context aware reuse of learning resources franz weitl, burkhard freitag, rudolf kammerl, monica...

Context Aware Reuse of Learning Resources

Franz Weitl, Burkhard Freitag, Rudolf Kammerl, Monica Göstl

University of Passau

22.04.04, © 2004 Lehrstuhl für Informationsmanagement, Universität Passau

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Outline of the Talk

• Reuse of learning content is not a straight forward process.

• Problem: Context Dependency– What is the context of a learning resource?– In which aspects is learning content context dependent?– Can context dependency be avoided?– How does context dependency affect reuse?– Can we support the reuse of contexualized learning

content?

• In the sequel:– analysis of the problem– not: answers to the questions


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Background: WWR-Project

• National joint project (12 Universities) founded by the bmbf

• Goal: Pool of 144 online teaching/learning modules in computer engineering

• Duration: April 2001 – April 2004

Examplehttp://www.wwr-project.dehttp://lrs2.fmi.uni-passau.de/online

http://www.wwr-project.de/de/index.html

http://lrs2.fmi.uni-passau.de/online








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Focus

Scalable Documents (intensity, target group, medium)

18 variants per module

module.xml

var1.xml

var18.xml

filter.xsl

.

.

. output.xsl

var1.html

var18.html

intensity=basictarget =teachermedium=online


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Challenges

Implementation of variable learning content is easy (conditional fragments).

But:

• Design of variable learning content?– What about referential consistency? content cohesion– What about didactic consistency? learning dependencies

• Maintenance: if I change fragment X– which configurations will be affected and does the change

make sense in all of them? – which other fragments do I need to change to maintain

consistency?

Context dependencies cause problems in dynamically assembled content.


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Reusable learning content – learning object approach

Goal: small independently usable chunks of learning content, which can be flexibly combined to larger courses.


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Reuse Process of Learning Objects

LO

LO

LO

Repository

Retrieval

LO

LO

Selection

LO

LO

LO

Aggregation

LO

LO

LO

LO

Course


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Design of Learning Objects

• Design for reusability Decontextualization– Modularity: avoidance of interdependencies across

different LOs– Generality: LOs not too specifically designed for a

certain pedagogic context.


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Course

LO LO LO LO LO

LO LO LO LO LO

Repository

global objectives

decontextu-alization

metadata tagging


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Course

LO LO LO LO LO

LO LO LO LO LO

Repository

decontextu-alization

metadata tagging

localobjectives


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The Reuse Paradox

• Reusabilty vs. Contextualization„There has been much debate about whether

instruction can be designed with multiple contexts or environments in mind... ...the SCORM introduces a reusability paradox: the most reusable objects are context-independent, while the best instruction is highly contextualized“ [The SCORM Implementation Guide: A Step-by-Step Approach]


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The Problem

Design for reusability ( context independency) can affect the instructional quality of the learning content.

Can we support reuse of „highly contextualized“ learning content?– What does „highly

contextualized“ mean exactly?

– How do context dependencies affect reuse?

– What can we do about it?


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15

x + yi or a + bj ?

C or ?

180° or ?


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Problem Analysis: Definition of Context

• „The context of something consists of the ideas, situations, events, or information that relate to it and make it possible to understand it fully.“ [Collins Cobuild Dictionary]

•Context of a fragment of a learning document consists of the objects which influence its pedagogic effect.

– The internal context of a fragment consists of the content of the document the fragment is placed in.

– The external context of a fragment consists of the properties of the environment the fragment is accessed in.

A‘

Doc A Env E

access

external contextinternal context


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Aspects of Contextualization

• Interconnection (cognitivism [Ausubel68])– topics of the content:

logical relationships of subject matter entities

– learning steps: activation of previously learnt knowledge, motivation of future learning steps, embedding of detail into the context (problem, objective).

• Specialization (situated learning [Brown et. al 1989])– target groups: preknowledge,

motivation, goals, current tasks, experience, learning styles,...

– learning/teaching setting: course type, teaching styles, available staff, rooms, technical environment (learning platform, browser features), examination regulations, ...

– authoring environment: preferences, styles and skills of authors, conventions for notation and terminology, authoring tools, resources (personnel, time, budget)

Problem: many dimensions of contextualization!


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External Contexts of Learning Content

fragmentauthoring context

application context

learning context

fragment

course content A course content B

instantiation

instance A instance B

individual instance A

course A‘ course B‘

curriculum X

individualinstance B

curriculum Y

execution

reuse

Author

Teacher

Learner


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Authoring Context: Abstract Model

context

authoring context

application context

content authorsauthoring

environment

internal context

intends

conventions &criteria

leads to

external context

fragment

meetsrefers to


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Problem: Context Dependency

• What is context?

• In which aspects is learning content context dependent?

• Can context dependency be avoided?

How does context dependency affect reuse?

• Can we support the reuse of contexualized learning content?

LO

LO

LO

RepositoryRepository

Retrieval

LO

LO

Selection

LO

LO

LO

Aggregation

LO

LO

LO

LO

Course


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Reuse Process of Contextualized Learning Content

FRepository F‘ F‘‘ F‘‘‘

1. select 2. de-contextualize

3a specialize 3b integrate

Source Context Target Context3. re-contextualize

4. retain

transformation phase


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Reuse Process of Contextualized Learning Content

retrieve selectanalyse internaldependencies

analyseexternal

dependencies

expand reduce specialize

integrate

verify

revise

interconnect

storedescribe

inquiry phase transformation phase storage phase

de-contexualization re-contexualizationstart

end


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Implications on Reuse Support Systems

1. Retrieval in context:– Current authoring context should be taken into account when querying

a repository „compatibility“ of contexts– Retrieval results should be presented in tandem with their previous use

contexts

2. Decontextualization on demand:– Identification and Classification of context dependent content– Evaluation of dependencies between fragments of learning content





4. retain


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Implications on Reuse Support Systems

• 3. Recontextualization: Adaptation and Integration – Recognition of unsatisfied external context dependencies– Automatic adaptation and interconnection

• 4. Repository: Change management– Management of variants– Propagation and integration of changes– Copyright management





4. retain


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Our Research Focus: Recognition of Unsatisfied Context Dependencies

• Are there dangling „semantic“ references within the document?

Specification and verification of „semantic“ references within a learning document

• Does the document as a whole (still) meet the conventions and criteria of the authoring context?

Specification and verification of structural „didactic“ properties of a learning document

After integration of a fragment into a new document:

A‘

Doc B

A‘

Doc A

Source Context

conventions & criteria A

Target Context

conventions & criteria B

? ?


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Methods and Conceptual Framework

• Representation of knowledge about the content– topics and their relationships– didactic structure of the content

Metadata-Indexing and Ontologies (RDF + OWL)

• Specification and verification of „semantic“ references

Description Logics and DL-based Reasoning

• Specification and verification of properties of the didactic structure:

???


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Context Aware Resource of Learning Resources - Summary

• What is context?– internal / external

• In which aspects is learning content context dependent?– interconnection / specilization

• Can context dependency be avoided?– pedagogic requirement

• How does context dependency affect reuse?– de- and recontextualization

processes

• Can we support reuse of contexualized learning content?– ???

• Required: – Theory of context in e-Learning– Empirical research of reuse

processes

• Technical challenges:– Models of context and

contextualized content– Formalisms to represent and

reason about (certain) context dependencies

– Handling of incompleteness and fuzziness

– Handling of changes and variants

– Practicability: overhead vs. benefit


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Further Information

• Franz Weitl, Rudolf Kammerl, Monica Göstl: Context aware Reuse of Learning Resources. In: Proceedings of ED-MEDIA 2004, World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia & Telecommunications, Lugano, Switzerland, 2004

• http://im.uni-passau.de

• http://lrs2.fmi.uni-passau.de/online/

• [email protected]

context aware reuse of learning resources franz weitl, burkhard freitag, rudolf kammerl, monica...

Documents

universitt passau

learning document

content context dependent

talk reuse of learning

course slide

context dependency

definition of context

deonline slide