[Dbworld] First CFP - International Workshop on e-Learning Online Communities January 3, 2005, Cairo, Egypt

1st Call for Papers

International Workshop on
e-Learning Online Communities
January 3, 2005, Cairo, Egypt
eLOC 2005
http://www.mdx.ac.uk/gc/eLOC.html 

Co-located with the
3rd ACS/IEEE International Conference on Computer Systems and Applications
January 3-6, 2005, Cairo, Egypt
AICCSA 2005
http://engr.smu.edu/cse/AICCSA-05/

Workshop Theme:

Online Communities were initially regarded as social gatherings between people 
that shared common interests, communicating over a network primarily to 
exchange information and engage in informal communication. The technological 
evolution of the past two decades leading to the creation of the World Wide Web 
and the proliferation of the Internet was the primary factor for Online 
Communities to transform from a social interaction medium to virtual 
environments with commercial value. This transformation was accompanied by 
several changes regarding community membership, user activities and behavioural 
patterns. Significant research has focused on providing principles for 
community building, identifying success criteria for established communities 
and understanding sociability, functionality and usability issues.

The increased popularity of Online Communities triggered the diversification of 
the community building process depending on those aspects forming the core of a 
community and enticing Internet users to become members; hence the birth of 
online communities focusing on games, health, commercial transactions, travel 
and education. The first communities for education emerged in the mid-80s and 
since then they evolved to online meeting places for people involved in remote, 
distance or e-Learning. Members of e-Learning Online Communities frequently 
express additional requirements since they rely on computer-mediated 
communication for acquiring knowledge and engaging on educational activities. 
Currently several institutions have created e-Learning Online Communities and 
there is early evidence of their future success.

The aim of this workshop is to attract contributions from educators and 
researchers that have participated in the investigation, development and 
evaluation of e-Learning Online Communities.






Key Note:

Paul Leng
Professor of e-Learning in the Department of Computer Science,
Director of the e-Learning Unit
University of Liverpool

The role of discussion in online learning

In online classes and online learning communities, dialogue between 
participants has a central role. Effective online discussions may not only be 
an important part of the learning experience, but can also help resolve other 
issues that are problematic in e-Learning, including questions of identity, 
plagiarism, and quality control. In this talk I will discuss these issues in 
the context of an established online Higher Education programme. Research 
issues arising from this will also be highlighted.

Topics of interest include but are not limited to:

* Artificial intelligence application in e-Learning Online Communities
* Architecture of e-Learning Online Community environments
* Building e-Learning Online Communities
* Case studies of e-Learning Online Communities
* Collaborative e-Learning methodologies and tools
* Communication patterns in e-Learning Online Communities
* Computer-Assisted Assessment (focus on provision of feedback)
* Developing countries and the use of e-Learning Online Communities
* Evaluation of e-Learning Online Communities
* Groupware applications for e-Learning
* Integrated e-Learning and/or Online Community environments
* Natural Language Processing techniques in e-Learning

Important Dates:

Paper submission:               Monday, August 30, 2004
Notification of acceptance      Friday, October 15, 2004
Camera ready copy               Monday, October 15, 2004
Proceeding ready                Monday, December 13, 2004
Author registration             Monday, September 20, 2004 (AICCSA registration)

Submission Information:

Prospective authors are invited to submit papers in any of the topics listed 
above. Papers must not be published or under consideration to be published 
elsewhere. All papers must be written in English and the maximum length should 
be no more than 5,000 words. Paper formatting should follow the IEEE standards 
available at http://www.ieee.org. Papers selected for presentation will appear 
in the Conference Proceedings, which are published by IEEE Computer Society. 
Papers only in either MS Word or PDF format should be sent to the workshop 
organiser electronically by Monday, August 30 2004 (17:00, BST) at 
g.dafoulas-7yFXA2EciJk2hlyV4OGXBQ@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Workshop Organiser:

Dr Georgios Dafoulas

Business Information Systems Group
School of Computing Science
Middlesex University
The Burroughs, Hendon, London, NW4 4BT
tel: 020 8411 4402,
fax: 020 8411 2332
g.dafoulas-7yFXA2EciJlaa/9Udqfwiw@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


Program Committee (provisional):

1. Henri Basson, Université du Littoral Côte d'Opale, France
2. Eleni Berki, Department of Computer Science and Information Systems, 
University of Jyvaskyla, Finland
3. Betty Collis, Department of Educational Instrumentation, University of 
Twente, The Netherlands
4. Cathy Costain, The British Council, Egypt
5. Robert Davison, Department of Information Systems, City University of Hong 
Kong, China
6. Mirjana Drakulic, Faculty of Organizational Sciences, Belgrade University
7. Mohamed M. El Hadi, Sadat Academy for Management Sciences and Egyptian 
Society for Information Systems and Computer Technology, Egypt
8. Aziza El Lozy, Center for Learning & Teaching, The American University in 
Cairo, Egypt
9. Adel Elsayed, Department of Computing and Electronic Technology, Bolton 
Institute, UK
10. Ismail Hassan Abdel Fattah, Faculty of Computer Science, October University 
for Modern Sciences and Arts, Egypt
11. Galal H Galal-Edeen, Faculty of Computers and Informatics, Cairo 
University, Egypt
12. Ljuan Marko Gashi, University of Novi Sad, Serbia-Montenegro
13. Elli Georgiadou, School of Computing Science, Middlesex University, UK
14. Pandeli Glavanis, Center for Learning and Teaching, American University in 
Cairo, Egypt
15. Maria Grigoriadou, Department of Informatics, University of Athens, Greece
16. Emanuel Gruengard, Shenkar School of Engineering and Design,  Tel Aviv, 
Israel
17. Roger Hartley, School of Education, University of Leeds, UK
18. Hannakaisa Isomaki, Department of Research Methodology, University of 
Lapland, Finland
19. Sherif Kamel, School of Business, Economics and Communication, The American 
University in Cairo, Egypt
20. Kinshuk, Information System Department, Massey University, New Zealand
21. Carlos Delgado Kloos, Departamento Ingeniería Telemática, Universidad 
Carlos III de Madrid, Spain
22. Wolfgang Maass, Institute for Media and Communications Management, 
University of St. Gallen,        Switzerland
23. Linda Macaulay, Computation Department, UMIST, UK
24. Robin Mason, Institute of Educational Technology, The Open University, UK
25. David McConnell, School of Education, University of Sheffield, UK
26. Liviu Cristian Miclea, Faculty of Automation and Computer Science, 
Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Romania
27. Maya Milankovic-Atkinson, Global Campus, Middlesex University, UK
28. Gail Miles, Lenoir-Rhyne College, North Carolina, USA
29. Ambjörn Naeve, Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Stockholm, Sweden
30. Gustaf Neumann, University of Economics and Business Administration in 
Vienna, Austria
31. Radojica Petrovic, The University of Kragujevac, Serbia and Montenegro
32. Angeliki Poulymenakou, Department of Management Science and Technology,     
Athens University of Economics and Business, Greece
33. Andrew Ravenscroft, Learning Technology Research Institute, London 
Metropolitan University, UK
34. Demetrios Sampson, Department of Technology Education and Digital Systems,  
University of Piraeus, Greece
35. Christine Steeples, Department of Educational Research Lancaster 
University, UK
36. Min A. Tjoa, Institute of Software Technology & Interactive Systems, Vienna 
University of Technology, Austria
37. Mike Turega, Computation Department, UMIST, UK
38. Khaled Wahba, Department of Systems and Biomedical Engineering, Cairo 
University, Egypt
39. Rupert Wegerif, Faculty of Education and Language Studies, Open 
University,UK
40. Tatjana Welzer, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 
University  of Maribor, Slovenia
41. Volker Wulf, Institute of Information Systems, University of Siegen, Germany
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