IRRODL 2012 - Special Issue on Technology Enhanced Information Retrieval for Online Learning

Special Issue on Technology Enhanced Information Retrieval for Online Learning
(http://maiga.athabascau.ca/editors/IRRODL-Special_...)
in
International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning
Online learning has been developed for over decades and has become an important tool for education. Many tutors design web-based teaching materials and share them in the learning management systems. Learners develop knowledge from those materials, tutor supports, and the collaborations with other learners in distance in the online learning environment and platforms. While information technology changes rapidly and the variety of online learning activities increase, especially with the aid of social network and Web 2.0 tools that are available to instruction designers, we may need to consider how to provide learners personalized pedagogical service which can help them learn more efficiently. In order to have such personalized service, both course contents and learner's characteristics need to be well analyzed. How to retrieve useful information from learning materials, data stored in the learning management systems, and discussions and interactions among learners and how to design and use information retrieval technologies to improve learner's online learning performance become interesting and important topics. The purpose of this special issue is to explore how models, theories, and solutions of information retrieval and content analysis can be used in online learning and what benefits users can receive from such systems and agents.
Guest Editors (in alphabet order): Dr. Maiga Chang, Dr. Rita Kuo, Dr. Gene Loeb and Dr. Bolanle Olaniran
Suggested topics:
We cordially invite authors to submit high quality manuscripts for any application domain as long as the core of the manuscript belongs one or more of the following:
Affect sensing from text
Culture in information retrieving
Data mining in learning content
Evaluation models for NLP/IR/IE/Ontology-based research and systems
Human computer interaction issues and challenges that NLP/IR/IE/Ontology-based solutions for online learning may have
Individual knowledge acquisition from user behavior analysis
Information retrieval and extraction algorithms
Information retrieving and processing computing tools, systems and applications for online learning
Intelligent tutoring agents/systems based on NLP, Information Retrieval (IR), Information Extraction (IE), and Ontology
Knowledge navigation in learning content
Learning content analysis by semantic web technology
Learning style and learning preferences in data retrieval
Mobile dissemination and retrieval
Multi-agent based information processing systems and applications
Not-so-successful cases and the lessons learnt
Ontology learning
Practical experiences in using & deploying NLP/IR/IE/Ontology-based research for online learning
Questioning and Answering applications and systems
Social Network Analysis based on Content Analysis of activities happened in Web 2.0 applications
Social networks and interactions in learning communities
Successful cases of applying NLP/IR/IE/Ontology-based research to online learning
Web 2.0, 3.0, X.0
Important dates and manuscript guidelines:
All submissions have to follow International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning (IRRODL) research article guidelines (and should be submitted online by April 30, 2012. All submissions will be reviewed by at least three peer reviewers, the final camera-ready manuscripts have to be revised by the author(s) according to reviewer comments before resubmitting by June 1, 2012. The important dates are:
April 30, 2012: Submission deadline
July 15, 2012: Review result notification
August 31, 2012: Revised manuscript submission deadline
September 30, 2012: Acceptance notification
October 31, 2012: Final camera-ready manuscript submission deadline
IRRODL research article guidelines at: http://www.irrodl.org/miscfiles/documents/IRRODL_R...
Please submit your article to the IRRODL site at http://www.irrodl,org, after registering as an author and hopefully also offering to be a reviewer by clicking the reviewer category in the enrollment form and noting your area of research expertise.
For queries, please contact Dr. Maiga Chang (maiga.chang-AT-gmail.com)