Digital environment for e-learning –J. Herget 1 Digital environment for e-learning – A concept for excellence in knowledge transfer Herget, Josef, Prof. Dr., Dean, Information Science, University of Applied Sciences Chur, Switzerland,

Digital environment for e-learning –J. Herget 2 Contents 1.Concepts of quality for learning and e-learning 2.What kind of digital information resources for e-learning? 3.Why do topic maps seem to be suitable for e-learning? 4.Case study: The course “Introduction to Information Science” at the University of Applied Sciences Chur 5.Preliminary conclusions

Digital environment for e-learning –J. Herget 3 Concepts of quality Good practice encourage student-faculty-contact 2.Good practice encourage cooperation among students 3.Good practice encourage active learning 4.Good practice gives prompt feedback 5.Good practice emphasizes time on task 6.Good practice communicates high expectations 7.Good practice respects diverse talents and ways of learning (Chickering / Ehrmann 1996)

Digital environment for e-learning –J. Herget 4 Concepts of quality Knowledge is constructed 2.Learning is more effective if a student can take responsibility for his own learning 3.Student motivation is a strong determinant of the outcomes and success of learning 4.Higher-order learning requires reflection 5.Learning is unique to the individual 6.Learning is experiential 7.Learning is both social and private 8.Inexorable epistemological presumptions can misdirect higher- order thinking 9.Learning is spiral 10.Learning is “messy”(Alley / Jansak 2001)

Digital environment for e-learning –J. Herget 5 Digital resources for e-learning -1- Secondary content resourcesPrimary content resources Digital libraries (internet archives,...)Websites (personal, institutions, …) Subject gateways, thematic portalsE-books (Internet) Search enginesPresentation material/documents (powerpoint, pdf, …) OPACsE-journals Online data basesPrint-Server (Pre-) Document delivery servicesPrograms BookshopsSimulations

Digital environment for e-learning –J. Herget 6 Digital resources for e-learning -2- Secondary content resourcesPrimary content resources Abstract servicesMultimedia (audio, video, photo, graphic, …) Terminology data basesOnline-tests (interactive,...) Address data basesEducation material Question-Answer-ServicesGlossaries, Topic Maps “New” Internet specific content resources ForaMailing lists NewsletterFAQ´s Weblogs

Digital environment for e-learning –J. Herget 7 e-learning environment should encompass -Integration of a variety of different digital resources, formats and modes; -Rapid, dynamic change of the contents, without employing significant efforts and resources; -Structure of knowledge should be represented (knowledge layer), different optional paths provided, self-motivated and interest-laid explorative learning enabled and curiosity should be inspired; -Activity, constructivism and contextualisation should be supported and encouraged.

Digital environment for e-learning –J. Herget 8 The concept of a topic map

Digital environment for e-learning –J. Herget 9 Potential of Topics Maps for e-learning -Open navigation through the course material -Personalized presentation -Ontology-based knowledge layer -Exchange of information with related groups or institutions -Collaborative authoring of educational resources and merging -Use of existing digital resources as occurrences

Digital environment for e-learning –J. Herget 10 Case study:Claroline as e-learning platform

Digital environment for e-learning –J. Herget 11 View I: Starting Point „Term Information Science”

Digital environment for e-learning –J. Herget 12 View II: Detailed view on Information Science

Digital environment for e-learning –J. Herget 13 View III: The next step: Navigate to the occurrences

Digital environment for e-learning –J. Herget 14 Navigating the topic map with text-oriented tools

Digital environment for e-learning –J. Herget 15 Topic maps provide a new concept and a relatively easy system for -using existing digital information resources on the web and thus exploiting the efforts already done by developing the diverse information collections; -decentralized development and maintenance of the digital information resources; -permanent possible updating of digital information resources which are included as learning objects. However, this can be as well a handicap if the contents (occurrences) are changing rapidly. A monitoring system for all external information resources then may be needed; -integrating new contents and new topic maps; -providing an external meta structure (knowledge-navigation-layer or ontology) in form of a dynamic, semantically based hypertext. Preliminary conclusions -1-

Digital environment for e-learning –J. Herget 16 Preliminary conclusions -2- The benefits for teachers are: -the whole content is structured and presented as a semantic web; -distributed development and ongoing further development is possible; -support is given for the selection of relevant content by providing a semantic structure when preparing new courses. The benefits for learners are: -“browsing” in a subject field (knowledge domain), thus exploratory learning with high motivation and self-direction is becoming possible; -easy finding of further relevant content (for example definitions); -“help system” (orientation) through the knowledge layer (represented by interrelations or associations between topics and their occurrences); -learner-centric learning process according to own interests and needs is enabled, being independent of pre-set course structure.