Dietrich Albert

KEYNOTEE-LEARNING FUTURE

THE CONTRIBUTION OF PSYCHOLOGY1 2 3

Dietrich AlbertUniversity of Graz

INTRODUCTION

Since the sixties computers have been used in classrooms (Suppes and Macken, 1978; Underwood and Underwood, 1990): In 1963 the Institute for Mathematical Studies in the Social Sciences (IMSSS) of Stanford University, started experimenting with the use of computers to present instructions in mathematics and logic to elementary school students. Five years later IMSSS begun computer-based courses in logic and set theory on university-level (Suppes. 1981). The leading person, the pioneer and promoter was Patrick Suppes4, who, in 1966, proposed that developments in educational technology, and specifically in computer usage, would change the face of education in a very short space of time. Suppes continuously promoted using computers in education, most recently the Education Program for Gifted Youth of Stanford University (see below).

Currently, more than 30 years later, strong activities and efforts are made for facilitating electronic-based learning and teaching (e-Learning, e-learning,

1 Key note at the 59th Annual Conference International Council of Psychologists,Winchester, England, UK, 8-12 July 2001.2 On request to dietrich.albert@uni-graz.at an electronic version of this manuscript will be delivered.3 Glossaries of e-learning terms:

http://www.learnframe.com/aboutelearning/glossary.asphttp://www.collegedegreeguide.com/articles/gloss.htmhttp://www.learningcircuits.org/glossary.html(July. 17, 2003)

4 http://www.stanford.edu/~psuppes/ (July 14, 2003)

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Albert, D. (2001). E-learning Future – The Contribution of Psychology. (Keynote). In R. Roth, L. Lowenstein & D. Trent (Eds.), Catching the Future: Women and Men in Global Psychology – Proceedings of the 59 th Annual Convention, International Council of Psychologists, July 8-12, 2001, Winchester, England (pp. 30-53). Lengerich, Germany: Pabst Science Publishers.

Dietrich Albert

eLearning) all over the world. This dynamic development is primarily motivated by economical reasons and mainly driven by technological measures. According to the technicians the aim is to develop e-learning systems with the following characteristics: Having access to electronically based learning resources anywhere at anytime for anyone. This is an often used current definition of e-learning. A less enthusiastic definition is for instance "E-learning is a method that makes educational content available on electronic media (CD-ROM, Internet, intranet, extranet, interactive TV, etc.)5"

The most advanced technology today for e-learning is the Internet or World Wide Web, also called WWW , Web or W3. Thus my contribution is focusing on Web-based e-learning and Web-based training (WBT) – however from psychological points of view.

Compared with e.g. CD-ROM-based e-learning, the Web-based e-learning integrates inherently (a) learners online communication with other students and with teachers, (b) easy and standardized access to learning resources, and to other resources of the electronic life space for (c) an increasing number of users all over the world. Thus (d) lifelong learning within and outside the classroom is easily possible. From (e) a methodological point of view centralized analyses of learning resources and students data make improving the quality of e-learning resources somewhat easier than improving the teaching abilities of class room teachers.

A typical advertisement to be found nowadays is „Electronic Learning engineers and designers provide training software to industry “ 6 Psychologists seem not to be necessary to create the future world of learning. The reasons may be that (a) the power of psychology is not visible, (b) psychologists are usually not well educated in modern information technology (IT), information systems technology (IST) or information and communication technology (ICT) and in e-business, (c) the current development of e-learning is primarily driven by technological dynamics and profit expectations - not yet by psychological and pedagogical aims and goals.

5 http://www.demarque.com/demarque/english/home/elearning.asp (July 14, 2003)6 http://www.electronic-learning.com/index.htm (April 26, 2003)

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TECHNOLOGICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL COMPONENTS OF AN E-LEARNING SYSTEM

Without going into details, if you attend the technological news every week you will easily see that there are numerous current technological developments relevant for the e-learning future. Already today, technologically, e-learning is not a problem at all. However there exists one local and global problem which is not only a technological one, it is called the digital divide. Even in Europe nowadays a border exists between rich and poor, west and east, etc. For instance, significant less internet access in eastern Europe has been pointed out e.g. by the Washington DC based Center for Democracy & Technology (for details see CDTs web-site7). In a proposal for a multi-annual programme (2004-2006) for the effective integration of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in education and training systems in Europe (e-learning programme8) the Commission of the European Communities (2002) stated "Not having easy access to the Internet, or not being able to use ICT tools confidently, is becoming a barrier to social integration and personal development." (Error:Reference source not found, p.9).

Fighting against the digital divide means that "actions in this area will address the contribution of ICT for learning, in particular for those who - due to their geographical location, social situation or special needs - are not able to benefit from traditional educational and training provisions. The objective is to foster awareness and understanding of how ICT can aid these less privileged groups to acquire basic educational skills and new competences that are needed for the knowledge society" (Error: Reference source not found, p.11). However, the e-learning programme of the EC is focused on the member states and the associated states of the European Union. A digital divide, certainly, exists however also e.g. between Europe and Africa. An example for a drop in the ocean is the African Virtual University (AVU9) of the World Bank in Washington, D.C. with 34 learning centers in 17 African states, established in 1997. By 2007, AVU aims to be a reputable, independent, internationally

7 http://www.cdt.org/international/ceeaccess/countrydetail.shtml (April 27, 2003)8 http://europa.eu.int/comm/education/elearning/ (April 27, 2003)9 http://www.avu.org/ (April 27, 2003)

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recognized African institution10. Using modern technology for combining the internet and digital television and (Hybrid-Net11) in advanced distance learning (Statelov, 1999), the main goal of the project is to increase the number of university graduated students mainly in Sub Saharan Africa, having the lowest percentage of university graduated people in the world.Depending on the taken point of view (e.g. computer and network technology, artificial intelligence, service, educational, psychological point of view) an e-learning system exists of a special set of components (see e.g. Albert & Mori, 2001). Some technical components of e-learning systems are the hardware and the software for Central Processing (CP), Input-Output Connections (IOC), MultiMedia (MM) capabilities, access to Distributed Resources/Repositories (DR), and the Human Computer Interfaces (HCI).

From a psychological point of view the basic elements of a Web-based e-learning system are the knowledge base, the student model, the teaching model und the interactive human computer interfaces. The Knowledge Base contains the structured expert knowledge about the knowledge domain. The Student Model represents the hypothetical knowledge state and other attributes of the student; the student model is the basis for adaptive pedagogical interventions, it may capture e.g. the students knowledge, misconceptions and general skills, and it has to be adapted to the learning progress. The Teaching Model decides about the pedagogical interventions taking into account the knowledge base, the student model, didactical strategies, the learning context, and the learning goal. The Interactive Human Computer Interfaces (Interactive Web Interfaces) are for presenting information to and receiving information from the student.These four components are also called Domain Knowledge, Student Model, Tutor Model and User Interface. Contributing to the development of e-learning systems as a psychologist primarily means to improve these four psychological components on the basis of psychological theories, models and empirical results.

FORMER AND CURRENT CONTRIBUTIONS OF PSYCHOLOGY

10 http://avu.org/section/about/default.cfm (April 27, 2003)11 http://www.maindata.sk/ICDE_details.htm (April 27, 2003)

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Using the computer for teaching aims based on psychological findings, started with Programmed Learning which is based on Skinnerian principles of operant conditioning. The basic idea was to break the information into small simple pieces presented to the student sequentially and giving immediate feedback ("reinforcement") after each learning step - depending on the students answer. Thus, programmed learning is addressed to the system’s teaching model. It is the first of the psychological models realizing the principle of an adaptive, personalized testing and teaching. However, programmed teaching machines were limited in their ability to adapt to individual differences among students and to provide a stimulating, responsive environment for students. Programmed learning was popular in the sixties. However, is was finally not successful. The main reason is of theoretical character. In traditional operant conditioning, contingencies between already available and easily accessible behaviour and the contingent behavioural outcomes have to be learned. In classroom learning for instance, new and difficult cognitive contents and operations have to be acquired and to be applied. However, some aspects of programmed learning are still used nowadays in computer based training of the drill type.

Also in the sixties started the application of Mathematical Learning Models of rote learning. Mathematical modelling of rote learning assumes that the learning progress is described either by incremental growth (incremental learning) or by stepwise transitions (all-or-none learning) between learning states. The models have been developed in the fifties and sixties on the basis of Estes‘ Stimulus Sampling Theory or Bush and Mosteller‘s Linear Operator approach. Applying these models for e-learning means primarily to focus on the student model and the teaching model. Computer Assisted/Aided Instruction (CAI) applications of rote learning models, starting with language acquisition (based on Crothers and Suppes, 1967), have been initiated by Richard C. Atkinson12 and Patrick SuppesError: Reference source not found. They co-founded in 1975 the extreme successful Computer Curriculum Corporation (CCC)13 (now integrated into Pearson Education Technologies).

12 http://www.ucop.edu/pres/atkbio.html (July 15, 2003)13 http://www.alief.isd.tenet.edu/Best/computerCC.htm (April 28, 2003)

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The Cognitive Modelling approach has the aim to simulate the cognitive processes of humans by computers, e.g. the cognitive processes involved in storing information, solving problems, detecting inconsistencies, meta cognitions etc. By so called Intelligent Tutorial Systems (ITS) or Intelligent Computer Aided Instruction (ICAI) these models have been used as the student model component in e-learning systems with strong impact on the teaching model component of the system. Since the eighties, learning to program a computer language, to solve complex physical problems and so on have been modelled. Among others, the working groups around John R. Anderson, Hans Spada, and Karl F. Wender should be mentioned. Until now several of these approaches are more or less only of academic value, while interesting results have been reached, many of them still remain theoretical and difficult to apply in the real world of broader field applications. However, in 1998 the Pittsburgh Advance Cognitive Tutoring (PACT) Center14 with the company Carnegie Learning15 was founded by a group around John R. Anderson16 and their algebra tutor17 and other courses, originally developed at Carnegie Mellon University based on Andersons ACT-theory, have been very successful applied in the field.

14 http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~pact/sitemap.htm (July 15, 2003)15 http://www.carnegielearning.com/ (July 15, 2003)16 http://act-r.psy.cmu.edu/people/ja/ (July 15. 2003)17 http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~pact/Academia/earlyalg.htm (July 15, 2003)

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Knowledge Space Theory is a psychological mathematical theory using dependencies between the problems and other learning objects in a knowledge domain in order to structure the assessment process and the teaching process for adaptive, personalized teaching, like a private teacher. The Knowledge Space Theory has been developed since 1985 by Doignon and Falmagne, who are the founders, and by Dowling and Koppen, Albert and Lukus, Düntsch and Gediga and several others. The e-learning application of the psychological model is in modelling the student and the teaching component of an e-learning system. Recent realizations are the Adaptive Tutorial Systems ALEKS and RATH in the fields of mathematics. ALEKS (see below) is already a commercial product developed by Falmagne and his group, supported by a grant of the National Science Foundation (NSF) and distributed and supported by the ALEKS Corporation; RATH is a prototype developed in my group by Cord Hockemeyer, based on psychological findings of Theo Held.The contributions of Psychology are primarily concerned with the system's student model and its teaching model and are less important to the knowledge base and the interactive human computer interfaces (HCI). The reasons differ. The system's knowledge base is a demand primarily for computer scientists, not for psychologists, who are involved in the student's knowledge representation which is part of the student model. Creating and evaluating user-centred and user-friendly interactive human computer interfaces is indeed a task for psychologists. The developed models (e.g. GOMS18) and the used principles (e.g. Handbook of User-Centred Design19) are not specific for e-learning but for HCI in general. Depending on the knowledge domain and the used teaching model the possible courses of interactions of the students may be more or less structured and individualized. In case of less structured interactions between the e-learning system and the student, it might be difficult to apply the developed models, principles and methods for creating and evaluating the HCI. Thus, instructional design has to structure the process of interactions (Wilson, Jonassen & Cole., 1993). Recently, Clark and Mayer (2003) contributed to psychological principles in designing e-learning interfaces and multimedia learning which are embedded into a science of instruction.

18 http://ei.cs.vt.edu/~cs5724/g2/index.html (July 15, 2003)19 http://www.ejeisa.com/nectar/inuse/6.2/contents.htm (July 15, 2003)

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EXAMPLES OF CURRENT WEB-BASED E-LEARNING SYSTEMS

In order to get a realistic, concrete impression of current e-learning systems, their components and usability, best would be to enrol for into a variety of professional and commercial e-learning courses. However, some information is currently (year 2003) available for free in the internet; that gives some impression and insight into e-learning systems at different levels, which are more or less based on psychological research and development.An example for an interactive linear tutorial is the "Vector Math for 3D Computer Graphics" of the Computer Science Department of Central Connecticut State University20. This tutorial is on the preliminaries for computer graphics. The student is going by clicking through a linear sequence of units, each composed of an instruction, a question and - after a click - a 'good answer'.

An example for an interactive, adaptive, and integrated course based on Knowledge Space Theory is ALEKS21 (Assessment and LEarning in Knowledge Spaces), which offers mathematics learning (K-12) through Web interaction22. The system adapts to the students actual performance and knowledge state by taking into account non-linear difficulty or prerequisite relationships between the problems the student is working on. The student has access to explanations, a glossary and several other services. The system also offers special services for teachers and parents. A prototype system based on an extended Knowledge Space Theory taking demands and skills into account is RATH (Relational Adaptive Tutoring Hypertext)23

integrating instructions into the prerequisite structure for problems.

An example for a whole curriculum is the Education Program for Gifted Youth24 (EPGY) of the Stanford University. EPGY is a continuing project offering e-learning courses which are addressed to high-ability students of all ages (level: kindergarten to advanced undergraduate) all over the world. Currently (Spring 2003), 3000 students from 28 countries are enrolled for into courses in a variety of subjects. EPGY has made its course software available also to schools and

20 http://chortle.ccsu.ctstateu.edu/VectorLessons/vectorIndex.html (April 27, 2003)21 http://www.aleks.com/ (July 17, 2003)22 http://www.aleks.com/ (April 27, 2003)23 http://wundt.uni-graz.at/rath/ (April 27, 2003)24 http://www-epgy.stanford.edu/ (July 15, 2003)

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school districts since 10 years. An EPGY e-learning course consists of multimedia lectures utilizing voice accompanied by synchronized graphics, trying to capture the nature of classroom instruction. In some courses lectures are followed by interactive exercises in which answers are evaluated by the computer. Off-line work includes traditional textbook reading and exercises. For tutorial support, students can attend help-sessions with an instructor and other students in an internet-based virtual classroom. Teaching assistants are available for internet-based virtual office hours, by e-mail, and by a toll-free telephone line (within US).

An example for a whole e-learning company, which is part of an even larger business, is Pearson Education Technologies (based in Mesa, Arizona, USA)25, formerly NCS Learn, which was established by merging Computer Curriculum Corp. (CCC) and NCS NovaNET in 200126. Pearson Education Technologies, according to its own words, "is the world’s leader in offering integrated technologies and services for the K-12 education market "27. The company offers an education software solution with electronic curriculum, assessment, and instruction, student information systems, and business office management for preK-12 students, parents, teachers, and school administrators.

I was surprised that ALEKS, EPGY and Pearson Educational Technologies are addressed to kindergartners already. A recent study of the U.S. Department of Education (2003) shows that even young children have access to computers at home and at school, however, internet access is strongly dependent on the socio-economic status of the family.

An UK-based company offering Web-demonstrations in e-learning is KnowledgePool, which characterizes itself by "KnowledgePool are pioneers of e-learning, our e-learning development centre has been creating technology based training solutions for a worldwide market for over 20 years, and in 1995 we became the first company in the world to deliver live, interactive Internet-based training”28.

25 http://www.pearsonedtech.com/ (July, 17, 2003)26 www.cccpp.com/company/pdfs/factsheets/dest_internet.pdf (April 27, 2003)27 http://www.pearsonedtech.com/about/background.cfm (April 28, 2003)28 http://www.knowledgepool.com/elearning/home.html (July 15, 2003)

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Creating an own Web-based e-learning course is possible by so-called Course Management Systems (CMS) which are primarily targeted at education institutions. "Their distinguishing feature is that they enable individual instructors to develop and deliver online educational content with little or no expertise in HTML or other Web programming languages. Development tools are built in to the environments, enabling instructors to create Web pages, upload documents, design online quizzes and tests, and add such features as email, threaded discussion, and chat. The systems also often contain management tools that include enrolment and student tracking."29 An overview on the existing CMS30 is available by the The Consortium for Information Technology in Education (CITE)31 supported by TeleEducation New Brunswick32. Special attention got recently the OpenCourseWare33 initiative of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) which also provides the OpenKnowledgeInitiative34 CMS.

29 http://cite.telecampus.com/LMS/cms.html (July 15, 2003)30 http://cite.telecampus.com/LMS/ (July 15, 2003)31 http://cite.telecampus.com/S (July 15 2003)32 http://teleeducation.nb.ca/english/index.cfm (July 15, 2003,)33 http://ocw.mit.edu/index.html (July 15, 2003)34 http://web.mit.edu/oki/index.html (July 15, 2003)

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Although the presented examples and information are available for free access in the Web, and obviously Web-based e-learning also outside the classroom already exists, there still exist misconceptions about the future development of e-learning. A common misconception, even among educational specialists, is that e-learning will or should be merely a special tool supplementing only classroom teaching (see e.g. the very recommendable book of Bransford, Brown and Cocking (2000) „How to Learn“ 35). I, however, argue that professional e-learning based on educational and psychological sciences can, but must not, be an educational offer for it's own, a service for students and for teachers, for parents and for other stakeholders. A large variety of professional e-learning systems within and without the classroom will allow to serve different needs of students, teachers, parents, schools, administative and political bodies - taking into account the local and global, the individual and educational system's conditions and circumstances for learning and teaching. In preparing and especially operating the e-learning systems of the future, professional teachers and educators certainly are strongly involved; however, the kind and extent of their involvement depends on the kind of using an e-learning system.

PRESENT AIMS AND GOALS

Beside the economically and technically motivated facilitation of e-learning mentioned above, at present there exist several other aims and goals in developing e-learning systems. In the following I would like to mention a few of them.

35 http://www.nap.edu/books/0309070368/html/ (May 12, 2003)

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A primary and general aim is to create Web-based e-learning for its own and to facilitating the creation and construction of Web-based courses and the development of whole web-curricula. Within the traditional teaching context of universities, for instance, arguing for a „Learning and Teaching Support“- project in Life Sciences of Keele University, England, the following sub-goals have been mentioned: Replacing undergraduate lectures to enhance learning whilst producing savings in staff time. Teaching is fully evaluated. Software is evaluated and available for other modules and courses. In cases like this, supplementing or replacing traditional forms of teaching by e-learning, a high general level of quality of the taught content and the applied teaching procedures can be reached as a standard for all the students of the appropriate field. This already, for instance, could make possible improving the quality of vocational education in general, increasing the actuality of teaching in technological domains with rapid changes of knowledge, in facilitating teacher training and reducing the gap in education between industrialized and less favoured regions.

More specific aims and goals take into account the different backgrounds and needs of groups of learners for instance by offering groups with special needs appropriate learning and training devices, by performing a gender and culture fair assessment of the individual‘s knowledge, competencies and skills.

Even more specific, e-learning aims to focus onto the individual learner by adapting to the individual’s cultural background, her or his learning history and pre-knowledge, her or his aims and goals of learning, and cognitive style and learning strategy. Furthermore, individualized and personalized guidance may help the student to improve comprehension and learning by supporting different types of cooperation and collaboration strategies, by guiding the student during the acquisition of new knowledge aiming to effective learning and long term retention, or by signaling the student on activities to avoid forgetting of prior knowledge and skills.

Creating e-learning systems, courses and curricula for it's own does not mean using them without teachers. In classroom teaching e-learning supports the teacher enormously. Teachers can use the systems according to their needs and goals in a flexible way. For instance, only the multi media content may be used in traditional teaching. On the other hand, the adaptive e-learning system disburdens teachers of routine teaching in the classroom. Thus, teachers can

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concentrate on central educational tasks like taking care for the individual student's needs, preventing from emotional disasters and aggressions.

In a global world, however, learning does not only take place in the classroom. One of the leaders in globalisation of learning is The Open University36. Within it's e-learning policy nternet-based e-learning nowadays is a minor learning source. It is, however, an important factor in other institutions of Distance Education, e.g. of the University for Industry (UfI)37. UfI's learning services are being delivered through 'learndirect' 38 which provides access to innovative and high quality courses, over 80 percent of them on-line." Online distance learning is not possible without support, e.g., by educational hotlines (email, phone) which again brings new challenges for teachers and educators.

Online, web-based teaching and learning also bring new occupational activities, challenges and positions for psychologists. For improving the quality of e-teaching and e-learning the data collected from students and teachers have to be analyzed. Applying the results of educational and learning sciences by current and future contributions of psychology in developing e-learning is a great chance for our discipline.

CURRENT AND FUTURE CONTRIBUTIONS OF PSYCHOLOGY

In the following I will give some more or less subjective remarks to the possible current and future contributions of psychology in developing e-learning systems.

Cognition and Motivation

Wilson et al. (1993) e.g. focussed on Cognition for Instructional Design. More recently (Dec 2002) the US Ministry of Education by its Institute of Education Sciences requested for applications for "Cognition and Student Learning Research Grants"39 demonstrating nowadays importance of cognitive

36 http://www.open.ac.uk/ (May 11, 2003)37 http://www.ufiltd.co.uk/ (May 11, 2003)38 http://www.learndirect.co.uk/ (May 12, 2003)39 http://www.ed.gov/offices/IES/casl/casl_rfa.pdf (July 15, 2003)

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psychology for education and learning (see also e.g. Healy & Bourne, 1995; Albert & Mori, 2001; Albert, Hockemeyer & Wesiak, 2002).

Memory : Ebbinghaus (1885/1913) already recommended applying the results of memory psychology in education. However, his and others (e.g. Offner, 1913) efforts had only minor consequences. Some of the reasons can be found in Bahrick (2000), who argues that instead of past laboratory research on episodic memory current ecological research on semantic memory is relevant for education. Memory psychology has a high potential for contributing in the development of e-learning systems. For instance, one of our current interdisciplinary research proposals focuses on aids to understanding, generalisation and memorability in education using networkable technologies aiming to improve e-learning and e-teaching by applying results and models for learning, retention, maintaining and refreshing memory contents.

Knowledge and competence : The psychology of knowledge, especially the Knowledge Space Theory (KST) founded in 1985 by Doignon and Falmagne (see Doignon & Falmagne,1999) and its generalizations (Albert & Lukas, 1999) is the basis for the e-learning system ALEKS and the prototyp RATH. Of course, the family of knowledge space models will be the basis also for future developments. One of the keywords is „competencies training“ (Korossy, 1999ab; Albert und Schrepp, 1999; Albert and Hockemeyer, 2002), which is important in lifelong learning, in vocational training as well as in transfer of training and learning. A combination of the structural features of KST and the processing properties of cognitive modelling (e.g. ACT-R40) may be fruitful.

Meta cognition, learning style and cognitive style : The results in multiple coding and sensory preferences, multiple cognitive representations and their usage, meta-cognitive monitoring and control processes, individual learning strategies, action plans and individualized or personalized didactics are currently going from research to educational and e-learning applications (e.g. Hacker, Dunlosky & Graesser, 1998; Mayer, 2001; Peterson, 1996).

Thinking : Beside rote learning, comprehensive learning, and knowledge transfer, deductive and inductive reasoning, and

40 http://act-r.psy.cmu.edu/ (July 15, 2003)

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problem solving are aimed in teaching and learning. Thus the research in facilitation of thinking by usage of thinking tools (spreadsheets, mind maps, analogy search) and training of thinking and problem solving may improve the e-learning systems.

Motivation: Some years ago, Schank (2000) criticized "Computers ... can bring the world's experts into the classroom in software that allows exploration, simulated experience, learning by doing and hypothesis testing. Software can be built that makes children want to learn because it is so much fun. This is not the software we have now. What is there is boring drill and practice software that numbs the mind." Nowadays exceptions from this general statement are available which are based on experience. However, what is needed is a psychological theory or a model on motivation which may be fundamental for guidelines in creating motivating e-learning systems. The criterion for an appropriate model may be, for instance, the persistence time and the return interval of the learner. In case (a) a learner is interested in a special e-learning course like a gambler is interested in a special gambling and (b) the same motivational model is used for creating both the course and the gambling, the aim of developing a suitable motivational theory is achieved.

Cooperation, Course Construction and Curriculum Development

Communication, cooperation, collaboration, and tutoring: Worldwide online and offline communication allows for new forms of collaboration in learning and teaching. Psychological models may help to create systems which fulfil the needs of the learners, tutors and teachers. An example is the KST-based concept for a Collaborative Relational Adaptive Tutoring Hypertext (CRATH) system which takes into account the relationships between the student's knowledge states in selecting students for tutoring and collaboration (Hockemeyer, 2000).

Course construction and reuse of learning objects: The KST and its generalisations are the basis for constructing courses. The core concepts used for course construction are the prerequisite relationships as well for the learning objects as for the cognitive skills and competencies which are necessary to process the learning objects. By applying these relations the structure within a

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course can be optimised by appropriately selecting and sequencing of the learning objects. Course authors can build their courses from existing learning objects they download from external repositories. The reuse of learning objects is supported through standardized metadata attached to these learning objects. The results of the IST-project (information systems technology) “Educator Access to Services in the Electronic Landscape (EASEL41)” supported by the European Commission makes it possible to apply the metadata for realising adaptivity in the new course (e.g. Albert, Hockemeyer, Conlan & Wade, 2001).

Curriculum development: Not only the structure within a course but also between courses has to be optimised. The KST-based concept of prerequisite relation between courses (Brandt, Albert & Hockmeyer, 2003) allows to develop and optimise whole curricula on the basis of the relationships between the learning objects and the assigned competencies (Albert & Hockemeyer, 1999).

Competencies

While Doignon and Falmagne created a behavioural theory for predicting answer patterns (knowledge states) and learning paths for knowledge related performances, the group around Albert and Lukas (1999) linked KST to cognitive psychology. Instead of asking directly for the relationships among the various test items and learning objects, the focus is on the items' underlying demands, and the skills or competencies and processes for performing them. While the traditional approach has been confined to one-dimensional item characteristics, the knowledge space approach allows models with more general structures. Düntsch and Gediga (1995), and Korossy (1999ab) developed an extensive formal description of competence structures, performance structures, and the relationships between both structures (Korossy demonstrated his approach with elementary geometry and algebra problems), and Schrepp (1999) developed procedures for deriving knowledge spaces by individualising models of human information processing in solving problems. These skill and competence approaches are important for developing the future skill and competence oriented e-learning systems (Albert & Schrepp, 1999; Korossy, 1999ab) as well as courses aiming at the acquisition of competencies instead of behaviour training, allowing for better understanding and transfer of training.

41 http://www.fdgroup.co.uk/easel (May 12, 2003)

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Furthermore the misconception approach is very important for eLearning applications and has to be worked out in more detail in order to describe complex and stable answer behaviour for deriving specific interventions.

Adaptivity, Personalization and Individualization

Beside competencies, by far the most important topic in current e-learning research is adaptivity, because in many current aims and goals adaptivity is involved. Adaptive hypermedia systems bridge the gap between computer driven tutoring system (risks: mental overload, dis-motivation) and student driven learning environment (risks: to get lost in the hyperspace). The highest level of adaptivity is making the system behave like a private teacher. We distinguish between the direction or objective of adaptivity, the objects of adaptivity, and the level of individualisation of adaptivity (Albert & Hockemeyer, 2001; Albert & Mori, 2001).

Directions and objectives of adaptivity: Several directions and objectives of adaptivity have been mentioned already above as current aims and goals. Among others the e-learning systems should adapt to the requirements of different learning cultures, to the teacher‘s aims and goals, to the student‘s aims and goals, cultural background, preferences in HCI (Human Computer Interaction), communication style and needs, cognitive and learning style, (pre)knowledge, learning history, his or her expertise.

Objects of adaptivity : The question is, what is to be adapted in an e-learning system in strong relation to the objectives of adaptation. Several options have to be taken into account, among others the adaptivity of navigation (dynamically generated learning paths), navigation support methods, kind of documents and their presentation and granularity, courses‘ content and structure, and teaching goals.

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Curriculum Development: KST

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Level of individualization of adaptivity: Depending on the learning culture, the status of technology and research, the level of individualization of adaptivity may or should differ. In some cultures a high amount of standardization is requested. Group level adaptivity is common for subgroups or minorities in a culture. Individual level is usually aimed in western cultures with the model of private teaching behind. However, we have to distinguish between the teaching process and the teaching goal. The teaching process may be individualized in order to reach the same goal, even in cultures with a requested high amount of standardization.

Examples: For illustrative purposes a few examples and resources for adaptive devices are given for adapting to students growing knowledge (adaptive hypertext), to special needs, and to limited English proficiency and assessment.

Adaptive hypertext : The Math-Tutor ALEKS and the prototype RATH are adapting to the knowledge state of the student by giving her or him access to just those learning objects which the student is able to understand or to process. The reader may test the systems adaptivity by internet access him- or herself.Error: Referencesource not foundError: Reference source not found

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Adaptive to special needs: In view of the European Year of People with Disabilities 200342 Web-resources should be mentioned which are available to support the development of systems adapting to special needs. To mention only one: The Disability and Information Systems in Higher Education (DISinHE43) offer relevant hints. According to the University of Aberdeen Learning Technology Unit, to be accessible to students with disabilities, Web based/online learning materials must be presented in an adaptive way. Another important aspect are their viewing tips for students.44

Also a relevant resource is Microsoft Accessibility Technology for Everyone.45

The Web Accessibility Initiative46 of the W3-organization focus' on "How People with Disabilities Use the Web" (W3C Working Draft, 4 January 200147)48.

Adaptive to limited English proficiency and assessment: Adaptivity to limited English proficiency is still a hot topic in view of the European Year of Language 200149 and the following reasons: A global learning community with US as the leader is under development, (im)migration and mobility is growing in our world, language ability has direct consequences for testing and learning and the results are influential for the individuals chances and carrier. The number of involved persons is quite high (Albus, Thurlow & Liu, 2002).

Evaluation of educational models and e-learning systems

Psychologically based evaluation of e-learning systems has to take into account software evaluation in general (see, e.g. Gediga, Hamborg, & Düntsch, 1999; Kickmeier, & Albert, 2002). The special methods for evaluating e-learning systems (see, e.g. Lockee, Moore, & Burton, 2002) have to be improved on the basis of models, simulations, and the results of field experiments.

42 http://www.eypd2003.org/eypd/index.jsp (July 17, 2003)43 http://www.disinhe.ac.uk/ (May 12, 2003)44 http://www.abdn.ac.uk/diss/ltu/accessibility/ (May 12, 2003)45 http://www.microsoft.com/enable/ (May 11, 2003)46 http://www.w3.org/WAI/about.html (May 12, 2003)47 http://www.w3.org/WAI/EO/Drafts/PWD-Use-Web/Overview.html (May 12, 2003)48 http://www.htctu.fhda.edu/dlguidelines/final%20dl%20guidelines.htm (April 24, 2003)49 http://www.coe.int/T/E/Cultural_Cooperation/education/Languages/Language_

Policy/European_Day_of_Languages/Evaluation.asp#TopOfPage (July 17, 2003)

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For the first time in the history of educational research e-learning allows for large scale field experiments under more or less controllable conditions. Thus it will be possible to validate the theories of educational and learning sciences by empirical results obtained via ecological valid methods. And even more important, e-learning permits the collection of data which allow to improve the existing models of the educational, teaching, and learning systems’ processes and structures.

TRANSFORMING E-LEARNING SYSTEMS INTO E-LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS

E-learning systems of the future probably will be embedded in a multiple, adaptive, distributed network for working, entertainment, shopping, communication, relaxing, information retrieval etc.; included are interfaces for input of non-electronic-based experiences of the learner. Developing the e-learning environments may result in even new demands for psychologists, like for instance by contributing to standardization, Knowledge Management (KM) or Learning Systems Management (LSM), and business strategies and architectures. Psychologists and educational scientists are responsible for creating and evaluating the structural aspects of the learning environment. The teachers will set their teaching aims and goals applying the e-learning environment, and they will contribute to improve the e-learning environment. Furthermore, in cooperation with the parents, and regarding the influence of the peers, the teachers will provide the necessary professional human component of the learning environment. Relieved from routine teaching, the teacher will be responsible for taking into account the personality, the emotional and motivational needs and problems as well as the psycho-social context of the individual student. The teachers themselves will reflect and redefine their role as an important part, but not the only one, of the individual or collective e-learning system including the student her or himself.

If teaching is a complex technique and not only an art and if the future role of teachers is, among others, to contribute to e-learning then the future teachers have to be taught to prepare and to handle adaptive individualised learning environments. Developing a computer-based teacher training system for demonstrating, simulating, and experimenting e-learning seems to be necessary for the following reason. The scientific and technological

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development of adaptive and individualised e-learning systems is much more rapid than the development of the curricula for teacher education. Thus, a computerised demonstration, simulation, and experimentation system is needed which introduces the coming teachers into the psychological and pedagogical background, the exemplary usage and handling of e-learning systems, and the applications in their own field. This teacher training system at the same time should allow to simulate environmental und context effects, including the consequences of the teachers behavior. The aim to develop this kind of a teacher training system seems to be at first unrealistic; however, the psychological sciences should be able to formulate the scientific laws of human learning and teaching explicitly enough for creating such a computer-based system. On the other hand, such a system allows to test und to improve the underlying law of behavior in an ecological setting.

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FINAL STATEMENTS AND CONCLUDING REMARKS

Side effects of growing adaptive e-learning may happen, positive as well as negative effects. Web-based e-learning - even if it is adaptive - contributes to globalisation in economy, culture, communication and so on. Globalisation in general is an undesirable development in view of serious parties. On the other hand, also positive side effects for global problems of humans may happen by evolving a global e-learning community including the developing countries. As far as education, knowledge, and communication is involved, some aspect should be mentioned briefly: Improving the health related knowledge - and eventually the behaviour - e.g. with respect to HIV and AIDS; reducing the educational gap between the poor and the rich, within countries and between nations; enhancing the quality-costs relation of educational systems; contributing to equal educational opportunities for female and male; facilitating the intercultural knowledge and understanding. Certainly a lot of other global problems, like death penalty, armament, terrorism, civil wars, hunger, child mortality etc. may be influenced by education and e-learning only indirectly and slowly, if at all, or even in the wrong direction.

The potential of psychologists for contributing in shaping the e-learning future is very high. For instance, ICP-members have chances to influence the e-learning future based on their large variety in psychological disciplines, orientations in science and practice, in the represented nations, countries and cultures, genders, ages, in combination with a common understanding of a psychological science and its applications.

May I conclude: With respect to students behaviour, their needs and cognitions, and the laws of learning, cognition and motivation, psychologists are much better prepared than other disciplines. ICP-members have a high potential for shaping the e-learning future because of great psychological variety, experience and internationality. However, for making aware the potential of psychology for shaping the future of e-learning in collaboration with other disciplines, psychologists have to be educated for interdisciplinarity. As an international task, e-learning has a high potential for global education without neglecting regional, local and cultural differences and educational needs. The keyword is adaptivity. E-learning is a challenge and a chance for Psychologists.

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REFERENCES

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2) Albert, D. & Hockemeyer, C. (2001). State of the art in adaptive learning techniques. In: EASEL Consortium, D03 Requirements Specification, version 1.4, pp. 24-40. http://www.fdgroup.com/easel/documents/D3-update.doc. (access May 13, 2002).

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