Quality online cramming
The Internet offers a virtual equivalent for almost every area of real life. Alongside retailers, banks and auction houses, entire universities and institutes of continuing education can be found online. E-learning permits self-study, irrespective of place and time, as well as learning in virtual classrooms. For companies wishing to offer their employees further training, it saves time and money. Instead of traveling to courses, participants learn in front of the monitor. However, there is frequently a lack of direct feedback from tutors, or the software breaks down, or interaction between participants is confined to chat rooms. Since April 2001, methods of improving the quality of e-learning through collaborative elements have been under investigation as part of a three-year project named ALBA - analysis of learning software for the support and quality assurance of collaborative processes in training and education. Sponsored by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research BMBF, ALBA is coordinated by the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Publication and Information Systems IPSI. Project partners are the big business software manufacturer SAP AG, and a career center run by the German Christian youth association CJD. In their e-learning courses, the researchers evaluate the participants learning style and media skills, the course unit structure and degree of learning success. The ALBA partners are also developing new concepts and software for collaborative e-learning, where trainees work online at fixed times, split into small groups. To ensure that interaction between participants consists of more than just random chat sessions, the researchers test various software interfaces which structure the course. The predictability of the learning process is crucial for us, explains Dr. Stefan Münzer, project manager at the IPSI. For example, individual groups are assigned tasks or roles. Two students work and two others observe them. The long-term aim is to develop a quality suite that provides educational colleges and training institutes with guidelines and software tools to optimize and assure the quality of e-learning programs. Through ALBA, we can find out where we can still make improvements and receive useful feedback from tutors and students, summarizes Jürgen Ruff of the SAP University, where the software manufacturer trains its staff. The IPSI is presenting the project at the Learntec trade show in Karlsruhe from February 4 to 7, at Stand 352 in the Gartenhalle. For further information:,Dr. Stefan Munzer ,Telefon: +49 61 51 / 8 69-9 44 ,Fax: +49 61 51 / 8 69-9 63 ,E-mail: muenzer@ipsi.fraunhofer.de Fraunhofer-Institut fur Integrierte Publikations- und Informationssysteme IPSI ,Dolivostra?e 15 ,D-64293 Darmstadt ,http://www.ipsi.fraunhofer.de/ Links: ,IPSI: ALBA ,http://www.1a-alba.de/ IPSI: Pressemitteilung ,http://ipsi.fhg.de/ipsi/press/press_releases/2002/021125alba.html Messe Learntec ,http://www.learntec.de/
Countries
Germany