eduknowledge

EDUKNOWLEDGE IADIS e-society 2009 1

EDUKNOWLEDGE-AN USEFULL TOOL

FOR E-LEARNING, KNOWLEDGE BASED,

CONTENT DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT

Ph.D.STEFAN KOVACS INCDPM ”Alexandru Darabont” Bucharest,Romania Bv.Ghencea 35 A,sect.6

E-mail:[email protected]


Knowledge-blessing or ordeal ?

Knowledge is, perhaps, the most precious

asset for every developed society.

Knowledge refinement and processing

towards learning is a tedious work asking for

a lot of resources. However, if the knowledge

is not processed and is not learning-ready the

user will be bored in a very short time,

perhaps loosing what is essentially needed

for the unimportant knowledge.



This is a most important aspect when the e-

learning process is focused on occupational

safety matters. If the student does not learn

about how to perform safely an activity- being

feed instead with theoretical aspects- he

could easily be involved into an unpredicted

event, incident or work accident. Even if he is

not injured there could be loss of property

or/and adverse effects upon the environment.


EDUKNOWLEDGE ?


EDUKNOWLEDGE ?

EDUCATIONAL TAILORED KNOWLEDGE

WITH A TWIST

Domain oriented knowledge

Task oriented knowledge

Specific abilities optimal development oriented

knowledge

Self-upgrading knowledge


EDUKNOWLEDGE ?

Eduknowledge is a general concept, meaning

knowledge specially prepared for educational

purposes. Eduknowledge clusters are well

defined structures that could optimize and

maximize the efficiency of e-learning

activities when such activities are oriented

towards skill(aptitudes) achievement.


EDUKNOWLEDGE ?


Eduknowledge framework structure(s)

The structure must:

-process knowledge;

-store optimally knowledge;

-regain needed knowledge;

-assure knowledge interaction;

Also, this framework must:

Assure the interaction with the user and the knowledge

engineer/administrator;

Assure the upgrade;

Assure the feedback


Eduknowledge framework structure(s)


Eduknowledge framework structure(s)-

implementation The eduknowledge framework is generally implemented by an

authoring instrument –for our prototype we used ToolBook 9.01.

We used also expert system shells for developing the dynamic part of eduknowledge. This dynamic part is not just a simple interaction but a decision assistant system.

The eduknowledge cluster developed by this module contains a static part - the main and essential body of knowledge needed to acquire the skill together with links towards the dynamic part of the eduknowledge – knowledge extensive assistants and interactive applications that should give the learner the ability to master the new acquired skill.



implementation



implementation

Case studies are the start-up of knowledge based education- hands on simulation generator and supplemental knowledge finder being case centered. The body of knowledge is goal centered, and so is also the meta-data.

The most important aspect regarding eduknowledge is represented by the processing of knowledge into specially goal oriented structures.


Knowledge processment into

Eduknowledge



Eduknowledge First, the usefull knowledge for the certain goal (for example the

development of risk management capabilities at a contruction facility-best practice procedures and instructions) are identified and detached

Then, a context threshold is built, including work context and skill context.

The main knowledge body is built.

The knowledge content and form are checked against this threshold and also taking into account knowledge engineering goals.

If the main knowledge body is OK then auxiliary knowledge bodies (case studies and so on) are developed

The Optimal Education Approach is added.



Eduknowledge

Knowledge processing needs to introduce

mechanisms to identify and incorporate

users’ knowledge that could be helpful in

explaining the bi-lateral adaptation,

customization and modification of acquired

skills.



Eduknowledge

In this respect, in our research,“The Object-

Mediated User Knowledge Elicitation”-

OMUKE was the main method being

proposed as a way to capture user

knowledge that helps eduknowledge design

teams to develop clear insight into user

needs and use context.



Eduknowledge

The OMUKE method relies on the context of

events and attained goals and incorporates

elements of user observations and the

Converging Perspective Method, leading to

a systemic decomposition of the interesting

field of knowledge.The method used

triggered mechanisms to externalise user

knowledge.



Eduknowledge



Eduknowledge The main steps in processing the main body of

knowledge are:

-analysis of the domain;

-knowledge elicitation by expert;

-concept mapping;

-development of knowledge model;

-identification-based on the knowledge model- of activity related essential knowledge bits-AREK- (for example-steps of a specific task performing)

-functional ordering of AREK - this structure will be the pillar of the eduknowledge cluster;

-Evaluation of the other domain knowledge



eduknowledge



eduknowledge

Evaluation of the other domain knowledge- for every

part of operational knowledge connected with the

domain there domain expert together with the

knowledge engineer will give a mark. The mark shall

reflect:

The degree of knowledge interest;

The possibility of efficient knowledge processment;

Depending on the obtained mark the knowledge will be

used (or not) in various postures



eduknowledge

Generally, for opperational purposes are

used just the parts of knowledge marked 5

and 4. When the eduknowledge goal is more

larger there could be used all the knowledge.


Development of eduknowledge clusters

An eduknowledge cluster contains both

essential(static) knowledge- the knowledge

needed for mastering the skill and dynamic

knowledge- interactive objects which serve

as hands-on training and, depending on the

complexity of the problem being analysed

could be developed till decision-asistant

expert systems.


Development of eduknowledge clusters-

static knowledge

The static knowledge is included (glued)in

the eduknowledge frame, frame developed

with one of the authoring instruments

available. We have choosen ToolBook 9.01

as the most handy instrument from our

experience. ToolBook 9.01 gives the

oportunity to disseminate off-line- using its

run-time and also to build an on-line

dissemination in DHTML form.


Development of eduknowledge clusters-

dynamic knowledge

The interactive objects could also be built in

ToolBook. However, we have chosen for our

prototype an instrument called VisiRule (built

under Flex for Windows -a LPA-PROLOG

application). VisiRule allows the design of

hands-on training on the spot, by simply

charting the model of the problem and

generating automatically code.



It could be seen that an eduknowledge

cluster is composed by:

-the main knowledge chunk-which teaches

effectively-structuring the ability(skill) needed

to learn;

-various support structures-which allow to

exercise and master the ability;



1 cluster=1 learned ability

Clusters could be chained in order to develop

a complex ability. For example, risk

management.


Development of knowledge clusters


Prototype testing

The developed prototype was conceived with the goal of mastering safety management for SME in the construction domain. Building is a very accident prone domain so the managers of building teams have a special responsibility. In order to minimize the occupational accidents in the construction domain there was developed an eduknowledge cluster for safety management in constructions EC-SMC.A number of 5150 managers from all the construction SME in Romanian regions had performed a crash course-using this eduknowledge cluster, on an Intranet network.


Prototype testing

Our test lot was composed mainly by men with an average age of 46 years and high school studies. We have focused on immediate feedback, with performance indicators like understandability, easiness in usage, perceived efficiency and a delayed feedback, asking for perceived efficiency after six months. All these parameters were assessed by the students on a 0(inacceptable)...5(excellent) scale


Obtained results

Using this scale we have received and

processed 5000 feedbacks, finding that 76%

of the responders have evalluated the

easiness in usage and perceived efficiency at

4 or between 4 and 5 ,14% at 5, 5% below 4

and 5% below 3.


Obtained results

Understandability was evaluated by all the

respondents at 5-here however it is possible that the

fear of not understanding some specific notions

could have acted as a bias. Interesting is also that

the immediate perceived efficiency was assessed –

as a mean value-to 3.5 However, the delayed

feedback has given a mean value of 4.4 this

indicating, in our opinion, that the learning process

using eduknowledge was more useful in reality than

expected.


CONCLUSION

Eduknowledge as a design and content development tool has a lot of advantages. The main ones are sumarized below:

-it allows the loading of any kind of content, making a distinct separation between the main knowledge body- which is reduced on a need to know basis (the user being able to further research if interested) and the dynamic parts of the e-learning

-it allows the easy processing of this content towards educational efficiency oriented clusters;

-it allows the easy elicitation of new knowledge specific of the domain;

-the efficiency of the individual e-learning process rises considerably. This rising is partially due to the individually tailored learning , partially to the clean-up of all the unnecessary knowledge and partially to the hands-on approach.


CONCLUSION

The main limitation of the eduknowledge tool

is that it is very domain specific being

conceived in order to develop a specific skill.

A lot of work is involved in knowledge

preparation; also, if the eduknowledge frame

is not optimized the learning process could

be not at the maximum efficiency.

eduknowledge

Documents

eduknowledge clusters

knowledge interaction

needed knowledge

knowledge refinement

unimportant knowledge

efficiency of e

developed society

process knowledge store