/1/School of Computer Studies, University of Leeds, LEEDS LS2 9JT, UK
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The main points are:
We want to develop a methodology and tools for creating course-ware, based on the idea of content-descriptive scripting languages. These tools will facilitate the incremental design of scripting languages in co-operation with content experts and programming support. Lessons and whole courses may then be constructed using scripts, thus allowing non-programmers to develop content. The use of these scripting languages is essential to support the application, as a graphical interface would be too restrictive, involving an impossible amount of development to cope with all possible scenarios, while the development of short units of mobile code means that we would be producing tools for individual operations, such as moving a selected object in a defined direction across a screen after, for instance, a collision has taken place. These small individual tools would be reusable within other scenarios and indeed within other subject areas. A further major advantage of using Java is that it is available for downloading from WWW by any of the prospective users in a form which will allow the use of code already written.
Initially the course designer will propose language fragments in terms of which the content of individual lessons (including interactive behaviour as well as graphical appearance) could be specified. A programmer will turn these informal fragments into a declarative specification for a scripting language and will develop code fragments to realise the desired graphical components and behaviour. The course developer will then start using the thus evolving scripting language. Inevitably he/she will propose further language fragments to be specified and implemented, leading to enhanced capabilities. This should greatly simplify the process of producing materials as it provides an incrementally extensible framework for course-ware development.
Work has already begun at the University of Leeds on a compiler-compiler to support this methodology. This compiler-compiler will be simple, uniform, incremental, and transparent unambiguous. It will have the look and feel of attribute grammars without compromising efficiency. It will be implemented in Java and it will generate compilers or interpreters in Java. This is a new and unique approach to the development and use of instructional Computer Aided Learning (CAL) material. It adds a new element to CAL material which has not been used before and which can be used in the development of physics and mechanics CAL material.
The development of a Distance Learning course requires the co-ordination of contributions from a number of people and places. Contributions are expected from the 'problem owner' (i.e. the lecturer who runs the course), course developers (for identifying sources of information and presenting them as teaching material), technical experts (for providing the hardware and software tools for course development and delivery). A considerable amount of information sharing and communications will be needed throughout.
The traditional ways to facilitate these activities are via periodic face-to-face meetings, individuals visiting other sites over a period of months and/or using email in between. Increasingly fax machines and telephone conferencing systems are also used. We do not want to replace these methods, but to improve the level of sharing and collaboration by using tools for Computer-Supported Co-operative Work (CSCW). This Distance Learning Management Environment will provide an interface to a range of tools and functions to exchange information, discuss issues and to archive decisions and solutions to problems. The participants will have a range of options at their disposal (for same-time different-place or different-time different-place communications) and the most effective means can be chosen for the particular kind of activities at the time. The interface will also provide the participants with an increased sense of belonging to a team and access to a shared on-line knowledge pool. This will provide a much improved aid to interaction and co-operation among the project members.
We also aim to devise a systematic way to organise the knowledge that would be accumulated from this kind of on-line interactions. The end-result can be used as the 'organisational memory' of the project and will be extremely useful for the users in the Eastern Europe once the ownership of the deliverables are transferred towards the end of the project. They can then be more self-reliant especially in tracking the sources of information, the major decision points and reasons, and the problems and issues that have been arisen and resolved. It should be emphasised that since this Distance Learning Management Environment aims to support the 'management process', it would be equally applicable in managing the development of other Distance Learning courses.
Before the new approaches to on-line and distance learning can be successfully applied there is a need for fundamental changes in the approach to learning. Many of the universities in Eastern Europe have a strictly hierarchical teaching structure where the position of the staff appears threatened if the student demonstrates any individuality in his/her approach to learning. Before the new methods can be used successfully this attitude will have to be encouraged to alter. It will necessitate a learning democracy where the student has an influence on his/her own learning studies.
We would seek to promote the change in educational attitude through the development of prelearning courses aimed at the students and particularly the lecturing staff as they seek to accustom themselves to making the best use of a new mode of delivery.
Before we can provide support in this change of educational emphasis we will have to acquire information from a review and assessment of learning levels and the cultural expectations, within learning, of the target of students. From here we can progress to an assessment of the tools necessary to develop suggested modules. Findings and proposed strategy for dealing with this change in culture will be of value also in the West where changes in the approach to learning are coming, however, slowly.
In terms of teaching materials, we would first provide the prelearning materials, by which we mean materials designed to develop the necessary competencies to make the best use of information technology to support the distance learning processes. Preceding the prelearning course will be a strategy document on how to introduce distance learning using new information technology in the context of Problem Based Learning (PBL) in small groups. This strategy will be based upon the cultural, social and pedagogical situation in the Eastern countries. This would include teaching materials and demonstrations for both students and staff on how to use the Internet to support learning and on how to set up Internet services. For the teaching staff on the project this would also include materials on pedagogical concepts and distance learning concepts, and also a course introducing the students to the technologies of creative work.
Then we would go on to develop a virtual physics course. The course will include simulations, data acquisition and modelling physical phenomena all of which are suited to the modern PBL approach. This approach is student centered group learning which seeks to structure the curriculum such that the learning experience involves confronting students with problems from practice which provide a stimulus for learning. Over recent years this approach has become central to curriculum design and development in certain faculties in many Western Universities, such as some in the University of Adelaide and University of Canberra in Australia, McMaster University in the United States and McGill University in Canada and throughout the whole of the University of Aalborg in Denmark and the medical faculty of the University of Linköping in Sweden.
Evaluating the value of CSCW tools in terms of providing the 'organisational memory¹; after the project and also for facilitating the interactions among team members.
Evaluating the effectiveness of using the WWW as a mechanism in providing distance learning courses in Eastern European countries. (We should look at cost, reliability, performance - of network infrastructure, and of response time, and this should be compared with other CBL approaches.)
Evaluating the effectiveness of the course authoring environment (including the scripting language approach) throughout the prototyping process, which provide feedback to the refinement of the prototype/authoring environment, and also the ease of use of the tools created. This would be done through the creation of the individual modules which would act as the prototype for the virtual physics course.
Evaluating the prelearning experience against its objectives. This would include evaluation of the effectiveness of PBL and the delivery technology from the student/teacher standpoint within Eastern Europe.
Their lab contains:
Unfortunately this appears to be domain specific, it is not available on WWW, and does not appear to be scaleable. It would, none the less, provide us with some well considered ideas as a starting point for our Virtual Physics Laboratory. A new project, Reseau d’Enseignment Multimedia (REM) was funded in January 1996. The aim is to develop multimedia teaching and training across European networks by building an electronic version of the ideal university. They are seeking to develop an electronic environment where the learner can engage with material without being too concerned about the technology which they are using. In the first instance REM will focus on the professional development of teachers and teachers in training, and it is hoped to influence the ways that teachers will approach the use of technology in schools.
This is a large scale Western European project and should hopefully begin to publish results by the time our project is underway. We will therefore be able to gain valuable input from their experiences while bearing in mind our very different anticipated user base.