C. Fernandez

Publications of C. Fernandez

• DEI-CHECK. Automating the assessment process to improve the informative feedback

  Authors: D. Diez, P. Diaz, I. Aedo, C. Fernandez

  Frontiers in Education Conference, 2008. FIE 2008. 38th Annual; 11/2008

  Acquiring and developing programming knowledge is a highly complex process. It involves a variety of cognitive activities and mental depictions. Hence, programming courses are generally regarded asAcquiring and developing programming knowledge is a highly complex process. It involves a variety of cognitive activities and mental depictions. Hence, programming courses are generally regarded as difficult, and often have the highest dropout taxes. Such problem is especially significant in introductory programming courses: novice programmers need to apply the programming concepts continuously to understand them. Besides, beginner students often fail to recognize their own deficiencies and oversights. In this context, early assessment and continuous feedback are essential activities to correct mistakes and confusions. The purpose of this paper is to present our experience in teaching introductory programming courses as a case study. The course design is based on a specific assessment tool for introductory programming exercises. The tool aims at improving the assessment activity, facilitating its management and automating the communication flow in order to reduce the assessment process time-span. The final goal of our work is to increase feedback and improve the rectification of errors and misunderstandings from learners. The paper includes both the description of our assessment tool and the evaluation of its features.

• Instructional Domain Analysis: A Methodological Approach to Service-Oriented Learning

  Authors: D. Diez, C. Fernandez, J.M. Dodero, P. Diaz, I. Aedo

  Advanced Learning Technologies, 2008. ICALT '08. Eighth IEEE International Conference on; 08/2008

  The development of a learning system based on integrating a number of learning services needs both a technological platform to support the system as well as a methodology that manages the developmentThe development of a learning system based on integrating a number of learning services needs both a technological platform to support the system as well as a methodology that manages the development process. Such technological platform is provided by the service oriented learning architecture (SOLA) that defines an architecture style guiding several aspects of deploying units of learning that are packaged as services. The purpose of this paper is to review the SOLA concept and present a specific methodology, based on analysing instructional domains, to complement the SOLA approach. The method here proposed addresses the identification and classification of learning services to facilitate the integration of such services.

• Evaluating the Runtime Adaptation of EML-Described Learning Processes

  Authors: T. Zarraonandia, P. Diaz, I. Aedo, C. Fernandez, J. Dodero

  Advanced Learning Technologies, 2008. ICALT '08. Eighth IEEE International Conference on; 08/2008

  This work aims to provide the instructors of learning process specified by means of an educational language (EML) with a mechanism to modify the process definition during runtime. The paper presentsThis work aims to provide the instructors of learning process specified by means of an educational language (EML) with a mechanism to modify the process definition during runtime. The paper presents the results of some experiments carried out as part of the evaluation of the envisaged solution. The core of the proposed solution is a model which allows the instructor to describe variations of the original learning process design, as well as to evaluate and monitor the process progress. The model is complemented with a method which organizes the performance of the instructor actions supported by the model, and a mechanism to allow its application on running instances of the process. To state the suitability of the proposed method and the expressivity of the adaptation model, the solution has been applied on three different scenarios. Three real learning processes supported on Moodle platforms have been replicated on Unit of Learning (UoL) versions described by means of IMS Learning Design(IMS LD). The adaptations and monitorizations performed by the instructors in the Moodle versions have been described using the adaptation model elements and applied to UoLs following the proposed method guidelines.

• Instructional Software Analysis: Lessons from Software Development Process Improvement

  Authors: D. Diez, C. Fernandez, J.M. Dodero, P. Diaz, I. Aedo

  Advanced Learning Technologies, 2007. ICALT 2007. Seventh IEEE International Conference on; 08/2007

  Instructional software can be defined as any computer program used for instruction. As a means to optimise the development process of instructional software, different authors have defined a range ofInstructional software can be defined as any computer program used for instruction. As a means to optimise the development process of instructional software, different authors have defined a range of methods based on software engineering. However, the use of a method does not guarantee the validity and quality of the product developed; hence, a series of software process improvement (SPI) approaches aimed to improve and guarantee the development process that have arisen. The purpose of this paper is to review the aforementioned approaches and to apply them to the analysis phase of the instructional software development process. The analysis phase aims to define the conditions and needs of the project in order to solve uncertainties in early stages of the process.

• Late Modelling: A Timing of Learning Activities Approach

  Authors: T. Zarraonandia, J.M. Dodero, C. Fernandez, P. Diaz, J. Torres

  Advanced Learning Technologies, 2006. Sixth International Conference on; 08/2006

  It is not always possible to foresee all properties values of a learning design process at design-time. Sometimes, it is not until its proper execution when those values can be established. Besides,It is not always possible to foresee all properties values of a learning design process at design-time. Sometimes, it is not until its proper execution when those values can be established. Besides, some of the original definitions must be modified to adapt the learning process to its current execution context. This is especially necessary with properties related to the synchronization and temporization of the different activities that constitute the learning process. Due to the above, to successfully implement a learning process, the designers need to use a language expressive enough to allow a detailed description of the runtime behavior of the course and a mechanism to modify its definition during run-time

• On the way of an ideal learning system adaptive to the learner and her context

  Authors: T. Zarraonandia, C. Fernandez, P. Diaz, J. Torres

  Advanced Learning Technologies, 2005. ICALT 2005. Fifth IEEE International Conference on; 08/2005

  In the last years several learning systems have been developed trying, on a different extent, to develop a solution to the problem of personalization of the learning process. Their objective is toIn the last years several learning systems have been developed trying, on a different extent, to develop a solution to the problem of personalization of the learning process. Their objective is to provide the learner with a learning system able to adapt the course to her specific characteristics, knowledge, objectives and learning goals. Further more, we would like a learning system that could be sensitive to the context in which the learning session is taking place and capable to adjust the appropriate parameters accordingly. Taking this into account, the authors have selected a group of desirable characteristics for an ideal learning system and have reviewed some of the solutions developed in the last years trying to find out which of those ideal characteristics have already been implemented and which others have not.

• CARLOS: a collaborative authoring tool for reusable learning objects

  Authors: C.L. Padron, J.M. Dodero, P. Diaz, I. Aedo, C. Fernandez

  Database and Expert Systems Applications, 2003. Proceedings. 14th International Workshop on; 10/2003

  The development of learning contents is a collaborative process in which users with different backgrounds, experiences and points of view can take part. This is a two-step process: first, aThe development of learning contents is a collaborative process in which users with different backgrounds, experiences and points of view can take part. This is a two-step process: first, a negotiation and evaluation of ideas amongst participants and second, composition of learning contents as result of that negotiation. However, the collaborative development support in current learning content authoring tools is scarce, since they usually provide a uni-personal vision of the creation process. This work presents a multi-agent system for the collaborative authoring of Reusable Learning Objects (RLO), whose key features are: (1) collaboration stakeholders are represented by agents; (2) agent message exchange is coordinated by means of a negotiation protocol; (3) agent rationality for proposal evaluation is modelled in terms of preference relationships; (4) a group of assistant agents trace all negotiation events, so allowing the whole creation process to be audited, whilst keeping a repository to control changes accomplished into the RLO corpus, thus allowing automated consolidation of negotiated results.

• Assessing the utility of an interactive electronic book for learning the Pascal programming language

  Authors: I. Aedo, P. Diaz, C. Fernandez, G.M. Martin, A. Berlanga

  Education, IEEE Transactions on. 12/2000;

  Hypermedia is a broadly accepted technique to develop educational systems since its hypertext structure reflects a model of learning based on the students' semantic memory model and the use ofHypermedia is a broadly accepted technique to develop educational systems since its hypertext structure reflects a model of learning based on the students' semantic memory model and the use of multimedia provides interactive mechanisms that allow managing, manipulating and organizing the lessons. A hypermedia electronic book called CIPP (Curse Interactive de Programacion en Pascal) is introduced to help students learn the Pascal programming language and the empirical evaluation that was carried out to assess the book utility as an educational tool. One of the most encouraging results from this experience was that, at the end of the course, not only did most students agree with the didactic method which integrated lectures with the use of the electronic book, but also they felt motivated to continue learning Pascal by themselves.

• Agent-based adaptive selection and interaction to Z39.50 servers

  Authors: C. Fernandez, I. Aedo, P. Diaz, V. Matellan

  Euromicro Conference, 2000. Proceedings of the 26th; 02/2000

  Digital libraries and OPACs offer an enormous collection of information resources which can be accessed through the Internet by quite different users thanks to the existence of standard protocolsDigital libraries and OPACs offer an enormous collection of information resources which can be accessed through the Internet by quite different users thanks to the existence of standard protocols for information retrieval such as Z39.50. However, some users may have difficulty in getting the items they are looking for in such a huge volume of heterogeneous resources since they have to know where and how they have to search. Thus, one of the main reasons for disregarding the Z39.50 service has traditionally been the absence of appropriate interfaces and the cost of making alternative searches. WAY-Z39.50 tries to help spread the use of these servers by providing easy Web access to them, as well as facilitating access to multiple servers at once. The prototype implements the general WAY model based on an agent-based architecture that provides adaptive searching in different servers using an adaptive interface as well