Presentation on the connection between linked data and learning analytics. Prepared for a guest lecture in a LAK MOOC that didn't happen.

1. Linked Data as a new environment
for Learning Analytics and education
Mathieu d’Aquin (@mdaquin, mdaquin.net)
(Knowledge Media Institute, The Open University, UK)
Stefan Dietze
(L3S Research Center, DE)

2. Linked Data
Person: Mathieu
Open University
Website
Publication: Pub1
author
workFor
Open University
VLE
Course: M366
offers
KMi Website M366 Course
page Organisation:
The Open University
Mathieu’s
Homepage availableIn
setBook
Mathieu’s
List of Mathieu’s
Publications Twitter Country: Belgium
Book: Mechatronics
The Web The Web of Linked Data

3. From Linked Data to the Semantic Web
rNews
Music
Ontology Geo
Ontology
SIOC Media
Ontology
Dublin
Core
DBPedia
FOAF
Ontology
DOAP
FMA BIBO
Ontology
LODE
Gene
Ontology

4. Example: data.open.ac.uk

5. Data.open.ac.uk
Course information:
 580 modules/ description of the course, information about the levels and number of
credits associated with it, topics, and conditions of enrolment.
Research publications:
 16,000 academic articles / information about authors, dates, abstract and venue of the
publication.
Podcasts:
 2220 video podcasts and 1500 audio podcats / short description, topics, link to a
representative image and to a transscript if available, information about the course the
podcast might relate to and license information regarding the content of the podcast.
Open Educational Resources:
 640 OpenLearn Units / short description, topics, tags used to annotate the resource, its
language, the course it might relate to, and the license that applies to the content.
Youtube videos:
 900 videos / short description of the video, tags that were used to annotate the video,
collection it might be part of and link to the related course if relevant.
University buildings:
 100 buildings / address, a picture of the building and the sub-divisions of the building
into floors and spaces.
Library catalogue:
 12,000 books/ topics, authors, publisher and ISBN, as well as the course related.
Others…

6. A global data space for education data
mEducator
The Open Data.gov.uk
University education
Research
Orgs., ouputs
Buidings,
Locations
Learning
resources University of
OrganicEduNet Muenster, DE
University of University of
Bristol Southampton

7. http://data.linkededucation.org/linkedup/catalog
LinkedUp – Mathieu d‘Aquin 15. März 2013 7

10. What’s the use in Learning Analytics
/* Naïve view */
Learning Analytics is an application of data analytics on educational data, in
learning environment and for the purpose to improve the learning and teaching
experience.
So, Linked Data used to find, collect and process large amounts of interconnected
data to be used in analytics. But It is not only the input! Can be used to
complete local data, enrichment them, or for interpretation of the results.
Considering Bienkowski, Feng, and Means areas of LA/EDM application (Week 3):
• Modeling user knowledge, behavior, and experience… and connect them to information
about the context of learning
• Creating profiles of users… that can be interlinked through common objects
• Modeling knowledge domains… through online knowledge sources that can be numerous
and collectively built
• Trend analysis… that can be interpreted through related them to external sources of
information
• Personalization and adaptation… using indirect connections to other reference entities

11. Example of simple application: Map of OU buildings
Interactive map of Open University
Buildings in the UK
Each dot is a location where buildings can
be found. Going over the dot give
information about the building there
(floors, spaces, car-parks, etc.)

12. data.open.ac.uk
name “Berrill building”
bat1 Milton
Keynes
bat1-
address inDistrict
inCounty
Postcode-
mk76aa
Buckingha
Spaces mshire
location
Floors
Mk76aa-
Buildings location
ID Address Post- lat long
code
52.024924 -0.709726
data.ordnancesurvey.co.uk

13. Simple recommendation: Study at the OU
Each topic as a linked data URI. Each course as a linked data URI. Each resource as a
linked data URI. They are all connected. Use SPARQL to answer the question:
“What are the resources related to this topic or to courses on this topic”

14. Less simple recommendation: Talis Aspire
Lecturers from different universities put
their reading lists online. Publishing using
the principles of linked data means that all
resources are globally identified, creating a
network of resources and reading lists.
Recommendations can then trivially exploit
globally all these local contributions.

15. Even less simple recommendation:
DiscOU

16. Resources URIs + Similarity-
Interface common topics Based Search
BBC Programme or iPlayer page
Resource
descriptions
Indexes
Synopsis
Named Entity Semantic Semantic
Recognition Entities Indexing
(Dbpedia)
Podcasts, Indexes
OpenLearn Units
and Articles
data.open.ac.uk Semantic Index

17. Not one scenario:
An infinite recombination of data and purposes

18. Complex analytics in a lightweight way
http://uciad.info

19. Analytics across datasets
Academics in “Arts and Humanities” Topics most commonly mentioned by
most often involved with the media (in news outlets own by the BBC (in
number of news items) number of news items)
From the Open University From news clippings From DBpedia.org

20. Complex analytics with rich background
information

21. Conclusions
Linked data essential to learning analytics: interconnected
sources of information to analyze learning activities and their
context.
- Use of local data together with reference data
- Informed recommendation mechanisms
- Re-purposing of open data
- Lightweight ways to integrate data in rich analytics interfaces
- Analytics combining insight from multiple sources of
information
- Ways to explore results through the lens of external,
background information
A few links can open the way to numerous new forms of
analytics.
 Can be overwhelming
 Managing heterogeneity, consistency and noise becomes
even more of an issue
 Still requires specialized, technical skills
LinkedUp – Author Name 15. März 201321

22. Links and References
http://linkeddata.org - http://linkeddatabook.com
http://data.open.ac.uk - http://lucero-project.info
http://linkeduniversities.org - http://linkededucation.org
http://linkedup-project.eu - http://linkedup-challenge.org
http://data.linkededucation.org/linkedup/catalog
http://talisaspire.com/ - http://discou.info - http://uciad.info
d'Aquin, M. and Jay, N. Interpreting Data Mining Results with Linked Data for Learning Analytics:
Motivation, Case Study and Direction, LAK 2013, http://oro.open.ac.uk/36660/
Kessler C., d’Aquin M. and Dietze S. (eds) Semantic Web Journal Special Issue on Linked Data for
Science and Education. http://iospress.metapress.com/content/m87017012802/
d’Aquin M. Linked Data for Open and Distance Learning. Commonwealth of Learnin report.
http://www.col.org/resources/publications/Pages/detail.aspx?PID=420
d'Aquin, M., Allocca, C. and Collins, T. DiscOU: A Flexible Discovery Engine for Open Educational
Resources Using Semantic Indexing and Relationship Summaries, Demo ISWC 2012.
http://data.open.ac.uk/applications/iswc2012-demo.pdf
LinkedUp – Author Name 15. März 2013 22

23. LinkedUp – Author 15. März 2013 23