108_[International_Conference_on_Web-based_Le,_Reggie_232

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provide a mechanism to aware students learning status on the web is real time
manner, it is an issue need to be addressed.

References

1. Bloom, B. S. Learning for mastery. Evaluation Comment, 1 (2) 1-5 1968
2. Carroll, J. B. A model of school learning. Teacher College /Record, 64, 723-

733. 1963

3. Carroll, J. B. The Carroll model: A 25 year retrospective and prospective
view, Educational Researcher, 18(1) 26-31 1989

4. Guskey, T. R. Implementing Mastery Learning (2nd ed.). Wadesworth

Publishing 1997

5. Bloom, B. S. All Our Children Learning New York McGraw-Hill 1981
6. Levine, D. Improving Student Achievement Through Mastery Learning

Programs San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. 1985

7. Block, J. H. Efthim, H. E., & Burns R. B. Building Effective Mastery

Learning Schools. New York: Longman. 1989
8. Slavin, R. E. Mastery learning reconsidered. Review of Educational Research,

57(2), 175-214. 1987

9. Fogg, B. J. Persuasive Techology: Using Computers to Change What WE
Think and Do. CA: Morgan Kaufmann 2003

10. Lin, H. T., Kuo, T. H. & Yuan, H. M. A. Web-based Customized Instuction
Strategy for Engineering Courses. In R. Cheung R. Lau, Q. Li (Ed.) New
Horizon in Web-based Learning (pp 61-70), World Scientific Publishing.
2004

ENHANCING PROBLEM-BASEDLEARNING BY E-
LEARNING: A STUDY WITH THE TEACHING OF DATA

STRUCTURESAND ALGORITHMS

KENT K. T. CHEUNG
Department of Computing, Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Hung Hom, HKSAR

ALAN Y. K. CHAN AND K. 0. CHOW
Department of Computer Science, City University of Hong Kong

Kowloon Tong, HKSAR

Many science subjects involve concepts that are abstract and difficult. In addition to
explaining and visualizing the concepts, there is a need to teach the students when and
how to apply the concepts to real applications. This paper discusses a study of
augmenting the learning process with a web-based quiz system based on the Problem-
Based Learning strategy (PBL). With a PBL approach, it is possible to teach difficult
concepts and theory in lectures and lead the students to discover how to apply the theory
in practice by solving the given problems. A deployment of the system has been applied
to a course on data structures and algorithms, which is a difficult subject of computer
science. Feedback from the students after the course indicates that the proposed system
and teaching method is able to enhance the learning process by clarifying difficult
concepts and arouse interests of the students on the subject.

1. Introduction

Many science subjects involve concepts that are abstract and difficult.
Instructors thus tend to pay more attention to clearly explain and illustrate the
concepts. However, it is also important to emphasize on students’ applying the
concepts to solve problems in real situations.

Difficult concepts that are hard to understand and apply are pervasive in
many subjects such as computer science and medical science. The data structure
and algorithm design is an example of this class of subjects in computer science.
This is a difficult subject partly due to the difficult mathematics involved and
partly due to the difficulty of applying the theory. Moreover, application of the
concepts and theories is also difficultbut is often overlooked.

The paper investigates a deployment of a web-based quiz system that is
designed to augment the teaching process with the Problem-Based Learning
(PBL) [11strategy.

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Problem-based learning has been widely applied to many scientific subjects
such as medicine[2] and physiology [3]. As the name implies, PBL is a learning
strategy that leads students to learn through a set of problems related to a
particular topic that is being taught.

As a tool that facilitates PBL, the web-based quiz system is designed to
enhance the effectiveness of communications between instructor and students.
As will be discussed in the next section, the proposed system not only serves to
distribute the problems, but is also responsible for helping instructor to give
feedback to students. By posting the feedback and all feasible solutions on the
web, students are able to learn from the feedback and the cited suggestions from
other students. The system has also incorporated games by design so that
students’ interests on the subject may be aroused.

The paper is organized as follows. Section 2 describes the web-based quiz
system, called Master Solvers’Club (MSC) in details. A discussion of the design
objectives and the way that these objectives are satisfied is also given. Section 3
presents an analysis of MSC in terms of a survey conducted after the course.
Finally, the paper conclusion is given in section 4.

2. Master Solvers’ Club (MSC)

In this section, an overview of MSC is discussed. Instead of providing the
implementationdetails of MSC, which are straightforward,we discuss the design
objectives in this section. This is followed by a discussion of how these
objectives are achieved in MSC.

2.1. Overview

In the course that MSC was applied, six set of questionswith each composing of
5 questions were given. Each question described a practical scenario and asked
the students to make a software design decision. Usually, only a few feasible
options might be identified using the theory taught within the course.

Students were asked to submit their decisions, and the comments or
explanations about their decisions. The comments ftom the students helped to
reveal how students understood the problem and the related theory behind the
problem.

Instead of asking students to read answers and comments from all
participants, the instructor was asked to give feedback to students by citing
representative comments or answers from students. In this way, the instructor
was allowed to summarize common thoughts from students and explained their
underlyingmistakes or misconceptions.

In addition, the instructor was also responsible to classify students’ answer.
In many cases, only a few feasible options are available per question. Although
students did not produce identical answers, it was a simple matter to classify the
answers into one of the few feasible options.

The instructor then gave each option a mark, from the lowest possible of 0%
to the maximum of loo%, and depending on how well the decision can solve the
given problem. This mark assessed how well a student had solved a question.
After all sets of questions had been attempted,the total mark scored by a student
might be used as an assessment of the performance of the student on the subject.

In addition to be a facility of distributing questions and feedback fiom the
instructor,MSC was also designed to be a game in an attempt to arouse students’
interests on the subject. MSC was actually stimulated by a competition published
every month in a magazine [4]about the game of bridge. Thus, the student
answers were rated by the instructor and a hall of fame was published to praise
the best performing students.

All students were allowed to read the feasible options and the ratings.
Students might verify the classificationof his/ her answer since all classifications
were shown after the list of all feasible options. In addition, a hall of fame page
was also created to show the scores of leading scorers to encourage the students
to participate.

MSC was designed as a web-based system so that students may access the
system any time, anywhere. Being a web-based system, the user interface is
nothing more than entry forms for students to submit their answers or web pages
for instructor to present the questions and results to students.

XML was chosen to store the data of MSC in part due to its flexibility and
in part for its less demanding expertise. A XML file is editable by any text editor
and is portable across platforms. It is therefore easy for an instructor to
manipulatethe data stored in the file.

2.2. Design objectives

As discussed earlier, MSC was designed as a tool for enhancing the
communication between students and instructor in a PBL learning process.
Specifically,MSC was designed to let students:
0 practice their judgments on real scenarios

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learn how to apportion the importance of conflictingfactors
0 learn to identifjl alternativeswhen facing a problem

reveal their misunderstandingsof the theory
0 stimulatethe interests in the subject
0 assess how well they perform in the study

The above learning objectives are incorporated in the design of MSC. In
what follows, we discuss each objective in details and the ways we achieve these
objectives.

2.2.1. Practice students 'judgments on real scenarios

As discussed in the last section, many CS courses were traditionally taught by
considering toy problems only. In many cases, this approach is not sufficient
because students lack the experience for tackling actual situations,where the best
decision is a tradeoff between many conflicting factors.

Case study is widely used in many subjects that require practical experience.
Unfortunately, the highly abstract and theoretical nature of many CS subjects
makes the approach less attractive. Naturally most of the attention must be paid
to facilitate the learning of fundamental theory during lectures and tutorials.

MSC was a web-based PBL tool that was designed for practical case
studies. It is designed to augment the lack of practical experience gained in
lectures and tutorials. While the lectures and tutorials continued to be dedicated
to explaining the difficult theory, the practical aspects of the subject may be
augmented by MSC.

2.2.2. Apportion the importance of conflictingfactors

Many design decisions involves a tradeoff between conflicting factors such as
speed and memory requirements. In some cases, the speed is more important, but
sometimes a program becomes unusable if it requires too much memory. Some
other factors should also be considered in other cases.

In all, students need to (1) identify the deciding factors and (2) apportion the
importance of these factors. Toy problems taught in lectures are usually designed
to illustrate a theoretical problem and therefore they are too simple to make
students aware of these two needs.

Each question posted in MSC outlined an actual scenario and asked students
to make a design decision according to the scenario. The question asked students
to consider various alternatives and conflicting factors before making the final
decision. While these questions might be very difficult for weak students, they

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helped hard-working students to realize the aforementioned needs for the
practical use of the theory taught in lectures.

2.2.3. Identi& alternatives whenfacing a problem

When facing a problem, it is natural for some people to choose the first solution
that they can think of. Unfortunately, this approach may lead to sub-optimal
solution since a better solution may be found after carehl consideration.
Sometimes, students are simply not aware of the possibility of alternative
solutions, or in other cases students do not have enough knowledge or
experience to find alternatives. By presenting to students with problems that
involve many potential solutions, students have a chance to face real problems
that may require a second thought in order to search for the best solution.

MSC improved the learning process by revealing all feasible options to
students after instructor had considered all answers given by students. In
addition, by discussing the answers and comments made by students, instructor
was able to explain why an option was feasible as well as the pros and cons of
the various options in response to the actual problems of the students. In this
way, students are presented with alternative solutions from instructor and other
students. Students may slowly gain experience of identifying alternative
solutions after reading the feedback fiom instructor.

2.2.4. Reveal mis-understandings

It is important for instructor to identify the areas of weaknesses and
misunderstandings of students. Since MSC asked students to make comments
and explanations about their own answers, it is possible for instructor to identify
the areas of weaknesses and misunderstandings.

2.2.5. Stimulate interests

The subject for which MSC was designed was a difficult subject to many
students. Difficult subjects tend to be boring from the student viewpoint. MSC
was designed in the form of a game so as to stimulate students’ interest. Also, a

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hall of fame was posted on the system to praise the students who did well in the
game. This also helped to encourage students to work hard in the subject.

2.2.6. Assess theperformance of students

MSC was designed to be a PBL tool with many tough questions posted on the
system. As a result, it can also be treated as an assessment tool. In general, it is
possible for instructor to assess how well students understand and apply the
theory from the comments given.

3. Students’ Feedback

MSC was applied to a class of students who enrolled in the subject of data
structures and algorithms. As a preliminary study of the proposed teaching tool,
a small-scale questionnaire survey was carried out after the course had ended. In
the survey, the students were asked to give their feedback about the system.
Table 1 summarizesthe survey questions in the questionnaire.

Table 1 - Survey questions
1 Relevance of questions (5=most relevant, l=least relevant)
2 difficulty of questions (5=most difficult, l=easiest)
3 Clarity of feedback (5=too long, l=too brief)
4 feedback was responsive to students misunderstanding (5=strongly agree,
1=strongly disagree)
5 activity stimulates interest (5=strongly agree, l=strongly disagree)
6 enhance understanding (5=strongly agree, l=strongly disagree)
7 web-based Q/A system was user-friendly (5=strongly agree, l=strongly disagree)

There were 68 students in the class. 55 filled questionnaires were received
to give a response rate of 80.9%. A separate bar chart was created for the student
feedback by question as shown in Figure 1.

For all questions except question 2, a response of 5 indicates a very positive
response. A quick glance reveals that options 3 and 4 are the most popular
responses. The responses fiom the students were generally positive. A more
careful analysis of the feedback for each question follows.

It can be seen that most students found the questions to be relevant from the
left-most bar chart. The feedback of question 2 indicates that the questions were
quite difficult for the students. Nevertheless, the third bar chart shows that the
students were generally satisfied about the clarity of feedback from the
instructor. The feedback from the instructor helped to clarify the
misunderstanding of the students as shown by the bar chart of question 4.Also,

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students thought that the activity helped to enhance their understanding of the
subject from the bar chart of question 6. As mentioned above, one of the
objectives of MSC was to arouse interests of the students. The feedback of
question 5 shows that this objective has been achieved. Finally, the user-
interface of the web-based system was satisfactoryto the students as indicated by
the last bar chart.

MSC Questionnaire

40
35
30

g225
20
B
Ls 15

10
5
0

1234 5 6 7
Questions

Figure 1 - Feedback from students

At the end of the questionnaire, students were asked to give a rating of the
general quality of MSC. As shown in Figure 2, most students found that the
activity had a good quality. There were fewer than 5 students who disliked the
activity.

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Oveall rating

Excellent VeryGood Good Acc-le Poor VeiyPoor VeiyVeiy
Rating Poor

Figure 2 -Overall rating from student

As a summary, the feedback from students shows that MSC was successful
in helping them to understand more about the subject. Misconceptions were also
clarified, thanks to the feedback 6-om the instructor. The activity was also able to
make the subject more interesting according to the feedback from the student.
Most students thought that the activity was very good overall. We are also
pleased to note that there were only a few students who did not think the activity
was good.

4. Conclusion

We have discussed a study of an online teaching aid, Master Solvers’ Club. This
study has indicated that it is possible to supplement theoretical teaching in
lecture with practical exercises via online and open-ended quizzes. Feedback
from students indicates that MSC is able to stimulate interests from students and
enhance the understanding of the subject. Overall, students thought that MSC
was a very good teaching aid. Therefore, MSC is a teaching aid worth
investigating for the subject in the future. Due to its close relationship with the
PBL approach, MSC may also be adapted to any subject that is suitable to be
taught by PBL.

We regard the reported study as being at a preliminary stage, and the current
implementation of MSC is still primitive. In the near future, we aim to provide
more functionality for instructorsto prepare feedback. For example, it is difficult
for an instructor or a student to type a formula or include a diagram. A specially

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designed editor might be a valuable tool for MSC to be successful. Also, a
software framework or design pattern may also be considered when trying MSC
in other subjects.

References

1. M. A. Albanese and S. Mitchell, “Problem-based Learning: a Review of
Literature on its Outcomes and Implementation Issues”, Acad. Med., 68(l),
1993, 52-81.

2. H. S. Barrows and R. M. Tamblyn, “Problem-based Learning: an
Approach to Medical Education”, New York: Springer, 1980.

3. S. Mierson, “A Problem-based Learning Course in Physiology for
Undergraduate and Graduate Basic Students Students”, Am. J. Physiol., 275
(Adv. Physiol. Educ. 20): S16-S27, 1998.

4. The Bridge World magazine, online information available:
www.bridgeworld.com.4. V. Baran, M. Colonna, M. Di Tor0 and V.
Greco, Phys. Rev. Lett. 86,4492 (2001).

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HOW SHOULD ONLINE TUTORS BE TRAINED?

A FOUR-LEVEL EVALUATIONFOR E-MODERATING
PROGRAMME

EVA TSANG
The Open Universityof Hong Kong

Abstract

This paper investigatesthe evaluation of Online Training for Tutors (OTT) Programme by using the
Four-level evaluation model. The O’IT online training programme is to train online tutors to improve
their knowledge of online teaching and learning, to use computer mediated communication (CMC)
tools such as email and discussion boards. The most important is to develop their skills for
moderating online conferences. The paper covers four evaluation levels including reaction, learning,
behavior and results. In level one, it measures participants’reaction to the training program. In level
two, it measures their e-moderating skills and knowledge. In level three, it measures changes in
behavior on the job as a result of training. In level four, it measures the final results that occurs in
this trainingprogramme.

Introduction

The Open University of Hong Kong (OUHK) formally launched its
first online courses in the medium of English in 1999, and Chinese online
courses in 2000 via the online learning platform. Including courses in both
languages of instruction, the OUHK has delivered more than 250 courses online
since 2000. However, the communication tools are not very much used on most
of them. According to the users’ statistics, it reports that the use of discussion
boards is limited. A study of OUHK tutors’ participation in online discussion
(Tsang et al, 2002) reports that more than half of tutors logged in fewer than 64
times, which is even fewer than the average of the students. There is a high
correlation between tutors’ and students’participation in online discussion. The
more tutors are actively involved in the online discussion, the more their
students will participate. It is believed that there are several reasons behind.
Mainly the role of tutors is not clearly identified when they provide online
tutoring services. However, the part-time tutors at the OUHK most likely have
little knowledge of online learning or e-moderation. This parallels the above
findings conducted by Shin (2002). In the study, the OUHK tutors were
interviewed and perceived the online discussion was challenges to them. The

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challenges mainly involved time management, struggle for students’
expectations of receiving speedy responses, and how to handle the discussion in
different level of participation.

Obviously, the role of tutors now shifts from the course materials to the
online moderated discussion. The role of the tutor will change especially when
handling the discussion with e-moderating skills. Therefore, the University
provides appropriate support for this change process. How should such online
tutors be trained? What should be the objectives of a training course for online
tutors and how should we assess and certify them? In order to improve the
tutorial training, tutors are required to have a whole set of skills to perform
better in the discussion boards. Goodyear et a1 (2001) listed the complete set of
competencies that are required for the online tutors to enhance the teaching and
learning. While many of the skills that tutors use in traditional tutorials can be
transferred to online tutoring, successhl online interaction with students also
requires a unique range of social, technical, managerial and pedagogical
competencies (Berge, 1995).

Theoretical Basis

The transformation of tutoring services from face-to-face instructor
to online tutor/facilitator is now being to be considered. Gustafson and Gibbs
(2000) state explicitly that teaching in an online environment involves far more
than simply transferring teaching skills from the classroom. They also illustrate
that the successful facilitator will need to learn strategies for developing online
‘antennae”, for humanizing the electronic environment, and new ways to guide
students to discuss, critique and reflect together as they engage in the
construction of meaning. There are skills and techniques that can help
e-moderators to carry their job more effectively (Salmon, 2000). Clearly, these
types of strategies are not generally to be found in the repertoire of the average
face-to-face tutors, nor would they need to be.

However, most of tutors are not really aware of the importance of the
online tutoring and do not care about the skills on leading discussions and
answering questions on the discussion board. They even may not know the roles
of the facilitator for online learning. Tutors’ characteristics are also considered
to be related to students’ participation in online discussion. Vrasidas and
McIsaac (1999) argues that tutors’ philosophy is an influential factor towards
students’ participation. Furthermore,the content of instruction is also believed to
be an important factor that determines students’ participation (Tolmie and

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Boyle, 2000). Discussion and sharing of experience are considered to be more
important in courses of some subjects or disciplines.

Compared with the roles of conventional face-to-face tutors, the roles
involved in online teaching cover widely aspects. Carlson (1989) defines a
moderator as one who helps people get started, give them feedback, summarize,
weave the contributions of different folks together, get it unstuck when
necessary, deal with individuals who are disruptive, or get off the track, bring in
a new material to freshen it up periodically, and get feedback from the group on
how things are going and what happen from the group on how things are going
and what might happen next. Paulsen (1995) notes that moderators, most likely
played by tutors, in an online course are expected to play an “organizational
role”, a “social role” and an “intellectual role”. Collins and Berge (1996)
identifies that online tutors are firefighter, administrator, participant, facilitator,
promoter and helper. Harasim et a1 (1997) states that online tutors play the roles
of planner, group structurer, facilitator and guide. Rheingold (1998) describes an
online moderator as a ‘host’, an ‘exemplar’ and a ‘cybrarian’. Schweizer (1999)
discusses “facilitator”, “discussion leader-discussioncreator”, and “manager” as
essential roles to be played by those designing and teaching an online course.
Salmon (2000) mentions that they perform information giving and receiving,
development, knowledge construction, access and motivation and socialization.
Goodyear (2001) classifies the roles of online tutors including process
facilitator, adviser-counselor, assessor, researcher, content facilitator,
technologist, designer and manager-administrator.

Given the centrality of tutor roles in guiding distance learners, the
above literature on online teaching and learning also puts a great emphasis on
tutor training and skill development. In order to support online learners
effectively, online tutors need to experience online learning as a student before.
Therefore, offering the online tutoring is necessary. The roles of online tutors
should be identified. Clearly the most important role of the online tutor is to
model effective teaching and accept “the responsibility of keeping discussion
track, contributing special knowledge and insights, weaving together various
discussion threads and course components, and maintaining group harmony”
(Rohfeld & Wiemstra, 1995). In fact, skilled e-moderating is crucial to
successful online learning (Salmon, 2000). Salmon (2000) identifies five-step
model for this kind of training. They include: access and motivation, online
socialization, information exchange, knowledge construction and development.

In order to provide the training course to enhance the e-moderating

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skills of the online tutors, the training programme was designed and put
emphasis on leading discussions and answering questions on the discussion
board. The training course has been offered since 2003. The tutors working for
each presentation were invited to take this course.The focus of the training
course " Online Tutor Training (OTT)" is on developing tutor's e-moderating
skills, and feedback to skill-based e-moderating activities will be delivered
through a moderated module discussion board. Furthermore, the course also
provides for online tutors to develop skills and understanding in the design and
use of online learning technologies.

Learning takes place entirely online. Central to the course is the
conference environment, in which participants discussed and practised
e-moderating skills, and there is also a web-based course. This online course,
which is part of the OUHK tutor orientation training programme, deals with
online teaching and learning at the OUHK. This course not only provides the
sound self-instructional strategies for designing distance learning materials but
also offers the learning environment in which interactivelearning can take place.

The learning objectives of completingthis online training for tutors
(OTT) course, tutors will:

+ improve their knowledge of online teaching and learning;

+ log on to the OUHK's electronic learning platform, the Online

Learning Environment (OLE);

+ find out more about online learning at the OUHK

+ use computer mediated communication (CMC) tools such as

email and discussion boards;

+ develop skills for moderating online conferences with their

online tutor groups;

+ understand the roles of online tutors.

The objective of the training course is to help the participants (tutors)
to enhance their skills during the process of redefining and developing the
crucial role of the online tutors in web-based learning. Not only tutors provide
coaching and scaffolding support in structuring and managing a conference

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activity,but also master e-moderating skills in weaving and summarizing the
discussion.

There are two versions, a Chinese and an English version, and these
are offered to tutors e-moderating Chinese and English online courses
respectively. Those that e-moderate both English and Chinese online courses
have the option of choosing either the English or Chinese version. Each
conference will have a moderator. Instructional designers will also play the role
of e-moderators. The moderator’s job includes: (a) create a welcoming and
encouraging conference environment; (b) ensure that everyone has access to the
conference; (c) stimulate and manage discussion; (d) facilitate opportunities for
exploring ideas; (d) provide feedback and resources.

Method

The present study evaluates the satisfaction and learning effectiveness
of learners’ participation in this course. While many of the skills that tutors use
in traditional tutorials can be transferred to online tutoring, successful online
interaction with students also requires a unique range of social, technical,
managerial and pedagogical competencies. By enhancing tutor training in these
aspects, tutors and students are encouraged to make more use of the online
interactive tools through the OLE and improve the effectiveness of online
learning. A crucial aspect of effective online learning may hold the key to the
changing role of the tutors from face-to-face tutorial to online e-moderating
skills. The evaluation is to verify if the participants (tutors) can enhance their
skills during the process of redefining and developing the crucial role of the
online tutors in web-based learning.

The Kirkpatrick (1994) four-level evaluation provides a comprehensive
system for evaluating effectiveness of the training program. It shaped the
research questions and instrumentation developed and used for this multifaceted
evaluation. The Kirkpatrick model consists of these four components: (1)
Reaction-Are learners satisfied with the online tutor training? 2)
Learning-What do learners learn in the training course? (3) Behavior-Do
learners apply e-moderating skills and knowledge in their online courses? (4)
Results-What are the final results that occurs?

Level 1 Reaction

The first level of the evaluation is the reaction which measures

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participants’ reaction or satisfactionwith the training program. It also gauges the
degree to which learners were satisfied with the way the training was conducted
(Horton, 2001). It is a typical end-of course evaluation which can be sought
through web-based surveys. The question “Were you satisfied with this OTT
course in general?” seek feedback from participants about both training itself
and their perception of the extent to which it will help them in their job.

Level 2 Learning

This level of evaluations measure how much learners learned or
achieved, According to Barksdale and Lund (2001), the purpose of Level 2 is to
determine if the participants can obtain acquired knowledge, developed or
enhanced skills, the change of mindset or now knows something he or she did
not before the intervention. Since most of the participants are part-time tutors,
they may not have a concept of e-moderating skills for online discussion.
Therefore, it is quite difficult to identify what individual learning was in place
before and what has taken place as a result of training. Questions are grouped
into five main themes including the skills level, online learning system, course
content, learning activities, study schedule and so forth. Learners have to rate
the sections if they are usehl for them. There are three sections including online
teaching and learning, emoderating and learning activities. In the section of
online teaching and learning, it includes: the online learning environment, the
meaning of electronic conference, and the role of an online tutor. In the second
section, they include: starting up a conference, encouraging and managing
discussion, formulating good questions, weaving and summarizing. In the third
section, learning activities include: introducing ourselves, pros and cons of
conferencing, using email for teaching and learning, welcome messages,
encouraging and managing discussion.

Level 3 Behavior

This level determines the impact of training on behavior, on-the-job
performance, and the application of learned skill, knowledge, or attitudes.
Horton (2001) called this level performance or application and it measures to
what degree learners can and do apply learning in their context of their jobs.
Since the participants are OUHK part-time online tutors, they get the
just-in-time training and concurrently apply what they have trained and learned
about the e-moderating skills into their online courses. A set of questionnaires to
capture the views of participants (online tutors) of the behavioral changes that
have occurred after training can be used. Furthermore, the direct on-the-job

99

observation of online tutors will be employed to see if they are applying the
e-moderating skills.

As it looks at the degree of change in behavior on the job that is due to
the training, it takes several months to complete the evaluations after the training
has taken place. It has to give the participants time and opportunity to develop
their behavior. In fact, the feedback from stakeholdersincluding students may be
important. However, at this level, the participants (online tutors) should be
allowed to have time for them to reflect and improve. The question “Will you
adopt what you have learnt in OTT to the course you serve as a tutor?” is asked.

Level 4 Results

The fourth level is to find out if the results of the training program
achieved. It may measure increases in skills, quality improvement, productivity,
return on investment and so forth. Kirkpatrick (1994) identifies that this level is
important for these are the reason for having the training program. Furthermore,
it measures the business results of learning (Horton, 2001). The common
practice for measuring results is using ROI which measures the financial
rewards of an initial outlay. However, it is not really appropriate for the OTT
training programme. Since the whole training programme is free of charge for
participants, the trainers are also the in-house staff (most of them are
instructional designers), working as part of their duty lists. Furthermore, the soft
data like attitudes, new skills initiative and so forth is very difficult to measure
and to convert monetary values. Most likely there are hard data including time,
overhead costs, output and so forth. Here, increases in e-moderating skills is
emphasied. The results are measured by examining tracking reports and written
activity logs and comments.

Results

A total of 252 online tutors were enrolled in the OUHK online tutor
training course offered in March 2003, November 2003 and May 2004. Same
course materials and requirements were presented in these three presentations.
Each course lasted four weeks. During the course, tutors were required to
participate into five online activities and submit an assignment. At the end of the
course, an online evaluation, in which the questions were designed according to
Kirkpatrick model, was posted onto the learning platform for tutors to complete.
A hundred and eight evaluation forms were collected for a 43% response rate.
The descriptive statistics and correlation coefficients among different levels are

100
shown in the following.
Table 1:Descriptive statistics of variables under investigation

Items Means ~
Level I
Satisfactionwith OTT course in general (Ll) Standard Deviation

3.68’ 0.75

Level 2 3.66’ 0.74
OUHK learning environment(OLE) (L2a) 3.57 0.70
Electronic conference(L2b) 3.81 0.72
Your role as an online tutor (L2c) 3.63 0.89
Startingup a conference (L2d) 3.70 0.83
Encouragingand managingdiscussion (L2e) 3.65
Formulatinggood questions (L2f) 3.68 0.75
Weaving and summarizing(L2g) 3.58 0.75
Planninga conferenceactivity (L2h) 3.60 0.74
Structuringand managing a conferenceactivity(L2i) 0.85

Level 3 3.913 0.90
Adopting learned skills to the respectivecourses(L3)

Level 4 3.27 0.82
Online tutoring skillsincreased (L4)

’ 1 represents “not at all satisfied” and 5, “very satisfied”;* 1 represents “not at all usehl” and 5,

“very useful”; 1 represents“definitelynot” and 5 , “definitely”.

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As shown in Table 1, the respondents were satisfied with the course
taken (mean=3.68). In level 2, all items were rated high in general. The skills
learnt by respondent in the training course were quite useful, especially the role
as an online tutor, encouragingand managing discussion,as well as weaving and
summarizing. For level 3, the respondents reported a high intention (mean=3.91)
to practice what they learnt in conducting online tutoring. For level 4, the
respondentsdid recongize their emoderatingskills have been increased.

Conclusion

Results generated by the four-level process offered a thorough look at
measures of effectiveness for this training programme. The training programme
enhances the emoderatingskills of online tutors. It seemed to meet its objectives
and provided useful just-in-time on job training for tutors. From the evaluation
results, among the four levels, the overall satisfaction and feedback from tutors
was generally very positive. To further investigate and make improvements in
e-moderating programme, some qualitative research into this area should be
conducted.

References

Barksdale, S. and Lund, T. (2001). RapidEvaluation. NY ASTD.

Berge, Z.L. (1995). Facilitating Computer Conferencing: Recommendations
from the field. Educational Technology,35(1)pp22-30.

Carlson, L. (1989). Effective moderation of computer conferences: Hints for
moderators. In Brochet, M.G. (ed), Moderating Conferences.Ontario: University
of Guelph.

Collins, M. and Berge, Z.L. (1 996). Facilitating Interaction in Computer
Mediated Online Courses. Background paper for our presentation at the
FSU/AECT Distance Education Conference, TallahaseeF.L., June, 1996.
Retrieved 2 May 2005 from

httr,://www.nib.unicamr,.br/recursos/distanceeducation/flcc.html.

Goodyear, P., Salmon, G, Spector, J.M., Steeples, C., & Tickner, S . (2001).
Competenciesfor online teaching: A Special Report. Educational Technology
Research and Development, vol. 49, no.1,pp65-72.

Gustafson, P., & Gibbs, D (2000). Guidingor hiding? The role of the facilitator
on online teaching and learning. TeachingEducation,vol. 11, no. 2, pp95-2 10.

Harasim, L., hiktz, S.R, Teles, L. and Turoff, M. (1997). Learning Networks: A

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field guide to teaching and learning online. Cambridge:MIT Press.

Horton, W. (2001).Evaluating E-learning.N Y ASTD.

Kirkpatrick, D (1994). Evaluating trainingprograms: Thefour levels. San
Francisco: Berrtt-Koehler Publishers.

Paulsen, M.F. (1995). Moderating discussions in the electronic classroom. In
Zan, L. B and Mauri, P. C. (eds), ComputerMediated Communicationand the
Online Classroom. NJ: Hampton Press.

Rheingold, H. (1998). The art of hosting good conversations online. Retrieved 2
May 2005 from http://www.emoderators.com/moderators/artonlinehost.html

Rohfld, R. W & Hiemstra, R. (1995). Moderating discussions in the electronic
classroom. In Berge, Z. and Collons, M. Computer Mediated Communication ad
the Online Classroom Vol. 3: Distance Learning. NJ: Hampton Press.

Salmon, G (2000). E-moderating: The Key to Teaching and Learning Online.
London: Kogan Page.

Schweizer,H. (1999). Designing and Teaching an Online Course. Massachusetts:
Person Education Company.

Shin, N. (2002). Tutors’ Perceptions of Tutoring Online. Staff and Educational
Development International, 6(2),ppl89-197.

Tolmie, A. and Boyle, J. (2000). Factors influencing the success of CMC
environments in university teaching: A review and case study. Computer &
Education, vol. 34, ppll9-140.

Tsang, E., et al. (2002). Students’ participation in
computer-mediated communication. In Murphy, D et a1 (eds)
Advanced Online Learning in Asia. Hong Kong: Open University
of Hong Kong Press.

Vrasidas, C. and McIsaac, M. (1999). Factors influencing interaction in online
course, American Journal of Distance Education, 13(3),pp22-36.

METHODOLGY FOR DEVELOPING DYNAMIC WEB
AUTHORING SYSTEM FOR E-LEARNING

YIN FEI YEUNG and JOSEPH FONG
Computer Science Department, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong,

csifonp(ii>,citvu.edu.hk

Abstract

This paper aims for proposing a methodology for the development and implementation of “Dynamic
Web Authoring System for elearning”, which is a new type of web authoring system. This system
assists creation of a web material that enables close user interaction and supports frequent change of
its content. Web materials are dynamically created by following simple instructions provided by
this system. The simple usage of the system benefits users who are not familiar with creation of
web materials but wish to create a web material with complicated functions.

Keyword: Authoring system, elearning, Dynamic web page

1. Objectives
The objectives of this paper are mainly to develop a web tool namely “Dynamic
Web Authoring System for elearning” for educational usage. It has six goals:

1. Accessibility - both educators and learners must be able to access this
tool at anytime in anywhere

2. Portability- there are two levels of portability: the system itself and the
web contents

3. Reusability - the educators can reuse the existing web contents to
regenerate new web contents

4. Dynamic Web Page Generation ability - the server will dynamically

generate the web pages for the educators based on their input
5 . Flexibility - educators can attach any related materials as part of the

web content
6 . Statistics Monitoring - both educators and learners can review the

learners’ performance

2. Introduction
This project is to develop a new type of web authoring system. Unlike some of
the online web tools, such as Blogger which only allow create web contents with
no user interaction. Furthermore, this system consists sets of built-in function
to help users to create user interacting web contents. Not like some of the
well-known web application tools such as Microsoft Frontpage, Microsoft
Visual Studio, and Dreamwaver that only create static web contents.

103

104

In order to describe how this tool can be such a complete web application tool,
we need to look at each element and how they are related. Therefore, in the
following sections, we will provide details of each elements and how those
elements correlated and functioned as the entire system. After viewing the
details, you can understand that this tool is the outcome of the best usage of
existing systems and network, and not sequence of new technology.

3. System Design
In this tool, there are two categories of users: educator^" and “Learners”.
Although the system design for these two categories is totally different, the idea
of accessibility is the same which is “at anytime in anywhere”.

Another feature of this tool is the “dynamic web content generating ability”.
Traditionally, web pages are static. Users can only view the web contents i.e.
no interaction with the users. However, dynamic web pages that enable user
interactions are more suitable for elearning, and therefore, required for creation
of effective web learning material. The following sections will clearly
demonstrate the elements of system design to achieve our objectives.

3.1. Educators
The idea of accessibility can be archived by implementing this system as a web
application. Thus, one of the system requirements is a web server. Another
requirement is the interacting ability with the educators. This interacting
ability purely relies on both server-side and client-side web languages. In
addition, reusability and statistics monitoring are two other main aspects of this
tool and can be archived by incorporatingwith a database system.

3.1.1. Web server

In this project, the web server must be platform independent so that we can

deploy this Dynamic Web Authoring System in any types of platform. We

choose Apache as the web server, since it is a stable, portable, and functional

supporting various functions and web languages that facilitate creation of web

contents.

3.1.2. Web language

User-interaction is a key factor to archive the dynamic web content generation.

For this particular tool, we will use the PHP language as the server-side

language and the Javascript as the user-side language.

We use the PHP built-in functions and procedures. It provides five main

functions:

105

i. Authentication- allow only authorized educators to login the system
ii. File upload ability - allow educators to upload related material to the

system
iii. Database connectivity - store data into and retrieve data from the

database system
iv. Web content generation - dynamically generate web pages depending

on what educators input
v. Excise Management and monitoring - allow educators to manage and

monitor their existing excises by modification, deletion, and viewing.

Javascript is a well-developed and well-known user-side language. Javascript
can act as an immediate reactor to check the correctness of the educators’ input
in order to reduce the workload of the web server.

3.1.3. Database system

Database system in this project is used to facilitate “reusability” of excises as

well as “statistics monitoring”. The idea of reusing the questions from the

existing excises is to reduce educators’ workload from typing the same

information repeatedly. The purpose of statistics monitoring is for the

educators to assess how well the students are doing on each excise..

In order to reuse the content of the excises as well as statistics monitoring, we
need to store all related information in a database. In this tool, we will use
MySQL as the database system. There are four reasons to choose MySQL.

0 Free license - it is free to use and to download (http://www.mysql.com
0 Independence of platforms - it has different versions for different

platforms
0 Accessibility- PHP has built-in hnctions to work with MySQL
0 Database management and monitoring - we can use a software called

“MySQL Administrator” to visually managing, monitoring, and
configuring the MySQL database

3.1.3.1. Data design and structure
There are three pieces of information we store in the database which are
“educator information”, “excise information”, and “learner performance”. For
the educator information, we mainly store the educator’s login id, password and
email address. The table for educator information is:

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Table 3.1.3.1 (1) - educator

and the entity relationship diagram is:

-id
password
email

Figure 3.1.3.1 (1) - the ER Diagram of educator

The excise information is the most important data in this tool. It consists of
three sets of information. The first set is the brief information about the excise
itself. The table for the first set is:

Name Attribute Description

-excise id~
~
eid an unique number to represent each excise

ename the name of the excise

explanation cover page specifying the information and/or the

purpose of this excise

nq number of questions in the excise
fname the physical name of the web page being opened

bv students

Table 3.1.3.1 (2) -excise

As we can see that the key is a foreign key in the excise table so that we can
easily find out the owner of each excise. Hence, the relationship between
educator and excise is 1 to many as presented
below:

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educator excise

fname

Figure 3.1.3.1 (2) - the ER Diagram of excise

The second set is the detailed information of the questions on each excise. Its
table looks like:

Icontent I the content of the auestion I
type
action-ctypes of the answer such as single answer,

Eaction-w multiple answer, true or false, matching and etc

action to be taken if the answer is correct

action to be taken if the answer is wrong

Table 3.1.3.1 (3) - question

In order to recognize which question refers to which excise, we borrow the key
‘‘eid” from the excise table as a foreign key. The relationship between the
excise table and the question table is 1 to many:

108 II 1
question
1 1 - 1I I
excise

ename description
explanation content
type
nq action-c
fname action-w

Figure 3.1.3.1 (3) - ER Diagram of excise and question

The third set is the possible answers for each question. The table should be:

Table 3.1.3.1 (4)-choice

In this set, we need to borrow the key “qid” from the question table as a foreign
key, so that we can identify which choice refers to which question. The
relationship between the question table and the choice table is 1 to many:

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question 1 m choice

Figure 3.1.3.1 (4) - ER Diagram of question and choice
The complete entity relationship diagram for the excise information is:

excise 1 n . educator 1 m choice

L -eid

-eid

ename @ -aid

nq description content

content content correct

fname type type
action-c action

action-w

Figure 3.1.3.1 ( 5 ) - ER Diagram of excise information

The last piece of information is the learner performance. The table is:

Table 3.1.3.1 ( 5 ) -performance

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Two foreign keys are required in the performance table. The entity relationship
diagram should be:

question 1 m performance . n 1 excise

3.1.4. System architecture

Educators
Figure 5.1.4 - System Architecture (Educator)

111

3.2. Learners
Since the learners do the excise via internet, we need to have a web server to
support this action. When the learners work on the excise, immediate response
which corresponds with their action is required. Moreover, the learner may
want to know how well they are doing on each excise. Thus, we use a database
to store the performance of the learners on each excise.

3.2.1. Web server

For the purpose of portability, this tool generates a web contents in pure html

format; hence, there is no particular web server required.

3.2.2. Web language

As stated above, all the web contents are in pure html format, and therefore, no

server-side language is required. The main concern in this section is the ability

of user interaction. While the learner works on the excise, immediate response

that corresponds to the learner’s action maybe required. This interaction ability

can be archived by the client-side language. We use JavaScript to perform the

following tasks:

0 Verify the learner the input
0 Perform an immediate response regarding to the learner’s input
0 Send back the result to the system for performanceupdate
0 Act as a communicationchannel between the server and the learner

3.2.3. Database design

The performance of the learner will be recorded in the database so that the

learner can review how well they are doing on each excise.

3.2.3.1. Data design and structure
Only one table is required to store the performance information. Please refer to
the section 3.1.3.1 for the data design and data structure.

112 Architecture

3.2.4.

which areoducaior,
exciCc.q&On and

choice

Figure 5.2.4- SystemArchitecture (Learner)

4. System Features
The system features are the core part of this tool. There are two distinct sets of
system features. One set is written in PHP language running in the server
whereas the other is written in JavaScript running in the client machine.

4.1. Server-side Features
These features are especially designed for the educators to managing their
excises.

0 The first feature is the educator authentication
0 The second feature is to display all the information of the current login

educator
0 The third feature is to accept file upload. Note that files will be

physically stored in the system. The reason is to minimize the size of
the database for faster data retrieval. The uploaded files will be
appeared in the database only as reference:

<img src=”file-name” alt=”file-name”>
The forth feature is to create excise. We divide this feature into 4
sub-functions. The first function is to start creation of new excise.
The second function is to store the question details in the database one

113

by one. The third function is to store the possible answers into the
database.
The last function is to convert all the information gathered from the
first three functions into a set of web pages and save them in the
system.
0 The fifth feature is to delete existing excises for house keeping
0 The sixth feature is to modify existing excises for the idea of reusability
The last feature is to perform the statistics monitoring for analyzing
purpose

4.2. Client-sideFeatures
The client-side features are mainly verification of the user’s input and
performing correspondingactions based on the input andlor predefined actions.

0 the first feature is to make sure all fields being filled-in for new
registration

0 the second feature is to confirm the password of the educator.
0 the third feature is to perform an immediate action when choice is

selected.
0 the forth feature is to respond the answer submission.
0 the last feature is to display the answer to the learner when the learner

gives up to answer.

5. Conclusion and Future Work
This project is to develop a new type of system namely Dynamic Web Authoring
System. It is designed for educational usage - one of the teaching tools. It
helps the educators to create web contents so that their students can do excise
via internet regardless of time and location. Furthermore, this system also
provides statistics monitoring. For the educators, the statistics report helps
them to make decision on which subjects they should spend more time on with
the students. On the other hand, students can recognize their weakness so that
they can spend more effort on particular subjects. In section 3, we provide
detailed explanations on the individual system requirements and the system
design for the development of Dynamic Web Authoring System. We have
discussed how such Dynamic Web Authoring System can be developed in detail.
In section 4, we introduce each function of this system. In conclusion, this
system will be:

0 high accessibility since it is a web application
high portability since it is developed with the most common server-side
programming language- PHP - and client-side language- JavaScript

0 high reusability since all relevant information is stored in the database

114

0 highly useful since educators do not need to know everything about
writing web pages; only need to follow simple instructions to finish the
creation process

0 highly flexible since educators can attach their work as a part of the
web contents

0 highly helpful since both educators and learners can view the statistics
report to find out the strength and weakness

We have studied this system thoroughly in the theoretical level. So in the next
stage, we need to work on the actual implementation of this system.
Furthermore, we would like to add two more important features: forum and
knowledge sharing among educators.

Reference

[ l ] Sampson, D., Karagiannidis, C., Schenone, A., & Cardinali, F., “An
Architecture for Web-based e-Learning Promoting Re-usable Adaptive
Educational e-Content”, Educational Technology & Society, ISSN
1436-4522,volume 5 number4,2002.

[2] Joseph Fong, Margaret Ng, Irene Kwan and Marco Tam, “Effective
e-Learning by use of HCI and web-based workflow approach”, Proceedings
of the 2”dInternationalWeb-based Learning, LNCS 2783, pp271-286, August,
2003.

[3] Bacsich, P., Heath, A., Lefrere, P., Miller, P., & Riley, K., “The Standards
Fora for Online Education”, D-Lib Magazine, ISSN 1082-9873, volume 5
number 12, December 1999.

[4] PHP Manual available from http://www.php.net/manual/en/index.php
[5] Blogger - an easy-to-use web site, where you can quickly post thoughts and

interact with people - available from http://www.blomer.com

PART THREE Applications

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CREATION OF A LIBRARY OF LEARNING OBJECTS (LO)

FROM PRE EXISTING CONTENTS

LEONEL IRIARTE NAVARRO
Agrarian University of Havana, Habana , Cuba

Email: [email protected]

MANUEL MARC0 SUCH
Languages and Computer Science Systems Department at the University of Alicante,

Alicante ,Spain,
Email: [email protected]

PEDRO PERNIAS PECO
Languages and Computer Science Systems Department at the University of Alicante,

Alicante ,Spain,
Email:[email protected]

DANIEL MORON MART&
Languages and Computer Science Systems Department at the University of Alicante,

Alicante , Spain
Email: [email protected]

ABSTRACT

Interoperability is greatly considered in e-learning systems. XML based standards have arisen
facilitatingthe common methods of description, identification and search of LO which are developed
under different formats and platforms thus guaranteeingtheir reusability.
S C O W standard is imposing in this field. It was developed by Advanced Distributed Learning [6]
and based on proposals of organizations like IEEE Learning Technology Standards Committee [lo]
Learning Object Metadata Working Group and IMS Global Learning Consortium.
The most modern e-learning platforms use the standards previously mentioned to achieve
interoperabilityamong the different systems. Nevertheless, there is much usebl content available in
different environments that is not structured according to the standards. This provokes serious
difticulties for them to be reused. That is why it is essentialto look for alternativesthat permit to pack
such contents in a way that they may be imported and used in the existing platforms.
An automated procedure that allows the making of Digital Libraries composed of learning objects
starting from previously developed content structures is proposed. Tools for facilitating this process
have been developed.
It has been applied to contents developed on a platform for teaching Spanish, as a result we have
obtained a MultimediaDigital Library of Learning Objects.

Key Words: learning objects, e-learning, interoperability, standards, SCORM ,
IMS

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118

1. INTRODUCTION

Education using the New Technologies has had a quick development lately.
Many have been the techniques implemented to achieve virtual educative
communities, where professors and researchers create thousands of teaching
materials and content structures using web pages, e-learning platforms and others.
The need to reuse the teaching materials in different software for e-Learning
and for different students has provoked the creation of standards that allow the
documentation, search and distribution of the produced educative contents [3].
The IMS standard created by the Global Learning Consortium is among the most
important ones [7]; and then the SCORM, implemented by Advanced Distributed
Learning Initiative [6] and the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers
(IEEE).
Much iniciatives have developed to complement and facilitate the use of the most
used standards, such is the case of CARE0 project that is being carried out in
Canada and permits the exertion of educative objects based on the IMS standard.
This project has joined efforts with an initiative called ALOHA (Advanced
Learning Object Hub Application); it is a metadata server that offers this project
special usage possibilities [4].
There are hundreds of initiatives for trying to solve the problem of interchanging
objects among different applications; they will continue developing until they
conform Ontologies as more complete structures for describing objects [S] which
allow a formal representation of a concept, in addition to its semantic and
syntactic representation.
Apart from what has been previously stated, it is necessary to look for
alternatives that allow to redesign the existing content structures and adapt them
to the standards, so that they can be included in repositories or learning objects
libraries that may be used in the different platforms. Some important steps have
been taken on this matter, an example of this is the SCOMAKER tool created
by Boxer Technologies AS [9] that allows to produce the necessary structures
for making an Office document compatiblewith the SCORM standard.
The procedure for making up learning objects is not very clearly defined, let

alone the process for producing them from the contents previously developed

under different environments; that is why we propose a procedure that allows

tutors, professors and programmers to create learning objects libraries from the

previously produced contents.

119

2. HOW TO AUTOMATE THE MAKING UP OF A LEARNING
OBJECTS LIBRARY

The proposal is based on the creation of processes that enable the conversion of
contents and teaching materials of the origin Learning Management System in
learning objects. For creating such processes, it backs up in the standards. The
specifications of the standard are defined in XML templates that have the
information of the pattern and structure as well as the contents of the objects.
Thus, if there are any changes in the standard, or if it is desired to export
anything towards a new pattern you just have to adapt the corresponding
templates.

It is necessary that pedagogues and computer specialists get together in a
multidisciplinary work to study the standards, adapt them to the particular
conditions and then program the processes that enable the automatic making of
the objects. The definition of a learning object is very wide, it is said that any
digital object that can be reused is a LO [2]. Then the number of objects to be
documented in the previously produced contents would be of many different
kinds. The formats have the content of the objects but not the necessary digital
information to automate them. This proposal is based on browsing such
information in the platforms, data bases where there are learning objects,
considering as LO not only the materials but the content structures as well.

What follows is an outline of the elements that make up our proposal. Each of
them is explained taking as an example its application in the project Virtual
Classroom of Spanish (AVE) [8], where a learning objects library has been
created.

LO template according to standard: This template is an XML structure that
contains the necessary elements to document a learning object according to the
standard to be exported. The metadata can have a literal value or make reference
to the name of the function in the library of functions (4) that exerts this metadata.
Physical Files: They are composed of the set of files that are necessary to obtain
the outlet LO. There are two kinds of files; the ones associated to a template and
the data files.
Templates: They are XML structures that contain the necessary elements for a
process ( 5 ) to produce an outlet physical file (7) that accompanies the LO
documentation in the defined pattern.

120

Fig 1. Componentfor Making LO.

In AVE most of the objects are HTM files that have links to videos and
Authorware objects; that is why in the previous template only the name of the
file referred to in the clause OBJECT can be varied.
Files: They are physical files as images, videos, office documents, flash
presentations that are referred to in the LO.
We have taken into account the possibility to convert many of these files in XML
structures, documenting them considering the defined pattern, thus permitting
more portability. To achieve this, existing tools can be used for their
documentation using different patterns. MS Office documents, for instance, can
be converted to SCORM by using applicationsas SCOMaker or LRN toolkit [131
so that this kind of document be completely documented according to the
defined pattern. In case that most of the physical materials are of any specific
file that is defined in the standard, a template can be made and then, apply the
principle explained above.
Contents Structure: It is a template where the structure of a specific content is
defined and various LO are combined to achieve a teaching objective. It depends
on the standard and there may be some, depending on the kind of structure

121

defined and the possibilities of the chosen pattern It is used by the process ( 5 ) to
obtain the LO that corresponds with the structure of contents(7.2).
It has been determined in AVE, that the basic structure of the contents is an
entity called TEMA which contains the different activities to achieve a basic unit
of learning. A template to produce this structure in an automated way has been
designed. It is based on the IMS standard from which all the structures of themes
contents are produced and so courses that contain these themes.
Library of functions : All the functions referred to in the templates are in this
library. The implementation of such library depends on the structure and
programming strategy. There can be one or some libraries. Its use guarantees that
the system reacts upon the changes produced in the platforms structures in a
simple way.
The processes: The processes use the templates described above to make the LO
(7), not only the ones that correspond with the description of a material or set of
materials by means of a determined pattern but also the ones associated to a
learning structure as well.
These processes use the conveniences of the XSLT to obtain different outlet
formats from the XML original templates and will use the library of functions
just described to substitute the references of the templates by the corresponding
values.
Own Databases: Own Databases are the ones that platforms use for their
fulfillment.Libraries of functions use these structuresfor their implementation.
Learning Objects (LO): After applying the processes just described, XML
structures that document each LO (7.1) will be obtained according to the defined
pattern, the physical files that resulted from applying a template (7.2), as well as
the LO that describe the content structures(7.3).
The characteristicsof the most used e-learning platforms have been analyzed [101
and in most of them we observe common features which allow to export the
necessary information to apply this procedure. They have:

0 A databases structure where there is some information about the
teaching administration process, class sessions, teaching materials and
learning models.

0 Repositoriesor teaching material libraries stored in physical files.
0 Structuresfor implementing different models and learning strategies.

3. CONCLUSIONSAND RECOMMENDATIONS

What we propose may be used in different courses previously produced with the
aim of obtaining an automated creation of educative objects reusable in more

122

modern platforms that fit with the standards;thus permitting the distribution of
courses to environments where the connection levels are still insufficient.
The use of these procedures in AVE project guarantees the interoperability of
such courses in other educative environments with few economical resources and
little time. This is due to the capacity of the elaborated applications to make use
of the information existing in AVE database. Such procedures can be used as a
basis for the making of LO libraries in other platforms.
Using the templates and libraries of functions here proposed guarantees that the
procedures and designed applications for making the LO be more resistant to the
changes produced in the standards. They also offer the possibility to make new
objects based on other specifications.
The creation of reusable educative objects is not possible in isolation, the
creation of multidisciplinary groups is required for designing the most
appropriate strategies for professors to make and use educative objects in a
simple way as is the case of the example explained above.
A LO repository does not solve the problem at all. It is very important to study
the mechanisms for storing and retrieving information from these objects so that
they can be found and used. The new LMS assimilates the new standards but the
professor needs to find objects and create new ones. It is necessary to use
procedures and techniques that permit to produce LO from the existing ones in a
dynamic way and with certain instruction from the professor.

REFERENCE

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Wrox Press, 2001

Wiley D., Connecting learning objects to instructional design theory: A

definition, a metaphor, and a

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t.htm, 2003.

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A MOBILE AGENT ASSISTED LEARNING RESOURCE
SERVICE FRAMEWORK BASED ON SOAP

WU DI, YANG ZONGKAI, CHENGWENQING
Department of Electronics and Information Engineering,
Huazhong University of Science and Technolom, Wuhan,Hubei, China 430074

1 Abstract

Learning resource service is one of the most important services in an E-Learning
environment. To provide high-quality learning resource service for users, the authors
of this paper put forward a mobile agent assisted learning resource service framework.
The framework employs Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) as the message
platform for agent communication. In addition, some widespread accepted learning
resource metadata and packaging standards, such as Learning Object Metadata (LOM)
and Content Packaging (CP) are applied in the framework to standardize resource.
Knowledge Query and Manipulation Language (KQML) is applied in the framework
to support agents communication. Under this framework, the mobile agent on behalf
of a user can discover learning resource autonomously in the environment, so that the
user can gain needed resource from anywhere and at anytime. The process of resource
discovering is transparent to the user. A prototype application system based on the
framework is also introduced in this paper, which gives a sample application case of
the framework.

2 Introduction

One of the most important materials of E-Learning is the digital learning
resource. It’s impossible to effectively apply an E-Learning system without
learning resource. To provide learning resource service for learners and other
consumers more quickly and effectively, we need to gain an effective way to
build a novel resource service system in E-Learning environment.
In traditional resource service system, learning resource is stored in a
centralized resource database. Users query the database and discover their
needed resource. But it is impossible to collect all resource in one independent
database and it is difficult to provide individual services for special users. So
we need a new service framework to provide high-quality learning resource
service. Mobile agent gives us a new way to satisfy the requirement.
In recent years, mobile agent has gained increasing attention. The ambulant
and communicative characteristics of mobile agent make it easy to gain user’s
profiles and provide smart services for users. So the mobile agent technology
can be applied in learning resource service process to build a new resource
service framework.
In this paper, the authors put forward an agent assisted learning resource
service framework based on Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) [l].

125

126

Extensible Markup Language (XML) [2] is applied in the framework to
provide protocol binding specification and Knowledge Query and
Manipulation Language (KQML) [3] is applied in the framework as an agent
communication language (ACL). Two mature technology standards about
learning resource - Learning Object Metadata (LOM) and Content Packaging
(CP) are applied in the framework to standardizelearning resource.

3 Related Work

3.1 XML

XML has come a long way ever since the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
issued it as a recommendation in February 1998. The standard has already
gained widespread acceptance within the developer community, and almost all
major application vendors offer extensive support for it [4]. XML provides a
new standard way for data exchange on Internet.

3.2 Mobile agent

The application of mobile agent is very public now. Mobile agent is an
emerging technology. It makes the design, implement, and maintain distributed
system more easily, attracting a great deal of interest from both the industry
and the academia. In particular, the mobile agent paradigm has been used to
design applications ranging from distributed information retrieval to network
management [5]. Mobile agents can present the following attributes [6]:
a. Reactive - the capability to respond to changes within agent environment;
b. Autonomous - the mobile agent is able to exercise control over its own

actions (decisions);
c. Goal-oriented - the agents have an intended itinerary, they do not simply

act in response to the environment;

d. Communicative - the capacity to communicate with other agents or

processes, by exchanging information (knowledge);
e. Mobile - the mobile agents can transfer themselves from one machine

(Internet host) to another.

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3.3 SOAP

\,SOAP Envelope

Figure 1 SOAP messsage structure [7]

SOAP is a method of remote method invocation, and is based on XML-FWC
further tightening up the applicability of XML to data structure and storage [8].
The structure of SOAP message is shown in Figure 1.
The SOAP protocol consists of three main parts [9]:
a. An envelope that depicts the contents of the message and how to use it;
b. A set of rules for serializing data exchanged between web applications;
c. A platform-neutral manner to represent remote procedure calls, that is the

way in which queries and the resulting responses to the procedure are
represented.

3.4 KQML

KQML is a language and protocol for exchanging information and knowledge.
It is both a message format and a message-handling protocol that supports
run-time knowledge sharing among agents. KQML offers a variety of message
types (performatives) that express an attitude regarding the content of the
exchange. Performatives can also assist agents in finding other agents that can
process their requests [lo]. Three layers are included in KQML (see Figure 2).

128

Figure 2 Three layers of KQML [lo]
3.5 LOMand CP

Figure 3 Categories of the LOM schema [l 11
LOM is a metadata standard about learning object published by IEEE LTSC
(http://ltsc.ieee.org). A metadata instance for a learning object describes
relevant characteristics of the learning object to which it applies. Such
characteristics may be grouped in general, life cycle, meta-metadata,
educational, technical, educational, rights, relation, annotation, and
classification categories [12]. The categories of the LOM schema are shown in
Figure 3.

129

Figure 4 The structure of CP information model [13]
CP is a standard about content organization published by IMS

(http://www.imsglobal.org).To satisfy the needs of online learning resource
interchange, the content of the resource should be packaged in a known manner
and file format, and with sufficient supporting information. CP defines a
standardized set of structures that can be applied to exchange content. The
structure of CP information model is shown in Figure 4.
4 The Structure of the Framework
4.1 The layered structure of thepamework

Figure 5 The structure of the framework

130

The framework has a layered structure, which includes five layers (see
Figure 5 ) :
a. Content layer - includes the learning resource physical files (such as

media, picture, text, etc.) and metadata information of the resource. LOM
is applied in this layer to present the metadata information because it is
widespread accepted and has a XML binding specification.

b. Package layer - includes the packaging information of the resource. In

this layer, the metadata information and the resource physical files are
packaged into one content unit (PACKAGE), so that it can be transported
and exchanged in an e-Learning environment. CP is applied in this layer
because it is mature and widely accepted by manufacturers.
C. ACL layer - provides a communication bridge among agents. KQML is
applied in this layer to support agent communication, because it is
relatively mature and can be bind with XML.
d. Message layer - exchanges messages among SOAP nodes. SOAP is
applied in this layer because it is bind with XML and based on HTTP,
which makes it have the ability to pass firewall.
e. Transport layer - provides a basic network infrastructure to transport
messages in network environment. The public accepted network transport
protocol - TCP/IP is applied in this layer.
4.2 The basic information unit in thepamework

Figure 6 The structure of the basic information unit in the framework

The basic information unit in the framework is a special SOAP message which
embodies a learning resource content package and some KQML messages (see
Figure 6).
The KQML message which contains agent communicationinformation is XML

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bind and embedded in the SOAP envelope. All the learning resource request
and response information are included in it.
The learning resource content package is attached as an attachment part of the
SOAP message. Learning resource content package is a package interchange
file (PIF) which is a single file (e.g., zip, jar, .cab) compressed from a content
package directory.
The framework has several advantages:
a. Smart - the whole process of resource discovering is transparent for users.

The agent on behalf of the user can gain target resource by itself or
collaborate with other agents. The user do not need to know how to find
and where to find, he may not know the process entirely.
b. Platform-independent - the framework is bind with XML and utilizes
SOAP as message carrier, so systems developed with any programming
language and run on any operating system can apply the framework.

c. Standard - LOM and CP is applied in the kamework to standardize
resource. So all the resource under the framework is standard and can be

exchange conveniently among learning management systems (LMS).
One problem of the framework is the performance. Because all of the protocols
in the framework are bind with XML, the information unit is very large.
Additionally, SOAP is not a high-speed protocol. So the performance of the
framework is not very graceful.

5 The Application of the Framework

Figure 7 The application system of the framework

In an E-Learning environment, the framework can be used to build a
distributed learning resource service system (see Figure 7). The application
system of the framework is a multi-agent system (MAS). Two types of agents