Learning Technology Thrust
The goal of the Learning Technology (LT)
Thrust is to provide the technologies needed to advance the state of the art
in bioengineering education in particular, and education and training in
general. The LT Thrust works to achieve this grand goal through (a)
coordinated development or acquisition of tools and infrastructures to
support the entire process of learning environment development, (b) the
design and implementation of interactive, pedagogically sound,
technology-based content, and (c) the management and deployment of that
content in courses and curricula.
The LT Thrust efforts derive from the
biggest obstacles that stand in the way of developing and delivering modules
and courses in bioengineering based on the principles of learning described
in How People Learn. These obstacles range from
construction of educational content to delivery. They include the
following:
(a) Designing
challenge-based courses is hard. Faculty are accustomed to constructing
syllabi, lectures and quizzes, not complex, pedagogically-rich challenges.
(b) Delivering challenge-based courses is
hard. Students working through challenges need far more individualized
tracking and feedback than students working through typical homework
assignment sequences. Existing learning management systems (e.g., WebCT,
Blackboard) provide little or no support for team-based collaborative
projects, multimedia portfolios, assessment-based module selection, and
other issues.
(c) Tools for students in challenge-based
courses are lacking. Common authoring systems (e.g., Dreamweaver, Director,
Authorware) do not help authors provide students with persistent structured
portfolios, argument construction tools, complex state-based action
feedback, complex coaching and critiquing rules, and other needed systems.
(d) Deploying client-server cross-platform
web-based technologies is highly technical and time-consuming. Installing,
configuring and maintaining secure, scalable, server-side software, and
supporting multi-platform web clients and multimedia applications is not for
the faint of heart.
In the first three
years we have begun a process aimed at overcoming and removing these
barriers through three main activities: Learning Tool Development (LTD),
Courseware Authoring Technology and Architecture (CATA), and technical
support (VECTR).
The primary LT Thrust efforts addressing the above
obstacles are as follows:
(b) The Courseware Authoring Technology
and Architecture (CATA) effort has developed and pilot-tested the Courseware
Authoring and Packaging Environment (CAPE) for constructing courses from
modules and an experimental learning management system (eLMS) for delivering
them.
(c) A VaNTH-wide project (VECTR) has been
set up to provide hosting and technical support for VaNTH tools.
Together
these efforts address VaNTH needs from construction to delivery. Year 3
marked the beginnings of the system-level use of the LT tools and
infrastructure. Pilot projects in course development and deployment began,
and two new challenge-based course modules, with associated run-time
environment shells and authoring tools were begun. This emphasis on
deployment, along with continued substantial development, aligns closely
with the key themes articulated in the ERC's strategic vision.
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