2. Estado del arte
3.4 Diseño de la envolvente
Workshops, exhibitions, and laboratories are sites that can take the shape of a resource centerthat favors learning in a particular field of knowledge. The pages of the Web site are then structured for access to resources gathered according to a teaching concept, or metaphor if you will—laboratory, workshop, exhi- bition, and so forth—rather than organized around learning activities or information structures as in a hyperguide or a reference portal.
For example, a site set up as a virtual exhibition might group pages tak- ing the shape of kiosks that can be visited in an unspecified order. Such a site might address information technologies, investment vehicles, housing, or any other subject amenable to the exhibition format. Among these kiosks the user might find an entry area for registration, spaces for socializing and relaxing (a café forum, for example), interactive demonstrations with simulators or courseware, workshops and discussion groups conducted through forums or videoconferences, multimedia presentations of case studies, and problem- solving clinics using audio- or videoconferencing with a content expert.
Some instructional content, the exhibition topic, is present in each of the kiosks in one way or another, but the site is not structured according to this content. Also, the site lends itself to the use of a variety of learning scenarios.
The participant can view the exhibition in different ways through these dif- ferent scenarios or by visiting paths on the exhibition site suggested accord- ing to user background, user time availability, and content of specific user interest. These scenarios are not in the Web site but are accessed through the Explor@ navigator. A knowledge navigator may also be integrated to help the user select kiosks to visit according to their content. Moreover, duplication of environment resources is avoided as most resources can be integrated into the Web site.
The same concepts apply to a science laboratory or a writing or art work- shop. The chemistry laboratory presents various devices and available setups in the pages that represent various lab areas, similar to the exhibition kiosks. In the same way, the writing workshop offers various tools—such as text edi- tors, spell checkers, interactive grammars, and text diagrams of different types—that facilitate the production of various writing projects.
S U M M A R Y
This chapter examined a distributed learning approach that provides for a diversity of resources, materials, media, and pedagogies and their integration into an Internet Web site structured in different ways depending on course activities, information, and resources. This approach also facilitates the reuse of these items in other courses. This integrated site is completed by one or many environments, each adapted to the role of a type of user called an actor who interacts in the delivery of a learning system.
Such a system constitutes a three-level virtual learning center. The Explor@ implementation of this architecture is currently used to deliver net- work training in a number of organizations. Each course can be designed according to a different model. The virtual learning center may integrate courses that currently exist on the Web without modifying their format. Or it may facilitate the conversion of traditional courses into Internet training, allowing an organization to gradually transform its training methods.
The central management of resources in environments adapted to the needs of each actor allows the design of course Web sites that compared to
more traditional course sites can be created quickly, are lighter in links and icons, and are easier to revise on a regular basis. The load of maintaining the global training environment is also reduced. For example, if a new communi- cation tool becomes available, it is not necessary to update each course. Instead, only a simple substitution is required at the central resource repository. Also, once the first course is carried out, each new course can be summarized in a few Web pages and hyperlinks to existing documents, the majority of the resources being accessible to the users from the Explor@ window.
This chapter reveals a number of basic questions that need to be answered when designing a learning system. Which resources shall we reuse or build? Which delivery model shall we select? Who will the actors be? Which resources will they need? Shall we structure the course according to its activ- ities, its contents, or its resources? These questions and many others like them underline the importance, now greater than ever, for designers to employ a learning system design methodology and supporting tools. These are the top- ics I discuss in the following chapters.
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E M U S T M A K E a multiplicity of decisions when creating an e-learning system, and the fast evolution of on-line learning is only increasing their numbers. The new and extremely varied pedagogical pos- sibilities available using information and communication technologies con- stitute the first argument for a methodology adapted to the creation of an e-learning system.In addition, an on-line learning system is, from a technical perspective, a computer system equipped with software tools, digitized documents, and communication services that are much more diversified than in the past. The development of such systems on the Internet can no longer be considered a handicraft and somehow separated from rigorous methods used in other fields of information science. Software engineering methods are now starting to dominate in Internet applications. They are even more useful when it comes to creating Internet learning systems.
Yet another reason for a systematic approach to learning system creation is the importance of knowledge management in today’s organizations. We