Web-based Instruction - Annotations |
In 1998 we are emerging from the pioneer stage into the explosive portion of the growth curve. There are two dominant technological forces - metadata, which is a form of standardization and which parallels standardization in other areas such as education and information technology (see Standards-based Education, Open Standards and Distributed Learning for a presentation on this theme), and databased backed Web sites, which are sites that extract information from databases and insert the information into templates at the time a Web page is requested.
On the economic front, there is both fragmentation and a move towards conglomeration in the instructional management market.
As explained in the presentation, metadata is "data about data". It can be semantic, syntactic, or both. Metadata was anticipated with the <meta> tag in HTML and it has always been possible to insert metadata for use by search engines using this tag. But metadata goes well beyond that - it is the glue that allows interoperability of component applications, reusability of content, and far more sophisticated searching than current search engines support.
There have been, unfortunately, many competing sets of metadata standards. Among the major ones are the "Dublin Core" (developed by an international consortium of primarily digital library interests), the IEEE P1484 working group, and the AICC (Aviation Industry CBT Committee), and the Instructional Management System project which was started by the National Learning Infrastructure Initiative project which is part of Educom. The IMS project has achieved convergence among many of the metadata standards and enjoys widespread support among North American academic and corporate developers aiming at the academic side of Web pedagogy. AICC being pushed by a number of CBT companies. Asymetrix, for example, is making their products compliant with BOTH sets of standards.
The presentation contains links to the IMS project site.
Database backed Web sites are becoming quite common - you are using one any time your URL has the extension .asp or .cfm for example. The book on this subject is Database Backed Web Sites by Phillip Greenspun. An on-line version (with an offensive title - be forewarned) is available at http://photo.net/wtr/dead-trees/.
We are designing all of our major course projects using databased sites these days, but that involves another layer of programming and organization. The advantages are that we can build template pages and use dynamic references instead of static material. Thus if we are working with a particular text as a reference, we can include the references symbolically, indexed by content, so that changing texts involves only creating a new mapping between content and section or page numbers, not rewriting the entire site. Databases and middleware can also handle user authentication and facilitate customization by individual instructors.
In some sense, almost every course management system which uses a database to store student information (ID's, test scores, progress markers ...) is a databased site. Once information on the state of a student is available, links and pages can be made to depend on that state. This is what is known as adaptivity. The presentation contains some links which demonstrate how this can work. The methods used there are two years old and primitive by today's standards, but the effect is clear.
The academic market represents, according to figures I heard over a year ago, less than one-third of the post-secondary education market. Corporate training is the largest chunk. There, what we call instructional management systems goes under the name of "Computer-based Training" or CBT. While ostensibly similar in purpose, CBT's are engendered by a different culture. I recently found the following passage in a whitepaper by Macromedia Inc. explaining the virtues of CBT (and in particular their product Pathware):
CBT replicates exact copies of training like organisms transmit genetic code through DNA. The printing press slashed labor replication costs by 98%; instructor-led training is being changed in the same way. In addition to zeroing replication costs, electronic CBT distribution eliminates distribution costs. With CBT, lesson quality is controlled and trainers concentrate on improving course content, not delivering it. Another CBT advantage is in enabling detailed, interactive learning with each student, which increases and speeds retention. Additionally, the self-paced aspect adjusts to slow and fast learners. While instructor-led training depends upon the rare charisma of a dynamic teacher, CBT can capture this rare talent and replicate it infinitely at no marginal cost. |
(The bold part is in on the presentation slide)
In reviewing the product Librarian by Asymetrix, which is primarily aimed at corporate training, I discovered that where academic management systems set up classes with students and professors, Librarian views the world as consisting of employees assigned to projects and subprojects. This is indicative of cultural differences. I believe we have a lot to gain by taking a multicultural approach and that we should attempt to embrace and take advantage of the diversity that is present, but there is great need on both sides for some sensitivity training.
In 1997 several of us recognized the need to bring together academic and corporate creators of both general and specialized course management software for the purpose of forming coalitions. A company like IBM has several divisions working on Web- or CD-ROM-based educational projects, and even within the company there is little communication and cross-germination. The "core competencies" of academic developers, who may have a good handle on pedagogic issues, are different from and complementary to those of a company that makes Student Information Systems (like PeopleSoft or SCT (Banner)) or those of a database manufacturer or CBT company.
Coalitions are starting to form across the industry and to some extent across academia, although I have seen less evidence of the latter than the former. My "evidence" is largely anecdotal and haphazard, though.
As an advertisement: we are putting together a one-day working session to bring together the groups mentioned above. This will be run as part of the AACE WebNet'98 conference. The date is November 8, 1998, and the place is Orlando, Florida. See http://www.aace.org/conf/webnet/seminar.htm.
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