Selection of Plagiarism Detection Software and Its Integration Into Moodle for Universities

Plagiarism detection software packages have an important role in detection of plagiarism in exams, assignments, projects, and scientific researches. The main goal of this chapter is the selection of plagiarism detection software (PDS) and its integration into Moodle, an open source learning management system (LMS), for the use of a higher education institution. For this reason, first, the selection criteria are determined by nominal group technique (NGT) and then the most appropriate PDS is selected. At the end of the study, Crot, an open source PDS, is determined and integrated into Moodle. The suggested selection criteria would be useful for other higher education institutions in Turkey and other countries that rely on open software.

An Analysis of the Possibilities of the Use of Technology for the Learning of Languages

Being able to communicate in a foreign language is a very pleasant experience. Moreover, in different working environments and scenarios, it is necessary. For this reason, there is a tremendous need to continue the research and development of techniques, tools, applications, strategies, and experiences related to the teaching and learning of foreign languages, adapted to the different needs, abilities, and interests of the learners. This chapter explores the important role that technology is playing in supporting the learning of languages through the facilitation of ubiquitous learning, where techniques such as informatics technology, mobile technology, or cloud computing, and tools such as learning management systems (LMSs) and massive open online courses (MOOCs) can be of great help.

The Learning Style of Gamers

The use of gamification has shown to be an interesting approach to engage users in MOOCs. In this context, different game strategies, elements, and mechanics are applied to help to improve the teaching/learning process. When designing teaching/learning methods, teachers must take into account both gamification techniques and learning styles in order to encourage students and to improve their learning performance, respectively. However, while applying gamification and at the same time keep taking into account the corresponding learning styles, we may find some kinds of incompatibilities. Thus, what this chapter covers is the conducted experimental analysis aimed at exploring the viability of merging gamer's profiles and learning styles in a single multidimensional user profile. The obtained results expose that, with this approach, we are able to identify groups of students so that, while designing teaching/learning methods, we can take into account both learning styles to improve the learning performance and gamification techniques to motivate and encourage the student.

Lifecycle for MOOC Development and Management

Massive open online courses (MOOC) are online courses in which there are no requirements for students to enroll and that have the capacity to serve thousands or even hundreds of thousands of students simultaneously. MOOCs are complex to develop due to their dual nature: on the one hand, they are an educational product; on the other hand, they are a software product hosted on a web platform. Due to the novelty of MOOCs, there is a lack of proven methodologies for their development. In this chapter, the authors propose a lifecycle for the development and management of MOOCs that allows educators to focus on teaching, interaction with their students, and other elements indispensable for the success of the learning experience. The proposed lifecycle includes three stages: development, management, and improvement of the MOOC.

Differentiated Instruction Supporting MOOC

MOOC have opened up learning opportunities to a wide public. With these advantages, they have emerged in the development, promotion, and delivery of courses from leading American universities. Nevertheless, in parallel with this potential, several problems have arisen. The dropout of learners is the most common problem. Therefore, this chapter highlights the high dropout rate in MOOC, according to two visions: learners' heterogeneity and diversification of the learning theories supporting MOOC. On this basis, the authors propose the introduction of differentiated instruction within MOOC to overcome this problem. The main purpose of this chapter is to discuss MOOC from pedagogical and organizational perspectives. More specifically, it is interesting to emphasize how differentiated instruction can be implemented in these courses. The interest is to propose a MOOC model that is more effective and more aligned with the learning objectives and preferences of each learner in order to improve the success rate.

Investigating MOOC Arabic Learners' Motivation in Language Online Courses (MOOCs)

When designing MOOCs, learner motivation cannot be treated as a minor issue but as a major issue to guarantee the success and encouragement for completing these online courses. The question under study is to explore the motivation of Arabic learners in language online courses in light of the self-determination theory. The research sample consisted of 106 students from different Arabic countries. This chapter employed the quantitative research approach and administered academic motivation scale (AMS) among MOOC learners to assess their academic motivation. Findings showed that majority of participants were extrinsically motivated while others were intrinsically motivated.

Gamification in E-Learning

This chapter is structured to help give readers a general impression about gamification and its relationship with e-learning from the perspective of basic sources of gamification. Gamification is important for e-learning, which can share the same digital environment with digital game components because it has the potential to increase the engagement of the learners in digital environment. This chapter on gamification has primarily tried to explain the reasons for prompting people to play and the kinds of actions of the players after defining the game and gamification. Afterwards, explaining the components of the gamification design models, some gamification applications are stated as successful examples that can be used in e-learning. The chapter concludes by giving information about the limits, criticism, and future of gamification.

HCI4D Guidelines for Interactive Content

Fraunhofer AICOS, a research and development institute, and University of Porto made a joint venture with Mandela Metropolitan University and Eduardo Mondlane University in order to establish a set of guidelines based on an extensive research and experimental fieldwork to answer more efficiently to a user-centered design approach and focus on different users and different usage contexts. Those guidelines and this chapter provide recommendations to cope with cultural diversity, illiteracy, oral-based cultures, ergonomic factors, digital interface design, and social and environmental constraints, helping to understand problems and define strategic design actions in order to develop more user-centered solutions, focus on users' needs and expectations regarding their cultural, environmental, and technical contexts.

MOOC and OER

Open educational resources (OER) and massive open online courses (MOOC) are new and emerging issues in the international higher education context. Under the exponential growth of the supply of courses and related publications, the purpose of this chapter is to foster scientific discussion on the socio-cultural and economic impacts, as well as its technological and pedagogical implications. Supported by the methodological typology of bibliographical studies, systematized interpretative-critical analysis based on review of the concepts, and principles guiding OER and MOOC, the authors' reflections show that the enlargement terminologies without epistemological delimitation have provoked theoretical and practical mistakes. In the final considerations, the authors systematize broader problematizations around the open educational practices in universities aimed to five dimensions: spatio-time-content, theoretical models, principles of pedagogical innovation, economic aspects, and fundamentals of collaborative culture.

M100S Project

This chapter presents the M100S project, a math MOOC platform from the e-learning unit of the Polytechnic of Porto (P.PORTO). Reference is made to all motivational, structural, and fundamental steps of this process of creation and development, from its origin to the present day, and a brief analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of these recent educational resources. The general structure adopted for these mathematics MOOCs is presented, with all its features, and the difficulties inherent to the development of these courses from scratch are analyzed, both regarding the technological and financial support available as well as the human resources enrolled. Finally, several internal practices and applications made by means of the most varied open resources, specifically developed for these MOOCs and other existing ones from the MatActiva project, in Portuguese, both in a b-learning perspective and in the development of flipped teaching strategies, are mentioned.