1 Wichtige Aspekte des eLearning Hermann MAURER Technische Universität Graz Präsentation für die Universität Graz

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

3 – Sequence of Multimedia WWW pages – Some Question/Answer dialogues (typical: Multiple Choice) – for communication 1. General aspects of eLearning WWW as educational tool: often misused!

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

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! – …..

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

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

8 2. Why communication is of paramount importance

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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!

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

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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

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: Hyperwave: eLearning as “Knowledge Transfer” has to be seen as just one aspect of “Knowledge Management”

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

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!

37 The communication model

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

39 Systemic action include e.g. “landscape generation”: looking up one entry shows landscapes of related ones:

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

41 One of the pictures associated with space probes

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

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

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

45 Thanks for your attention. H. Maurer URL‘s: