Markus Ebner

In Austria, located in the center of Europe, comparable early in relation to other German speaking countries in Europe, individuals and groups started to develop and work on the idea of free available and usable learning content in the Internet. A first Austrian milestone was the coordination of an international conference on open educational content in 2007 as final activity of the first European project that was focused on OER (olcos.org). Within the contribution an overview of current state and developments of OER-activities in Austria is given, also describing its infrastructure, policy, existing resources, curriculum and teaching methodologies, outcome, stakeholders and impact for education. The chapter gives a comprehensive overview of all OER activities in Austria and outline the benefits for the educational system as well. It can be summarized that the Austrian way seems to be successful even the steps forwards are often small.

Sustainably digitalizing higher education requires a human-centred approach. To address actual problems in teaching as well as learning and increase acceptance, the Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) solution(s) must be co-designed with affected researchers, teachers, students and administrative staff. We present research-in-progress about a sandpit-informed innovation process with a f2f-marketplace of TEL research and problem-mapping as well team formation alongside a competitive call phase, which is followed by a cooperative phase of funded interdisciplinary pilot teams co-designing and implementing TEL innovations. Pilot teams are supported by a University Innovation Canvas to document and reflect on their TEL innovation from multiple viewpoints.

The use of digital media is increasingly being promoted in school teaching. Since this aspect changes the interaction between teachers and pupils, this research is concerned with the development of a prototype of a mobile application for Android and iOS, in which different learning applications for language acquisition are offered on the basis of learning analytical measurements provided by experts in the field. By logging and collecting interactions of the user, it is possible to create a variety of statistical evaluations and thus respond to the needs and weaknesses of students. For the evaluation of the application, a user experience test was carried out, whereby the child-friendly operation of the application was tested. Due to the very positive feedback, the design was found to be good and can therefore be further developed.

An educational, interactive Amazon Alexa Skill called "Oster-reich und Europa Spiel / Austria and Europe Game" was developed at Graz University of Technology for a German as well as English speaking audience. This Skills intent is to assist learning geographic facts about Austria as well as Europe by interaction via voice controls with the device. The main research question was if an educational, interactive speech assistant application could be made in a way such that both under-age and full age subjects would be able to use it, enjoy the Game Based Learning experience overall and be assisted learning about the Geography of Austria and Europe. The Amazon Alexa Skill was tested for the first time in a class with 16 students at lower secondary school level. Two further tests were done with a total of five adult participants. After the tests the participants opinion was determined via a questionnaire. The evaluation of the tests suggests that the game indeed gives an additional motivation-al factor in learning Geography.

The wide range of applications and the capability to process and understand natural languages made chatbots very popular. Besides that, many applications chatbots are also used as information retrieval tools. Chatbots are changing the way users search for information. This document focuses on a chatbot that is used as an information retrieval tool. The chatbot enables information search in natural language in a geography domain. In case of a large number of search results, the chatbot engages users with clarification questions. It also provides support to users when uploading multimedia content to the website.

There are many reasons for the implementation of authentication on learning platforms. For instance, it is required for the teachers to identify individual students if the learning platform offers some kind of assessment. In addition, authentication is the base for a successful monitoring of the attendance of the students. Compulsory attendance is often applied because many positive effects have been reported by authors of several studies. To monitor the attendance at online videos interactive components can be applied. Another benefit of such interactive components is that they help retain the attention of the students. This study was carried out to examine how the students used a video learning platform which provides interactive components of the videos as part of a course offered at Graz University of Technology. Up until now, a major drawback of this platform has been that the students have been required to register manually on the platform. Now, students are able to use the platform without manual registration and authentication, because these steps happen automatically via the main learning platform that provides all of the course materials. Furthermore, the course design and the application of the interactive components, presenting multiple-choice questions, are evaluated. It is pointed out that the concept improves the performance of the students and equips the teacher with valuable feedback regarding the students' interests.

Since the beginning of software development, solution approaches and technologies have changed massively, including the requirements for a user interface. At the very beginning, it was the desktop application, with a classic Graphical User Interface (GUI), which fulfilled the needs of a user. Nowadays, many applications moved to web respectively mobile and the user behavior changed. A very modern concept to handle the communication between a computer and a user is a chatbot. The range of functions of a chatbot can be very simple up to complex artificial intelligence based solutions. This publication focuses on a chatbot solution for Graz University of Technology (TU Graz), which should support the student by finding study related information via a conversational interface.

The didactic method of digital, game-based learning includes integrating educational content or learning standards into video games with the objective to engage pupils. The method combines instructional content with computer or video games and can be used with all subjects and at all ability levels. Exponents of digital game-based learning argue that it provides learning opportunities which involve learners in interactive teaching and encourages them to take part in the technological society of the 21st century. The necessity of digital, game-based learning arose in the last decades of the 20th century as worldwide improvements in innovation took place. Today's learners live their lives with easy access to technology. This paper discusses the need for, motivation for and adjustment of digital, game-based learning to meet the needs of contemporary and the future generations of learners. Specifically, a game prototype for pupils of 9 to 10 years of age was implemented and evaluated. A simple mathematical game was created to help children practice mathematical skills in a fun, logical, thoughtful, enjoyable, amusing and light-hearted way. The results of the evaluation showed that children were interested in using mobile devices to learn mathematics, and especially the multiplication table. During the study, children tried both to achieve positive results and enjoyed the game. Our findings indicate that using mobile-based games encourages a positive mental outlook in pupils toward mathematics, ensures their dynamic, noteworthy participation and supports the acquisition of mathematical knowledge.

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) sind in den letzten Jahren in aller Munde, wenn es darum geht, technologiegestütztes Lernen für große Zielgruppen zu verwirklichen. MOOCs bieten dabei kostenlose Bildung mit offenem Zugang an, sowohl für die breite Öffentlichkeit als auch für spezielle Zielgruppen (z.B. Weiterbildung). Die in den Medien diskutierte Absprungrate (Drop-Out) führte zu einer notwendigen Reflexion über Vor- und Nachteile dieses Verfahrens. Die Autor_innen dieses Beitrags schlagen daher einen neuen pädagogischen Ansatz vor: Der Online-Kurs (MOOC) soll durch Präsenzunterricht ergänzt werden, um den sozialen Prozess des Lernens gezielt zu unterstützen. Während die Anreicherung von Präsenzveranstaltungen mit Online-Anteilen als „Blended Learning“ beschrieben wird, wird die Anreicherung von reinem Online-Lernen durch Präsenzangebote als „Inverse Blended Learning“ bezeichnet. Im Beitrag wird ein MOOC für Erwachsenenbildner_innen, der durch Präsenzangebote erweitert wurde, als Fallstudie vorgestellt. Aus den Daten der Nutzer_innen und ihren Aktivitäten kann mit Hilfe von Verfahren des Learning Analytics Rückschlüsse gezogen werden. Dabei zeigt sich in diesem Beispiel, dass – vermutlich durch das große Angebot und die starke Nutzung von Begleitangeboten zum MOOC – mit 48,2 Prozent eine sehr hohe Zertifizierungsquote (N=3.064 registrierte Nutzer_innen) erreicht werden konnte. Zudem wird eine Verbesserung der Interaktion zwischen den Teilnehmenden auf der MOOC-Plattform als auch in den zugehörigen Diskussionsforen beobachtet.

Mobile apps and the gaming industry experienced continuous growth and popularity over the last couple of years. While children have always played games for fun, researchers, recognized the promising possibilities behind games in the field of education. As nearly every child is in possession of a mobile device today, the sector of digital game-based learning is of special interest. Since primary school pupils often find it difficult to acquire good language skills, this research study deals with the creation of a prototype for tablets to support language training within primary schools. For the evaluation, a field test among children in Austria was conducted in order to see whether benefits could be observed. The extremely positive field test strengthened our approach and further motivated the participants to play the game even after the test was finished.

Learning Analytics ist die Möglichkeit aus gesammelten Daten durch entsprechende Analyseverfahren neue Erkenntnisse für die pädagogische Praxis zu erhalten. In diesem Beitrag soll eine kurze Einführung gegeben werden, sowie anhand von zwei konkreten Beispielen gezeigt werden wir man es für den Schulalltag nutzen kann.

The article depicts the blogging platform IDeRBlog as an example of an Open Educational Resources Practice. The exercise databases of IDeRBlog are focussed in the context of orthography training. After briefly outlining Open Educational Resources an overview on how the exercises were researched and reviewed according to an established quality framework is given. This is followed by the Analysis of missing exercises and the creation of IDeRBlog exercises by the project team.

Durch die Erfindung des Computers hat sich das Leben in verschiedenen Bereichen stark verändert: Mobilität und Vernetzung halten Einzug in das tägliche Leben. Um am Puls der Zeit zu bleiben, ist es notwendig auch das bis jetzt nahezu unveränderte Bildungssystem in die Zukunft zu tragen. Ob der zahlreichen politischen Diskussionen konnte man sich bis heute nicht flächendeckend darauf einigen, Informatik als eines der grundlegenden Fächer im Schulbetrieb zu verankern. Ziel der Bildungsinformatik ist es ein Bewusstsein für die notwendigen Kompetenzen der informatischen und medialen Belange der Gesellschaft der Zukunft zu schaffen. Am Beispiel eines Learning-Management-Systems sollen die damit einhergehenden technischen und nicht-technischen Herausforderungen beleuchtet werden um damit auch die Notwendigkeit und Bedeutung der Bildungsinformatik zu verdeutlichen.

Dieser Beitrag beschreibt die Ziele, Methoden und Interessengruppen von Learning Analytics. Darüberhinaus werden die unterschiedlichen Struktu- ren der Daten von Big Data und Learning Analytics betrachtet. Dargestellt werden ferner die Planung des Einsatzes von Learning Analytics und die Phasen der technischen Implementierung.

German orthography is known to be quite difficult to master, especially for primary-school pupils in writing texts [cf. 1]. In order to support children with the acquisition of German orthography, we are developing a web-based platform for German-speaking users based on learning analytics techniques. Our goal is to motivate pupils age 8 to 12 to improve their spelling abilities by writing texts and by the possibility to publish them. Concerning spelling in combination with learning analytics the system provides-in case of an orthographic mistake-a specific feedback that encourages pupils to think about the spelling and to correct it. Based on occurred mistakes the teachers and the students are provided with a qualitative analysis of the mistakes. This analysis shows the problematic orthographic areas and gives suggestions for online and offline exercises as well as online courses that are explaining the ortho-graphic phenomena. The aim of this article is to describe the architecture of the web-based system and a proof of concept by evaluating 60 essays. Furthermore, relevant background information is given in order to gain a better understanding in the complex interdisciplinary development.

According to the NMC Horizon Report (Johnson et al. in Horizon Report Europe: 2014 Schools Edition, Publications Office of the European Union, The New Media Consortium, Luxembourg, Austin, 2014 [1]), data-driven learning in combination with emerging academic areas such as learning analytics has the potential to tailor students' education to their needs (Johnson et al. 2014 [1]). Focusing on this aim, this article presents a web-based (training) platform for German-speaking users aged 8–12.Our objective is to support primary-school pupils— especially those who struggle with the acquisition of the German orthography—with an innovative tool to improve their writing and spelling competencies. On this platform, which is free of charge, they can write and publish texts supported by a special feature, called the intelligent dictionary. It gives automatic feedback for correcting mistakes that occurred in the course of fulfilling a meaningful writing task. Consequently, pupils can focus on writing texts and are able to correct texts on their own before publishing them. Additionally, they gain deeper insights in German orthography. Exercises will be recommended for further training based on the spelling mistakes that occurred. This article covers the background to German orthography and its teaching and learning as well as details concerning the requirements for the platform and the user interface design. Further, combined with learning analytics we expect to gain deeper insight into the process of spelling acquisition which will support optimizing our exercises and providing better materials in the long run.

Learning Analytics hat seit seiner Erwähnung im Horizon Report 2012 (Johnson et al. 2012) immer mehr an Bekanntheit und Wichtigkeit gewonnen. Long und Siemens bezeichnen überdies Big Data und Analytics als die dramatischen Faktoren für die Zukunft der (Hoch)Schulbildung (Long/Siemens 2011, S. 31-40). Learning Analytics selbst profitiert von den Möglichkeiten eine Vielzahl von unterschiedlichen Daten einer jeden Benutzerin/eines jeden Benutzers zu sammeln, um die Lernaktivität und das Lernverhalten genauer zu betrachten. Dadurch wird ermöglicht das Lernen selbst besser zu verstehen (Bader-Natal/Lotze 2011). Siemens versucht mit Big Learning Data weitere Informationen zu erhalten um den Lernerfolg vorherzusagen (Siemens 2010). Überdies führt er aus dass nicht die Analysemodelle wichtig sind, sondern der Prozess als Ganzes. So ist es möglich die Ausbilderinnen und Ausbilder, Lehrenden sowie Dozentinnen und Dozenten mit entsprechenden Daten zu versorgen, welche das Lernverhalten jedes einzelnen Lernenden abbilden und so eine individualisierte und personalisierte Betreuung ermöglichen (Ebner/Schön 2013, S. 14-17).

Data-driven learning in combination with emerging academic areas such as Learning Analytics (LA) has the potential to tailor students' education to their needs [1]. The aim of this article is to present a web-based training platform for primary school pupils who struggle with the acquisition of German orthography. Our objective is the improvement in their writing and spelling competences. The focus of this article is on the development of the platform and the details concerning the requirements and the design of the User Interface (UI). In combination with Learning Analytics, the platform is expected to provide deeper insight into the process of spelling acquisition. Furthermore, aspects of Learning Analytics will help to develop the platform, to improve the exercises and to provide better materials in the long run.

Graz University of Technology has a long tradi- tion in doing technology-enhanced courses. Following the latest trends, as mentioned in the NMC Horizon Report [32], we reviewed the possibility to use a wearable technolo- gy, in our case the Google GlassTM, in courses to improve the interaction between the lecturer and the audience with a special focus on huge classes. The lack of interaction in traditional face-to-face lectures is a well-known problem with a long research history [4], [12]. New technologies in Audience Response Systems (ARS) offer new ways to im- prove the interaction between teacher and student by ena- bling to ask questions to the audience [5] to get instant feed- back during a lecture. Currently many types of web-based ARSs are available on the market [15]. Our research fo- cused on finding an ARS suitable for the visualization in the Google Glass display. Further we developed a prototype and described first practical experiences.

Schreiben und Lesen ist eine der grundlegenden Fertigkeiten, die in der Schule vermittelt wird. Durch die Existenz von Computern, Tablets und Handys werden den Schülerinnen neue Zugange zum Schreib- und Leselernlernprozess ermöglicht. Diese greift das Erasmus + Projekt IDeRBlog auf, indem es für das Schreiben eine Internetplattform mit vielen Möglichkeiten zur Verbesserung der Rechtschreibung zur Verfügung stellt.

Many pupils struggle with the acquisi on of the German orthography. In order to meet this struggle a web based pla orm for German speaking countries is currently developed. This pla orm aims to mo vate pupils aged 8 to 12 to improve their wri ng and spelling competences. In this pla orm pupils can write texts in the form of blog entries concerning everyday events or special topics. Since the core of this pla orm consists of an intelligent dic onary focussing on di erent categories of misspellings, students can improve their own spelling skills by trying to correct their mistakes according to the feedback of the system. Teachers are informed about speci c orthographic problems of a par cular student by ge ng a qualita ve analysis of the misspellings from this intelligent dic onary. The ar cle focuses on the development of the intelligent dic onary, details concerning the requirements, the categoriza on and the used wordlist. Further, necessary informa on on German orthography, spelling competence in general and the pla orm itself is given. By implemen ng methods of learning analy cs it is expected to gain deeper insight into the process of spelling acquisi on and thus serves as a basis to develop be er materials in the long run.

Viele Jugendliche haben mit Lese-und Schreib-oder Rechtschreibproblemen zu kämp-fen. Werden diese nicht erkannt und gefördert, wirkt sich das im Erwachsenenalter negativ aus [SMH08]. In diesem Beitrag beschreiben wir ein Informationssystem für den deutschsprachigen Raum, das sich derzeit im Aufbau befindet und mit Hilfe von Learning Analytics versucht perso-nalisiertes Lernen zu fördern. Die Zielgruppe des Forschungsprojekts sind Kinder im Alter zwi-schen 8 und 12 Jahren. Schülerinnen und Schüler können Texte in Form von Blogeinträgen verfas-sen, welche automatisiert auf orthografische Fehler ausgewertet werden. Die qualitative Analyse wird mit Hilfe eines eigens dafür entwickelten Wörterbuches umgesetzt und den Lehrkräften zur Verfügung gestellt.