Integration of the Learning Processes into the WEB: a Learning Activities Centered Design and Architecture
Alain Derycke, Institut CUEEP, Univ. des Sciences et Technologies de Lille, France

From our experience in the design of advanced learning technologies, especially in the framework of European programs such as Telematics for Training, or in the framework of educational engineering projects done for companies’ in-house training, we will present the first findings which resulted in the design of the first generation of systems called Virtual Campus.

The rapid development of Internet usage for education leads to the virtualization of the resources needed for learning and training: pedagogical materials are provided through virtual libraries, coaching and tutoring through communication systems, and even the organizations become virtual (virtual campus, colleges, universities, etc.). It is important first to understand the space problem of these virtual organizations, which have for dimensions the Time, the Location, the Population (self insulated learner, companionship, group or teamwork, communities, etc.) and the Genre or style of pedagogical approaches.

The impact of Internet on the educational system can be described from the ICDT model [Anghern, 96] where four dimensions are considered for extension of the process : Information, Communication, Distribution, and Transaction. The problem of the integration will be emphasized.

Although these new integrated systems are mostly based on a Learner Centered Design, they must also support an another viewpoint: those of the organization itself with its requirements relatives to the management of the resources (technical and human), the scheduling processes and the (work)flow of the different learning processes, the accreditation and the assessments, and finally the economy of the organization which is a kind of electronic marketing of services.

After this analysis the author presents the different technological solutions which can be used to support the whole problem space of the virtual campus, especially specialized user's environments which can provide the glue to fix the different tools proposed to the learners and can support the coordination process and a real involvement of the learner. The architecture is derived from the association of a Web server with an active database based on object technology. The implementation supports the two main viewpoints: those of the Activities of the learner or other educational agents, and those of the Organization (the enterprise viewpoint). This Activity centered design is inspired by recent research in the field of computer supported Cooperative Work, and especially emergence of a Theory of Activity, which share a lot of common approaches and theoretical background with the learning technology field [Viéville, Derycke, 97] [Nardi, 96]. This architecture will be compared with other integrative one’s such as OLA promoted by ORACLE, and Learning Space designed by LOTUS. The use of the architecture to support the Virtual Campus will be demonstrated.

But the actual Virtual Campus is not always well fitted for the learning process. This is due to two kinds of problems which will be discussed: the first one is the usability problem relative to the difficulty of navigation through the resources of the Virtual campus and some drawbacks of the spatial metaphor (implicit in the "campus" approach). The second one is the difficulty to promote, organize cooperative learning, even if this seems aluable from the pedagogical viewpoint (case studies, group problem solving, teamwork projects, etc.), or to favor non formal collaboration between the learners and the feeling of a true community of practice. The learner often uses the Virtual Campus mostly as a course provider (tele-lectures or electronic books) without a real connection with the more deep process of his/her knowledge building. The social dimension of the learning is also missing or taking a small place. Our assumptions to the solving of these problems are based on a new analysis of the learning process: emergence of cooperation rather than prescribed one, self-organization, rapid evolution of the learner's needs, etc. This give new challenges to the designer of virtual organizations for training with requirements for more evolutive systems, reflexivity in the sofware architecture, radical tailorability of the user's interface. This is corroborated by recent reflections about the future of Workflow systems or CSCW systems.

References

[Anghern, 97] Angehrn, A. A. Designing mature Internet strategies: the ICDT model. European Management Journal, August, 1997.

[Nardi, 96] Nardi, B. A. Context and Consciousness: Activity Theory and Human-Computer Interaction. MIT Press, Cambridge, Ma, 1996.

[Viéville, 98] Viéville, C.An Asynchronous Collaborative Learning System on the Web. To be published by Springer Verlag, «The Electronic University », the CSCW series, in 1998, 15 p. [Viéville, Derycke, 97] Viéville, C. Derycke, A. C. Self Organized Group Activities Supported by Asynchronous Structured Conversations . Proceedings of the IFIP conference on Virtual Campus, Madrid, Spain, November 1997, to be published by Chapmann & Hall, London, 1998.