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International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, Vol XXXV, Part B6. Istanbul 2004
Look: The 'L' allows the students to review examples or
samples that further explain what is being taught in this lesson.
It defines the main points made in the clarify part through
illustrations, animations, videos, etc.
Act: The 'A' is to encourage the students to practice what has
just been learned. It is equivalent to the classical lab exercises
and hands-on workshops. It is an important integrative part of
the on-line learning course as it actively engages the students
and may allow to do group work and share work between
students.
Self Assessment: The 'S' gives the students the opportunity to
test for themselves what they have learned. It is important that
this section also includes automated (e.g. for quizzes) or manual
(e.g. peer reviews or tutor) feedback.
Summary: The second 'S' stands for the final part of the lesson
which summarizes and concludes. It reiterates the main points
of the lesson and may also give further expectations.
Qt
These main elements of ECLASS are further subdivided to
allow the inclusion of, for example, text, tables or multimedia
elements. These elements have been developed adapting parts
of the LMML (Learning Material Markup Language)
framework (LMML 2004).
The GITTA Case Studies follow a specific case study structure
which is not explained here. They present a more or less real
world problem to students and make available background
information and spatial data. There is not a single correct
solution but the solution finding skills of the students are
trained.
4. TECHNOLOGY
The structure described above allows to create learning material
that is flexible in use. However, a way needs to be found how
this structure can be kept as flexible and nevertheless strict in
practice. Thinking about 11 different partners developing
content decentrally makes one wonder how a similar look and
feel for all the materials can be realised.
After an evaluation of different commercial and OpenSource e-
learning platforms it has been found that none of them were
able to satisfy the demands. The main shortcomings are the lack
of a formal content model and the inflexible and typically
proprietary content storage. Additionally, the process of
creating the learning material shall be kept as simple as
possible.
Based on these results it was decided to develop a model-based
content structure based on XML. This decision was influenced
by the considerable experience of several GITTA members in
the platform-independent, model-based modelling and
exchange of spatial data.
4.1 GITTA XML Structure
GITTA employs the open standard XML and its co-standards to
implement the didactical structure outlined above. The project
benefits from the use of XML technology as a base for the
technical implementation in a number of ways. XML is
software and hardware independent and allows the enforcement
of the content model through XML validation tools without a
need for lengthy content development manuals. Therefore, the
decentralised development of content is made easier and more
consistent. Additionally, the materials are independent of a
specific e-learning platform but can, nevertheless, be used in
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combination with a e-learning platform like, for example
WebCT.
As XML is a Markup Language it has been possible to add
additional information to a GITTA lesson in form of metadata
information. These information help the tutors when assembling
a course out of different lessons.
4.2 Storage and Presentation
All the decentrally developed learning materials are stored on
one central server using the publishing framework Cocoon (The
Apache Cocoon Project 2003). Cocoon employs the idea of
separating logic, content and presentation.
Logic: The logic are the instructions for Cocoon how to handle,
for example, the different files, the presentation, the navigation
on the created HTML pages, etc.
Content: The content is all the developed learning materials
stored in files and folders. Each e-learning lessons consists of a
single XML file. It contains all the text information and
references to multimedia or other additional files which are
stored in designated folders.
Presentation: The presentation are the XSLT (Extensible
Stylesheet Language Transformation) files and instructions for
the on-the-fly transformation of the XML content to different
presentation formats like HTML or PDF.
As the GITTA structure does not include student administration
the course management system WebCT is used for student
access to the learning materials. WebCT provides a complete
set of teaching and learning tools for course development,
delivery and administration. GITTA uses WebCT for student
administration, the display of content stored on the Cocoon
server, its the discussion board and quizzing functionality.
However, GITTA is not tied to this specific e-learning platform
but could easily be used in combination with another system.
Project- and IT- Coordination
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Figure 5. Technical Implementation of GITTA
Through the consequent use of XML technology it is made sure
that the learning material is sustainable and that it can easily be
adapted to different layouts and to future usage scenarios.
4.3 ELML - eLesson Modelling Language
At the time of writing the GITTA XML structure is revised on
behalf of the SVC Mandate Edutech. The improved GITTA
XML structure, now named ELML - eLesson Modelling
Language, will then be available together with a documentation
and example data for free use and adaptation for other e-
learning projects.
