Learning German Adjectives and Colors

Learning German Adjectives and Colors German descriptive words, similar to English ones, typically go before the thing they change: der gute Mann (the great man), das große Haus (the enormous house/building), die schà ¶ne Dame (the pretty woman). In contrast to English descriptive words, a German modifier before a thing must have a consummation (- eâ in the models above). Exactly what that completion will be relies upon a few variables, includingâ genderâ (der, kick the bucket, das) andâ caseâ (nominative, accusative, dative). Be that as it may, more often than not the consummation is a - eâ or a - enâ (in the plural). Withâ ein-words, the consummation differs as per the changed things sex (see beneath). Take a gander at the accompanying table for the descriptive word endings in the nominative (subject) case: Withâ definite articleâ (der, kick the bucket, das) -  Nominative case Masculineder Femininedie Neuterdas Pluraldie der neu Wagenthe new vehicle kick the bucket schn Stadtthe delightful city das alt Autothe old vehicle kick the bucket neu Bcherthe new books Withâ indefinite articleâ (eine, kein, mein) -  Nom. case Masculineein Feminineeine Neuterein Pluralkeine ein neu Wagena new vehicle eine schn Stadta wonderful city ein alt Autoan old vehicle keine neu Bcherno new books Note that withâ ein-words, since the article may not disclose to us the sexual orientation of the accompanying thing, the descriptive word finishing regularly does this rather (- esâ â das, - erâ â der; see above). As in English, a German descriptive word can likewise comeâ afterâ the action word (predicate descriptor): Das Haus ist groãÿ. (The house is huge.) In such cases, the descriptive word will have NO closure. Farben (Colors) The German words for colorsâ usually work as descriptive words and take the typical descriptor endings (however observe exemptions beneath). In specific circumstances, hues can likewise be things and are in this way promoted: eine Bluse in Blau (a shirt in blue); das Blaueâ vom Himmel versprechen (to guarantee paradise and earth, lit., the blue of the sky). The diagram beneath shows a portion of the more typical hues with test phrases. Youll discover that the hues in feeling blue or seeing red may not mean something very similar in German. A bruised eye in German is blau (blue). Farbe Shading Shading Phrases with Adjective Endings decay red der repetition Wagen (the red vehicle), der Wagen ist decay rosa pink bite the dust rosa Rosen (the pink roses)* blau blue ein blaues Auge (a bruised eye), er ist blau (hes alcoholic) for hell's sake blau lightblue kick the bucket hellblaue Bluse (the light blue blouse)** dunkel-blau darkblue kick the bucket dunkelblaue Bluse (the dim blue shirt) grn green der grne Hut (the green cap) gelb yellow kick the bucket gelben Seiten (business directory), ein gelbes Auto wei white das weie Papier (the white paper) schwarz dark der schwarze Koffer (the dark bag) *Colors finishing off with - aâ (lila, rosa) don't take the typical descriptive word endings.â â **Light or dim hues are gone before byâ hell-(light) orâ dunkel-(dim), as inâ hellgrã ¼nâ (light green) orâ dunkelgrã ¼nâ (dark green).

The Ideals Of Justice Essay Research Paper free essay sample

The Ideals Of Justice Essay, Research Paper The idea of justness has been extremely remarkable in the readings and medicines that we have had this one-fourth. The Old Testament and Plato # 8217 ; s Republic both give definitions and goals of justness, however in some cases these considerations are differentiating or even misleading in their few examples. These books both give representations of justness and how individuals go over their single considerations of what justness is. I will look to examine these thoughts and explain non only what justness is, however close to how people set up their ain readings of the word justness. Since everybody # 8217 ; s # 8217 ; contemplations are extraordinary, we should principal set up a typical idea of justness. To make this we should look no farther than the Oxford American Dictionary ; which characterizes justness as # 8220 ; reasonableness. # 8221 ; Socrates would ask, # 8220 ; what is reasonableness and who concludes that it is simply? # 8221 ; In the Old Testament, God would make up ones brain the meaning of value, since what He says is correct. Every one of these legitimate writings gives great infiltration on the subject of justness, here and there they concur and once in a while their notions are clashing. In either occasion we can relate these musings to the cutting edge American culture which we live in. In the Old Testament justness is the thing that God says it is, and gives an away from of rules expressing how to be an only person. In the Old Testament, in the event that one does as God stated, they are only, on the off chance that they do non make non obey God, so they are out of line. The most clear of these guidelines are the Ten Commandments which include: thou will non slaughter, take or defy God. At the point when one of these guidelines is broken so the person who broke the guideline is said to hold trespassed, and by violating they have done an uncalled for act. At the point when an individual sins they are rebuffed by a title equivalent to that of which they have submitted. In the book of Genesis when Cain slaughters his sibling Abel, God rebuffs Cain by doing him roll the Earth for an amazing rest. Cain reacts to God by expressing that work powers will surely try to execute him for what he has done. God answers expressing, # 8220 ; in the event that anybody kills Cain, h e will suffer requital multiple times over. # 8221 ; This outline shows that in evident justness orchestrating to the Old Testament, reprisal is required to maintain justness. Figure will secure off with uncalled for workss, in light of the fact that justness is unmistakably served in the terminal. By # 8220 ; the terminal # 8221 ; it is inferred that they will pay in this life or on the other hand in paradise or snake pit. The Old Testament gives us the idea that justness originates from the expression of God and that it will be managed to the out of line individual somewhere around each piece cruelly as the demonstration they resolved to justify it. The considerations of justness introduced in Plato # 8217 ; s book The Republic are non as obvious as those of the Old Testament. It begins by expressing that justness is # 8220 ; giving everybody his due. # 8221 ; What that individual merits is up to the individual or the area relying upon the situation. They conclude that justness came into the universe since individuals feared one another. They made the example that individuals concurred non to hurt one another and made guidelines to actualize this idea. Socrates said that there are three pieces of the head: ground, feeling, and want. In a simply individual, the ground bit will ever be in charge of the other two pieces of the head. He contrasted justness with the human natural structure when he said that justness in the head resembles wellbeing in the natural structure. Socrates other than says that is difficult to be only in an uncalled for society in light of the fact that the fortunes of the unjustifiable effect the manque only individuals and constrain them to be marginally out of line. It is inferred that a simply individual is unified with cognizance and an unreasonable individual is inexperienced. Both the New Testament and Plato # 8217 ; s Republic give great entrances to the meaning of justness. Every make solid focuses and there are numerous likenesses between the two. In Plato # 8217 ; s Republic Socrates expresses that punishment does non hurt individuals. The solitary way that a grown-up male can be truly hurt is by being aggravated a grown-up male. What is really unsafe is non torment however his ain shamefulness. This is truly near Christian methods of reasoning. In principle, one is non expected to punish individual for their activities yet rather to love instead of lashing out. In design however this was non ever the case. The most clear similitude is their considerations of justness both holding to make with reprisal. In the Old Testament there is the account of Noah. God was nauseated by the unfairnesss that grown-up male was making. He discovered Noah, a simply grown-up male, and chose to rescue only him from the immersion that would disregard out all world. God w as moving in a way that He thought to be only, by punishing the individuals who w ere unjustifiable. This relates back to when Socrates discussed giving everybody his due. Socrates other than concocted the idea that there is no pleasance in being just other than being only. The wagess of populating a decent life are non for what it acquires this life, however rather for when we are dead. The Old Testament is a similar way since God exchanges about imperishable existence with him for being simply and ever-enduring life in snake pit for the uncalled for. In spite of the fact that the two writings are comparative from multiple points of view, they other than have extremely various positions each piece great. The most observable contrast in thought between the two books is partiality of acceptable and awful. In Plato # 8217 ; s Republic, Socrates and the other work powers are regularly expressing how one should, through justness ; advantage 1s # 8217 ; companions who are acceptable individuals and mischief those foes who are in reality awful. This is know aparting against the individuals society considers terrible or reprobate. It is expressing that one ought to be rebuffed by their foes and profited by their companions. In the Old Testament God rebuffs everybody for what they have done off base, there is no partiality with regards to justness. In the account of Adam and Eve, God adores them yet disallow them to eat from the tree of discernment. The snake convinces Eve to eat the organic product who so in twist sought after Adam to eat the natural product. After they ate the organic product they understood that they were bare and had discernment. According to God numbness is just. Since A dam and Eve Ate from the out tree and had picked up cognizance, it got out of line. This position negates incredibly with that of Plato. In the terminal of his book the Republic, Socrates goes to the choice that justness is an issue of perception, and that shamefulness is an undertaking of obliviousness. He results in these present circumstances choice by ascertaining that a decent instructed grown-up male with a cluster of discernment will hold a superior anxiety of justness than a naive grown-up male who can # 8217 ; t state directly from erroneous. Both of these books speak to a decent however conflicting situation of justness, much like our ain society today. The goals of justness to twenty-four hours in American culture are pretty much acceptable characterized, as they have been made into Torahs. These Torahs were pretty much conformed to the Ten Commandments, which can be found in the Old Testament. These Torahs are the essential development of our key law today. In Plato # 8217 ; s Republic Thrasumachus says that justness is what is in the inclusion of the more grounded party. These Torahs are esteemed just and what is simply is respect to these Torahs by the more fragile gathering. This is extremely much the way it is in America today. The individuals in power, viz. Congress, cause the Torahs and we as a whole should to tail them. To accept that on the grounds that our Torahs are simply in light of the fact that Congress said so is inaccurate. That resembles expressing that it is out of line to surge on the turnpike. It is non out of line, or even only, it is just driving quick. The praised expression # 8220 ; An oculus for an oculus, a tooth for a tooth # 8221 ; is exceptional in America today. Numerous individuals accept that whatever is done ought to be reimbursed with justness of a similar impact as the first activity. The considerations of justness in America today were impacted by antiquated philosophical messages, for example, these. Also, in our general public today, America is commended with holding a decent justness framework. The contemplations of Plato and the Hagiographas from the Bible no vulnerability played a huge capacity in the framing of our essential law, in expressing what is just and uncalled for. Both the Old Testament and Plato # 8217 ; s Republic offer incredible infiltration into the musings of justness. These contemplations, similar to the Ten Commandments, have decided the Torahs in result in America today. In spite of the fact that the criticalness of justness is extremely tricky, the normal idea of why an individual is only is the equivalent in all social orders. This idea says that there is no pleasance in being only other than for the reality of being just. People groups are simply in light of the fact that the wagess of populating a decent life are non for the wagess it gets this life, yet rather for when we are dead. This is the reason Marx considered confidence the # 8220 ; opium of the individuals. # 8221 ; Because they are happy to move in a held mode and be simply, for something that has neer been seen or demonstrated. I dissagree with this and accept that each and every individual who is simply is so for their ain grounds. There can non be a fit meaning of jus tness in our free society since everybody has their ain infiltrations and Acts of the Apostless on their ain thoughts. Equity is extremely hard to elucidate in light of the fact that it is truly unique and has numerous features to it. The Old Testament and Plato # 8217 ; s Republic offer us incredible infiltrations into the hugeness of justness, yet neither one of the ones can give an unmistakable and perfect meaning of what genuine justness is.

Encephalitis Lethargica Compared to the Movie Awakenings Free Essays

Encephalitis lethargica is an uncommon malady which is an atypical type of encephalitis that can cause manifestations that run from cerebral pains to trance state like states. Other potential side effects incorporate things, for example, twofold vision, high fevers, torpidity, and postponed physical and mental responses. The treatment of the sickness was the principle focal point of the film renewals and the book it depended on. We will compose a custom paper test on Encephalitis Lethargica Compared to the Movie Awakenings or on the other hand any comparative point just for you Request Now The reason for the sickness even today despite everything stays a lot of a secret with fruitful treatment additionally sticking to this same pattern, fortunately anyway since an enormous flare-up of the ailment in the late 1960’s there have been exceptionally uncommon announced instances of the illness since. At the point when the film Awakenings starts we discover one of the principle characters, Leonard Lowe, as a youngster. In the film the watcher sees youthful Leonard start to experience the ill effects of early side effects of encephalitis lethargica, he rapidly gets incapable to keep up in school and is taken out so he can be viewed and furthermore probably to keep the illness from conceivably spreading. The film at that point bounces to 1969 where the watcher is Dr. Sayer go after a position in Bronx, his experience up to that point had been all exploration yet the medical clinic being underemployed recruits him at any rate. Dr. Sayer before long gets resolved to improve the personal satisfaction for his patients and starts to search for an approach to reduce there disease, in spite of the incredulity of his friends. In the wake of researching into a few of his mental patients he discovers that a considerable lot of them had experienced encephalitis lethargica at some point from quite a while ago. Not long after finding this Dr. Sayer continues to become familiar with them by counseling a specialist who had treated numerous patients with the ailment. He discovers that numerous patients who endure the flare-up would appear to have periods where they would seem to recoup from the ailment for a period however after a measure of time would fall once again into a condition of mental shock. Not long after learning this presumably because of the basic actuality that the mental conduct of his patients was like that of Parkinson’s patients, he decides to seek after the most recent advances in Parkinson’s medicines. He at that point goes to a meeting on Parkinson’s medicines, there Dr. Sayer first finds out about Levodopa (otherwise called L Dopa) Sayer suggests that L Dopa ought to be tried as a treatment for one of his mental patients, his bosses express questions that he will be effective however at long last consents to let him continue to give it a shot one patient. He chooses Leonard Lowe to be treated with L Dopa. After some timeframe Leonard stirs, after this achievement Dr. Sayer then attempts to campaign the supporters of the emergency clinic for additionally subsidizing to grow this treatment to different patients and after gifts from staff individuals and in the wake of demonstrating Leonard to the medical clinics financial specialists he gets the necessary subsidizing and puts the remainder of the patients on L Dopa. They, similar to Leonard, before long stir after treatment and appear to all make a full recuperation from their mental states. It’s not some time before Leonard starts to experience the ill effects of L Dopa, he encounters spasms, distrustfulness, and crazy conduct which are on the whole genuine indications of L Dopa treatment; Leonard additionally starts to manufacture a resistance to the medication and he before long has his side effects of his ailment gradually return. The remainder of the patients at last experience a similar course of occasions and in the long run all arrival to a condition of mental shock. The film closes with Dr. Sayer giving a discourse about what he gained from his patients. The manifestations experienced by the patients and the symptoms appeared in the film from L Dopa are amazingly precise with those accomplished, all things considered, for example, Leonard extraordinary enthusiastic state and However the examination Dr. Sayer, whose genuine name was Dr. Oliver Sacks, was comparative however wasn’t precisely what happened throughout the mid year of 1969. Instead of beginning the L Dopa treatment with only one patient and afterward growing the treatment to the remainder of the patients as was delineated in the film, Oliver Sacks really started his examination as a twofold visually impaired method with a fake treatment gathering and with a treatment gathering. He likewise initially proposed to just let the investigation keep going for 90 days anyway once he saw that 50% of his patients were indicating improvement, Sacks felt free to start giving the remainder of the patients L Dopa and dropped his multi day window for the examination. Inside the film Dr. Sayer is delineated going from one patient to his entire gathering of patients, aside from this the film seems, by all accounts, to be totally in accordance with the occasions of reality. Works Cited Micromedex, Drug Information Provided By:. â€Å"Levodopa (Oral Route). †Ã‚ Mayo Clinic. Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, 01 Nov. 2011. Web. 14 Feb. 2013. â€Å"Awakenings. †Ã‚ Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 14 Feb. 2013. Web. 14 Feb. 2013. â€Å"Side Effects of Carbidopa-Levodopa. †Ã‚ Side Effects of Carbidopa-Levodopa. N. p. , n. d. Web. 14 Feb. 2013. â€Å"NINDS Encephalitis Lethargica Information Page. †Ã‚ Encephalitis Lethargica Information Page: National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). N. p. , n. d. Web. 14 Feb. 2013. â€Å"Awakenings. †Ã‚ Oliver Sacks MD RSS. N. p. , n. d. Web. 14 Feb. 2013. Instructions to refer to Encephalitis Lethargica Compared to the Movie Awakenings, Essay models

Interview analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Meeting examination - Essay Example Talking Joe, a local occupant of Florida, whose youth saw the impacts of Cuban migration, gave me an understanding to the circumstance in those days. It likewise intrigued me that what suppositions, today after such a significant number of years do these local people have in regards to the foreigners. Discussing Joe’s early life, he revealed to me he was conceived in 1959 in Coral Gables. The house he was conceived in had a place with his mother’s guardians which they had purchased in 1953. Before long his folks moved out, purchasing another house and were not living with Joe’s grandparents any longer. Out of the three houses he lived in, his most seasoned house, in a further west area, was announced unincorporated during the 1960s. Reviewing the name change of the region from Dade to Miami-Dade which was went with the democratic of a few people practicing their home guideline powers, Joe called it ‘one large change in my life’. Joe concurred that the name change approved the affirmation of Miami as being globally perceived and that ‘Miami-Dade County is the most famous County in Florida. He accepts that during his lifetime, Miami has gotten all the more universally available with heaps of outsiders running in and individuals of various races looking for home in here. I proceeded with the discussion, digging further into the subject of foreigners which he brought into conversation. I asked him that living in Miami-Dade County since his youth; his associations with settlers, explicitly Cubans may have been various. To this, he began describing me what had occurred on the appearance of two Cuban workers when he was in grade school. The entire school arranged them a gathering, inviting them, since they were the absolute first Cubans to go to his group and school, Joe told as he enjoyed a memory of recollections from his youth with a grin all over. I was interested to ask him whether they were generally excellent companions with him or not. On my request Joe let out a little giggle and disclosed to me that yes

A Morning At the Decatur Book Festival

A Morning At the Decatur Book Festival What do you do if given only a few hours to explore a book festival? 600 authors, blocks of booths, panels, and addresses dispersed around town. For a bibliophile, this is kid-in-a-candy store territory. You can easily exhaust the weekend trading between stops. I had a mere morning. Still, the ever-expanding Decatur Book Festival may be the ideal event for a concentrated dose of bookishness. That it’s an indie gathering helps. Here’s a place to celebrate the most esoteric of publicationsâ€"the books the Big Five were reticent to touch, perhaps, but which teem with envelope-pushing concepts, or specialized interests, or daring narratives. This is less the Times bestseller list splayed out street-fair style than it is a glorious array of titles you may not know yet, but that, once they work their way into your hands, are clear kismet. I got a little lost in the pre-planning. Decatur’s list of participants gets increasingly impressive as the festival ages: from Congressman John Lewis not long ago, to a schedule which, this weekend, included Pat Conroy, Meg Cabot, and Christopher Moore, with Erica Jong and Roxane Gay taking the premiere speaking spot. That marquee alone sang to me: feminist. Southern. Irreverent. These are broad strokes, though, for a festival replete with niches. Break down the author appearances by trackpolitical, religious, scientific, romanceand you discover talks on subjects meant for you. I, who studied feminist theology in school, and who wrestles, sometimes obsessively, with questions around the room made for (or denied to) women in religion, found my ideal Saturday morning in a talk by three essayists who contributed to a new collection, Faithfully Feminist. I found, before I even set foot on festival grounds, my perfect book. ___ Book people must rise late. I hadnt noticed this in previous yearsmaybe because Ive always come to the festival late myself, after lingering breakfasts with friends or nice, lazy mornings. I just presumed that the crowds we arrived to preceded us by a generous stretch. Not so generous. When I arrived at nine this year, most vendors were still setting up. I found the booth that topped my shopping listAnd Thou Shalt Read, full of crates brought down from a bookstore in Roswell that specializes in Judaica. Titles jumped out at me, but the streets booksellers werent ready yet, so I strolled through some booths that were. The University presses were prepared. Emory had its titles almost entirely laid out, and the University of Georgia Press, not far from it, already had a writer waiting for readers to arrive. The emerging author tent was on point, tooand a nice embodiment of the festival itself. For readers who gravitate toward used books, there are plenty to be found, either from specialty vendors, or at the library sale off of the square; for those looking for 3-for-$5 bookstore deals, there are tents for that, too. But the emerging author tent is where youll find the books that surprise you. These are the waxy-covered, intriguingly titled, probably unfamiliar self-published books that offer distinctive and intriguing perspectives. Theyre so Decatur. For me, though, this years festival visit was about control, specialization, staying on track. I didnt take my wallet out until I got to the talk; Faithfully Feminist itself became my first purchase, and its pages the provocative reading that held me over until the talk began. I dont know how Decatur does it. In that conference room, in that book talk, I felt spoken to. Aisha Saeed, who was also promoting her YA novel, Written In the Stars, read from an essay about navigating work, motherhood, and religion. Rachel Lieberman, a dynamic young activist who serves as program director for the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance, offered a bit from her piece on growing into a tradition thats sometimes slow to grow equally toward you. The room was full, and its listeners were involved, familiar with the topic, and responsive. Maybe an indie book festival is an ideal place to encounter readers who, in their particularity, are also so like you. __ Post-talk, I met with Rachel to talk books, life, and religion in greater detail. From her, I learned more about Faithfully Feminist, including about how the project came together.   The conversation was a neatly ideal way to spend a Shabbat morningnot Torah study exactly, but engaged book-ish talk. We covered an array of topics: practice, study, religious life in its ebbs and flows. We traded book recommendations. Waldowhos always at the Decatur Book Festival, if youre still lookingstrolled by. Three hours at a book festival looks to be, at the outset, too little, but by the time I realized I had to abandon my conversation with Rachel, Id had a serving of it that sated me perfectly. Though I missed the clash between Jong and Gay, and had to forgo the talks other friends came in specifically for; though there was no Pat Conroy signing for me, and though I didnt get to visit nearly every booth; I got a version of the festival that seemed almost tailored to me. I passed And Thou Shalt Read on my way back outenough moments left to grab a title or threeand left to boast to the party that I was meeting about my perfect, bookcentric, uncommon-kind-of-spiritual Saturday morning. Sign up to Today In Books to receive  daily news and miscellany from the world of books. Thank you for signing up! Keep an eye on your inbox.

Evolution of personal computers - Free Essay Example

1. Literature Review 1.1. E-Learning 1.1.1. Overview The last 20 years, the evolution of personal computers has been rapid. Respectively, the advancements in software and hardware have been huge and inevitably, the e-learning sector was influenced as well, with several tools being developed with ever growing capabilities, from plain delivering of text, to audio/photo/video management. [1] But what really e-learning is and why such importance is given to it? Electronic learning (or e-Learning) can be defined as the process of educating or offering knowledge via electronic means. Many researchers go a little bit further, like Nichols (2008) for example, who perceives e-learning as pedagogy empowered by digital technology. This aspect assigns to e-learning an even greater importance, which is probably valid when considering the different ways that e-learning is applied. In most cases there is no face to face interaction between the trainer and the learner and the communication is based solely on electronic means like computers, videos, web sites, virtual reality environments, etc. In other cases e-learning is used as an addition to conventional learning, in order the latter to be enriched (blended learning); in these cases the aforementioned means are combined with or are added to, traditional techniques (classroom interaction) in order the desired results to be achieved . Finally there is an intermediate application as well, where, although there is no face to face interaction in a daily basis, certain meetings are organised from time to time between the learners and the trainer in order the learning process to be improved. [2] Despite the fact there has been an explosion of computer-based multimedia applications in education in recent years (Gerlic and JauÃ…Â ¡ovec 1999), the success of e-learning applications has always been debatable. Plenty of researchers have studied the subject, with many of them (e.g. Kazmerski and Blasko 1999, Kulik and Kulik 1991, Steyn, du Toit and Lachmann 1999) stressing out the advantages of e-learning against conventional learning methods. Others though, tend to think differently, believing that e-learning systems can prove to be deficient or simply not superior that the conventional ones (Merchant, Kreie, Cronan 2001) [3], [4], [5], [6], [7], [8]. Despite this debate however, there is a growing trend towards e-learning processes and implementations, with a basic reason being the continuously growing technology possibilities available. Moreover, e-learning presents certain benefits which have raised its popularity these past years: Education is made possible for people who may not have the time -like parents or professionals- or the money to attend a classroom. Time and distance are no longer an issue and learning can be offered globally even to people with disabilities. Higher quality of education can be offered to anyone, since highly skilled professors can offer their services electronically, to any individual anywhere in the world, with much lower costs. The costs issue comprises a general advantage of e-learning since it applies in any of its forms; for example enterprises are now able to offer training services to their employees and partners with minimal costs and without the need to organise trips for seminars or relevant activities. The learner can attend learning sessions anytime, anywhere, at his/her own pace. In other words each learner can adjust the course according to his/her own needs, experience and free time. The learner participates energetically in the learning process, something that doesnt always apply in a conventional classroom, since in many cases the learners do not pay any attention to the trainer. In e-learning environments such behaviours do not exist since the course process cannot proceed without the energetic participation of the learner. The subsequent reduction of paper usage due to the electronic character of the courses can be highly beneficial for the environment. Even the disadvantage of lacking personal interaction, can nowadays be overcome in a great degree, via several services like forums, e-mails, chats, teleconferences, etc. [9], [10], [11], [12] On the other hand, many tend to believe that the human interaction in a classroom during the learning process is irreplaceable by any other learning type and consequently, e-learning. Jean Barbazette, president of The Training Clinic in Seal Beach, California, believes that Some things still cant be taught online and that For interpersonal skills, classroom learning usually works better. The classroom offers immediate feedback from instructors and co-learners, which is crucial to the learning process Rebecca Aronauer supports. Nevertheless, many researchers support that should e-learning is implemented correctly, it can be as efficient as conventional learning (Zhao et al 2005). Moreover, Rovai (2002) supports that there are no significant differences concerning the experiences of students learning on-line or in a classroom, and that the sense of being part of a team can be effectively simulated when the electronic course is designed appropriately. Indeed, nowadays computers are cons idered to be of great importance by most university students (Gunn et al 2003). [13], [14], [15], [16] 1.1.2. Tools 1.1.2.1. In General In order e-learning to be implemented, certain tools are needed which vary significantly one from the other and each of them undertake a certain part of the whole process. These tools can be divided in the following categories based on the process part that they serve: Hardware and networks E-learning cannot be implemented unless the relevant infrastructure exists; this can include computers, visual and audio devices like web cams, microphones and speakers, web servers, media servers, etc. This hardware has to communicate remotely with respective equipment on the trainers side, an issue which is addressed via networks like intranets, extranets, VPNs, or the World Wide Web. [17], [18] Tools to access knowledge These are the tools with the help of which the user can gain access to e-learning material; the main are web browsers like Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Opera and Safari and media players, like Windows Media Player, QuickTime, Winamp and VLC Player. Since the Internet is the main tool to interconnect the trainer and the learner, web browsers are basic tools of the e-learning process and without them, the Internet becomes inaccessible. Media players are quite important as well, since through them the user can access visual and audio material on which, the success of the electronic course is based many times. Tools to offer knowledge In order e-learning material to become accessible to the learner certain tools are needed, which are called Learning Management Systems (LMSs). Their main duty is to provide the platform which will offer the learning content over a network. An LMS is a piece of software that enables as to plan, deliver, and manage the learning process and it can be found in different versions with different functionalities; it can be used just to keep records on the courses that the learners are interested in or to offer complete online learning sessions along with online interaction tools via which, the learners can communicate and enrich the whole process. It can be web-based or not, but in most cases, it is web-based. [19], [20], [21], [22], [23], [24] Tools to create the e-learning content The basic tools for creating e-learning material are called Learning Content Management Systems (LCMSs) and are responsible for authoring and managing e-learning content. In other words, these systems are used for creating and exploiting the learning content which will be later delivered via an LMS. The main advantage of LCMSs -in contrast to LMSs- is that they offer the possibility to a programmer to develop, export, import, manage or search for content that can be reused by other programmers in different projects, keeping in parallel history data and versions data; this content may include text, graphics, media files, etc. In LMSs, courses cannot be developed and managed, and learning objects (small pieces of learning content) cannot be reused in other courses. Nevertheless, it should be noted that many confuse these two terms and often refer to both by using the term LMS; this is wrong though, since as it is evident from the above, an LCMS can be considered as a development of an LMS and offers different possibilities. It is true however, that many times the functionalities of an LCMS overlap those of an LMS. Tools for human interaction In order the classroom feeling to be simulated effectively in an e-learning environment, various tools can be utilised. Despite the fact that these tools were not developed initially for this specific purpose, when combined can enrich greatly the learning process. These tools can be of two types depending on the presence of the individuals or parties that communicate: synchronous and asynchronous. Synchronous tools enable individuals or parties to communicate in real time, when asynchronous dont. Asynchronous tools include e-mail services like Gmail, Yahoo or Hotmail, Blogs, Fora, etc. On the other hand, synchronous include chat clients like GoogleTalk or MSN, VoIP/ teleconference tools like Skype or WowPow, media players like VLC, WinAMP or Media Player, etc. Media players can be used of course, as asynchronous tool as well. [25] 1.1.2.2. Popular Tools All the above functionalities -besides those concerning hardware of course- are successfully incorporated in most modern LM/LCM Systems. There is a great variety of such tools from various vendors, but the most popular among the educational community these days seem to be Moodle and JoomlaLMS. 1.1.2.2.1. Moodle Moodle is one of the most popular tools of its kind due to the fact that it is a free and open source LCMS for creating dynamic environments for educational purposes and despite being free, it is considered to be highly efficient, since its modular design allows developers to add desired functionalities and in essence tailor it on their needs. Moreover many additional third party plug-ins are available for free, which enhance even more its modular character. The main programming language used for developing new modules is PHP, a fact that assigns an important advantage; Moodle can run on different platforms (Windows, Linux, Unix, Mac OS, etc) without any modifications being needed, as soon as PHP is supported. [59] 1.1.2.2.2. JoomlaLMS JoomlaLMS emerged from the extremely popular web content management platform Joomla, and like its parent application, is based on PHP programming language and MySQL database system. The basic Joomla characteristics like modularity, extensions and templates are still there, as well as in the aforementioned Moodle application. The difference however is that JoomlaLMS is not independent -needs Joomla to function- and additionally, it is not a free software package. [60], [61] 1.1.3. Standards As we saw in the previous paragraphs the main tools to create and offer knowledge are LMSs and LCMSs; the former hosts content which is created on the latter. Additionally, the main advantage of LCMSs is their ability to create reusable learning objects. Obviously, reusing an object offers many advantages with the main being the time that is saved; the developers can use on their projects already developed pieces of content, independently of their projects nature and special demands. Nevertheless, creating learning objects on a certain platform doesnt mean that it can be used efficiently on any other platform that some other developer may use. This is where standards come in with their main goals being: Interoperability. The learning objects must be able to be incorporated efficiently in any course designed and delivered in any platform. Standards ensure that each object is designed and developed following certain guidelines which in turn guide to its effective utilisation on any project. For example, activities like moving a course from one LMS server to another, reusing content on different LMSs, searching for learning content across different LMS environments, etc, cannot be performed without following certain standards. Content exchange. The learning content in not exchanged just locally, but globally as well. In order the global exchange of content to be efficient, setting respective guidelines is a crucial process. Performance. Common specifications can ensure that objects design is such that the best possible system performance based on the current hardware and software possibilities is reached. The changes in technology are balanced by the dynamic character of standards that constantly evolve depending on the current circumstances. Rights protection. E-learning content is developed by people or organisations that put much effort, resources and time on this process, and subsequently this effort has to be protected; a means towards this direction is the adoption of standards which set corresponding guidelines which can help to protect the developed content by unauthorised usage. Until 1999, no e-learning standards had been used and the first development attempts gave results in 2000. Since then, several organisations have been developing e-learning standards for different purposes and some of them are: Airline Industry CBT Committee AICC (airline training) EDUCAUSE Institutional Management System Project (IMS) Vendor group working to build standards for e-learning based on work of AICC Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) US Federal government initiative Development of Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) Allince of Remote Institutiopnal Authoring and Distribution Network for Europe (ARIADNE) An industry association focusing on e-learning standards issues (ariadne.unil.ch) IEEE Learning Technology Standards Committee (IEEE LTSC) Accredits the standards for the US that emerge from the other groups (ltsc.ieee.org) ISO/IEC JTC1 SC36 (ITLET) IT for Learning, Education and Training Advanced Learning Infrastructure Consortium (ALIC) Japanese Consortium for promotion of e-leaning technology and infrastructure e-Learning Consortium Japan (eLC) Vendor/User company working to promote e-learning business and technology In the picture below the interconnection between the various standards is presented. 1.1.4. Role of Navigation Navigation is one of the most important elements of an e-learning course, since courses characterised by problematic navigation not only -most of the times- are abandoned by their users, but even when this is not the case, the efficiency of the course is significantly reduced. At the dawn of the e-learning era, the navigation schemes were very simple and mostly linear, meaning that the trainee could just move from page to page, forwards and backwards. Nowadays, the recent hardware and software developments, along with the subsequent developments in e-learning systems, offer to us the possibility to create complex navigation schemes, with simultaneous and parallel access to different parts of the course, which can be comprised by texts, images, audio, video or combinations of these, meaning multimedia. Nevertheless, besides the obvious advantages, this modern navigation approach presents some serious drawbacks as well. The basic are the following: The serendipity effect. The aforementioned free access to any part of the course, may guide the learner to focus on irrelevant or insignificant elements. The lost in hyperspace phenomenon. The above apply for this one as well, since the learner, due to the overflow of information in different formats, fails to concentrate on the important parts of the course and furthermore fails to identify where exactly he/she is located in the course map and subsequently, what exactly he/she was originally searching for. Cognitive overload. In e-learning courses the student, besides pure learning content, is being occupied with other things as well, like the way to navigate through the content and the adequate configuration of the course from a software/hardware point of view. So, in order the learner to remain focused on the learning content and be distracted as less as possible by irrelevant elements, Holzinger (2000) proposes several mechanisms, like indexes, site maps, guided tours, bookmarks, fish-eye views, etc. Nevertheless, such mechanisms dont prove to be enough in all cases and additional actions are often needed; these actions are defined by several standards with the most important of these being SCORM. [35], [36], [37], [38], [39], [8] 1.2. The SCORM standard 1.2.1. Overview As we saw in section 1.1.3, standards are a fundamental element of the e-learning organisation globally. A quite serious effort on the subject has been conducted by the ADL (Advanced Distributing Learning) initiative -established by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and the US Department of Defence (DoD)- and is called SCORM. SCORM was based on previous efforts by several organisations -like the aforementioned in paragraph 1.1.4- with the main being: IEEE Data Model For Content Object Communication IEEE ECMAScript Application Programming Interface for Content to Runtime Services Communication IEEE Learning Object Metadata (LOM) IEEE Extensible Markup Language (XML) Schema Binding for Learning Object Metadata Data Model IMS Content Packaging IMS Simple Sequencing SCORM stands for Sharable Content Object Reference Model and has been developed in order to foster the creation of reusable learning content as instructional objects within a common technical framework for computer-based and Web-based learning. SCORM describes that technical framework by providing a harmonized set of guidelines, specifications and standards based on the work of several distinct e-learning specifications and standards bodies. [40] With the implementation of SCORM, the ADL Initiative aims to accelerate large-scale development of dynamic and cost-effective learning software and systems and to stimulate the market for these products. [40] SCORMs basic idea is that, the learning content, meaning courses, modules, etc, can be obtained by aggregating reusable content objects. These objects can be used repeatedly in any platform, without restrictions. This uniformity is achieved by certain rules and guidelines defined in SCORM. A SCORM compliant LMS can identify the organisation of the content without needing information regarding sequencing and navigation, since these subjects are taken care by SCORM, provided that the course is SCORM compliant. So, the content objects can be reused in other environments. In order an e-learning environment to be SCORM compliant, it has to fulfil certain general requirements set by the ADL Initiative, which are incorporated in SCORM. These requirements are called ilities and are the following: Accessibility: Instructional components must be able to be accessed and transferred between remote locations. Adaptability: Instructions must be developed based on individual and organizational needs. Affordability: Instructions delivery, must be related to increased efficiency and productivity and reduced time and costs. Durability: Technology evolution must not charge with design, configuration or coding changes. Interoperability: Instructional components must be compatible to any tools or platforms. Reusability: Instructional components must be able to be used in multiple applications and contexts. Additionally, due to the rapid expansion of web-based technologies and infrastructures, the lack of wide-spread web-based learning technology standards, and the convenience on delivering web-based content using nearly any medium, SCORM assumes that the implemented e-learning environments are web-based. This blending of the ilities with the web-based character of the learning applications, offers the following abilities: The ability of a Web-based LMS to launch content that is authored using tools from different vendors and to exchange data with that content. The ability of Web-based LMS products from different vendors to launch the same content and exchange data with that content during execution. The ability of multiple Web-based LMS products/environments to access a common repository of executable content and to launch such content. Naturally, the above mentioned requirements have a general character and are not the only ones incorporated in SCORM. There exist a large number of guidelines and specifications. In order these to be efficiently exploited, SCORM is divided in three technical books, with each one of them referring to a certain subject. These subjects are: the Content Aggregation Model (CAM), the Run-Time Environment (RTE) and Sequencing and Navigation (SN). 1.2.2. The Content Aggregation Model (CAM) The first book of SCORM (CAM) provides descriptions of the content objects, which -when aggregated- comprise a course, module, etc, as well as ways to package these objects so as interoperability between several platforms to be achieved. Additionally, it proposes ways to describe these objects via metadata so as these to be easily searched and discovered and additionally, ways to define sequencing rules. The objects are organised together so as to produce content packages, meaning courses, lessons, modules, etc. A Content Package connects and organises content objects or aggregations of content objects. A SCORM Content Package may represent a course, a lesson, a module or may simply be a collection of related content objects. This process of creating, discovering, aggregating and organising small content pieces into more complex learning entities and moreover defining sequencing rules on how these are going to be accessed by the learner, consists of the following: v Content Model It refers to the components of a content package and how these are organised to create it. It consists of the following elements: Assets, SCOs (Sharable Content Objects), Learning Activities, Content Organization and Content Aggregation. The Assets comprise the main building parts of any learning resource and can be described as electronic representations of any kind data that can be delivered to the user via a web browser (texts, images, videos, sound, etc.). A SCO can be described as a single learning resource that can be launched by LMSs via the SCORM RTE. It can be produced by aggregations either of single assets or by connecting sets of assets, which in turn consist of multiple single assets. The SCOs comprise the lowest level of data that can communicate with LMSs, with this characteristic comprising their main difference versus assets or sets of assets. The Content Organizations, are collections of SCOs and represent the ways that the learning content should be used by the learner; this can be accomplished by utilising meaningful units of instruction, the Activities. Finally, the Content Aggregation is used to describe the process of creating sets of objects with related content in terms of functionality, so as these sets to be delivered to the learner during the learning experience. v Content Packaging Content Packaging is a process with main objective to ensure that the aggregated content will be able to operate on different platforms. A Content Package represents a unit of learning, meaning that it contains all the data needed so as the learning content to be processed by the LMS and delivered to the learner. It consists of two basic components; the so-called Manifest and the physical files that comprise the content. The Manifest is an XML file which holds data regarding the packages organisation and the included corresponding resources; consists of 4 main components, 2 mandatory (Organisations and Resources) and 2 optional (Metadata and Sub-Manifests). The Metadata provide general information about the package, i.e. title, description, etc, the Organisations hold the organisation (structure) of the packages resources, the Resources contain resources data when the Sub-Manifests describe any stand-alone instruction units. v Metadata Metadata hold descriptive information of the content object, i.e. its properties. v Sequencing and Navigation These information provide definitions of rules models which set the sequence and ordering of the content that is delivered to the learner. [41] 1.2.3. The Run-Time Environment (RTE) RTE describes the requirements to which LMSs should conform in order interoperability between different platforms to be achieved, independently of the tools used in developing the content. In other words it defines how an LMS launches content objects, how it communicates with these at runtime and what data are exchanged during execution, so as interoperability to be accomplished. These three activities are served by three respective components: Launch: Launch, describes how the SCORM compliant content will be delivered to the learner via the LMS. API: Each object may communicate with the LMS via a defined set of methods; this set is called API. Subsequently, a SCORM compliant LMS must be able to support the SCORM API, in order the objects to be compatible to it. Data Model: The Data Model defines standardised types of data which are used to deliver the learning information to the learner. [42] 1.2.4. Sequencing and Navigation (SN) The Sequencing and Navigation (SN) book of SCORM focuses on defining ways so as the learning content to be offered to the learner efficiently, in an adequate order. In order this to be accomplished and the sequencing information to be processed at run-time, a SCORM compliant LMS must incorporate certain elements and functionalities, which are defined in this book as well. The sequencing information essentially refers, to what learning activity is to be delivered next to the learner; each learning activity is associated with a content object. How these objects are launched by the LMS, is described in the RTE book. As it was mentioned in a previous paragraph, the content package holds information regarding the organization of resources, which however do not include information regarding the way that the learning content is going to be delivered to the user, meaning sequencing and order information, or which parts of the content will be accessible to the user and when; these information are held by the aforementioned, manifest file. Towards this goal, SCORM has adopted sets of specifications originally developed by IMS, which provide ways for the sequencing information to be incorporated in the learning process. Some fundamental concepts in these specifications are the Learning Activity, the Activity Tree, the Activity Cluster, the Attempt, the Learning Objectives, the Sequencing Rules and the Rollup Rules. A loose definition of the Learning Activity is that it is a meaningful unit of instruction; in other words it is an action of the learner as he/she goes through the course. It can be an autonomous learning unit or may be comprise by several of sub-activities; sub-activities in turn, may consist of 2nd-level sub-activities and these in turn by 3rd-level, and so on. The activities and the users experiencing them can be associated with a tracking status. Each user can execute a predefined number of a certain activity or he/she may be free to execute it as many times desired. Activities may be suspended, abandoned, exited normally etc., nevertheless all of them must remain within the context of the parent activity. An Activity Tree is a tree holding nodes with each node being associated to an activity and storing the sequencing information. The LMS goes through the activity tree and identifies which is the next learning activity to be delivered to the learner. Generally, the sequencing information is those that determine the activities order; in case that there is no such information, those contained in the manifest file are followed. An Activity Cluster can be defined as a group of activities containing a parent activity and its 1st-level children (sub-activities) and its main role is to help developers to organize sequencing in a more efficient way. Whatever rules apply on the child activity, these rules apply on the parent activity as well. Each time the user tries to execute an activity he/she is making an Attempt. If this activity is a child of a parent activity, which in turn is the child of another parent and so on, then the attempt reflects to all activities throughout the whole tree. A Learning Activity can be associated with one or more Learning Objectives and SCORM provides full freedom in associating activities to objectives. Nevertheless, the meaning multiple objectives cannot be assumed by SCORM and status information of an activitys objective is held locally to that activity. Status information sharing cannot be accomplished unless the objectives have a global character; status information of global objectives is available for sharing among several activities, either within a single Activity Tree or across multiple trees. There two restrictions however: A local objective can obtain (read) objective status information only from one shared global objective. When, for a certain activity, a set of local objectives is defined, no two local objectives can set (write) status information to the same shared global objective. The Sequencing Rules are applied to an activity and evaluated -by using tracking information associated with the activity- at specified times during different sequencing cases, in other words, different learning cases. Each rule consists of a set of conditions and a relevant action. The rule is applied only when the status of the set of conditions is True. The Rollup Rules are used for evaluating the progress of the learner for cluster activities. Due to the fact that the cluster activities have no association with the content objects, information regarding the users progress, cannot be applied directly to a cluster activity. A set of zero or more rules may be applied and the evaluation process takes place during a process called Rollup; this process uses the status data of children activities in order to evaluate the status information of the corresponding cluster. Each rule of this type, consists of a set of child activities, a set of conditions which are evaluated based on the status data of these child activities and a, relevant to these conditions, action, which is executed when the conditions status is set to True. [43] 1.3. Data Mining 1.3.1. Overview Data mining has attracted great attention the last decades with the main reason being that it offers the possibility to extract useful information by huge amounts of data, which in turn can be used for decision making in various fields like research activities, engineering, marketing, business management, etc. The last 30 years (1980-onwards), information technology has made gigantic steps forward and the evolution -in hardware and software as well- has been so rapid, that the available data processing capabilities have reached astronomical levels. Subsequently, the quantities of data collected are correspondingly huge. Evidentially, according to a research conducted by P. Lyman and H. R. Varian, the new stored information grew about 30% a year between 1999 and 2002. Obviously, the analysis and effective exploitation of these data quantities although not a simple task is yet an essential one since, unless extracting valuable information by data, these data are practically useless. A solution to this problem is given by Data Mining, which according to G. Karypis can be defined as Exploration analysis, by automatic or semi-automatic means, of large quantities of data in order to discover meaningful patterns rules.; when according to F. Castro et al and P. Chapman et al, Data Mining is not just a collection of data analysis methods, but a data analysis process that encompasses anything from data understanding, preprocessing and modeling to process evaluation and implementation. [44], [45], [46], [47] 1.3.1.1. Data mining vs. Statistics Data mining and Statistics share many common characteristics a fact which may seem confusing at first, albeit being perfectly natural since, data mining has emerged by the composition of various disciplines like informatics, machine learning, database systems, visualization and finally, statistics (figure 1). Additionally, besides the inevitable similarities between them, there exists a major and fundamental difference; data mining allows the development of models which when applied on data can offer different views and visualisations of results depending on the number of dimensions that were used for building these models. On the other hand when using statistics such a practice is not possible and in order to get different views and results visualisations the effort has to be repeated as many times as the required number of dimensions in order the desired conclusions to be reached. [48] 1.3.1.2. Data Mining Steps When data mining is applied, the data under interest are often coming from different sources; this is the rule when talking about web data. Subsequently due to the inevitable differentiations between them, these data cannot be mined effectively. In order the data to end up in an adequate form and be submitted to data mining, several steps have to be followed: Initially, the data under interest have to be identified, since they may be in the form of text, images, videos, hyperlinks, etc. Then the data are located and collected from the different sources (database servers, web servers, etc). Most of the times the useful data comprise only a part of the total data, so a selection has to be made. Next, the collected data have to be cleaned by applying related techniques since these data may be inconsistent, incomplete or may contain errors. All inconsistencies need to be removed. The data cleaning however is not enough. The data have to be normalised/modified in order to come into adequate form and become able to be submitted to data mining. When the data are in the required form, their mining can begin. There exist several techniques for this purpose, with the main being, association rules, classification and clustering; all of them are described in more detail in the following paragraphs. When data mining process is concluded and the patterns are produced, the next step is to clean them in turn -many of them may be products of coincidence or may be of limited value- and produce the relevant visualisations. Finally, when the whole analysis is completed, the relevant reports are generated, the knowledge is available and decisions have to be taken. The analysis will help the researcher to reach useful conclusions and take the right decisions. Usually the first four steps are very time consuming; in fact these may require over 60-70% of the overall process time. For this purpose the data are inserted in adequate databases or even data warehouses, when the data exist in large amounts. [49] [50] 1.3.2. Mining the data 1.3.2.1. Techniques The data mining process is supported by several techniques or combinations of them. The fundamental ones are the following: 1.3.2.1.1. Association Rules The search for associations in data sets comprises a basic data mining task. Via an association process, we take a certain set of data and analyse it so as to extract associations patterns of the included objects. The outcome of such a process is a number of rules which offer a set of associations between database objects which help us to reach useful conclusions and these rules are accompanied by two factors, Support and Confidence, which comprise measures of the rules strength. More specifically: Support, shows the frequency of the rules application in a set of transactions and if it is too low, the rule may just be an outcome of luck or it may be applicable so rarely that at the end it is of no use. Confidence, measures how predictable a rule is. Low confidence means that the conclusions extracted by such a rule are not trustworthy and subsequently this rule cannot be used effectively. The most common example of such an association process, which, as well, explains the role of the two aforementioned factors, is that of the market basket. In this example we try to find what products are purchased in a super market and how these are associated. The rule shows that 15% customers purchase Milk along with Chocolate and additionally, whoever purchases Milk also buys Chocolate 70% of the cases. [51], [52] 1.3.2.1.2. Classification In classification or supervised learning, we determine certain classes and rules with each class holding certain attributes. We develop a classification model which is then applied on data that are not classified and these are grouped accordingly. In other words, we extract a set of rules from existing data and these rules are applied in turn on different -but similar- data sets, in order to predict certain behaviors. For example, lets assume that we have an utterly simple data set like the one below, which shows the political preferences of certain population groups according to Age and Income attributes. The fourth column comprises the Class attribute: IDAge Income Political Party young low Liberal middle low Liberal old low Conservative young middle Liberal middle middle Centre old middle Conservative young high Centre middle high Conservative old high Conservative What we want to achieve is, to initiate a learning process and extract a classification model from this data set which, when applied in different -but of same nature- data sets, will provide predictions regarding the political views of the registered individuals. An emerging rule from the data set above could be that, young and low income persons tend to vote for liberal parties. This rule when applied in different data, -if it is correct- should predict that people holding these attributes will indeed vote for liberals. The initial data set is called training set, when the data set on which the model is evaluated is called test set. The accuracy of the classification model can be assessed by comparing the predicted results, with the actual results of the class. The longest the training period, the better the models accuracy will be. [51], [52], [53] There are several classification methods: Statistical Classification is the method in which objects are grouped based on certain inherent quantitative information, with the help of information acquired from a training set of previously processed objects. [62] A Decision Tree is predictive model which is an hierarchical structure comprised of conditions. Beginning for the root of the tree we reach to the leaves that correspond to a class label; the route that is going to be followed -and subsequently the destination leaf- depends on the compliance of the instances on certain conditions. [62] Rule Induction is a method in which IF-THEN rules emerge from adequate processes. Each rule is connected to a state and via certain operators that perform generalization and specialisation operations, one rule can be transformed to another. [62] In Fuzzy Rule Induction the data are interpreted in a linguistic manner, by applying fuzzy logic. This means that, in contrast to conventional rules that use Boolean logic (right/wrong, warm/cold, etc), fuzzy rules can be multi-valued and intermediate values can be processed, like partly wrong, a little warm, quite cold, etc. [62], [63] Neural Networks can be connected to Rule Induction as well and it emerged as an idea form human brain structure. Several processing objects called nodes/neurons co-operate so as a result function to be produced. [62] 1.3.2.1.3. Clustering Clustering is the process of developing clusters so as all objects that are members of the cluster to conform to some pre-found criteria, meaning that these objects will be similar in a certain degree. It is often called unsupervised learning, because in opposition to supervised learning, there are no class attributes which define the grouping of data. The discovered data groups are called clusters, which, in order to be formed, several approaches may be followed. The two most important and widely accepted approaches are, partitional clustering and hierarchical clustering. In Partitional Clustering, random points within the data set are selected as the centers of the clusters called centroids and their number is depended on the number of clusters that the user wants to discover. Next, the distances between the centroids and the data points are computed, each centroid is matched to the points that are closest to it and the emerging groups (centroid plus matched points) shape the clusters. This process is iterated many more times in order the clusters shaping to be improved as much as possible and stops only when certain pre-defined conditions are met. In Hierarchical Clustering a nested sequence of clusters like a tree is produced. This is called dendogram. At the top of the tree there exists one cluster (root), each internal cluster node contains child cluster nodes and the lowest part of the tree represents single data points. The following schema depicts such a dendogram. Some confuse clustering with classification, due to the fact that in both techniques, sets of data are created. The difference however is that in classification the criteria are pre-determined by the user, when in clustering these criteria emerge by analysing the data. [52], [53] 1.3.3. Applications The first field where Data Mining found immediate application was the corporate sector. Nevertheless the last years, due to the increasing needs for data analysis as well as the wide variety of tools that have been developed which can execute data mining process of great complexity, its applications have been expanded practically everywhere. Nowadays, data mining techniques are applied, in businesses, military or security offices, medical institutions, banks, educational organisations, etc. Businesses use data mining in order to find potential customers and improve their marketing strategies by finding patterns regarding the customers buying preferences and habits. Military or security offices analyse opponents data or even private data -illegally in many cases- in order to extract information regarding hostile movements or terrorist attacks. Medical Institutions, executing researches on genomic data for example, are dealing with gigantic sets of data, which cannot be analysed without using data mining techniques and tools. The Banks apply data mining to detect credit card fraud e.g. by identifying the patterns of transactions related to fraud actions or to reduce the risks when supplying loans by identifying or predicting potential untrustworthy customers. Finally, in educational systems, data mining is applicable in many fields, with one of the most important being e-learning or -more accurately- web-learning, since, most e-learning courses are carried out via the internet. 1.3.3.1. Application in e-Learning We referred above to the various advantages of e-learning in the process of providing knowledge and education to literally any individual, independently of time, distance or personal ability. Nevertheless, e-learning environments even nowadays are still far from perfect and continuous improvements are needed in order to reach the desired level. The trainers need ways to assess the courses in terms of efficiency, structure, activities selected by the learners, learners satisfaction, results, etc, and get adequate feedback in order to alter their course for the better. In the e-learning field, two types of users are of main interest; the trainers and the learners. In the first category falls any organization that may be offering training courses of any kind, like universities, enterprises, public organizations, etc, while the second refers to any single one of us who is interested in acquiring knowledge. Some of the data that are kept for each user may be: name, age, qualifications, experience (e.g. previous courses taken), course visiting frequency, time spent, grades achieved, etc. By applying data mining techniques on these data, we are able to extract information that may help us to evaluate the content of the courses, add/remove courses, establish new programs, guide the users better, identify most popular courses, improve the navigation schemes, identify groups of learners with similar behaviours, find cases where the learners dont take the process seriously and just play around, etc. [48], [62] Additionally, due to the fact that most e-learning courses are offered nowadays via the internet and refer to a global audience, the amounts of collected data are huge and so, the processing and management of these data comprises a complicated issue. A solution on this issue can be offered by data mining via which the data can be assessed, managed, processed and exploited in such ways so as the e-learning environment itself to be adequately assessed and improved. The online character that e-learning has adopted these least years, leads to conclusion that e-learning data mining is essentially applied on Web data; hence, it is called web mining. These web data may be: Web pages content HTML or XML scripts Visitors numbers and data Links between pages Navigation data, and Web mining adopts the same techniques with its parent discipline in order to mine these data. It can be divided in three main categories: Web Content Mining, Web Usage Mining and Web Structure Mining. [48] [48] 1.3.3.1.1. Web Content Mining The World Wide Web has been expanding rapidly the last two decades and it is becoming harder and harder for the user to identify the information that interest him/her within such a vast pool of information. The main goal of web content mining is to offer to the user the information of interest, by searching the content of the available online resources and in order to achieve this goal, the classical data mining techniques are not always enough. In other words web content mining takes the functionalities of a search engine, one step further, by implementing more advanced techniques. Due to the fact that web content is not organized in relational databases -like offline data-, and it can be text, images, audio, videos, metadata or hyperlinks, a relational database cannot be used in this case and different types of databases have to be used, like multimedia databases for example. The reason is that web content is not always structured like offline data and it may be unstructured (text data), semi-structured (HTML data) or structured (table data) Moreover, web data are almost never accumulated in one place, but are dispersed in heterogeneous sources; consequently the data have to be pooled in one place, in order to be organized and homogenised (e.g. data warehouse). [48], [54] 1.3.3.1.2. Web Usage Mining When Web Usage Mining is applied, in essence data mining techniques are used for discovering patterns regarding the web surfing activities of the users. Practically the data that are mined are the metadata (data about data) of these activities which are kept in respective logs (web logs). The extracted patterns provide valuable information concerning the users trends and preferences when surfing the web, products marketing strategies, outcomes of promotional campaigns, etc; these information assist the web designers on developing improved web applications or marketing researchers to adjust their strategies accordingly. [54], [55] 1.3.3.1.3. Web Structure Mining Web Structure Mining attempts to find patterns concerning the structure of the hyperlinks that reside within web pages and link one with another. The main scopes that it serves are the following: Categorizing web pages (search engines) Discovering structures of web documents Discovering the nature of the hierarchy or network of hyperlinks in the Website of a particular domain. All the above have a main goal which is to provide information on improving the structure of web pages and applications. Under this scope we could support that it is strongly related to web usage mining, since a main goal of both aim is to improve the web structure in general. [54] 1.3.4. Tools The importance of data mining in extracting knowledge and assisting in the decisions making process, has led to the development of various tools. These tools aim to assist the researcher in conducting the data mining task in n easy, quick and efficient way without being necessary to be fully aware of the discipline. These tools can be either of commercial character or be available for free. Despite the great variety of commercial tools (BayesiaLab, Clementine, Data Miner Software Kit, DBMiner 2.0, IBM Intelligent Miner Data Mining Suite, KXEN, Oracle Data Mining (ODM), SPSS, SAS Enterprise Miner, etc.), their commercial character as well as their functionalities, are out of the scope of this thesis. Subsequently, were going to focus in the free tools that are available. A few of the most widely used are the following: 1.3.4.1. RapidMiner (Community Edition) RapidMiner is a Java-based application and its main characteristic is that it hosts a large number of operators (over 500); this feature provides the possibility to use a large number of different methods and make the corresponding comparisons and an additional advantage is the great possibilities that it offers for model building and validation. It seems to be the most powerful of all, but its main disadvantage is the somewhat complex GUI, which albeit aesthetically beautiful, it lacks user friendliness and seems to be harder to be learned, despite the complete documentation offered in the website. Another element is that Rapidminer has adopted several WEKA algorithms. [56] 1.3.4.2. KNIME KNIME is simpler than Rapidminer in use, but it lacks the power when coming to model building and validation. Nevertheless, for relatively simple tasks, it includes all the required operators and visual components. Additionally, it can connect to and read from a database, and moreover it can incorporate modules of the WEKA tool a fact that enhances significantly the offered possibilities. [57] 1.3.4.3. WEKA WEKA is somewhat in the middle between the two aforementioned applications KNIME and RapidMiner. It hosts many algorithms and visualization tools -not as many as RapidMiner- and it is relatively simple to use. Its user interface is not aesthetically in the level of the other two tools; nevertheless it seems to be more easy to use than both. The learning time required is significantly less than the other two even for novices and the accompanying documentation is seems to be more than enough. It offers direct access to databases and it is able to process the results of database queries. [58] 2. Research Methodology The primary scope of this project is to investigate how to enhance the navigation scheme of a SCORM compliant course at TEI Piraeus using data mining techniques. The course will be analysed by applying mining techniques on the data collected by the learning management system. The underlying analysis will focus on identifying patterns/clusters of data, which will provide information regarding the navigational behaviour of the students. The main goal is to find navigational patterns and clusters of students that perform high or low. Next, a new navigation scheme will be proposed with the basis being the SCORM standard. In order to evaluate the navigation scheme of the course data mining techniques will be implemented. The data extracted by the courses database will be mined by using three different techniques so as to gain the best possible view of the students actions; these techniques will be, Association Rules, Classification and Clustering, with the algorithms selected being a-Priori, J48 and K-Means respectively. More specifically: Association Rules (a-Priori) will help us to: Analyse the order with which the several learning activities are accessed by the students, meaning which is accessed first, which follow, which are usually omitted, etc. Correlate the difficulty levels to the grades earned, meaning, whether good or bad grades are due to to low difficulty activities or due to inappropriate navigation patterns. Classification (J48) will help us to: Connect the grades earned, meaning to the way the students navigate meaning, whether good or bad grades are connected to adequate or inappropriate respectively navigation patterns. Define how the difficulty levels are connected to the grades earned, meaning, under what difficulty circumstances good or bad grades emerge. Clustering (K-Means) will help us to: Group the students based on the course visiting frequency and reflect it on the grades and difficulty levels. Group the students based on their grades and reflect it on the difficulty levels. It is obvious that the above described goals are more or less similar in a certain extent. Nevetheless, by using all these three techniques, we can have a more consistent view of the situation and the outcomes of this assessment will be more accurate and the errors possibility will be significantly diminished. The tool that will be used for the data mining process is WEKA. WEKA was chosen over Rapidminer and KNIME. Despite the fact that Rapidminer and KNIME, would be efficient as well for the tasks that this thesis requires, WEKA was chosen due to the superior simplicity of its interface. The WEKA GUI that will be used among the four available will be the Explorer. After identifying the problematic navigation schemes, solutions will be proposed. The tool that will be deployed is SCORM. If the data mining outcome is adequately evaluated and compliance with the corresponding SCORM guidelines is achieved, the students navigation patterns and subsequently the efficiency of the course will be significantly improved. 3. Plan for Completion At this point the data of interest (attributes) have been identified in the courses database and the respective queries have been built and executed so as the data to be extracted. The data have been exported and have been preprocessed (cleansing, filtering, etc), so as become ready to be imported and analysed in WEKA. Some data mining tasks have already been performed on test data in order the best algorithm settings to be selected. What remains to be done, is the main data analysis to be executed in WEKA and the results to be evaluated accordingly. The outcome of this process will be the identification of the main problems that the current navigational scheme presents. Next, the current scheme will be compared to the SCORM guidelines in order any divergences to be pointed out and subsequently, propositions to be made so as the courses navigation scheme to converge to SCORM as much as possible. References Rogerson-Revell, P., Directions in e-learning tools and technologies and their relevance to online distance language education, Open Learning, v22 n1 p57-74 Feb 2007 Nichols, M. (2008). 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