WEI is a global scientific and academic society founded in 2012 for the purpose of disseminating the latest academic research on various business, economics, and social sciences-related topics. Based on the scope of this institute, with this conference, they aim to bring together the educational scientists, administers, councilors education experts and civil society organization and representatives to share their ideas, collaborate, and enjoy professional fellowship. There were 6 parallel sessions with 2 halls in this conference and more than 50 proceedings, 60 speakers and 200 participants who were academicians, teachers, decision makers and students.

L'entrada TeSLA in International European Academic Conference on Education and Humanities (WEI-EH-Barcelona 2019) ha aparegut primer a TeSLA Project.

First, the “free” aspect of the consent is the effectiveness of the choice submitted to the data subject. It implies the presence of an alternative that he/she can select in case of refusal, which allow to avoid any feeling to be compelled to accept. However, the GDPR does not define precisely what constitute a genuine alternative.

Ethical analysis makes it possible to enrich the contribution of Law at this level.

TeSLA, as it was originally conceived, provides two possibilities:

– Either the teacher provides a possibility of examination completely outside the context of TeSLA. This potential delegation of responsibility toward the professor needs to be clearly explained for reasons of transparency towards future TeSLA user institutions. Indeed, it is important that they know what they will incur if consent is not given by the student.

– Either the teacher allows the student to take the exam with another combination of TeSLA instruments. We have suggested to the partners to standardize and clarify the uses that would be made by teachers to avoid a certain discrimination toward some students (what is the principle of justice if students are judged according to very different instruments?)

Secondly, the consent must be specific. This requirement means that, in case of multiple purposes for several data processing, the data controller must receive a separate consent for each purpose. We have stressed the importance of clearly defining how feedback is treated to submit a consent proposal for all the manipulations made with the private data (not only their collection).

Thirdly, the consent has to be informed. The objective is that the data subject understands the processing of his or her own personal data. According to the GDPR, the information must be concise, transparent, intelligible and easily accessible, given in a clear and plain language, avoiding specialist terminology. By surveying the students using the system during the pilot phases, we have highlighted some aspects they consider salient to be mentioned in the consent proposal. It concerns mainly the activation period of biometric instruments, the way they collect this data (the continuous aspect), and the behaviours to be avoided to allow the instruments to correctly collect the necessary data.

In the TeSLA project, the consent form is one page that appears on the computer screen. The objective is to facilitate and to ensure the provision of information to the students by ensuring that they have at least once taken note of all information relating to the processing of their personal data.

Finally, due to the sensitive nature of the biometrics data, the consent must be the result of an express statement from the students and cannot be only presumed or ambiguous. It may be canceled at any time because the GDPR specifies that it must be as easy to withdraw consent as to give it.

Nathan De Vos, UNamur, Manon Knockaert, UNamur

L'entrada Consent and Biometric Data ha aparegut primer a TeSLA Project.

Researchers from the Technical University of Sofia (TUS) and IDIAP Research Institute from Switzerland, both partners in the TeSLA project, developed a joint research study “Enhancing Trust in eAssessment – the TeSLA System Solution” and the paper was included in the conference program.

The paper was presented by Mariana Durcheva from TUS in session 4b and it attracted the attention of many participants in the forum interested in how to enhance trust in eAssessment and the solution which the TeSLA System provides.

The presented joint work was focused on the investigation and analysis of trust issues related to the TeSLA system as observed during the large-scale pilot conducted at the Technical University of Sofia. The main research questions posed in this work were: what are the factors determining trust in eAssessment; how can trust in eAssessment be achieved; how could the TeSLA system enhance trust in eAssessment?

The paper provided analysis of questionnaires and surveys concerning trust, filled in by pilot participants at TUS and presented the trust model implemented in the TeSLA system. Besides the instruments for biometric authentication, it involves instruments for cheating attacks detection and prevention as well, i.e. face-recognition anti-spoofing (FRA) and voice-recognition anti-spoofing (VRA) instruments. They provide for avoiding possible authentication frauds performed by students during the conduction of assessment activities. The anti-spoofing instruments (FRA and VRA) included in the TeSLA system address concerns of TeSLA pilot users, expressed in the questionnaires and surveys, about the trustworthiness of the core biometric instruments (face recognition and voice recognition respectively). The use of such instruments can help for enhancing the eAssessment trust model by preventing cheating and fraudulent behavior in online assessment scenarios.

Besides trustworthy authentication of learners the TeSLA system provides authorship analysis of written submissions including plagiarism detection. Research results concerning this aspect for trust enhancement provided by TeSLA as “An embedded approach to plagiarism detection using the TeSLA e-authentication system” authored by a research team of TeSLA partners from the Open University UK (OUUK), the Open University of Netherlands (OUNL) and The Open University of Catalunia (UOC) was presented by Dr. Alexandra Okada from OUUK.

It discusses whether the embedded nature of the TeSLA system could be used to improve constructive alignment between teaching and assessment within modules. The TeSLA system is constructed in a way that enables it to be embedded within an institutional VLE and invoked seamlessly. In addition to providing the e-authentication of students, this provides opportunities for improving the constructive alignment of learning outcomes describing the development of good academic practice and the avoidance of plagiaristic approaches in their learning and assessment: and thus the overall student experience.

L'entrada Enhancing Trust in eAssessment – the TeSLA System Solution presented at TEA 2018 conference ha aparegut primer a TeSLA Project.

This annual event organised by the E4-group (ENQA, ESU, EUA and EURASHE) aims to provide a platform for discussion between quality assurance agencies, Higher Education institutions, and other main stakeholders in quality assurance (QA). This space for discussion is achieved by means of different paper sessions and workshops on the current developments in QA.

The first plenary session on the morning of Friday 16 aimed to discuss how quality assurance agencies and institutions can adopt an approach to their QA that takes into account the range of institutional activities. In order to have a general picture on this topic and to start the discussion, a question was launched to the audience: Which fields will develop into QA standards in future? The results of the poll showed that at present time, ‘E-learning’ is a relevant topic for the sector (see picture below).

Results from the EQAF 2018 poll / © Adam Gajek

According to these results, it is more than obvious that online education is growing in popularity and, hence, the assessment of this provision must be brought to the same level. AQU Catalunya and ENQA submitted a paper to the forum entitled “Enhancement of quality assurance of e-assessment”, based on the outcomes achieved by the application of an assessment methodology in the seven European universities that piloted the TeSLA system between 2016 and 2018.

The paper was presented by Esther Huertas and Roger Roca (AQU Catalunya) in a parallel plenary session that attracted the attention of many participants in the forum interested in the role that QA is playing in overcoming the current gap in e-assessment, improving the academic integrity and building trust in online teaching and learning process. After introducing the main features of the TeSLA project, the methodology used in the QA evaluation of pilots and the preliminary results obtained from those evaluations, the session demonstrated that QA and the TeSLA project are developing new perspectives to ensure confidence in e-learning and e-assessment.

Esther Huertas during her presentation / © Pascal Riesinger/PhotoArt

The full paper can be downloaded from the following link:

https://eua.eu/downloads/publications/pp_session%206_huertas_roca_ranne_gourdin.pdf

L'entrada TeSLA IN THE 13TH EUROPEAN QUALITY ASSURANCE FORUM ha aparegut primer a TeSLA Project.

In that post, we had highlighted a few possible enhancements regarding privacy issues, such as adding anonymous certification, and improving the level of transparency of the whole system. Pushing the analysis further requires an overall look on the architecture, and on the fundamental choices that led to its design. Among these choices, relying on biometry for learners’ authentication is one that particularly stands out in terms of privacy. Contrary to a password, which would authenticate learners using what they know, biometric samples authenticate them using what they are. The data transmitted over the network, from the learner’s computer to the TeSLA instruments, are a part of the learners’ identity and as such, are much more sensitive than mere passwords, which can be changed at will. With encrypted data exchanges over the network, TeSLA ensures that these biometric samples cannot be retrieved by an attacker. The anonymous treatment of samples by the TeSLA instruments strongly limits the risks in terms of unwanted access and exploitation of personal data.

The choice of biometric-based authentication for the learners who are taking e-assessments entails other issues. First, the biometric samples are collected from the learner’s computer, which by definition has no guarantee whatsoever regarding security. Even if the samples are not meant to be stored on the learner’s computer, the risk of personal data theft at this point is independent from the TeSLA architecture, but is induced by the choice to rely on biometry. As such, it should be taken into account for further improvement of the TeSLA system. Second, even though the biometric samples are anonymized before they are sent to the TeSLA instruments, it may be better not to send such sensitive data to TeSLA at all, and decentralize Trusted Third Parties (TTPs) as much as possible. The role of TeSLA is to offer a specific service, namely the possibility to take e-assessments. It does not, and cannot act as a TTP. In the current configuration, what becomes of the biometric samples depends on how TeSLA is managed. With a TTP, which would have no specific connection to TeSLA or to the academic institutions, there would be a dedicated entity whose explicit role would be to guarantee the treatment of these sensitive data, independently of the current TeSLA policy. It is worth noting that anonymous certification will benefit of such a TTP decentralization, as well.

Improving the privacy in TeSLA therefore requires further decentralization of its fundamental choices, in order to offer the best privacy guarantees. Even if the use of biometry is maintained as it is, extending current TTP elements, such as the TeSLA Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), and the underlying Certification Authorities (CAs), would be a significant step in this direction.

Author: IMT

L'entrada Decentralizing Trusted Third Parties in TeSLA ha aparegut primer a TeSLA Project.

As this project comes to an end it becomes paramount to effectively communicate what we have learned along the way, how project goals were achieved and present evidence of these achievements. It’s our responsibility as a consortium and as individuals to demonstrate that the investment made when funding this project has palpable results: a trust system that works and it’s feasible, effectively giving back to society by the means of bringing innovation to learning.

There were two main goals on this event:

1. Increase global awareness on TeSLA project and get more people to know about the work being done to effectively bring trust to e-Learning in a systematic way;
2. Directly involve additional external entities in TeSLA – both public and private sector –generating discussion around the project outcome and how it positions itself in the e-assessment market

Both goals were achieved: a significant increase in website and social media traffic was registered and event attendees had the opportunity to share their thoughts and opinions throughout the day, stablishing connections that, we are sure, will prove fruitful soon enough.

As expected, regulatory compliance (GDPR) is one of the concerns commonly shared when discussing systems that leverage on collecting users’ biometric data and that reflected on panel discussion. Such concerns have been addressed early on when designing TeSLA system and software architecture, with special attention to data retention policies, data minimization anonymization.

This aspect of the project (data protection and compliance) has shown the added value of having a diverse and heterogenous consortium: our legal advisors (consortium member Université de Namur) have pushed the agenda since day one, well before GDPR was on everyone’s mind, effectively shaping the way architecture design decisions were made. If this wasn’t the case, maybe the project outcome wouldn’t be so bright.

Finally, there is an underlying goal for these events, probably the most relevant of all: allow people that have been collaborating for 34 months to get together, meet face-to-face and discuss project details, decisions, roadmaps, struggles and difficulties, mitigate problems and celebrate success. Such meetings have taken place in the past and they have proven to be fundamental to project success, by complementing the well stablished communication protocols, bi-weekly Project Management meetings and continuous bi-lateral communication channels.

In the end, such project success will depend on the willingness of people behind it and TeSLA project members have been pushing for project success relentlessly.

Our applause goes out to all of them.

L'entrada TeSLA International Event ha aparegut primer a TeSLA Project.

The multidisciplinary program of the University of Jyväskylä included a large selection of things to do and issues to learn for the whole family. In the workshops, children got familiar with natural sciences, teamed up to solve crimes using chemistry, and experienced 3D printing in practice. There were also workshops with robotics and artificial intelligence, including the Open University of the University of Jyväskylä presenting their humanoid robot, Pepper. In addition, the laboratory tours and virtual reality games attracted many youngsters and students. Adult visitors were able to explore interesting facts on brain research, the phases of the Finnish elementary school system, and workplace psychology, among numerous other themes.

TeSLA Project was also exhibited at the event, attracting many interested visitors varying from young families and student groups to senior citizens, as well as experts and scientists from various disciplines. For instance, an advocate for the Central Finland Health Care District was very enthusiastic about the topic and discussed his ideas of applying biometric authentication into health care. TeSLA knowledge was also shared internationally as there were many international visitors, some coming also from other TeSLA partners’ home countries, such as Portugal and Turkey. Many online course teachers and specialists, representing various educational organizations, visited the TeSLA stand, too.

Overall, TeSLA got a lot of positive feedback and was acknowledged of being very current and valuable. Sharing many intriguing discussions about accessibility in higher education provided a chance to introduce TeSLA as a set of tools enabling new opportunities for learners with special educational needs, including physical and mental disabilities. Additionally, TeSLA was mutually seen as an important enabler in terms of respecting social and cultural differences.

The European Researchers’ Night attracted over 13,500 visitors in the University of Jyväskylä. See the TeSLA Project stand on the left side of the photo.

Dr Tarja Ladonlahti and Ms Merja Laamanen presented the TeSLA Project at the Researchers’ Night, sharing many intriguing discussions about accessibility in higher education.

Turkish exchange students Sibel Öncel and Irem Dehmen were fascinated by the TeSLA Project’s video presentation.

L'entrada TeSLA Project Part of the Science and Research Festival in Jyväskylä ha aparegut primer a TeSLA Project.

7^th National Conference on e-Learning: The opening 

This scientific forum is established as the largest national event in the field of e-learning and distance learning. This year’s event brought together over 100 researchers, experts, lecturers and PhD students from more than 15 universities across the country. They presented their research results and practical experience in designing and conducting e-learning and distance education.

Keynote speakers at the conference were representatives of 4 of the partner universities and 2 of the quality assurance agencies in the TeSLA consortium: Ana Elena Guerrero Roldán and Elena Rodríguez (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Spain); Chris Edwards (Open University, UK); Abdulkadir Karadeniz (Anadolu University, Turkey); Tarja Ladonlahti (University of Jyväskylä, Finland) – Roger Roca (AQU Catalunya) and Anaïs Gourdin (ENQA).

Abdulkadir Karadeniz (AU)

From left to right: Roumiana Peytcheva-Forsyth (SU), Roger Roca (AQU), Anais Gourdin (ENQA) – presenter

Ana Elena Guerrero Roldan (UOC)

The event was opened by Prof Dr Boris Galabov – Honorary Chair of the National Distance Education Centre, Prof. Dr Reneta Bozhankova – Deputy Rector of the Sofia University, Prof. Dr Roumiana Peytcheva-Forsyth – Director of the National Distance Education Centre and TeSLA Pilot Manager, and Assoc. Prof. Dr Anna Rozeva – Pilot leader of the Technical University – Sofia. They all welcomed the participants at the conference.

From left to right: Prof. Dr Bozhankova, Prof. Dr Galabov, Assoc. Prof. Dr Rozeva, Prof. Dr Forsyth

Prof. Dr Roumiana Peytcheva-Forsyth started the plenary session with her presentation “Ensuring The Learners’ Authentication and Authorship as a Mechanism for Enhancing the Quality of Online Learning”. She introduced the capability of the innovative TeSLA system and its instruments for authenticating distance students and preventing plagiarism – one of the serious issues of the online assessment nowadays. She presented statistical data on the successfully completed three TeSLA pilots within the total of 620 courses with nearly 20,000 students from variety of study fields in the 7 partner universities in Europe.

Prof. Dr. Roumiana Peytcheva-Forsyth

The point of greatest interest in the conference were the keynote speakers’ presentations. They presented the distance learning models in their universities in the context of the TESLA system. The keynote speakers have provided valuable recommendations for preparing and implementing effective distance learning based on the long-standing practical experience of their open (distance) universities.

Roger Roca (AQU)

Chis Edwards (OUUK)

Tarja Ladonlahti (JYU)

Representatives of the host universities also presented their pilots’ results. Dr Tsvetan Hristov from the Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics of Sofia University reported on the experiment that was conducted in the frame of TeSLA (An Adaptive Trust-based e-assessment System for Learning) project to explore existing problems and to offer new solutions in continuous e-assessment in teaching mathematics. He presented an innovative model for e-assessment in the course “Differential equations and applications” in the bachelor program “Software engineering” at Sofia University. The students’ perspectives on TeSLA authentication software used were presented and analysed.

Prof. Dr Roumiana Peytcheva-Forsyth, Dr Lyubka Aleksieva and Dr Blagovesna Yovkova presented their paper „The Impact of Technology on Cheating and Plagiarism in the Assessment – the Teachers’ and Students’ Perspectives“. This paper investigates the impact of technology on cheating and plagiarism in TeSLA context from the perspective of teachers and students from Sofia University (Bulgaria) related to both aspects of facilitation and prevention/control of such behaviour. The study is based on two online surveys with 100 academic staff and 239 bachelor and master degree students from Sofia University.

Dr Lyubka Aleksieva

The papers of Dr Hristov and Prof. Forsyth will be published in the American Institute of Physics Conference Proceedings (https://aip.scitation.org/journal/apc) indexed in leading Web databases of Science, Scopus.

Prof. Sijka Chavdarova-Kostova from Faculty of Education, SU presented results from an enquiry of students in education in connection with provided access to electronic resources on two compulsory subjects that they learn and possibilities for assessment of their knowledge through electronic platform applying instruments of TeSLA project.

Assoc. Prof. Еlena Varbanova and Desislav Ivanov from Technical university – Sofia presented their paper: „On the Synergy between Computer Mathematics and Virtual Learning Environment in the Process of e-Assessment“. The necessity of implementation of the authentication and authorship TeSLA checking system in order to increase the trust level in e-assessment is highlighted in their study. In their paper they analysed the data obtained from the pilot testing of Face Recognition and Keystroke Dynamics instruments in the course “Mathematical analysis”.

The papers of Prof. Sijka Chavdarova-Kostova and Assoc. Prof. Еlena Varbanova will be published in Conference proceedings of the 7th National conference on e-learning in higher education.

In conclusion, it should be noted that the scientific forum incited in-depth scientific debates among the participants on various methodological, theoretical, practical, regulatory and technological aspects of e-learning.

From left to right: Ana Rozeva (TUS), Abdulkadir Karadeniz (AU), Roumiana Peytcheva-Forsyth (SU), Ana Guerrero (UOC), Chris Edwards (OUUK), Lyubka Aleksieva (SU), Elena Rodriguez (UOC), Tarja Ladonlahti (JYU)

L'entrada TESLA PROJECT WAS PRESENTED AT 7TH NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON E-LEARNING IN HIGHER EDUCATION, BOROVETS, BULGARIA, 2018 ha aparegut primer a TeSLA Project.

Many colleges and universities, however, make it difficult for their students to cheat during tests. In some assessment centers, for example, special walls are built between the PC terminals so that every student is separated from the person working next to him or her. Here the exam rules state that objects should not be present on the table, except for a water bottle. Today a ban on mobile phones is also nothing new for many. The latest smartwatches, which can be disguised as a normal watch, are no laughing matter either, as by simply placing a small Bluetooth plug in the ear, students can have answers whispered to them from a trusted friend who is located somewhere outside of the examination room. Before hundreds of students start the exam, a further method which universities employ to help stamp out cheating is to check a student’s identity via the identity cards. Finally, universities and technical colleges also have access to plagiarism software and use it regularly.

International distance learning colleges use proctor modules to monitor e-exams. With courses such as these, the unique benefit of a postgraduate course is that the exams can be done online, which saves the students from having to travel to the university, and also gives them complete flexibility to decide when and where to take their tests. Here a plugin, which is installed on the student’s PC, serves to prevent cheating and enables the visual identification of the student via a snapshot. During the exam, photos are also taken at random, uneven intervals. If the person moves away from the camera’s field of view, this leads to a termination of the examination. An alternative is the 1:1 control, whereby a real person is available for digital surveillance of the student. The so-called proctor also has access to the student’s PC, so that unauthorized aids such as digital scripts, search engines or chats can be blocked. In TeSLA system there is the possibility to combine different tools to validate authorship and authentication. These are: biometric instruments (facial, voice and keystroke) for monitoring and recognition, forensic analysis, anti-plagiarism tool, digital certificates and timestamp receipt.

It is impossible to accurately judge whether the amount of cheating online or via modern technology is now higher than it used to be. Before the Fairuse study, for example, hardly anyone had researched how much cheating and plagiarizing occurs at universities and colleges. From this point of view, there are no official numbers to serve as a useful comparison. Nevertheless, the opportunity to cheat has naturally increased in the wake of modern technology. This said, ninety percent of all students believe that cheating is fundamentally wrong. This was the result of an American study. Those who think that cheating is morally wrong, also cheat less, as the figures from Bielefeld and Würzburg show.

When it is clear that copying, cheating, and plagiarism are prohibited and incur penalties, the willingness to engage in such practices reduces – as the Fairuse study shows. Is, therefore, buying plagiarism software the solution to this problem? Of course, there is also a potential for improvement in the field of prevention and methodology. A good learning climate, for example, encourages the overall mood of those attending the seminar. Those who go to the exam without lacking confidence in their abilities will be less tempted to cheat. Now lecturers have recognized this and increasingly rely on trust and clear rules of conduct. Some lecturers also adapt so-called “code of honor codes”, which help students to clearly identify right and wrong behavior.

Author: LPLUS

L'entrada Copy, cheating, plagiarize ha aparegut primer a TeSLA Project.

When: 25th October

Where: Carris Hotel (Oporto, Portugal)

 Sign Up Registration: https://tesla-project.eu/tesla-event

Discover TeSLA, a trust-based authentication & authorship e-assessment analysis system the 25th October in Oporto (Portugal).

TeSLA Project is reinventing online assessments and Learning to Trust. TeSLA Project provides to educational institutions and organizations of all sizes guarantee, an adptative trust e-assessment system for assuring e-assessment processes in online environments.

We are almost in the final sprint of the project. After a successful 1st and 2nd round of TeSLA pilots, during the 3rd round of pilots carried out in 2018, more than 19,000 students from 7 different universities have tested TeSLA system.

Tests have covered from communication protocols and data privacy agreements to the proof of TeSLA instruments or tools such as voice, face or keystroke recognition already integrated in the own universities VLE such as Blackboard or Moodle.

 TeSLA system is a Project funded by the European Commision

 TeSLA consortium is composed by Higher Education institutions and research centers in collaboration with technological companies as well as accrediting quality agencies. It is formed by 18 partners: 8 universities, 3 quality agencies, 4 research centers and 3 companies and it is being tested by 19k students across Europe.

 We are in the final sprint of the project, we would like to have you to know the TeSLA project and chat with guests about the academic and commercial future of e-leaning and e-assessments.

We´ll be expecting you!

TeSLA Team

Registration: https://tesla-project.eu/tesla-event

L'entrada TeSLA : In Learning We Trust #ILWT ha aparegut primer a TeSLA Project.