findings address the question?
– Do you have an answer for your question?

Some issues with discussions sections:
– Context: not linking back to literature

Source: patthomson.net

Note: app for transcription.

 

S2-Week 1-Class

Semester 2 (Week 1)

Theses are the notes I took during the Tuesday afternoon workshop that took place from 14:00 to 17:00 on 6th February 2018.  The tutors were Dr Claire McAvinia and Dr Ita Kennelly.

Topic for today’s workshop

– Qualitative Data Analysis

How can you analyse your data?

Do
Get close to your data
Give it time
Keep writing
Choose a method
Be consistent – so you can defend what you have done

Don’t
Bypass analysis through summarising
Gloss over differences
Jump to conclusions

Rethinking some common issues

Triangulation

Can be from from quantitative to qualitative method or from one quantitative method to another (or one qualitative method to another).

Addresses validity concerns

Work Sequence

Numbering Questionnaires
Data Entry
Totals under each categories, demographics
Exploring the data
Designing queries

Check out Andy Fields YouTube videos on SPSS
Envivo – qualitative data analysis software

Qualitative Data Analysis

Interpretive – no one single result or truth
Getting data into a manageable shape

Read all the data at once
Divide it up into manageable chunks

Steps towards analysis

Become familiar with the data and identify potential themes
– Reading, memoing

Examine the data in depth to provide descriptions of the setting, participant …

Think about granularity

Strategies used to analyse qualitative data
1. Identify the themes
2. Code your data
3. Ask key questions
4. Do an organisational review
5. Do concept mapping
.
.

Some distinctions

Content Analysis
– Quantifies the occurrence of words, themes, topics
– Conceptual (occurrence of the concepts) analysis and relational (possible links, meanings and concepts) analysis

Thematic Analysis
– Braun and Clarke, 2006
– see steps on next slides

Grounded Theory
– Strictly speaking – a complete research method
– But many people draw on the constant comparative methods of GT inalalysing qualitative data
– No a priori themes or categories

Thematic Analysis

Thematic analysis shares many of the principles and procedures of content analysis.

Steps in Thematic Analysis – Braun & Clarke (2006, p.16-23 and their Table 1)

1. Familiarise yourself with the data
– immerse yourself, read it a lot, look for patterns, taken
2. Generate initial codes
– Pieces of the data that are interesting to you, they will be organised themes as the units of your analysis
3. Search for themes
– Focus on a broader level of themes and organise codes into potential themes
4. Review the themes
5. Define and name the themes
– say what is important and why.
6. Produce the report/written output

Curating! (Selecting the relevant themes/stories)

Binaries – opposing sides to a similar theme

Using software to help

Word and Excel are both good.

iAnnotate can be used for making notes and adding sound clips to documents.

Mind mapping software is useful
– MindManager
– FreeMind
– iMindMap
– Coggle

Transcription
– You could try Dragon available from http://www.software4students.ie

NVivo
– available from http://downloads.dit.ie

MaxQDA
– http://www.maxqda.com

NVivo and MaxQDA both have 30-day free trials

To consider:
– Technical demand on your computer
– Time demands in setting up your project.

PD6-Post03

Applied Project Day 01 – Saturday 07/10/17

Review email from Professor Paul de Bra (19 June 2017 12:56)
Study the attached PowerPoint file gale-installation.pptx

(1) Download JDK Version 7 from the following link:

Java SE 7 Archive Downloads
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/java-archive-downloads-javase7-521261.html

(2) Install JDK Version 7 as follows:

(a) Install the JDK by double-clicking on jdk-7u80-macosx-x64.dmg and following the installation instructions.
(b) Open a Terminal window.
(c) Execute the command java -version (returned java version “1.7.0_80”) – SUCCESS!
(d) Execute the command javac -version (returned javac 1.7.0_80) – SUCCESS!

(3) Install Homebrew as follows: (but not currently required)

(a) Open a Terminal window
(b) Execute the command dsenableroot
(c) Enter the user password (as prompted)
(d) Enter the root password (as prompted)
(e) Execute the command ruby -e “$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)”
Homebrew will install.
(f) Execute the command brew doctor (returned Your system is ready to brew) – SUCCESS!

(4) Download Tomcat version 7.0.82 from the following link:

http://tomcat.apache.org/download-70.cgi

(a) Under binary distributions, click on tar.gz (pgp, md5, sha1)
(b) In Finder, move the apache-tomcat-7.0.82.tar.gz file from Downloads to the home folder.
(c) Unzip the apache-tomcat-7.0.82.tar.gz file
(d) Rename the resulting apache-tomcat-7.0.82 folder to tomcat

(5) Start the Tomcat Server as follows:

(a) Open a Terminal window.
(b) Execute the command cd tomcat
(c) Execute the command cd bin
(d) Execute the command chmod 755 *.sh
(e) Execute the command sudo ./startup.sh (returned Tomcat started) – SUCCESS!

(6) Stop the Tomcat Server as follows:

(a) Open a Terminal window.
(b) Execute the command cd tomcat
(c) Execute the command cd bin
(d) Execute the command sudo ./shutdown.sh (returned 5 lines including Using CATALINA_BASE: /Users/gerardkilkenny/tomcat)
(e) Execute the command cd ..
(f) Execute the command cd logs
(g) Execute the command cat catalina.out
(h) The 41st of 45 INFO lines states INFO: Stopping service Catalina – SUCCESS!

(7) Download GALE using HSQLDB (version 1.2.3) from the following link:

http://gale.win.tue.nl

(a) In Finder, move the gale-1.2.3-hsqldb.zip file from Downloads to the home folder.
(b) Unzip the gale-1.2.3-hsqldb.zip file
(c) Move the resulting gale.war file to tomcat/webapps

(8) Set the environment variable GALE_HOME as follows:

(a) In Finder, create the folder gale in the home folder
(b) Open a Terminal window
(c) Execute the command defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -bool TRUE
(d) Relaunch Finder by holding the ‘Option/alt’ key, right clicking on the Finder icon in the dock and then clicking Relaunch
(e) In Finder, go to the home folder and note that a number of hidden files are now visible including .bash_profile
(f) Make a copy of the file .bash_profile for safety reasons.
(g) Right-click on the file .bash_profile and choose Get Info
(h) Click on the the lock icon under Sharing & Permissions
(i) Change all three privileges to Read & Write
(j) In Terminal, execute the command open ~/.bash_profile
(k) In TextEdit, add export GALE_HOME=/gale
(l) Choose File and Save
(m) Quit Terminal using the Command and Q keys
(n) Open a new Terminal Window
(o) Execute the command echo $GALE_HOME (returned /gale) – SUCCESS!
(p) Right-click on the file .bash_profile and choose Get Info
(q) Click on the the lock icon under Sharing & Permissions
(r) Change all three privileges to Read Only
(s) Execute the command defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -bool FALSE

(9) Start and test GALE for the first time as follows:

(a) Copy (not move) the gale.war file from the folder /tomcat/webapps to the folder /gale
(b) Open a Terminal window
(c) Execute the command cd gale
(d) Execute the command jar xf gale.war
(e) Execute the command cd gale
(f) Execute the command ls
Note that 19 files are listed including the files Milkyway and tutorial
(g) Execute the command cd tomcat
(h) Execute the command cd bin
(i) Execute the command sudo ./startup.sh (returned Tomcat started) – SUCCESS!
(j) Execute the command cd tomcat/logs
(k) Execute the command cat catalina.out
(l) The last line states INFO: Server startup in 11877 ms – SUCCESS!
(m) Go to a browser and type http://localhost:8080/gale
The Welcome to Gale home page appears
(n) Click on the Milkyway link
(o) Click the Login button to login anonymously

(10) When not using GALE, stop the Tomcat Server – see (6) above
Note: Tomcat may not shut down correctly. Check that Tomcat is not running (use ps or task manager). if it is running, stop/kill the java process.

Applied Project Day 02 – Saturday 14/10/17

Review two emails from Marc Craenen (13 October 2017 22:19 and 14 October 2017 09:21)

(1) Install MySQL as follows (instructions from https://gist.github.com/nrollr/a8d156206fa1e53c6cd6):

(a) Open a Terminal window
(b) Execute the command brew update (returned New Formulae, Updated Formulae, Deleted Formulae)
(c) Execute the command brew info mysql (returned mysql: stable 5.7.19 (bottled))
(d) Execute the command brew install mysql (returned Summary /usr/local/Cellar/mysql/5.7.19: 322 files, 234.8MB)
Caveats: (i) We’ve installed your MySQL database without a root password. To secure it run: mysql_secure_installation
(ii) MySQL is configured to only allow connections from localhost by default To connect run: mysql -uroot
(iii) To have launchd start mysql now and restart at login: brew services start mysql. Or, if you don’t want/need a background service you can just run: mysql.server start
(e) To have launchd start mysql at login, execute the command ln -sfv /usr/local/opt/mysql/*.plist ~/Library/LaunchAgents
(returned /Users/gerardkilkenny/Library/LaunchAgents/homebrew.mxcl.mysql.plist -> /usr/local/opt/mysql/homebrew.mxcl.mysql.plist)
(f) To load mysql immediately, execute the command launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/homebrew.mxcl.mysql.plist
(returned nothing)
(g) Execute the command defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -bool TRUE
(h) Relaunch Finder by holding the ‘Option/alt’ key, right clicking on the Finder icon in the dock and then clicking Relaunch
(i) In Finder, go to the home folder and note that a number of hidden files are now visible including .bash_profile
(j) Make a copy of the file .bash_profile for safety reasons (.bash_profile copy 2)
(k) Right-click on the file .bash_profile and choose Get Info
(l) Click on the the lock icon under Sharing & Permissions
(m) Change all three privileges to Read & Write
(n) In Terminal, execute the command open ~/.bash_profile
(o) In TextEdit, add export MYSQL_PATH=/usr/local/Cellar/mysql/5.7.19
(p) In TextEdit, add export PATH=$PATH:$MYSQL_PATH/bin
(q) Choose File and Save
(r) Choose TextEdit and Quit TextEdit
(s) Quit Terminal using the Command and Q keys
(t) Open a new Terminal Window
(u) Execute the command mysql.server start
(returned1 Welcome to the MySQL monitor. Commands end with ; or \g.)
(returned2 Your MySQL connection id is 4)
(returned3 Server version: 5.7.19 Homebrew)
(v) Execute the command mysqladmin -u root password ‘your password’ to set the root password
Quit the mysql CLI via mysql> \q
(w) Right-click on the file .bash_profile and choose Get Info
(x) Click on the the lock icon under Sharing & Permissions
(y) Change all three privileges to Read Only
(z) Execute the command defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -bool FALSE

Note 1: To start MySQL, execute the command mysql.server start
Note 2: To stop MySQL, execute the command mysql.server stop

(2) Create and populate the MySQL database as follows:

(a) Open a Terminal window
(b) Execute the command type -a mysql to find the path of your mysql bin directory
(returned1 mysql is /usr/local/bin/mysql)
(returned2 mysql is /usr/local/Cellar/mysql/5.7.19/bin/mysql)
(c) Open the folder Macintosh HD on the desktop to access the root directory of your Mac
(d) Navigate to the folder /usr/local/Cellar/mysql/5.7.19/bin
(e) Paste the file gamat.sql inside this folder
(f) Execute the command cd /usr
(g) Execute the command cd local
(h) Execute the command cd cellar
(i) Execute the command cd mysql
(j) Execute the command cd 5.7.19
(k) Execute the command cd bin
(l) Execute the command mysql -u root < gamat.sql
(returned ERROR 1022 (23000) at line 196: Can’t write; duplicate key in table ‘#sql-f62_9’)
(however database was created as verified in Sequel Pro – see below)

(3) Install Sequel Pro as follows:

(a) Go to http://www.sequelpro.com/
(b) Click on the link Download V 1.1.2 OS X 10.6 OR HIGHER
(c) Go to the Downloads folder on your Mac
(d) Double-click on the file sequel-pro-1.1.2.dmg in Downloads
(e) An icon for the app Sequel Pro appears to the right of Sequel Pro 1.1.2 in Devices
(f) Double-click on the icon Sequel Pro
(g) Click Open
(h) In the Host field, type 127.0.0.1
(i) In the Username field, type root
(j) In the Database field, type gamat
(k) Click Connect

(4) Insert data into the users table of the database gamat as follows:

(a) Start up MySQL by executing the command mysql -u root
(b) Type the following 4 lines in the MySQL monitor
mysql> INSERT INTO users
-> (user_id, email, password, username)
-> VALUES
-> (1, “hidden@hidden.com”, “HiddenPassword”, “HiddenUsername”);

(5) Check the users table of the database gamat using Sequel Pro. Click on the Content button and note that a new row containing the four values above has been added.

However, this did not allow me to log in. I eventually discovered that the password is stored as a (encrypted) hash value.

Note 1: Adding export GALE_HOME=/tomcat/webapps/gale to .bash_profile allows access to http://localhost:8080/gale/ However, clicking on the Milkyway application link return

Gale Error
error running LoginManager
java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: error running LoginManager
java.lang.SecurityException: attempt to add a Permission to a readonly Permissions object

Additionally, trying to access the URL http://localhost:8080/author/generate returns

HTTP Status 500 – javax.servlet.ServletException: java.lang.NullPointerException

type Exception report

message javax.servlet.ServletException: java.lang.NullPointerException

description The server encountered an internal error that prevented it from fulfilling this request.

exception

org.apache.jasper.JasperException: javax.servlet.ServletException: java.lang.NullPointerException
org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServletWrapper.handleJspException(JspServletWrapper.java:561)
org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServletWrapper.service(JspServletWrapper.java:462)
org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.serviceJspFile(JspServlet.java:395)
org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.service(JspServlet.java:339)
javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:731)
org.apache.tomcat.websocket.server.WsFilter.doFilter(WsFilter.java:52)
org.tuckey.web.filters.urlrewrite.RuleChain.handleRewrite(RuleChain.java:176)
org.tuckey.web.filters.urlrewrite.RuleChain.doRules(RuleChain.java:145)
org.tuckey.web.filters.urlrewrite.UrlRewriter.processRequest(UrlRewriter.java:92)
org.tuckey.web.filters.urlrewrite.UrlRewriteFilter.doFilter(UrlRewriteFilter.java:394)
org.tuckey.web.filters.urlrewrite.NormalRewrittenUrl.doRewrite(NormalRewrittenUrl.java:213)
org.tuckey.web.filters.urlrewrite.RuleChain.handleRewrite(RuleChain.java:171)
org.tuckey.web.filters.urlrewrite.RuleChain.doRules(RuleChain.java:145)
org.tuckey.web.filters.urlrewrite.UrlRewriter.processRequest(UrlRewriter.java:92)
org.tuckey.web.filters.urlrewrite.UrlRewriteFilter.doFilter(UrlRewriteFilter.java:394)
root cause

javax.servlet.ServletException: java.lang.NullPointerException
org.apache.jsp.generate_jsp._jspService(generate_jsp.java:121)
org.apache.jasper.runtime.HttpJspBase.service(HttpJspBase.java:70)
javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:731)
org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServletWrapper.service(JspServletWrapper.java:439)
org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.serviceJspFile(JspServlet.java:395)
org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.service(JspServlet.java:339)
javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:731)
org.apache.tomcat.websocket.server.WsFilter.doFilter(WsFilter.java:52)
org.tuckey.web.filters.urlrewrite.RuleChain.handleRewrite(RuleChain.java:176)
org.tuckey.web.filters.urlrewrite.RuleChain.doRules(RuleChain.java:145)
org.tuckey.web.filters.urlrewrite.UrlRewriter.processRequest(UrlRewriter.java:92)
org.tuckey.web.filters.urlrewrite.UrlRewriteFilter.doFilter(UrlRewriteFilter.java:394)
org.tuckey.web.filters.urlrewrite.NormalRewrittenUrl.doRewrite(NormalRewrittenUrl.java:213)
org.tuckey.web.filters.urlrewrite.RuleChain.handleRewrite(RuleChain.java:171)
org.tuckey.web.filters.urlrewrite.RuleChain.doRules(RuleChain.java:145)
org.tuckey.web.filters.urlrewrite.UrlRewriter.processRequest(UrlRewriter.java:92)
org.tuckey.web.filters.urlrewrite.UrlRewriteFilter.doFilter(UrlRewriteFilter.java:394)

Note 2: Removing export GALE_HOME=/tomcat/webapps/gale to .bash_profile allows access to http://localhost:8080/author/generate. However, there is then no access to the URL http://localhost:8080/gale/. It returns:

Applied Project Day 03 – Sunday 15/10/17

(1) I edited the Config.properties file in /tomcat/webapps/ROOT/WEB-INF/config as follows:

db_host = localhost TO db_host = localhost (no change)
db_name = gamat TO db_name = gamat (no change)
db_user = gamat TO db_user = root (user is root)
db_pass = gamatpw TO db_pass = (no password)
db_port = 3307 TO db_port = 3306 (3306 is the default MySQL port)

This got the GAM Authoring Tool via http://localhost:8080/author/generate working!!!

There is a problem with getting GALE working via http://localhost:8080/gale/. I am getting the following error messages:
404 Not Found
Error! The requested page could not be found.

(2) Six emails were exchanged between Marc Craenen (software developer of the new GAM Authoring Tool) and I in relation to installing and configuring the new software.

Applied Project Day 04 – Monday 16/10/17

Below is the rationale for developing a new domain tool that does not use a graph to represent the relations between concepts in a domain.

AHA!

“The Graph Author for AHA! was first described in [5]. A snapshot of this interface is shown in Figure 1. The figure shows two panes: the left pane shows part of a hierarchy of concepts, also called a domain model. The right pane shows all “pedagogical rules” in what we call the adaptation model. The adaptation rules that implement the behavior are drawn from a template. The design of such templates is left to an expert. Authors just “draw arrows”. When the domain and adaptation models become much larger than in the figure the accordion menu keeps the domain model readable whereas the graph representing the adaptation model will become cluttered and unreadable.” (pp.1-2)

“In the European research project GRAPPLE1 GALE [16, 17] was created as successor to AHA! and a corresponding graphical authoring tool GAT [7] was created as well. The GAT tool consists of three parts: a domain tool, a pedagogical relationship tool and a course tool. Figure 2 shows the graph part of the domain tool and Figure 3 shows the graph part of the course tool.” (p .2)

“The Domain Tool2 in GAT allows for labeled binary relations between concepts. The domain model can thus become a richly interconnected collection of concepts, much like a domain-specific ontology. It can be much richer than the purely hierarchical domain model shown by the GraphAuthor tool in figure 1. At the same time the graph presentation (instead of an accordion menu) quickly becomes cluttered and unreadable as the domain model grows.” (p. 2)

For the adaptive part of an application GAT uses the CourseTool3 (initial design ideas described in [13]), shown in figure 3. It uses a very compact graphical representation for a collection of adaptation rules that would make for a huge graph in the GraphAuthor, but it does not make it easy to see which incoming and outgoing pedagogical relations (like prerequisites) each concept has.” (p. 2)

“During a course on adaptive hypermedia students were given a choice of using GAT to develop a GALE application or using the underlying adaptation language GAM directly. Students using GAT were generally less happy than students using GAM. Still, when in the next run of this course we asked students to only use GAM and evaluate it, writing the adaptation rules was found to be the most technically challenging part of authoring [15]. Hence the need for a new authoring tool described in this paper.” (p. 2)

“The investigation into these different authoring environments has taught us that an interface for displaying and editing a concept hierarchy appears to work well and scales well with growing applications, and that displaying a graph of relations between concepts always leads to visual clutter with larger models.” (p. 2)

“In GALE an application (or course) consists of concepts. Each concept has a number of (named) properties that have a fixed value and (named) attributes that have a value that is computed through rules. Typical use of these attributes (of which the names and meaning can be chosen arbitrarily) includes:

  • a Boolean attribute suitability to check that all prerequisites for the concept are satisfied.
  • an integer attribute visited to count how many times the user has visited the concept.
  • a real (Double) attribute knowledge to keep track of the user’s knowledge of the concept.” (p. 3)

Default Attributes:
Suitability = True or Suitability = False
Visited = 3
Knowledge = 0.7

“Finally, concepts can also have relationships between them. In GALE there are two predefined relationships:
When concept A extends concept B it inherits all the properties and attributes (from B). We can define one “generic” concept with properties and attributes and then have all other concepts extend it.
Through the parent relationships we build a hierarchy of concepts. GALE also offers views to present (parts of) the concept hierarchy as a navigation menu (for instance as an accordion menu).” (p. 3)

Relationships:
Concept A extends Concept B => Concept A inherits all the properties and attributes from Concept B
Parent Relationships => Hierarchy of Concepts

For example, in the Milkyway application, Planet is a parent, source and prerequisite of Jupiter, Mars, Earth, etc.

Blueprints (templates) that define a structure common to all concepts of an application have 3 parts as follows:

Default Attribute Rules: (def_att_rules)
Name = HasPreRequisite
Type = Binary
Target = Suitability
Code = TargetKnowledge > 0.8
Operator = And

{
“def_att_rules”:[
{
“name”:”hasprerequisite”,
“type”:”binary”,
“target”:”suitability”,
“tooltip”:
“Target concept must be learned
before source is recommended.”,
“code”:”${%target%#knowledge} > 0.8″,
“operator”:”and”
}
]

NOTE: The above must mean that the student should have a knowledge of greater than 80% about the target (say star or Sun) before the source is recommended (say planet or Saturn)

Persistent Attribute Rules: (persistent_att_rules)
Name = Visited
Type = Unary
Properties:
Name = Visited
Type = Integer

NOTE: I don’t understand the above – Type = Unary and Type = Integer.

Default Relations:
Name = Rotates Around
Tooltip = “Source concept rotates around the target object.”

NOTE: (This must mean that the source concept is (say) planet and rotates around the target object which is star) or
NOTE: (This could mean that the source concept is (say) Saturn and rotates around the target object which is Sun)

QUESTION: Why not say that the “Source concept rotates around the target concept.” ?

NOTE: (This must mean that the target object of star must be learned before source concept is recommended.”

QUESTION: Why is target concept used in “def_att_rules” above (“Target concept must be learned before source is recommended.”) and target object used in the Tooltip above (“Source concept rotates around the target object.”) ? CONFUSING!!!

QUESTION: Is Planet a concept type and Saturn a concept? (or is it the other way around?)
QUESTION: If it’s the former, then is concept type a target and concept a source?

‘In adaptive courses a concept may have some prerequisites, and in our example the concept Earth has two prerequisites: Planet and Sun. We not only show some prerequisites but also added some more relationships (isMoonOf and isPlanetOf).” (p. 5)

QUESTION: When adding an attribute for a concept type, there are 4 fields as follows:
Attribute name: next
Type: String
Operator: = or =+ or &= or |=
Value (optional): next topic

What is the Operator field for?
How are Operators used?
Only Attribute name, Type, Value appear in Figure 5 (p. 4)

QUESTION: Why can’t one edit Relationships? (can only delete them with thrash can icon)

BUG: If incoming_attr and outgoing_attr are left blank, list of Concepts under Manage => Concepts disappears.

BUG: The Add a relationship functionality does not work. The Select a relation drop-down list box is blank (contains …)

QUESTION: What is a property? What does it mean by “Properties can be useful for adding events.”

BUG: The Create a new concept or concept type does not appear to work. Specifically, neither Choose a parent concept or Choose concept types this concept should belong to appear to work.

QUESTION: Why is it not possible to create a concept with less than 4 characters, e.g. Sun?
QUESTION: Why is it not possible to create a concept with the hyphen character, e.g. The-Sun? (since spaces are not allowed). Note: There appears to be a restriction to alphanumeric characters.

BUG: Attributes do not appear in the order added. If you compare the list under Attributes on the web page, you will see that it appears in a different order to the ordered list in the database table (Sequel Pro)

Reference
De Bra, P., Stash, N., Boereboom, W., Chen, C., Den Ouden, J., Kunstman, M., . . . Verbakel, E. (2016). ALAT: Finally an Easy To Use Adaptation Authoring Tool. Paper presented at the Proceedings of the 27th ACM Conference on Hypertext and Social Media, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. https://doi.org/10.1145/2914586.2914627

Link
http://wwwis.win.tue.nl/~debra/ALAT.pdf

Applied Project Day 05 – Saturday 21/10/17

Install GeoGebra Classic 6 on my Mac

Create folder Maths Files
Create two sub-folders: Scanned Roughwork and GeoGebra

Scan first version 01-Linear_Sequence.pdf (2 page file)
Scan first version 01-Algebra_Formulae.pdf (1 page file)
COPY THESE TWO .PDF FILES TO THE Scanned Roughwork FOLDER

Create the file Linear_Sequence(Number_0)Y.ggb
Create the file Linear_Sequence(Graph_0)Y.ggb
COPY THESE TWO .GGB FILES TO THE GeoGebra FOLDER

Create the HTML5 versions of the two .GGB files. This will also create the support files in a folder called Geogebra.
COPY THESE TWO .HTML FILES TO FOLDERS CALLED Linear_Sequence(Number_0)Y and Linear_Sequence(Graph_0)Y
Note: A GeoGebra folder containing the support files is created for each .HTML file. However, when uploading to a web server, only one GeoGebra folder containing one set of support files is required.

Upload the HTML versions of the two files to my ePortfolio (gerardkilkenny.ie) using FileZilla and test on Mac and iPad. Both files work!

Applied Project Day 06 – Monday 23/10/17

Receive and send emails (one each) to/from Marc Craenen.
Email received is a comprehensive response to the questions and bugs in my emails sent to him on 16/10/17 and 23/10/17.
Email sent to him is to follow up on his availability to log in to my Mac using TeamViewer on Thursday, Friday, Saturday of this week.

Applied Project Day 07 – Tuesday 24/10/17

Review emails received yesterday from Marc Craenen.
Use the GAM Authoring Tool to recap on existing bugs in the software.

Applied Project Day 08 – Thursday 26/10/17

2 emails sent to Marc Craenen.
5 emails sent to Marc Craenen.
Test remote login to my iMac from my Windows 10 laptop using TeamViewer. (Success!).
2 hours 26 minutes spent on a WhatsApp call and TeamViewer session with Marc Craenen.

Go through all of the questions, bugs and errors (12 questions, 4 bugs, 1 error) in the email sent to me by Marc Craenen on Monday 23rd October 2017 at 19:28.

Email Marc a SQL dump so that he can try to resolve the following error documented in my email to Marc on 23rd October 2017:
—ERROR 1022 (23000) at line 196: Can’t write; duplicate key in table ‘#sql-f62_9’ which occurred when I executed the command mysql -u root < gamat.sql to create and populate the gamat database.

Receive printscreens file from Marc containing a concept structure nested hierarchically. Due to a bug in Marc’s software, two records in the database failed to be created. These 2 records have the field full_name and should have been populated by the strings “extends” and “has parent” when the gamat database was originally created.

To investigate why GALE won’t launch, generate Tomcat logs and email them to Marc. (The filenames are catalina.2017-10-26.log and localhost.2017-10-26.log).

Test Generate Project via the URL: http://localhost:8080/author/generate
This generates the following 2 links:
http://localhost:8080/data/project/2/output.zip (which is the output of your project is bundled in the outtput.zip file)
http://localhost:8080/gale/concept/http://localhost:8080/data/project/2/Milkyway (which produces a 404 error instead of allowing you to view your project by visiting this particular URL)

Learn about hierarchical menu, parent, extends, relationships, concepts, concept types, properties and events (adaptation model)
Use ALAT.pdf and also use:
http://gale.win.tue.nl:10080/gale/concept/gale://gale.tue.nl/course/grapple/gale_domainmodel?view=static-tree-view (domain model)
http://gale.win.tue.nl:10080/gale/concept/gale://gale.tue.nl/course/grapple/gale_adaptationmodel?view=static-tree-view (adaptation model)

Applied Project Day 09 – Saturday 28/10/17

Edit the following 2 files:
Linear_Sequence(Number_0)Y.ggb
Linear_Sequence(Graph_0)Y.ggb

Rename the 2 files to:
01-Seq(No_0)Y.ggb
02-Seq(Gra_0)Y.ggb

Create the following 3 files and save them to the GeoGebra folder on my Mac
03-Slope (Gra_0)Y.ggb
04-Slope(Tab_0)XY.ggb
05-Slope(Tab_1)XY.ggb

Applied Project Day 10 – Sunday 29/10/17

Create the following 4 files and save them to the GeoGebra folder on my Mac
06-Fun(Tab_0)XY.ggb
07-Fun(Tab_1)XY.ggb
08-Seq(Tab_0)XY.ggb
09-Seq(Tab_1)XY.ggb

30/10/17 (Monday) – Applied Project Day 11

Create the folder C:\Adaptive Learning Databases\Mk 4 on my laptop.
Copy the Microsoft Access database file Adaptive Maths Rel Pop Query Test C.mdb from the folder Mk3 to Mk4.
Delete the content of this database file and repopulate it with the following topic data from the syllabus PDF file Junior Certificate Mathematics Syllabus (Foundation, Ordinary & Higher Level) for examination from 2016:
2.2 Co-ordinate Geometry (Strand 2)
4.1 Generating arithmetic expressions from repeating patterns (Strand 4)
4.2 Representing situations with tables, diagrams and graphs (Strand 4)
4.3 Finding formulae (Strand 4)
5.1 Functions (Strand 5)
5.2 Graphing functions (Strand 5)
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
01/11/17 (Wednesday) – Applied Project Day 12

Edit the Relationships in the Microsoft Access database file Adaptive Maths Rel Pop Query Test C.mdb in the folder Mk4.

Create the database query Outcomes to produce the 31 learning outcomes in the domain specified in my Research Proposal.
These learning outcomes may be found in the following topics in Strands 2, 4, 5 of the syllabus PDF file Junior Certificate Mathematics Syllabus (Foundation, Ordinary & Higher Level) for examination from 2016:
2.2 Co-ordinate geometry
4.1 Generating arithmetic expression from repeating patterns
4.2 Representing situation with tables, diagrams and graphs
4.3 Finding formulae
5.1 Functions
5.2 Graphing functions
Export the output of this query to the file Outcomes.xlsx.
Edit the file Outcomes.xlsx to produce the following Excel files:
Outcomes (Formatted).xlsx – edited to fit on a single A4 page
Outcomes (Formatted_Greyed_Out).xlsx – 11 learning outcomes greyed out. Note: These 11 learning outcomes don’t have connections between Strands 2, 4, 5.
Outcomes (Formatted_Deleted).xlsx – 11 learning outcomes deleted. Note: There are now 20 learning outcomes. The word midpoint has had a strikethrough embellishment as it is not relevant to this study.
Outcomes (Formatted_Deleted_2).xlsx – row heights changed to double-height to match the corresponding row heights in the file Subtopics (Formatted).xlsx.
Outcomes (Formatted_Deleted_2_C).xlsx – 6 different colours used to highlight the learning outcomes that belong to the 6 topics (2.2, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 5.1, 5.2)

Create the database query Subtopics to produce the subtopics corresponding to the 31 learning outcomes in the domain specified in my Research Proposal.
These subtopics may be seen in the 6 topics referred to above in Strands 2, 4, 5 of the syllabus PDF file Junior Certificate Mathematics Syllabus (Foundation, Ordinary & Higher Level) for examination from 2016.
Export the output of this query to the file Subtopics.xlsx.
Edit the file Outcomes.xlsx to produce the following Excel files:
Subtopics (Formatted).xlsx – edited to fit on a single A4 page
Subtopics (Formatted_Greyed_Out).xlsx – 11 subtopics greyed out. Note: These 11 subtopics correspond to the 11 learning outcomes that don’t have connections between Strands 2, 4, 5.
Subtopics (Formatted_Deleted).xlsx – 11 subtopics deleted. Note: There are now 20 subtopics corresponding to the 20 learning outcomes. The word midpoint has had a strikethrough embellishment as it is not relevant to this study.
Subtopics (Formatted_Deleted_C).xlsx – 6 different colours used to highlight the subtopics corresponding to the learning outcomes that belong to the 6 topics (2.2, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 5.1, 5.2)

Create the database query Outcomes & Subtopics to produce the outcomes and corresponding subtopics for the 31 learning outcomes in the domain specified in my Research Proposal.
These outcome & subtopics may be seen in the 6 topics referred to above in Strands 2, 4, 5 of the syllabus PDF file Junior Certificate Mathematics Syllabus (Foundation, Ordinary & Higher Level) for examination from 2016.

Create a file Concepts.xlsx with the following headings:

Components
Concept Code
Concept Description

Create the following 27 concepts:

Co-ordinated Plane
Points (Dots on Plane)
Points (Names)
Points (Coordinates)
Origin (Special Dot)
Origin (Special Name)
Origin (Coordinates)
Points on x-axis
Points on y-axis
Line Segment 1
Line Segment 2
Length of Line Segment 1
Length of Line Segment 2
Line Segment 3
Right-Angled Triangle
Slope of Line Segment 3
Constant Slope
Line
Variable Slope (x ≠ 1)
Variable Slope (x = 1)
Staircase 2
Staircase 3
Staircase 2 to Sequence 2
Staircase 3 to Sequence 3
Terms
Linear Sequence
Term-to-Term Rule

This is the beginning of a major piece of work that will attempt to organise the 20 learning outcomes and 20 subtopics (see above) into a set of interconnected concepts for the domain model.
This will require the development of the following:

Information Objects. An information object focuses on a single piece of information. (Geogebra files).
Learning Objects. A learning object is a collection of information objects that are assembled to teach a single learning objective. (Multiple Geogebra files converted to HTML5).
Learning Components. A learning component is a generic term for things like lessons and courses that typically have multiple learning objectives and are composed of multiple learning objects. (Multiple Geogebra files converted to HTML5).
Concepts. These are core mathematical ideas, encapsulated in pedagogical instruction (*), that permeate and utilise information objects, learning objects, learning components and have description codes and description text.
Domain Model. This is a hierarchy of interconnected concepts. (Authored using the GAM Authoring Tool).

See http://www.reusablelearning.org/about/Granularity.html for Reusability Framework as a Function of Granularity
*See https://www.igi-global.com/dictionary/pedagogical-instruction/54371 for What is Pedagogical Instruction?
*See http://edutechwiki.unige.ch/en/Pedagogic_strategy for pedagogic strategy and instructional strategy.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
02/11/17 (Thursday) – Applied Project Day 13

Work on the Supervision Logbook part of my ePortfolio.
Email Caitríona and Claire the link and password to the Supervision Logbook section of my ePortfolio. (Caitríona emailed me earlier today requesting this information).

Begin organising the 27 concepts above into a hierarchy of concepts.
Explore the possibility of using the Mindomo mind mapping tool to help with this organisational process.
Explore the possibility of using the Microsoft Visio application to help with this organisational process.
Explore three different scenarios in organising the concepts into a hierarchy using the GAM Authoring Tool (GAM).
Email Marc Craenen these three different scenarios requesting advice and comment.
I also asked Marc in his email for the following information as well: (a) how to link resources to concepts (I can’t see any functionality for this) (b) when will he have a working version of GALE (amalgamated with the GAT into a single .WAR file)

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
03/11/17 (Friday) – Applied Project Day 14

N.B. VERY IMPORTANT LINK!
A simple search for “machine learning” and “adaptive learning” in Google Search produced the following link sixth from the top:

The Mapping Lab
https://mapping.mit.edu

Concept Mapping
https://mapping.mit.edu/concept-mapping

Outcomes Mapping
https://mapping.mit.edu/outcomes-mapping

The article in the link below outlines XOCES, a Java-based widget for mapping learning outcomes, built by the MIT Mapping Lab:

XOCES (“X-oh-sis”)
https://mapping.mit.edu/projects/xoces

Rhumbl
https://rhumbl.com

Legal
https://rhumbl.com/legal
This website, Rhumbl.com (the “site”), is owned and operated by Willcox & Huang (“Rhumbl”, “we” or “us”).

Why use Rhumbl?
https://rhumbl.com/why-use-rhumbl

Good progress in using Rhumbl – see the following files in the folder Concept Mapping\Rhumbl:
MAPPING OF TOPICS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES
Rhumbl (Account Creation).png
Test1.xlsx
Excel 1 (Learning Outcomes).png
Excel 2 (Topics).png
Excel 2 (Topics).png
Excel 3 (Both).png
Rhumbl 1 (Data).png
Rhumbl 2 (Styles).png
Rhumbl 3 (Publish).png

Superb progress in using Rhumbl – see the following files in the folder Concept Mapping\Rhumbl:
MAPPING OF TOPICS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES WITH ONE-TO-MANY RELATIONSHIPS FROM LEARNING OUTCOMES TO TOPICS
LINKS TO URLs NOW INCLUDED AND WORKING

I published this concept map of a test domain and Rhumbl stored it at the following URL:
https://rhumbl.com/embed/59fcc0c294470c00102c0d18
Test2.xlsx
Rhumbl-editing (Overview).png
Rhumbl-published (Overview).png
Rhumbl-published (LO 4.1.1.1).png
Rhumbl-published (LO 4.3.2.2)

Further progress in using Rhumbl – see the following files in the folder Concept Mapping\Rhumbl:
KEYWORDS NOW INCLUDED AND WORKING

Test3.xlsx
Test4.xlsx

I published the Test4.xlsx concept map of a test domain and Rhumbl stored it at the following URL:
https://rhumbl.com/embed/5a1a17f748444e00103fd5aa

IMPORTANT

Check out the adaptive learning kit flyby at the following link:
https://mapping.mit.edu/projects/flyby

Check out the Fly-by_Wire project at the following links:
http://fbw.mit.edu
http://fbw.mit.edu/technology
http://fbw.mit.edu/team

Check out Professor Karen Wilcox, Director of MIT Mapping Lab
http://kiwi.mit.edu
Email: kwillcox@mit.edu

Check out Vijay Kumar
http://web.mit.edu/vkumar/www/
“He is also co-PI of a US Department of Education project, “Fly-By-Wire” directed towards assisting teachers in scalably addressing the learning needs of differently prepared and motivated students;”

“Towards Scalable Differentiated Instruction was awarded a 2015 Department of Education FIPSE First in the World Development Grant to develop the proposed FbW technology. The First in the World program aims to address challenges in postsecondary education for students who are at risk for not persisting in and completing postsecondary programs.”
http://fbw.mit.edu

Department Awards $60 Million in First in the World Grants to 18 Colleges, Universities and Organisations
FUNDING OF ALMOST 3 MILLION DOLLARS FOR KAREN WILCOX
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge—$2,891,882
Karen Willcox, kwillcox@mit.edu, (617) 253-3503
https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/department-awards-60-million-first-world-grants-17-colleges-universities-and-organizations

Note: GRAPPLE got a contribution of EUR 3 850 000 from the EU and cost EUR 5 303 577. See link below:
http://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/85413_en.html

IMPORTANT

Check out:
OpenMantle Graph API
https://mapping.mit.edu/projects/openmantle

Note: Fly-by-Wire Student App is built on OpenMantle API. See the following link:
Examples
https://mapping.mit.edu/projects/openmantle-examples

Note: I subscribed to MIT to get emails about the developer API on 04/11/17

Check out Professor Karen Wilcox’s mapping publications:
Publications
https://mapping.mit.edu/publications/

Note: I set up a GitHub account.
Username = gerardkilkenny
Email = gerard.kilkenny@outlook.com

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
04/11/17 (Saturday) – Applied Project Day 15
Research Ethics Application Form
Complete Sections 1 to 5 (and partially complete Section 6).
Sections 1 to 6 were covered in Claire McAvinia’s two part screencast.
Email Content for Research Ethics Application Form (Part 1 of 2).docx to Claire and carbon copy Caitríona Ní Shé.

“We coded 49 studies using electronic surveys. However, some of the 49 studies reported multiple surveys, and thus a total of 68 surveys were available for the meta-analysis.” (p.825)

“In our analysis, the mean response rate for the 68 surveys reported in 49 studies was 39.6% (SD = 19.6%).” (p.829)

Survey: 440 members of IMTA Dublin Branch in 1996. 39.6% of 440 = 174.24.
Interviews: 8
Total: 175 + 8 = 183

A Meta-Analysis of Response Rates in Web- or Internet-Based Survey
APA (2471)
Cook, C., Heath, F., & Thompson, R. L. (2000). A meta-analysis of response rates in web-or internet-based surveys. Educational and psychological measurement, 60(6), 821-836.
Link
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/247728397_A_Meta-Analysis_of_Response_Rates_in_Web-_or_Internet-Based_Survey
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/00131640021970934

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
05/11/17 (Sunday) – Applied Project Day 16
Research Ethics Application Form

Create Test4.xlsx based on Test3.xlsx
Add URLs for GeoGebra files
The latest Rhumbl URL is in respect of Test4.xlsx. It is:
https://rhumbl.com/embed/59fcc0c294470c00102c0d18

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
??/??/17 (???day) – Applied Project Days ??, ??
Prepare presentation for WIP 1

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
??/??/17 (???day) – Applied Project Day ??
Electronic Survey

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
??/??/17 (???day) – Applied Project Day ??
Emails to/from Elizabeth Oldham re Electronic Survey

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
01/12/17 (Friday) – Applied Project Day ??
Meet Elizabeth Oldham

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
??/??/17 (???day) – Applied Project Day ??
Emails to/from Key Informants

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
??/??/17 (???day) – Applied Project Day ??
Emails to/from Marc Craenen

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
14/12/17 (Thursday) – Applied Project Day ??
Supervision Meeting 03

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
16/12/17 (Saturday) – Applied Project Day ??

(1) Get screenshots of Concepts, Relationships, Visual Overview of the following projects created using the GAM Authoring Tool via http://localhost:8080/author/ :

(2) Get backups (i.e. output.zip files) of the following projects created using the GAM Authoring Tool via http://localhost:8080/author/generate :
Maths01 (Project 4)
Maths02 (Project 5)
Milkyway01 (Project 2)
Milkyway02 (Project 3)

(3) Get backups of SQL and CSV files from Sequel Pro.

(4) Download Tomcat version 8.5.24 from the following link:
https://tomcat.apache.org/download-80.cgi

(a) Under binary distributions, click on tar.gz (pgp, md5, sha1, sha512)
(b) In Finder, move the apache-tomcat-8.5.24.tar.gz file from Downloads to the home folder.
(c) Unzip the apache-tomcat-8.5.24.tar.gz file
(d) Rename the resulting apache-tomcat-8.5.24.tar.gz folder to tomcat

(5) Start the Tomcat Server as follows:

(a) Open a Terminal window.
(b) Execute the command cd tomcat
(c) Execute the command cd bin
(d) Execute the command chmod 755 *.sh
(e) Execute the command sudo ./startup.sh (returned Tomcat started) – SUCCESS!

(6) Stop the Tomcat Server as follows:

(a) Open a Terminal window.
(b) Execute the command cd tomcat
(c) Execute the command cd bin
(d) Execute the command sudo ./shutdown.sh (returned 5 lines including Using CATALINA_BASE: /Users/gerardkilkenny/tomcat)
(e) Execute the command cd ..
(f) Execute the command cd logs
(g) Execute the command cat catalina.out
(h) The 41st of 45 INFO lines states INFO: Stopping service Catalina – SUCCESS!

********* IMPORTANT – MySQL was installed a few weeks ago with Tomcat version 7.0.82 and therefore I did not need to install it again as per the instructions below*********
(7) Install MySQL as follows (instructions from https://gist.github.com/nrollr/a8d156206fa1e53c6cd6):
(a) Open a Terminal window
(b) Execute the command brew update (returned New Formulae, Updated Formulae, Deleted Formulae)
(c) Execute the command brew info mysql (returned mysql: stable 5.7.19 (bottled))
(d) Execute the command brew install mysql (returned Summary /usr/local/Cellar/mysql/5.7.19: 322 files, 234.8MB)
Caveats: (i) We’ve installed your MySQL database without a root password. To secure it run: mysql_secure_installation
(ii) MySQL is configured to only allow connections from localhost by default To connect run: mysql -uroot
(iii) To have launchd start mysql now and restart at login: brew services start mysql. Or, if you don’t want/need a background service you can just run: mysql.server start
(e) To have launchd start mysql at login, execute the command ln -sfv /usr/local/opt/mysql/*.plist ~/Library/LaunchAgents
(returned /Users/gerardkilkenny/Library/LaunchAgents/homebrew.mxcl.mysql.plist -> /usr/local/opt/mysql/homebrew.mxcl.mysql.plist)
(f) To load mysql immediately, execute the command launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/homebrew.mxcl.mysql.plist
(returned nothing)
(g) Execute the command defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -bool TRUE
(h) Relaunch Finder by holding the ‘Option/alt’ key, right clicking on the Finder icon in the dock and then clicking Relaunch
(i) In Finder, go to the home folder and note that a number of hidden files are now visible including .bash_profile
(j) Make a copy of the file .bash_profile for safety reasons (.bash_profile copy 2)
(k) Right-click on the file .bash_profile and choose Get Info
(l) Click on the the lock icon under Sharing & Permissions
(m) Change all three privileges to Read & Write
(n) In Terminal, execute the command open ~/.bash_profile
(o) In TextEdit, add export MYSQL_PATH=/usr/local/Cellar/mysql/5.7.19
(p) In TextEdit, add export PATH=$PATH:$MYSQL_PATH/bin
(q) Choose File and Save
(r) Choose TextEdit and Quit TextEdit
(s) Quit Terminal using the Command and Q keys
(t) Open a new Terminal Window
(u) Execute the command mysql.server start
(returned1 Welcome to the MySQL monitor. Commands end with ; or \g.)
(returned2 Your MySQL connection id is 4)
(returned3 Server version: 5.7.19 Homebrew)
(v) Execute the command mysqladmin -u root password ‘your password’ to set the root password
Quit the mysql CLI via mysql> \q
(w) Right-click on the file .bash_profile and choose Get Info
(x) Click on the the lock icon under Sharing & Permissions
(y) Change all three privileges to Read Only
(z) Execute the command defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -bool FALSE
Note 1: To start MySQL, execute the command mysql.server start
Note 2: To stop MySQL, execute the command mysql.server stop

(8) Copy the file GALE.WAR:

(a) Download the file gale.war from Marc Craenen’s email (13/12/17) to a newly created GAT 3 folder on my Mac.
(b) In Finder, copy the file gale.war from GAT 3 to tomcat/webapps

********* IMPORTANT – The environment variable GALE_HOME was set a few weeks ago and therefore I did not need to set it again as per the instructions below*********
(9) Set the environment variable GALE_HOME as follows:

(a) In Finder, create the folder gale in the home folder
(b) Open a Terminal window
(c) Execute the command defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -bool TRUE
(d) Relaunch Finder by holding the ‘Option/alt’ key, right clicking on the Finder icon in the dock and then clicking Relaunch
(e) In Finder, go to the home folder and note that a number of hidden files are now visible including .bash_profile
(f) Make a copy of the file .bash_profile for safety reasons.
(g) Right-click on the file .bash_profile and choose Get Info
(h) Click on the the lock icon under Sharing & Permissions
(i) Change all three privileges to Read & Write
(j) In Terminal, execute the command open ~/.bash_profile
(k) In TextEdit, add export GALE_HOME=/gale
(l) Choose File and Save
(m) Quit Terminal using the Command and Q keys
(n) Open a new Terminal Window
(o) Execute the command echo $GALE_HOME (returned /gale) – SUCCESS!
(p) Right-click on the file .bash_profile and choose Get Info
(q) Click on the the lock icon under Sharing & Permissions
(r) Change all three privileges to Read Only
(s) Execute the command defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -bool FALSE

(10) Deploy GALE as follows:

(a) Open a Terminal window.
(b) Execute the command cd tomcat
(c) Execute the command cd bin
(d) Execute the command sudo ./startup.sh
(e) In Finder, note that the folder gale has been created in the folder /tomcat/webapps with 19 files and folders

(11) Start and test GALE as follows:

(a) Open a Terminal window
(b) Execute the command cd tomcat
(c) Execute the command cd bin
(d) Execute the command sudo ./startup.sh (returned Tomcat started) – SUCCESS!
(e) Execute the command cd tomcat/logs
(f) Execute the command cat catalina.out
(g) The last line states INFO: Server startup in 11877 ms – SUCCESS!
(h) Go to a browser and type http://localhost:8080/gale
The Welcome to Gale home page appears
(i) Click on the Milkyway link
(j) Click the Login button to login anonymously

(12) When not using GALE, stop the Tomcat Server – see (6) above.
Note: Tomcat may not shut down correctly. Check that Tomcat is not running (use ps or task manager). if it is running, stop/kill the java process.

(13) Deploy GAT-AT as follows:

(a) Paste the files galedb.sql and goat.sql into the folder /usr/local/Cellar/mysql/5.7.19/bin using the Macintosh HD app on the desktop
(b) Open a Terminal window
(c) Execute the command cd /usr
(d) Execute the command cd local
(e) Execute the command cd cellar
(f) Execute the command cd mysql
(g) Execute the command cd 5.7.19
(h) Execute the command cd bin
(i) Execute the command mysql -u root < galedb.sql
(j) Execute the command mysql.server start

Note: If this doesn’t work, create and populate the two MySQL databases using Sequel Pro and using the import command to import galedb.sql and goat.sql

(k) Create a user called ‘goat’ with the password ‘l$PxgZEdkU$CKO9gLswcYVGFcBk306*ToWCUULwA’ as follows:

CREATE USER ‘goat’@’localhost’ IDENTIFIED BY ‘l$PxgZEdkU$CKO9gLswcYVGFcBk306*ToWCUULwA’;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.01 sec)
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON * . * TO ‘goat’ @’localhost’;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)
\q
Bye

(14) Start and test GAM-AT as follows:

(a) Open a Terminal window
(b) Execute the command cd tomcat
(c) Execute the command cd bin
(d) Execute the command sudo ./startup.sh
(e) Go to a browser and type http://localhost:8080/gale/gam-at

Note: GAM-AT doesn’t work. I have emailed Marc Craenen.

Note: I copied servlet-api.jar and jsp-api.jar from tomcat/lib to tomcat/bin. I also issued the following command in Terminal:
export CLASSPATH=/Users/gerardkilkenny/tomcat/bin/bootstrap.jar:/Users/gerardkilkenny/tomcat/bin/tomcat-juli.jar:/Users/gerardkilkenny/tomcat/bin/servlet-api.jar:/Users/gerardkilkenny/tomcat/bin/jsp-api.jar
The ‘persistency’ of this command was checked using echo $CLASSPATH.

Note: GAM-AT still doesn’t work.

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17/12/17 (Sunday) – Applied Project Day ??

(1) Write up the minutes of Supervision Meeting 03 that took place in DIT, Aungier Street on Thursday 14/12/17.
(2) Post these minutes on my ePortfolio.
(3) Write and send an email to Claire McAvinia with queries in relation to the marksheet and assessment criteria as applicable to my Applied eLearning Project.
(4) Send email to Ciarán Ó Conaill, SEC proposing a Friday afternoon in February or March 2018 as a possible meeting time for the semi-structured interview.

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18/12/17 (Monday) – Applied Project Day ??

(1) Telephone call from Ciarán Ó Conaill, SEC in relation to Fridays not being suitable in 2018 for the semi-structured interview.
(2) We agreed that the interview would take place instead on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday afternoon during February or March 2018 in SEC offices in Athlone.
(3) Ciarán suggested asking Rachel Linney, NCCA to participate in an interview. He kindly offered to ask her and asked me to send an information email that he can pass on to her. Snowballing!
(4) Ciarán informed me that the final version of the specifications for the new Junior Cycle Mathematics course is now available. However, this PDF document will not be available online until January 2018. I asked Ciarán to ask Rachel if this PDF file can be emailed to me. I offered to send an email with this request and also containing assurances that I will not divulge details of this document or disseminate it if I receive it in December 2018. I have sent this email to Ciarán.
(5) Send emails to the 11 non-Dublin branches of IMTA requesting them to send a link to the digital artefacts / electronic survey in January 2018.

For other branches: see http://www.imta.ie/in-your-area/ … though some a

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??/??/?? (???day) – Applied Project Day ??

(1) Receive emails from 3 of the 11 non-Dublin branches of IMTA requesting them to send a link to the digital artefacts / electronic survey in January 2018.
(2) Replies to these 3 emails.

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25/12/17 (Monday) – Applied Project Day ??

(1) Try to get the new and old versions of GALE and GAT (GAM-AT) working on my website. Despite valiant efforts, no cigar!

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26/12/17 (Tuesday) – Applied Project Day ??

Create the folder C:\Adaptive Learning Databases\Mk 5 (New JC) on my laptop.
Copy the Microsoft Access database file Adaptive Maths Rel Pop Query Test C.mdb from the folder Mk4 to Mk5.
Delete the content of this database file and repopulate it with the following topic data from the syllabus PDF file Draft Specification for Junior Cycle Mathematics: November 2017:
U Unifying Strand
N Number Strand
GT Geometry and Trigonometry Strand
AF Algebra and Function Strand
SP Statistics and Probability Strand

Note 1: There are now 4 strands instead of 5. Algebra (old Strand 4) and Functions (old Strand 5) are no longer separate strands. They have been amalgamated into a single strand called Algebra and Functions.
Note 2: There is now a ‘Unifying Strand’ containing 6 elements. The 2 elements that are of interest to this research study are ‘Element 2: Representation’ and ‘Element 3: Connections’.

Element: Representation

Students should be able to:

U.4 represent a mathematical situation in a variety of different ways, including: numerically, algebraically, graphically, physically, in words – and to interpret, analyse, and compare such representations

Element: Connections

Students should be able to:

U.5 make connections within and between strands
U.6 make connections between mathematics and the real world

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27/12/17 (Wednesday) – Applied Project Day ??

The structure of the new draft syllabus is quite different to the old one. Now there is a three tier structure of learning outcomes. For example, 2 (b) (iii) in the new draft document means 2 is the main outcome (Tier 1), (b) is a sub-outcome (Tier 2) of outcome 2 and (iii) is a sub-outcome (Tier 3) of sub-outcome (b).

Therefore, I needed to delete all of the content in C:\Adaptive Learning Databases\Mk 5 (New JC) on my laptop and create an entirely new database. This meant creating new tables, relationships and queries.

Today, I have creating the database structure and I have tested it with some content from the new draft document.

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28/12/17 (Thursday) – Applied Project Day ??

Today, I populated the new database with all of the content from the new draft document. This was a fairly large task and took the entire day.

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29/12/17 (Friday) – Applied Project Day ??

Today, was a very important day.

I exported the domain content for my Applied Project from Microsoft Access to Microsoft Excel.
Then, I formatted this content in Excel.

N.B. However, the most important thing I did today was to to deconstruct the domain content of the syllabus and ‘unpack’ the 7 syllabus learning outcomes to 39 learning outcomes created by me. This will allow a number of things to happen:
(1) create connections within and between strands
(2) create a structured domain model with sequenced and connected concepts
(3) change the granularity from coarse to fine-grained

Ultimately, this fine-grained domain model will allow for:
(1) a better adaptive learning systems because this greater number of nodes in the domain model will be mirrored by a similarly greater number of nodes in the user model
(2) better diagnostics because this greater number of nodes in the domain and users models will allow for more nuanced ‘bug detection’
(3) the SEC to perform better sampling of syllabus content, due to this ‘granularity engineering’. The increased granularity, combined with connections being made explicit, should result in better examination questions

Model granularity in engineering design – concepts and framework (2017)
http://oro.open.ac.uk/47878/

(4) PME students to have a better perspective of the new Junior Cycle maths syllabus and to provide them with a ‘roadmap for teaching’.

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30/12/17 (Saturday) – Applied Project Day ??

Today: Mindomo (Day 1 of 2)

I created 8 mind maps from the Excel file containing the 39 learning outcomes. The mind maps evolve from the earliest MathAL-1.mom to the more complex MathAL-8.mom
This was a time consuming process. I am discovering that the creation of a domain model using mind mapping software is a challenging but interesting and intellectually rewarding process.
I’m beginning to think that mind mapping is the most appropriate method to create a domain model for mathematics.

José Feliciano

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31/12/17 (Sunday) – Applied Project Day ??

Today: Mindomo (Day 2 of 2)

Today, was a very important day.

I created 16 mind maps from the Excel file containing the 39 learning outcomes. The mind maps evolve from yesterday’s MathAL-8.mom to the ever more complex MathAL-24.mom
Once again, this was a time consuming process.

Realisations:

(1) I’m becoming convinced that mind mapping is the most appropriate method to create a domain model for mathematics.
(2) I’m beginning to think that the GAM Authoring Tool is not a suitable tool to create a domain model for mathematics. The reason is that this tool creates domain models using a text based interface. After creating the domain model, inputted as text-based concepts and relationships, it is then possible to see a visual display (map) of these concepts and relationships. Mondomo utilises the reverse paradigm, i.e. create a mindmap (visual display) which can be displayed as outline text.
(3) I don’t think that it will be possible to produce a domain model similar to the one that I have created in Mindomo.

Important Idea:

It may be that the concept map that was used to create the domain model may have another very important purpose. The parts of the concept map that are relevant in particular contexts could be highlighted, possibly using different colours. For example,
an SEC exam question could be deconstructed into its constituent concepts and these constituent concepts could be highlighted on the domain model concept map. The student could compare the highlighted part of the domain model with his/her user model scores (displayed in different colours to indicate competencies in different concepts). Similarly, a teacher could compare the parts of the domain model that they have taught to their class thus far with past SEC exam questions for a particular topic to ascertain which concepts they have not yet taught to their class. The teacher could also compare those concepts in the domain model, associated with topics for a particular class test, with the combined (overlay) user model scores for that class test. This would help the teacher decide which concepts should be revised later in the semester.

Note: I received an email from Rhumbl incoming me that they have increased my free man from one to five.

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01/01/18 (Monday) – Applied Project Day ??

Today: Rhumbl (Day 1 of 2)

Create an Excel file Q – Outcomes – Tier 2 – E – Edited – 3.xlsx and save as R – Outcomes – Tier 2 – E – Edited – 3.
Note: Q denotes that the Excel file began as an Access Query and R denotes that this file is a stage along the route of developing the final Rhumbl Excel file.

Realisation:

The NCCA outcomes (approximately 7) were unpacked to a much greater (approximately 40) number of more finely grained outcomes.
However, because of the similarities between patterns, functions and co-ordinate geometry of the line (in the case of linear patterns and functions), I am advocating that connections be made between these 40 learning outcomes. Part of today’s work was to amalgamate similar learning outcomes. This smaller number of amalgamated learning outcomes will pedagogically result in a smaller number of teaching topics. (See ‘Next Step’ below).

Next Step:

The Excel spreadsheet template that Rhumbl uses connects learning outcomes with topics. Learning outcomes are in spreadsheet columns while topics are in spreadsheet rows.

Tomorrow, I will create topics. There will be a much smaller number of topics than learning outcomes. (See ‘Realisation’ above).

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02/01/18 (Tuesday) – Applied Project Day ??

Mindomo

I decided to upgrade my account for Mindomo from Desktop Free to Desktop Premium. The main reason for this is that I am limited to 40 topics per map for the free account. The premium account provides me with unlimited topics per map. The other reason is that there is an export option to Excel that is not available in the free version. This is a lifetime licence with 12 months free updates and support costing €39.00 + 23% VAT = €47.97

Excel

Today, I created 5 topics and 28 outcomes, a process that I began yesterday. This was tedious and required a lot of thought, reflection and editing. Colour coding was important in reducing the 46 outcomes to 28 outcomes using a categorisation process. There are now 7 important colours each representing a type of outcome.

Realisation:

7 outcomes (NCCA) —> 46 outcomes (Me) —> 5 topics and 28 outcomes (Me)

7 outcomes (NCCA) —> analyse & unpack to 46 outcomes (Me) —> analyse, categorise & pack to 5 topics and 28 outcomes (Me)

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03/01/18 (Wednesday) – Applied Project Day ??

Mindomo

I decided to create a new Mindmap called MathAL-Organigram-01 in Mindomo. I used the Organigram template structure instead of the Concept Map template structure. I think that this new way of representing a domain model is much better. It reveals a symmetric structures for the cycle of concepts for linear, quadratic, exponential patterns and functions.

Moreover, this is probably a faster method of creating a domain model as an organigram has a more coherent structure than a concept map. However, it took time experimenting with the arrangement of the concepts for the inherent conceptual structures of the domain patterns and functions to reveal itself. Now that more geometric structures have been arrived at, it is also worth noting that it is possible to copy and paste parts of Mindomo’s organigram to create replicate structures. This should be useful for creating domain models which have repeating internal structures.

Realisation:

Possibly a metaphor of stepping stones is more appropriate than the metaphor of scaffolding in relation to how a student is led along a journey through a series of concepts. Each stone is a concept of the domain model. If the the stones are too far apart, the student struggles or sinks! If the stones are not correctly arranged, the student is led down a wrong pathway and becomes lost. Scaffolding is vertical and quite linear. If you fall, you are finished. Stepping stones are horizontal and quite planar. if you fall, you struggle but are not finished.

Next Steps:

(1) Due to the repetitive nature of the domain model across linear, quadratic and exponential, it should be possible top create another concept map containing 19 concepts instead of 48 concepts. Here is the arithmetic:

48 – 29 = 19

(2) Colour code the Mindomo maps using similar colours used in the Excel spreadsheet yesterday.

(3) Edit the Excel spreadsheet to reflect the changes that have taken place with the Mindomo organigram/domain model.

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04/01/18 (Thursday) – Applied Project Day ??

GAM Authoring Tool

(1) Create domain model based around a three part domain model consisting of: Fatterns, The Line, Categorisation and Interpretation

Note: It is not possible to order Concept Types in the accordion menu because there is no rank field. So, I have stuck to using solely Concepts with no Concept Types.

(2) A big disadvantage of the visual display is that the concepts can’t be manipulated by dragging them to whatever position one wishes. The author has no control as to then position the branches will appear. For example, one might wish to have a branch of concepts appear above another two branches but instead it might appear in between.

Note: It is not possible to edit a Relationship. Instead, one must delete the existing relationship and then add a new one.

Note: Labelling of concepts is very restrictive limiting the author to alphanumeric strings of 15 characters or less. The first character can’t be a number.

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05/01/18 (Friday) – Applied Project Day ??

Editing

Edit the Excel file (Unpacked Learning Outcomes and Amalgamated Learning Outcomes) and Mindomo Map simultaneously. This was a tedious, time consuming but ultimately worthwhile endeavour. I believe that this has resulted in better quality domain models.
N.B. Trying to achieve consistency and symmetry between the patterns concepts and functions concepts in the Mindomo Map caused me to make changes to the Excel spreadsheet of Unpacked Learning Outcomes and Amalgamated Learning Outcomes.
For example, there were two separate learning outcomes in the Excel spreadsheet as follows:
7d-1 interpret quadratic functions, including predicting the shape algebraically
7d-2 interpret quadratic functions, including identifying the turning point graphically
In the Mindomo mindmap, this was a single learning outcome as follows:

So, I amalgamated 7d-1 and 7d-2 into a single learning outcome as follows:
interpret quadratic functions, including predicting the shape algebraically and identifying the turning point graphically

Significant Progress towards the Design of a Domain Model for a Relational Database:

I created a new Mindomo file called MathAL-Organigram-04 where I substituted the Learning Outcome Codes (1b-1, 1b-2) for Learning Outcome Descriptions that were in MathAL-Organigram-03 as (Word Expression, Algebra Expression).
This is significant as I can now see that it should be possible to create a relational database using these codes as unique descriptors for concepts and/or learning outcomes. Connections between the concepts can be mirrored as relations between fields in a relational database.

Realisation:

Mindmap very good for injecting pedagogy into the domain model, i.e. discovering the best pathways.
Excel is very good for cross-crossing checking my unpacked learning outcomes with the NCCA syllabus learning outcomes.

Idea for PhD:

The design and evaluation of a domain mapping system for Mathematics. This could be a Google Maps for Mathematics involving the mapping and visualisation of data in 2D and possibly 3D.

Note: Contact Sarah Carthy via LinkedIn in relation to her successful funding from the Irish Research Council (IRC) for her PhD in terrorism. She appeared on RTE’s Late Late Show on 05/01/18. Her LinkedIn link is as follows:
https://ie.linkedin.com/in/sarah-carthy-939441a4

Idea for Naming Connectors in Domain Model:

It’s worth exploring whether or not I should use the U descriptors in the syllabus as labels for the connectors in my Mindomo domain model. In the section The Element: Connections, the descriptor U.5 is described as “make connections within and between strands.”

Important for the Future:

Research information visualisation in the context of hypertext. As a starting point, look at the following link:

Visualizing the Evolution of a Subject Domain: A Case Study
http://www.pages.drexel.edu/~cc345/papers/infovis99.pdf

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07/01/18 (Sunday) – Applied Project Day ??

Mindomo

Create the file MathAL-Organigram-04C which is a coloured version of MathAL-Organigram-04.

GAM Authoring Tool

Adapt the domain model for a linear function for (a) quadratic – see screenshot SS_11_Q (b) exponential – see screenshot SS_11_E
Extend the domain model to include Coordinate Geometry – The Line – see screenshots SS_12 to SS_21 inclusive.

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13/01/18 (Saturday) – Applied Project Day ??

Mindomo

Create the following Mindomo files:
Organigram-03-1C (Linear/Quadratic/Exponential as one set of learning outcomes)
Organigram-03-1C (Linear/Quadratic/Exponential as one set of learning outcomes plus The Line)

Make improvements to all the Mindomo files such as colour consistency, branching, subscripts for Tn.

Publish online versions with the following links:

Organigram-03C Mk2.mo
https://www.mindomo.com/mindmap/organigram-03c-mk2-1fefed0a6e9d54d8fbb1bdc588b27a53

Organigram-04C Mk2.mom
https://www.mindomo.com/mindmap/organigram-04c-mk2-3e03f5f559f740e6869bac1cf17de5ab

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14/01/18 (Sunday) – Applied Project Day ??

Excel

Make improvements to the file R – Outcomes – Tier 2 – E – Edited – 4a.xlsx and save it as R – Outcomes – Tier 2 – E – Edited – 4b.xlsx

Rhumbl

Work on a new version of the Excel spreadsheet template in order to create a new Rhumbl concept map. This Excel files is R – Outcomes – Tier 2 – E – Edited – 4b.xlsx
This required extensive work creating 11 topics and making connections to the 45 learning outcomes.
This resulted in three new versions of the Excel file as follows:
Rhumbl – 4b Mk1.xlsx
Rhumbl – 4b Mk2.xlsx
Rhumbl – 4b Mk3.xlsx

Publish online version with the following link:

Rhumbl – 4b Mk3.xlsx
https://rhumbl.com/engine/embed/5a5be19b4791b10010c8b9d2

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20/01/18 (Saturday) – Applied Project Day ??

Adobe Captivate Tutorial

Begin to create an Adobe Captivate tutorial. The file name is Math-AL Mk01.cptx.
This day long process led to the creation of a revised tutorial Math-AL Mk02.cptx.
I managed to learn how to use of the Adobe Captivate closed captioning facility.

Important

I was unhappy with the Adobe Captivate tutorials for a number of reasons:
(1) I think that the format of using (cartoon type) characters as avatars is inappropriate for the target audience of adult Maths teachers.
(2) Bitmap graphics are poorly resized and rendered in low quality graphics. This makes the domain models difficult to read.
(3) I have come to the conclusion that tutorial is not the best mode to try to impart to my audience the rationale for my research project and more specifically the concept of a domain model.

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21/01/18 (Sunday) – Applied Project Day ??

Adobe Captivate Screencast using PowerPoint.

I began the process of experimenting with the production of an Adobe Captivate Screencast. There are a number of possible ways to create a screencast with Captivate. One method is to use PowerPoint slides for the parts of the screencast that do not involve displaying the domain models in web applications such as Mindomo, Rhumbl and GAM-AT.

This day long process was difficult, tedious and frustrating. The main problem was that Adobe Captivate appears unable to capture a Powerpoint file in normal full screen presentation mode. It can only capture the PowerPoint presentation slides in edit mode and this means that the surrounding PowerPoint tools and panes are displayed.

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23/01/18 (Tuesday) – Applied Project Day ??

Adobe Captivate Screencast using Microsoft PowerPoint and Adobe Reader.

It is possible to export an entire PowerPoint file to Adobe Captivate format. However, this would possibly mean that the file would not be in screencast mode meaning that it could be difficult to add the screencasting of the domain model web apps (Mindomo, Rhumbl and GAM-AT) later. Instead, I decided to save the fledgling Powerpoint presentation as an Adobe Reader document that would be used as the basis for the non-web apps part of the screencast. The rendering of the graphics looks good so this is promising.

N.B. The Process

(1) Add the required digital assets (splash screen photo, screen captured bitmaps of domain models, extracted PDF pages from NCCA documents, etc) to the PowerPoint file.
(2) Use the PowerPoint facilities to create text headings.
(3) Export the PowerPoint file as an Adobe Reader PDF file.
(4) Use Adobe Captivate to record an audio narration for each slide.
(5) Edit the narration audio using Adobe Captivate’s audio management facility.
(6) Add the narration text using Adobe Captivate’s closed captioning facility.
(7) Synchronise the narration audio with the closed captions using Adobe Captivate’s audio management/closed captioning facility.

Closed Captions
Advice to use Arial (a sans-serif font) and a font size of 22 for closed captions.

How to Do Closed Captioning Right

Today – Screens 1 to 7.

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10/02/18 (Saturday) – Applied Project Day ??

Adobe Captivate Screencast using Microsoft PowerPoint and Adobe Reader.

Today – Expand PowerPoint file (Artefact Mk04.pptx) and Captivate file (Artefact Mk04.cptx) to include Screens 8 to 13.

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11/02/18 (Sunday) – Applied Project Day ??

Adobe Captivate Screencast using Microsoft PowerPoint and Adobe Reader.

Today – Expand PowerPoint file (Artefact Mk05.pptx) and Captivate file (Artefact Mk05.cptx) to include Screens 14 to 20.

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12/02/18 (Monday) – Applied Project Day ??

Adobe Captivate Screencast using Microsoft PowerPoint and Adobe Reader.

Today – Expand PowerPoint file (Artefact Mk06.pptx) by 20 slides based on screenshots, with highlighted text annotation.

These were the result of performing the following operations on the old and new syllabuses:

(1) Printing single page PDF files, from the syllabus documents (old and new), using Apple Preview.
(2) Annotating these single page PDF files using the highlight text annotation tool in Apple Preview.
(3) Opening these single page PDF files in Adobe Reader.
(4) Capturing specific portions of these single page PDF files using Apple Mac screen capturing keyboard shortcuts.
(5) Adding the resulting screenshots (.PNG files) to PowerPoint slides using the insert picture function.

Note: See the sub-folder 2018-02-12 in the ePortfolio folder that has screenshots that help document this process of creating an Adobe Captivate screencast for my MSc Applied Project. These contain 19 old syllabus files and 32 new syllabus files that I created today. These 51 files were used to create 20 new PowerPoint slides.

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13/02/18 (Tuesday) – Applied Project Day ??

Adobe Captivate Screencast using Microsoft PowerPoint and Adobe Reader.

Today – Expand PowerPoint file (Artefact Mk07.pptx) by many slides based on screenshots.

Today – Major housekeeping job in relation to file management. Too many duplicate files and folder system had become unwieldy.

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14/02/18 (Wednesday) – Applied Project Day ??

Adobe Captivate Screencast using Microsoft PowerPoint and Adobe Reader.

Today – Add Rhumbl section to main PowerPoint file (Artefact Mk08.pptx) for main Captivate screencast.

Today – Edit and finish subsidiary PowerPoint file (GAM_AT-DM Mk4.pptx) for subsidiary Captivate screencast (GAM_AT-DM Mk4.cptx). These files demo the GAM-AT domain model.

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15/02/18 (Thursday) – Applied Project Day ??

Adobe Captivate Screencast using Microsoft PowerPoint and Adobe Reader.

Today – Add Mindomo section to main PowerPoint file (Artefact Mk09.pptx) for main Captivate screencast.

Today – Edit GAM-AT and Rhumbl sections of main PowerPoint file (Artefact Mk09.pptx) for main Captivate screencast.

Today – During today’s session, save as new main PowerPoint file (Artefact Mk10.pptx) for main Captivate screencast.

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16/02/18 (Friday) – Applied Project Day ??

Adobe Captivate Screencast using Microsoft PowerPoint and Adobe Reader.

Today – During today’s session, finish development of the main PowerPoint file (Artefact Mk11.pptx and Artefact Mk12.pptx) for main Captivate screencast.

Today – Import Artefact Mk12.pptx into a new (blank) main Adobe Captivate screencast file called Demo-02-1.cptx.

Today – Export the audio (exports as both .wav and .mp3 files) from the previous main Adobe Captivate screencast file (Demo-01-20.cptx).

Today – Export the closed captions from Demo-01-20.cptx. This ends up as a Microsoft Word file but was of no use because you can’t import a closed captions file int a different Adobe Captivate file.

Today – Import the .mp3 audio files, one screen at a time, into the new main Adobe Captivate screencast file called Demo-02-1.cptx.

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17/02/18 (Saturday) – Applied Project Day ??

Import already created audio for slides 11 to 20. Save Adobe Captivate file as Demo-02-20.cptx

Create text narration for slides 21 to 35.
Record audio narration for slides 21 to 35.
Create synchronised closed captions for slides 21 to 35.

Note: The process of recording and creating closed captions took 2.5 hours for 15 slides. This is equivalent to 10 minutes per slide. I think that it should be possible to so this in 2 hours as I made errors with re-naming some audio files.

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18/02/18 (Sunday) – Applied Project Day ??

continue with creating and editing screencasts to 87 slides long (by Friday 02/03/18)
continue with creating versions 2 and 3 of survey
send links to Screencast and Survey to Maths Department

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03/03/18 (Saturday) – Applied Project Day ??

Download SD SFX (Chill) (Background Music 01) 2:20, 100 ppm at the following link:
Preview & Download Background Music Tracks 1-23

This is 2 minutes 14 seconds of background music for the GAM-AT Captivate presentation.

PD6-Post02

Design and Development of the Domain Model Artefacts

The 45 unpacked LOs from Phase 1 (Figure 11) were used to create the Rhumbl Maps artefact (Figure 14 and Figure 15). The 33 unified LOs from Phase 2 (Figure 16) were used to build the Mindomo artefact (Figure 17). Finally, the 22 linear LOs (Figure 18) helped construct the GAM AT artefact (Figure 19 and Figure 20).

Rhumbl Maps Domain Model
Rhumbl Maps was chosen as a domain model authoring tool because it is described as being capable of authoring learning outcomes for adaptive learning (Rhumbl, 2018). It achieves this by linking LOs to topics using three purpose built Excel spreadsheet templates for LOs, topics, and a matrix of LOs/topics. In simple terms, a topic, e.g. ‘Patterns and Relationships’, corresponds to a coarse-grained LO, e.g. investigate patterns and relationships (Figure 3) and a set of concepts are encapsulated in a topic (Sosnovsky & Brusilovsky, 2015). Linking LOs to topics is a non-conventional approach to adaptive learning. The traditional approach of concept-based adaptation links concepts to concepts (Sosnovsky & Brusilovsky, 2015). The first spreadsheet was populated with the 45 unpacked LOs from Phase 1 (Figure 11).

Figure 11: Rhumbl Spreadsheet (45 Unpacked Learning Outcomes)

The second spreadsheet was populated with 11 topics formulated from the coarse-grained LOs (Figure 12). The first five topics relate to Figure 9 and Figure 10. The extra six topics (’Tables’, ‘Graphs’, etc.) allowed for a greater number of connections between topics and LOs, to allow for more effective adaptation (Sosnovsky & Brusilovsky, 2015)

Figure 12: Rhumbl Spreadsheet (Topics)

The connections were created using a third spreadsheet, a matrix of topics and LOs (Figure 13). The digit ‘1’ in a cell indicates a connection. For example, LO 1a-2 is connected to three topics.

Figure 13: Rhumbl Spreadsheet (Matrix)

This Excel spreadsheet matrix of topics and LOs is used by Rhumbl to generate two different views. The ‘Topic View’ is generated when the user clicks on a topic, e.g. Tables (Figure 14).

Figure 14: Rhumbl Map Domain Model (Topic View)

The second display type, the ‘Outcome View’, is generated when the user clicks on a learning outcome, e.g. 7b-2 (Figure 15).

Figure 15: Rhumbl Map Domain Model (Outcome View)

Mindomo Domain Model
To complete Phase 2, all pairs of LOs for patterns and functions from Phase 1 were unified. There were 12 such pairs, and with each pair counting as one LO, the result was 33 LOs (Figure 16). The reason for doing this is that one of the objectives of this research project was to connect Patterns (Strand AF.1) and Functions (Strand AF.7), which have strong ontological connections, so that these connections could be represented in a domain model. These 33 LOs were used to create the Mindomo domain model artefact, which emphasises the relationship between the concepts patterns and functions (Figure 17).

Figure 16: The 33 Unified Learning Outcomes (Phase 2)
Figure 17: Mindomo Domain Model

GAM AT Domain Model
The GAM AT software used to build the third and final domain model artefact was developed in 2017 (Craenen, 2017). The development of this tool built on the work that created the Adaptive Learning Authoring Tool (ALAT) (Boereboom, 2016; P. De Bra et al., 2016). ALAT in turn was an evolution of the GRAPPLE Authoring Tool (GAT) (P. De Bra et al., 2013; GRAPPLE, 2011). This domain model was created to represent the rich connections that exist between the concepts encapsulated in the strand topics Co-ordinate Geometry of the Line, Linear Patterns, and Linear Functions. GAM AT uses a hierarchy of fine-grained concepts. The completion of the Phase 3 process resulted in 22 LOs (Figure 18) that could then be represented as the 22 single word concepts required by the GAM AT functionality (Figure 19 and Figure 20).

Figure 18: The 22 Linear Learning Outcomes (Phase 3)
Figure 19: GAM AT Domain Model (List View)
Figure 20: GAM AT Domain Model (Map View)

 

PD6-Post 01

Decomposition of Learning Outcomes into Topics and Concepts

The new Junior Cycle Mathematics syllabus consists of four stands described as learning outcomes (LOs) (NCCA, 2017). This research project chose eight specific LOs from Co-ordinate Geometry of the Line, Patterns, and Functions for their interconnectedness. The first step in the design and development of the domain model artefacts involved the use of Microsoft Excel. This application was used to decompose the eight syllabus LOs into fine-grained LOs and concepts, and later into topics. The rationale for unpacking the LOs is that fine-grained domain models are required for precise adaptation (Sosnovsky & Brusilovsky, 2015).

(Ahmad et al., 2004) state that the domain model deals with “…the decomposition of concepts in a structured hierarchy of sub-concepts and atomic information…” In this research project, the initial target objects for decomposition were LOs. This is because the syllabus specifies LOs rather than concepts or topics. The decomposition process executed in this research project can be described by three distinct phases.

Phase 1 – Unpacking the 8 Syllabus LOs to 45 Finely Grained LOs
An example of this unpacking process is illustrated by taking one of the syllabus LOs relating to Patterns, AF.1a (Figure 3) and unpacking it into the six LOs AF 1a-1 to AF 1a-6 (Figure 4).

Figure 3: One Syllabus Learning Outcome: Patterns (AF.1a)
Figure 4: Six Unpacked Learning Outcomes (AF 1a-1 to AF 1a-6)

Two further examples of unpacking a syllabus LO relate to Functions (Figure 5 and Figure 6) and Co-ordinate Geometry of the Line (Figure 7 and Figure 8).

Figure 5: One Syllabus Learning Outcome: Functions (AF.7b)
Figure 6: Six Unpacked Learning Outcomes (AF 7b-1 to AF 7b-8)
Figure 7: One Syllabus Learning Outcome: The Line (GT.5b)
Figure 8: Three Unpacked Learning Outcomes (GT 5b-1 to GT 5b-3)

All 45 unpacked LOs can be seen in Figure 11. A colour scheme was used whereby similar representations of concepts have similar colours. For example, orange is used for ‘Tables’ and green is used for ‘Graphs’. The reason for doing this was that it helped to build the hierarchies of concepts used in the Mindomo artefact and to make connections between topics and concepts in the Rhumbl Maps artefact.

Phase 2 – Unifying the Learning Outcomes for Patterns and Functions
An example of the unification process can be seen in Figure 9. The six LOs relating to Patterns (Figure 4) are paired up with six corresponding LOs relating to Functions (Figure 6). For example, there is now a single unified LO from AF 1a-1 described as “represent linear patterns and functions in tables” (Figure 9).

Figure 9: Six Pairs of Unified Learning Outcomes (AF 1a-1 to AF 7b-8)

Phase 3 – Distilling the Learning Outcomes for The Line, Linear Patterns, Linear Functions
The distilling process involved removing any LOs that did not have the words ‘linear’ or ‘line’ from the 45 unpacked LOs created in Phase 1 (Figure 11).

Some of the ‘Linear’ LOs arrived at in Phase 3 can be seen by combining the three LOs in The Line and Linear Patterns & Functions (Figure 8) with the four LOs in Linear Patterns & Functions (Figure 9). This gives the seven ‘Linear’ LOs that can be seen in Figure 10.

Figure 10: Seven Linear Learning Outcomes (GT 5b-1 to GT 5b-3)