Precursors to Web-Based Methodologies

Many of us are using the World Wide Web in ways that are similar to the teaching machines and automatic tutoring devices of the 1950-1960s, yet we are moving ahead without building upon a base of knowledge that already exists from that era. This chapter reviews the basic ideas of the original automatic teaching and tutoring machines of those two decades — a linear programmed learning model and a programmed branching model — and compares these to hypermedia methods that are now enabled via web technology. Some classic ideas in assessing the cognitive and affective learning outcomes of teaching — somewhat analogous to usability issues of utility and likability — are reviewed. Greater emphasis on considering the educational outcomes is advocated when we use new online teaching technologies in programmed instruction.

Knowledge Spaces

Research into the opportunities offered by electronic media, as regards finding and acquiring knowledge, together with the development of new teaching and learning methods for the field of art and culture is the focus of the work being carried out by the Media Arts Research Studies (MARS) research group at the Fraunhofer Institute for Media Communication. This chapter illustrates the requirements on electronic and digital media concepts in the context of e-learning, using the very latest developments and experience in this sector as examples. In the broadest sense, the aim is to visualise information and create networked “knowledge spaces” which are accessible to users as new forms of teaching and learning through play. Experimental methods, tools and interfaces that support communication between the digital and physical spaces and investigate new forms of knowledge retrieval are being developed and tested.

E-Learning as a Catalyst for Educational Innovation

As a form of distance learning, e-learning has become a major instructional force in the world. In this chapter, initiatives regarding e-learning and its impacts on instructional design, on school management and on the community are described and discussed in order to show different aspects of e-learning environments and their impact on related individuals or institutions. Future trends in e-learning are presented in connection with expected technological improvements and key points needing special care in the development of future e-learning environments are mentioned in the light of diffusion theory.

Creative E-Transitions

The creative use of e-learning to facilitate the transition to and from university is the subject of this chapter. It describes a pilot, online transition to university project entitled Click Around ECU (Edith Cowan University) and an online, generic skills and career planning project called Careering Ahead in Health Promotion. Both projects are informed by authentic learning pedagogy that seeks to engage students in problem solving and learning by engaging in purposeful activities. The projects also seek to empower students to decide for themselves what they need to know about the transition process. Each project is described in the context of its implications for e-learning. The core thesis is that e-learning produces creative outcomes when embedded in appropriate pedagogy.

Engineering of a Virtual Community Platform

UseWorld.net is a federated user adaptive Internet portal that supports information exchange and cooperation in research and development in the area of human machine interaction. It has been jointly developed with members of Center of Human-Machine-Systems (ZMMS, TU Berlin), Chair of Industrial Engineering and Ergonomics (RWTH Aachen), Chair for Industrial Design (University of Essen) and Center for Human-Machine-Interaction (ZMMI, University of Kaiserslautern). The portal is operated by an independent open incorporated society. It integrates manifold information services (online journal, different thematic link collections, conference database, expert database) and a sophisticated cooperation component to support distributed teams by providing shared workspaces. Software agents for community awareness tasks and a clean and consistent interaction design complete the solution and support the portal’s innovative operation concept, which intends to activate the users to become editors.

Toward Predictive Models for E-Learning

Currently, developing courseware for e-learning initiatives remains much of a black art. While we are mastering the process of authoring interactive media, we know little about the many factors that affect the e-learning experience. This can drastically limit return on invested efforts for organizations. Indeed, authoring multimedia content is a very expensive endeavor as compared to the traditional approach. A better understanding of the process could yield new approaches and insights to achieve a more ambitious goal: predictive models for e-learning. The reviewed literature highlights a lack of reliable results describing the interplay between e-learning context, web usability, cognitive styles, motivation, learner performance and satisfaction. Clearly, more research is needed to better understand and predict learner performance during an e-learning experience. The expected results of such an integrated approach would assist developers to design better e-learning experiences. This chapter proposes a holistic framework covering the interplay among Business-Process, People and Information-Systems issues. This could serve to guide future research.

Fast Track

Most studies involving students in designing and developing software involve research teams and other professionals outside of the normal school environment. This pilot study demonstrated that involving students in the design and development of software could take place entirely within the school environment. This methodology was called “fast tracking.” Students could, and did, play demanding and effective roles in the process of software development. Students were responsible for selecting their own roles in the design process and were assertive in selecting the teaching staff they wanted to work with. The students also proved to be adept at selecting a suitable toolkit for implementing the software. The participating students represented a cross section of the entire ability range. A quantitative analysis of “flow” as an indication of the success of the implementation indicated that middle ability students derived the most educational benefit from using software developed under the fast track approach. Relationships between students and teaching staff exhibited changes in the power structure, which were often difficult to redress outside of the pilot study.

Integrated E-Learning System and Its Practice

In this chapter, we present an intelligent media oriented e-learning system. In this system, we have developed a LMS (Learning Management System), some learning control systems and some learning media, with a flexible framework. It is intended to provide a collaborative workplace to encourage interactions among lecturer/learners. Moreover, we propose an innovative educational method of a cooperative link between a university and an industry for higher education. We analyze these results and the problems we encountered, as well as offer constructive solutions. Furthermore, we have developed some intelligent media such as an analyzer/summarizer by the statistical natural language processing for data log of discussion process to encourage/aware discussion/negotiation between learners and an automatic reporting processor.

Innovative Approach to Teaching Database Design through WWW

The objective of this chapter is to describe the Postcourse project, which is an e-course on database design. It can be reached via the World Wide Web and allows authorized students to create and work with their own databases placed on the university server. The system has been created from scratch, as no authoring package offered tools to interact with databases, which is the innovative feature of the project. The evaluation performed after the system had been used for two years proved that it is a valuable material for self-paced work.

Supporting Informal Interaction in Online Courses

Informal interaction has proven to be useful in supporting collaboration in office and educational environments. Online courses, however, provide limited opportunities for informal interaction, which might put them at a disadvantage when compared with traditional courses. This lack of opportunities could obstruct collaboration among students, a key aspect for successful instruction. To provide students with opportunities for informal interaction, we designed and developed a system named CENTERS. It is an instant messaging and presence awareness system that supports lightweight communications within the group. CENTERS provides awareness of the presence of members of the distributed community and allows them to interact easily and navigate together through the course’s materials, share insights, resolve doubts, and collaborate in course related activities. To evaluate the use of CENTERS in an online learning environment, a study was designed to assess interaction from a socio-academic perspective. Results showed that CENTERS helped reduce the students’ feelings of isolation and facilitated a greater degree of interpersonal interaction within the course participants.