Explora: An Open Virtual Campus Gilbert Paquette

Explora: An Open Virtual Campus

Gilbert Paquette

LICEF Research Centre, Télé-université

Montreal, Quebec, Canada

gpaquett@licef.teluq.uquebec.ca

Ileana de la Teja

LICEF Research Centre, Télé-université

Montreal, Quebec, Canada

idelatej@licef.teluq.uquebec.ca

Aude Dufresne

Département de Communications, Université de Montréal

Montreal, Quebec. Canada

dufresne@com.umontreal.ca

Abstract. Telelearning research conducted in our research centre in the last five years has resulted in a Virtual Learning Centre (VLC) model and an implementation for Web-based training called Explora. This system is now in operation at Télé-université, in three professional corporations and in a company. Our VLC model focuses on the interaction spaces between five theoretical actors: the learner, the informer (content expert), the trainer, the manager and the designer. The Explora implementation supports learners and the other actors in their interactions. Each actor has a specific environment enabling him/her to manage his/her activities, consult and produce information, engage in collaboration and receive assistance from different sources. We will finally present a reengineering process that has been applied to transform a traditional distance education course into a web-based course within the Explora environment.

1. An Open Virtual Campus Model

Behind terms like “distance education”, “on-line learning”, “telelearning” and “multimedia training”, is a multi-facetted reality from which we can identify many paradigms. High-tech classrooms, virtual classrooms (Hiltz, 1990), multimedia Web-based training, on-line learning communities (Harasim, 1990 and Ricciardi-Rigault et Henri, 1994) and electronic performance support systems (EPSS) (see Gery, 1997) are all modalities that can be integrated in a truly open virtual campus. Such a virtual campus will enable individuals and organisations to manage transitions from the predominant classroom presentation to fully interactive telelearning.

We see a telelearning system as a society of agents, to use Marvin Minski’s term, some of them providing information and explanations, others constructing new information, still others fostering collaboration between agents or providing assistance to the other agents on content, pedagogical process or organisation of activities.

A Virtual Learning Centre (VLC) is the central part of a Virtual Campus where instructional resources, learning events as well as technological and organisational infrastructure are created and assembled to forward the delivery of telelearning systems. Our VLC model (Paquette, 1997) emphasises the concept of a process-based learning scenario coupled with assistance resources. Basically, the learner proceeds to a scenario, a network of learning activities, using different kinds of information resources to help her achieve the tasks and produce some outcome: a problem solution or new information that can be used in other activities. The assistance resources for each task are also defined during design process. The assistance can be distributed among many agents: trainers interacting through e-mail or teleconferencing, other learners, contextual help or intelligent advisors.

2. The Explora Model: Actors, Roles and Agents

The Learner transforms information into personal knowledge. “ Knowledge ” means the information that has been integrated by a cognitive entity into its own cognitive system, in a situated context and use. The learner achieves knowledge acquisition and construction by managing a learning environment planned by another actor, the designer, through collaboration with other learner agents, consulting and producing information, receiving assistance from other actors.

The Informer (the content expert) makes the information available to the learner. It may be a person or a group of persons presenting information, but also a book, a video, a software or any other material or media. Conversely, the learner will also produce information that can be made available to others through an informer agent, as a result of his/her production activities.

The Designer is the actor planning, adapting and sustaining a telelearning system (TLS) that integrates information sources (human informers or learning materials), and also self-management, assistance and collaboration tools for the other actors.

The Trainer provides pedagogical assistance by giving advice to the learner about his individual process and the interactions that may be useful to him based on the learning scenarios defined by the designer.

Finally, the Manager provides organisational assistance to the learner (and other actors) by managing actors and events, for example creating groups or making tele-services available in order to insure the success of the learning process, based on the scenarios defined by the designer.

Figure 1 shows the five theoretical actors and their interactions with the learner. In our VLC model, there are five interaction spaces: management, consultation, production, collaboration and assistance, each giving access to a number of resources.

3. The Delivery System: the Hyperguide and the Explora Environments

Each course can be any web site we called the Hyperguide. This web site describes the course structure, down to learning scenarios and learning activities distributed into modules or learning units. Each scenario gives access to specific resources to be consulted or productions to make.

Figure 2 shows such a HyperGuide for an introductory course in artificial intelligence. The main window here is one of the Hyperguide pages showing the scenario for module 3. Each oval shape represents a learning activity. A click on it brings the description of the learning activity: goal and type of the activity, expected duration, resources to consult, productions to make, proposed assignment steps.


Figure 2 . A host HyperGuide within an Explora environment
The rectangular shapes give access to the input resources: a text to read, a video to watch, a CBT or a multimedia simulation to interact with. They also give access to output resources storing the learner’s production for future use in other activities, exchange with other learners or submission to a trainer for evaluation.

Different actors need different points of view on the host system in each interaction space. For example, in the information space, a learner will need different input resources such as a list of related web sites, videos from a server or didactic software on AI content. In the same information space, a trainer needs other information resources: traces of the learners activities for diagnosis, information on the group of learners and on learner productions and annotation tools to identify and organise information for assistance.

These resources are made available through an external palette as shown in the floating window of figure 2. This is what we call an Explora environment. It is an actor’s set of resources for a course or program supported by the Virtual learning centre. It groups resources into five interaction spaces (self-management, information, production, collaboration and assistance) according to an actor’s role and course specifics. In the example here, if we open any one of the five menus in the Explora window, we can gain access to the following resources.

INTERACTION SPACE	RESOURCE	TYPE	DESCRIPTION
Self-management resources	Personal Profile	Java	Personal information accessible to all
	Progress status	Java	Bar graph displaying progress levels
	Calendar of events	Java	Dates where activities were looked upon
	Course schedule	HTML	Gantt distribution of activities
	Evaluation	HTML	Suggestions and course evaluation by learners
Information resources	Texts	HTML	Access to texts to be consulted or produced
	Videos	HTML	Access to video streaming
	Webography	HTML	Access to interesting web sites
	Search engines	HTML	To search for other web sites
Production resources	CBTs	EXE	Triggers seven CBTs illustrating IA concepts
	Text editor	EXE	Link to a recommended text editor
	Knowledge editor	EXE	Link to LICEF’S MOT knowledge editor
	Productions made	HTML	Simple file transfer to trainer for production evaluation
Collaboration resources	Group profile	Java	Display of other learner’s progress and chat
	E-mail	EXE	Link to recommended email software
	Forums	HTML	Asynchronous teleconferencing system
	Showcase	HTML	Simple upload/download to a server to facilitate the exchange of productions
Assistance resources	Explora guide	HTML	Information on use of the environment
	Study guide	PDF	Access to a PDF description of the course
	Technical help	HTML	A frequently asked questions (FAQ) facility
	Resource persons	HTML	An e-mail list of persons: professor, tutor, manager, technician, etc.

Table 1. Example of the distribution of resources in an Explora Environment
These resources are all external to the web course. There are three types of resources:

• 
  Java applets that we have developed mainly to exploit the learner’s trace in the web course, to build individual progress reports, group profiles, advice generation or support to peer collaboration tools;
  
• 
  Executables downloaded or resident on the user’s workstation, that trigger CBTs, simulations, or generic software shared by the group so that file exchange is facilitated; this is particularly needed for some communication tools wherein the use of different software will simply not work.
  
• 
  HTML generic services that sometimes have to be sometime adapted to the course content; examples of these are course evaluation questionnaires through which learners and trainers will give feedback to designers to improve the course, and also the webography which is a structured list of commented web sites.
  

4. Reengineering a course for a Virtual Learning Centre

1. 
   Engineering the telelearning system. We have re-designed this course with MISA (Paquette et al 1997). The MISA method presents the ID processes and tasks according to an engineering perspective analogous to software engineering. This method innovates by using cognitive modelling techniques to represent knowledge, as well as pedagogical scenarios, learning materials specs and delivery plans. In this process, we have made all the fundamental decisions, separating the components specific to the AI content that must be integrated in the HyperGuide web site and the generic resources (documents, tools, services) that will be useful for this course in an Explora environment.
   
2. 
   Building the HyperGuide web site. This second step was rather straightforward, based on the MISA models that provided precise orientations to the development team. They could then focus on the ergonomics of the web site and the presentations of the pages with very little interaction needed from the designers. Three other courses have been rapidly constructed afterward on the same model.
   
3. 
   Selecting actors and resources. This task was achieved in parallel to the previous one, based on the MISA models. At this point, we have decided to have only two actors at delivery time: learners and trainers (called tutors here). An informer actor was not necessary, since all the content had been mediated. A manager actor may be added in the future. The learner’s and the trainer’s environments are quite similar but specific tools for the trainer have been designed to give them access to a more synthetic group progress profile, to maintain a FAQ, to animate teleconferences and to integrate their evaluation into the learner’s progress results.
   

Conclusion

References

Gery G. (1997). Granting Three Wishes Through Performance-Centred Design, NATO Communications of the ACM, volume 40, number 7, pp.54-59.

Girard J., Paquette G., A. Miara and K. Lundgren. (1999). Intelligent Assistance for Web-based TeleLearning. In S.Lajoie and M. Vivet (Eds), AI in Education – Open Learning Environements, IOS Press.

Harasim, L. (1990).Online Education: An Environment for Collaboration and Intellectual Amplification. In L. Harasim (Ed.), Online education: Perspectives on a new environment. Praeger Publishers, New York.

Hiltz, S. (1990). Evaluating the Virtual Classroom. In Harasim, L. (ed.) Online education: perspectives on a new environment. Praeger Publishers, New-York. pp. 133-184.

Paquette, G. (1997). Virtual Learning Centres for XXIst Century Organisations. In F. Verdejo and G. Davies (eds.). The Virtual Campus, Chapman & Hall, London. pp. 18-34.

Paquette G., Aubin C. and Crevier, F. (1997). Design and Implementation of Interactive TeleLearning Scenarios. Proceedings of ICDE’97 (International Council for Distance Education), Penn State University, USA, June.

Paquette G., Bergeron G., Bourdeau J. (1993). The Virtual Classroom revisited. TeleTeaching'93 Proceedings, Trondheim, Norway, August.

Paquette G., Ricciardi-Rigault C., Paquin C., Liégeois S. and Bleicher E. (1996). Developing the Virtual Campus Environment, ED-Media International Conference, Boston, June.

Ricciardi-Rigault, C., Henri, F. Developing Tools for Optimizing the Collaborative Learning Process, Proceedings of the International Distance Education Conference, Penn State University, USA, June.