Antonio García-Cabot

University of Alcalá | UAH · Department of Computer Sciences

Digital Simulations (DS) provide safe environments where users interact with an agent through conversational prompts, providing engaging learning experiences that can be used to train teacher candidates in realistic classroom scenarios. These simulations usually include open-ended questions, allowing teacher candidates to express their thoughts but...

This research presents an approach to automatic multiple-choice question (MCQ) generation in the Spanish language, using mT5-based models. The process encompasses three crucial tasks: candidate answer extraction, answer-aware question generation, and distractor generation. A methodical pipeline is structured to seamlessly integrate these tasks, con...

Multiple-choice test generation is one of the most complex NLP problems, especially in languages other than English, where there is a lack of prior research. After a review of the literature, it has been verified that some methods like the usage of rule-based systems or primitive neural networks have led to the application of a recent architecture,...

Nowadays, many digital learning tools can be integrated into a course to enhance the teaching–learning process. It is a fact that technology is changing how students learn and how professors teach. The growing utilization of AI chatbots in education to support students' learning underscores the importance of identifying critical aspects related to...

This study investigates the feasibility and functionality of accelerometer and gyroscope sensors for gesture-based interactions in mobile app user experience. The core of this innovative approach lies in introducing a dynamic and intuitive user interaction model with the device sensors. The Android app developed for this purpose has been created fo...

In recent years, transformer language models have made a significant impact on automatic text generation. This study focuses on the task of distractor generation in Spanish using a fine-tuned multilingual text-to-text model, namely mT5. Our method outperformed established baselines based on LSTM networks, confirming the effectiveness of Transformer...

The digital competencies of university students are developed using a digital learning ecosystem that integrates: (a) virtual learning environments, (b) digital learning tools, and (c) learning methodologies. This research followed the methodology of systematic literature mapping and review, searching the WoS and Scopus databases and obtaining a to...

The increasing worldwide adoption of e-learning tools and widespread increase of online education has brought multiple challenges, including the ability of generating assessments at the scale and speed demanded by this environment. In this sense, recent advances in language models and architectures like the Transformer, provide opportunities to exp...

The increasing use of technology among new generations of students provides a unique opportunity to take advantage of its multiple benefits in the academic environment. For example, mobile devices can be used in the learning process to improve academic results on learners' engagement or to decrease the dropout rate among students. This study seeks...

Intelligent mobile phones, or simply smartphones, have seen a large widespread usage among the entire world population during the last years. These devices are, in fact, considered as an essential tool in our current day to day life activities. Aromatherapy could be defined as the medical usage of essential oils derived from diverse types of vegeta...

Abstract Mobile Instant Messaging applications noted a growing number of active users recently. Although having millions of users, the previous research results have shown usability flaws in this type of mobile applications. Difficulties when performing tasks, poor design of user interfaces, or lack of information about privacy and security methods...

You are invited to submit a paper to this special issue: https://www.hindawi.com/journals/misy/si/763412/

Learning Analytics is a vast concept and a rapidly growing field in higher education used by professors to measure, collect and analyze digital learning records to improve learning, generate new pedagogies, and make decisions about technology-driven learning. The following article presents a mapping and systematic literature review on Learning Anal...

Tourist apps can be very useful for sightseeing, and this is one of the reasons that makes them so numerous in app stores. Good usability can make the difference when choosing an app, from the user's point of view, so this study is aimed at analyzing and discovering common usability issues in apps for tourism. This paper presents a research study w...

In object-oriented (OO) applications, objects collaborate through message passing, which results in these objects being coupled and mutually dependent. These dependencies can be reactive, i.e. such that, for example, the state change of one object, requires automatic reaction in all dependent objects. Examples of such reactive dependencies can be f...

The research area related to the use of Learning Analytics and the prediction of student performance is multidimensional; therefore, it can be explored and analyzed through different perspectives. This research addresses the relationship between pedagogical interventions based on Learning Analytics and student learning performance. The research pro...

The use of machine learning in educational datasets can be very important in predicting and detecting different behaviours related to education, so knowing the most useful techniques that help to effectively analyse these datasets will be very beneficial for any type of machine learning that needs to be performed. This paper explains the typical an...

This paper analyzes the effects of gamification in the social network of a massive online course. An educational social-networking platform gathered information about the contributions of participants and about the social networks that were formed during the course. A gamification layer with three game elements (points, badges, and leaderboard) was...

In today’s modern age, it is almost impossible to exist without the Information Communication Technologies that makes our life easier. In addition to other areas, Information Communication Technologies is also needed in education. There are a number of ways to contribute to the development of the learning process, which we refer to in this article...

New generations of students are highly involved with technology. Therefore, while coming to traditional classrooms, it is required to call for different forms of teaching that are more motivating and engaging for them. One approach to this problem is combining games and education. Gamification could be defined as the use of game design elements in...

With the rise of mobile devices and the high number of instant messaging applications available in the stores, it is necessary to evaluate the usability of such applications to provide a more satisfying user experience. To this end, this paper presents a methodical usability evaluation of instant messaging applications both in iOS and Android platf...

Nowadays, instant messaging applications (apps) are one of the most popular applications for mobile devices with millions of active users. However, mobile devices present hardware and software characteristics and limitations compared with personal computers. Hence, to address the usability issues of mobile apps, a specific methodology must be condu...

This paper reports data about the learning performance of students using four different motivational tools: an educational game, a gamified plugin, a social networking website and a gamified social networking website. It also reports a control group. The data pertain to 379 students of an undergraduate course that covers basic Information and Commu...

Traditional navigation guidelines for desktop computers may not be valid for mobile devices because they have different characteristics such as smaller screens and keyboards. This paper aims to check whether navigation guidelines for Personal Computers are valid or not for mobile devices. To do this, firstly an evaluation was carried out by a group...

Gamification is the use of game mechanics and game design in non-game contexts to engage users and motivate action. Although gamification has a great potential in higher education, existing research focuses on competitive approaches and presents contrasting evidence. We present a social gamification approach and tool designed to address the situate...

Social networks and gamification are having an important and growing role in education. Social networks provide unknown communication and connection possibilities while games have the potential to engage students. This paper analyzes the structure of the social network resulting from a gamified social undergraduate course as well as the influence t...

Performing the Systematic Literature Review (SLR) in the turbulent field of Software Engineering (SE) brings different obstacles and uncertainties. The commonly used guidelines for performing the SLR in this field are adapted from health sciences and presented by Kitchenham and Charters in 2007. This paper follows the Kitchenham’s three-phases-revi...

Game-like approaches are becoming increasingly popular in education, with educational games and gamification drawing increasing levels of attention. While games specifically designed for educational purposes have been used for decades, gamification is particularly new and contrasting evidence was presented about its effectiveness. The potential of...

Nowadays, the implementation of virtual campuses is a reality, both in academic settings and in the workplace. However, there are several challenges associated with the implementation of effective learning outcomes via e-learning. In this chapter in particular, the use of e-learning to reach students with disabilities and the barriers that they may...

This paper compares the usability of three different content distribution methods (scrolling, paging and internal links) in touchscreen mobile devices as means to display web documents. Usability is operationalized in terms of effectiveness, efficiency and user satisfaction. These dimensions are then measured in an experiment (N = 23) in which user...

A new competence-based approach for personalizing MOOCs in a mobile collaborative and networked environment Un nuevo enfoque basado en competencias para la personalización de MOOCs en un entorno móvil colaborativo en red Abstract Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are a disruptive new development in higher education which combines openness and sca...

Mobile devices have small screens that require the user to constantly resize the web content in order to read the text. This study sets out to (a) check whether current mobile devices are able to zoom or increase the font size of text on websites and (b) check the most efficient, effective, and satisfying usability method for the user to do so. A p...

The paper discusses the work carried out and achieved by the ESVI-AL project (Educación Superior Virtual Inclusiva – América Latina) for accessible and inclusive higher education. The three-year project was funded by the ALFA III programme of the European Commission in 2012-15. Its general objective was to improve the accessibility of virtual educa...

M-learning enables students to learn everywhere and at any time. But mobility also brings a new challenge. Students may now be constantly moving and the context from which they learn has to be adjusted dynamically. Therefore adaptation is becoming increasingly important when it comes to m-learning. This paper presents an empirical study to assess t...

In this paper we present a practical application ofPOA(Parliamentary Optimization Algorithm) for creating personalized learning paths in online learning. The objective of building a personalized learning path is to produce a suitable sequence of learning units for a student to work with. We present and tune the parliamentary metaheuristic for a pra...

The constant evolution of assistive technologies helps users with dis-abilities to have a myriad of choices to access digital content, and the application of accessibility standards and their relationship with assistive technologies enable and potentiate user interaction with web based systems for everyday activities. In the context of education th...

One of the main problems that exist when subjects are taught in technical degrees and new technologies are used is how could students be motivated to avoid abandonment In this paper we present our experience in training process with the aid of e-lerning platforms. The course has been planned with ambitious but achievable goals, and other techniques...

E-learning has revolutionized the education field. This fact, and the rise of mobile technology has led to the emergence of m-learning. There have also been new challenges such as adapting the learning content to the students' context and mobile devices, as a student could be anywhere with a mobile device and in a specific context. This paper prese...

E-learning has been a revolution in recent years in training field. This, combined with the increased use of mobile devices has caused the emergence of m-learning. Hence new problems have appeared in the training field, such as displaying correctly learning contents in a mobile device that has restricted features or taking into account the learner'...

Literature points out the importance of indicating when a link opens a different website in a new window, since this is the default behavior that users expect, but this problem has not been specifically studied in mobile devices yet. This paper explains a study that was carried out with 20 different mobile devices and 19 users. We compared the usab...

The use of mobile devices is increasing in recent years, and their characteristics are different from those of computers (keyboard and screen size, interaction method, etc.), so it is important to specifically study the usability of these devices. This paper presents an experiment carried out with users to find the correct length (from the point of...

E-learning has been a revolution in recent years in the training field. This, combined with the increased use of the mobile devices has caused the emergence of the m-learning. Hence new problems have appeared in the training field, such as showing correctly some learning contents in a mobile device that has restricted features or taking into accoun...

El alumbrado público en España representa entre un 40% y 60 % del total del consumo eléctrico de las ciudades, lo que supone unos gastos de electricidad y mantenimiento en torno a los 1.200 millones de euros al año. Sin embargo, los avances realizados en esta materia pueden ayudar a reducir este consumo energético hasta en un 45%. Si echamos un vis...

Road signs are the elements of roads with a lot of influence in driver’s behavior. So that signals can fulfill its function, they must overcome visibility and durability requirements, particularly needed at night, when the coefficient of retroreflection becomes a decisive factor in ensuring road safety. Accepting that the visibility of the signage...

In the following paper we will describe the work developed on a collaborative and component or modular based methodology for native multi-platform development. This investigation work is the continuation of a previous version, for which we adapted to support development of web intelligent projects for various devices as well as using native context...

Para conseguir que las personas tengan la posibilidad de acceder de forma universal a los recursos y servicios académicos y científicos en el mun-do, y por tanto, se beneficien de una educación inclusiva, es necesario promov-er dos tipos de acceso: centrado en las personas, y centrado en las máquinas; este último acceso significa les debe permitir...

This paper presents a solution to the need of capturing and recording how the learner interacts with a mobile device while navigating a web-based learning object. For this, software with similar features has been studied, looking for its strengths and weaknesses, and a software has been developed, which meets most of the requirements that might be...

Permutation constraint satisfaction problems (permut-CSPs) can be found in many practical applications, wherein most instances usually have a low density of constraints. This paper explores two evolutionary approaches to solve this kind of problem from a practical perspective. A test case that captures the main characteristics present in real world...

Resumen. En este articulo se presenta un estudio sobre la accesibilidad en los dispositivos móviles de últim a gener ación: los llam ados Sm artphones. Este estudio está orientado hacia el uso de estos dispositivos para que personas que tengan alguna discapacidad puedan acceder a contenidos e-learning. Para ello se comprobarán todas las característ...

In this paper, an automatic transformation tool between different content packaging specifications is proposed. The aim of this tool is to serve as a gateway for independent, heterogeneous Learning Management Systems, thus achieving interoperability. The tool is designed to support all existing content packaging specifications, but in this paper we...

This paper presents a semiautomatic evaluation method of usability in websites. Expert review is done in this case using a template based on the ISO 9241-151 guidelines that provides numerical and graphical results. Such results permit to observe the aspects of usability that are missed on the evaluated website. This template has many applications...

This paper presents a service oriented architecture for querying and publishing learning objects in distributed repositories. The architecture is based on SQI (Simple Query Interface) and SPI (Simple Publishing Interface) specifications by the European Committee for Standardization. This paper proposes a transformation of these specifications adapt...

There are a number of mobile applications available to help patients suffering from Type 1 diabetes to manage their condition, but the quality of these applications varies greatly. This paper details the findings from a systematic analysis of these applications on three mobile platforms (Android, iOS, and Blackberry) that was conducted to establish...

This paper presents XSL source code to automatically produce a Unit of Learning manifest with a standard IMS-LD format, from the activity diagram with UML format that represents its workflow. Besides, a complementary XSL source code that performs the reverse process, namely to automatically obtain the activity diagram from the unit of learning mani...

This paper presents a systematic comparison of canonical versions of two evolutionary algorithms, namely Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) and Genetic Algorithm (GA), for permutation constraint satisfaction (permut-CSP). Permut-CSP is first characterized and a test case is designed. Agents are then presented, tuned and compared. They are also compa...

In this paper we propose a system that allows to adapt educational contents to learners, based on the knowledge of a learner who is conducting the training through his mobile device, contents will also be tailored to the features of the device and to the context where the learner is at the present moment. Keywords-m-learning; adaptation; learning o...

In this paper, we propose a system for adaptation of educational contents to mobile devices, taking into account the skills of the learner, his context and the characteristics of his device.

This article proposes a system for unification of interfaces of learning objects in m-learning, and it explains the part which is currently being developed in a doctoral dissertation.

Standards and specifications, when widely accepted and used, lay the foundation to enable and ease interoperability among systems, software maintenance and reuse, especially within the scope of learning objects' search systems and repositories. We analyse the problems concerning utilization of two of these specifications SQI (Simple Query Interface...

This article presents the social network of tourism Turisbook. This social network allows sharing information and opinions about worldwide travel destinations. It incorporates a geo-location system of points on a map, so that user can search quickly and easily tourist points in a given area. The system allows users to upload their own tourist point...

This system comes up as a result of the increase of e-learning systems. It manages all relevant modules in this context, such as the association of digital rights with the contents (courses), management and payment processing on rights. There are three blocks: - A normalized application following the worldwide accepted standards or recommendations...

Inspired by political parties' behavior in parliament's elections of chairman, Parliameantary Optimization Algorithm (POA) has emerged as a new stochastic population-based optimizer. Current research has proven POA efficiency in numerical optimization but it is difficult to find a POA version that deals with combinatorial optimization. In this pape...

This paper presents a web tool that uses Java Server Faces to design questions graphically, to test the outcome in a learning environment and to export them using the QTI v2.1 specification in order to ensure interoperability between different learning systems.

This paper proposes to improve the Simple Query Interface (SQI), designed to query learning object repositories, modifying a few existing methods to generate new ones. Replacement is not intended, instead, our proposal is to create new methods that incorporate several enhancements in order to enable compatibility with currently compliant systems th...

This paper presents a new mobile application designed for auto-assessment that allows students to test their knowledge and expertise in a specific topic using questionnaires designed by their teachers. Students' achievement was evaluated and results suggest that this kind of approaches can improve it.

In the field of software engineering (SE) the first primary studies about Systematic Literature Review (SLR) have been conducted during the last decade. By adapting guidelines from other disciplines Kitchenham in 2004 created guidelines on performing the SLR in a field of SE. Since then the SLR is used in SE regularly, but many obstacles still rema...