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1 Wichtige Aspekte des eLearning Hermann MAURER Technische Universitt Graz Prsentation fr die Universitt Graz 8. 3. 2001 Slide 2 2 1. General aspects of eLearning 2. Why communication is of paramount importance 3. The role of active documents 4. The role of Knowledge Management 5. Assured information delivery 6. How to introduce eLearning pragmatically Structure of Talk Slide 3 3 Sequence of Multimedia WWW pages Some Question/Answer dialogues (typical: Multiple Choice) Email for communication 1. General aspects of eLearning WWW as educational tool: often misused! Slide 4 4 Note: - Web must not use distance education in the sense of allowing to teach still larger groups simultaneously - Web must not be used as electronic book, but can be used as powerful background library - Good and pleasing content is important but there is no need to compete with Hollywood - Creation of impressive multimedia content is not the answer: the answer is a suitable learning environment Slide 5 5 Requirements for WWW-based educational tools (user view) pretests to assess level of knowledge and cognitive style allow users to work with material e.g. by adding private or group notes, links, attachments, etc. use WWW to break isolation: chats, discussion forums, allow student questions support behavioristic, cognitivistic and constructionistic approaches make sure that work /interaction with system increases knowledge residing in system! .. Slide 6 6 Requirements for WWW-based educational tools (author and administrator view) authoring tools including module re-use and customization structured user administration student and course tracking statistical data feedback facilities Slide 7 7 Highly recommended: sophisticated cooperation tools i.e. discussion forums with features such as: different display/sorting criteria search facilities arbitrary document types, notes and links different levels of anonymity but also business cards version control notification mechanism Example: Essay writing Slide 8 8 2. Why communication is of paramount importance Slide 9 9 Slide 10 10 Slide 11 11 Slide 12 12 Slide 13 13 Slide 14 14 Slide 15 15 Slide 16 16 Slide 17 17 Slide 18 18 Slide 19 19 Slide 20 20 Slide 21 21 Slide 22 22 Slide 23 23 Slide 24 24 3. Active documents Vision: Any document on the screen - any question can be asked. Document answers the question! Is this a Science Fiction vision? Not really! Slide 25 25 Implementation of Active Document concept: Use the fact that many users look at same page! Problem is reduced to: When are different questions x and y semantically identical Trick 1: Location specific FAQ Trick 2: Fuzzy comparison Trick 3: Restricted syntax and area-specific semantic network Slide 26 26 Slide 27 27 Slide 28 28 Slide 29 29 Slide 30 30 Slide 31 31 Slide 32 32 Slide 33 33 Knowledge in the eLearning environment increases: (1) through notes, chats and discussions (2) through question/answer dialogues (3) through systemic actions like automatically generated links, relationships and landscapes Slide 34 34 All of the above mentioned features have been implemented in the eLearning Suite. eLearning Suite is based on Hyperwave, a WWW based Knowledge Management System. It and all other Hyperwave components are free for Universities and Schools under HAUP (Hyperwave Academic User Program) HAUP: www.haup.org Hyperwave: www.hyperwave.comwww.hyperwave.com eLearning as Knowledge Transfer has to be seen as just one aspect of Knowledge Management Slide 35 35 Features of Hyperwave: Four interwoven information retrieval paradigms (directories, links, attributes, searches) Automated link- and data management User administration and authorization classes Annotations, discussion forums, version control ... and much more Slide 36 36 4. Knowledge Management: If our employees only knew what our employees know we would be a much better organisation. Challenge: Make knowledge of some available to all; collect unobtrusively as much knowledge from persons into computer system as possible; make knowledge easily available. KT = Knowledge Transfer = e- Learning is part of Knowledge Management Many approaches exist! Slide 37 37 The communication model Slide 38 38 KM relevant to eLearning because: - eLearning needs substantial background libraries with tight integration - growth of knowledge through feedback and contributions essential - communication and cooperation critical for eLearning - systemic actions are essential Slide 39 39 Systemic action include e.g. landscape generation: looking up one entry shows landscapes of related ones: Slide 40 40 Klicking in the landscape generated by space exploration on space probes has lead us to this contribution with a new information landscape and pictures of e.g. one of the space probes Slide 41 41 One of the pictures associated with space probes Slide 42 42 (1) Modules are made available dependetnt on user profile (2) Profile is geneated through pre- tests (3) Consumation of tests and modules is checked by system 5. Assured Information Delivery Slide 43 43 6. How to introduce eLearning pragmatically - Use any learning environment that allows to upload arbitrary data to (a) structure them as course (b) or use them as background library - If system has sufficient administrative functions and collaborative features this will do Slide 44 44 NOTE: Don't get caught in proprietary formats Don't develop systems yourself Don't overemphasize beautiful content Don't worry about performance: by the time you are ready computers will again be much faster and cheaper Slide 45 45 Thanks for your attention. H. Maurer URLs: www.hyperwave.de www.haup.org www.iicm.edu/maurer email: hmaurer@iicm.edu