Toward the integration of monitoring in the orchestration of across-spaces learning situations

Abstract

Technologies such as augmented Reality (AR), 3D Virtual Worlds (3DVWs) and mobile phones are extending education to other spaces beyond the classroom or the Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs). However, the richness of across-spaces learning situations that could be conducted in all these spaces is hampered by the difficulties (encompassed under the “orchestration” metaphor) that teachers face to carry them out. Monitoring can help in such orchestration, and it has been highly explored in face-to-face and blended learning. Nevertheless, in ubiquitous environments it is usually limited to activities taking place in a specific type of space (e.g., outdoors). In this paper we propose an orchestration system which supports the monitoring of learning situations that may involve web, AR-enabled physical and 3DVW spaces. The proposal was evaluated in three authentic studies, in which a prototype of the system provided monitoring through a web dashboard, an AR app, and a Virtual Globe.