Learning Content Production : Acquisition , Structuring , Representation , and Management ( paper )

This paper offers a pragmatic approach to the production of learning content. A production-cycle for learning content consists of four activities: acquisition, structuring, representation, and management. Based on our experience in a postgraduate educational program, employing web-based courseware, we show the challenges of and indicate solution strategies for each of these activities. Based on the generalized language XML, the underlying activity of the project is the development of a dynamic Learning Content Management System (dLCMS). The dLCMS employs a set of so-called learning objects. Learning objects are reusable components that can be combined in different ways to produce new courseware. Drawing on domain-specific knowledge and employing the dLCMS, we explore ways to integrate such learning objects into efficient and user-friendly educational multimedia. Introduction In the context of a distance-learning project called VIL, we analyze and suggest strategies for the acquisition, structuring, representation, and management of learning content. The analyses and strategies suggested are based on our experience in defining and realizing the VIL project. The project puts to work a web-based courseware for a postgraduate educational program in Occupational Health and is a complement to classroom teaching and on-the-job training. The aim of the VIL project is: i) easy access to learning material for academic professionals from different geo-cultural parts of Switzerland (the end-users), ii) high content attainability of basic and problem-orientated knowledge, iii) flexible support of different learning strategies, iv) careful integration of a CSCW groupware for collaborative learning, Tele-Tutoring and communication between students, and v) consistent quality assessment of the distance education. Whereas we study an application for a postgraduate distance-learning program, we believe that the strategies offered have general applicability to the production of learning content. In the VIL project, we examined alternative ways for rapid low-cost production of new courseware and found an answer in the so-called learning objects [1]. These are reusable components that can be recombined in multiple ways to produce new courseware. To benefit from the full potential of learning objects, such as reusability, component categorization, and high levels of interactivity, we chose not to use a standard authoring tool. Instead, we decided to develop a proprietary dynamic Learning Content Management System (dLCMS). For each of the activities in content production – acquisition, structuring, representation, and management – we next describe prevalent challenges and suggest solution strategies. For the first two activities – acquisition and structuring – our work is in a more mature state than for the third activity – representation. For the fourth activity – management – our work is mainly oriented towards the practical realization of a dLCMS. As our process is still an ongoing one, with a shared focus on representation and on management, we are still not able to draw a clear line between these two activities. The body of this paper offers a four-step production-cycle ordered by the activities of content production. Step 1: Acquisition The postgraduate distance learning program is interdisciplinary and draws on teachers from professions such as medicine, psychology, economics, social and natural sciences, lecturing in German, French, and English language. According to their individual teaching style, they employ material reaching from paper-copies to PowerPoint presentations. In a first step, the challenge was to acquire appropriate learning material from each individual teacher [2]. Hence, we suggest the following strategy (see also Fig. 1):