e-learning: module 3 (complete)

7/24/2019 E-learning: MODULE 3 (Complete)

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MODULE 3

MANAGEMENT

One can envision e-learning as a universe comprising three basic elements

o

Content

o Technology

o Services

As in the case of conventional learning, content forms the backbone of e-learning system. The

technology forms the rider on which the content flows and the service is the support system that

lends a human touch to the process of learning via the internet.

1. CONTENT

E-CONTENT

Over the years as we have transited into the new economy, significant changes have occurred in

the way people learn. With so much information to manage, it became increasingly complex for

organizations to store and retrieve information. In order to ensure that decision-makers reach

information quickly and on time, the manner in which the information was presented thus went

through a metamorphosis. This metamorphosis is precisely what is happening with the e-learning

content too.

The first wave of learning content was focused towards mere documentation. Having realized that

textual documentation was not really effective for imparting learning, especially for the GUI-based

application; the proponents of e-learning shifted their focus towards a more media-intensive

learning content. This worked well for imparting skills around applications such as the use of word

Help

Documentation

Media-Intensive

CD-based Training

Web-based Training,

CD to Internet

e-Learning

Extending to KM

1970s 1980s 1990s 2000

Fig: Metamorphosis of e-learning content

Content

TechnologyServices


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processor and handling conceptual content where the essence was on how to instead of what

and when to. Post Internet boom, the media intensive training has given way to web-based

training content. The focus is now on converting the existing CD-based training content for online

delivery and developing new online content keeping in mind the strength and weakness of this new

delivery medium.

Just-enough, Just-in-time content

Content vendors are being looked upon now to provide just-in time, just-enough content. The

just-in-time content is delivered to executives when required, close to the point of application of

learning. In addition to being provided close to the point of application , content is chunked in

small learning units for maximum retention and effectiveness.

The content itself needs to be structured in small learning units to be contextually sensitive for

the learner. In order to facilitate the building of a flexible content that can be interconnected to

form a logical chunk, content needs to be made granular and re-usable.

Re-usable learning unit is a granular, reusable chunk of content that can stand alone as a piece

of content item. Various learning units such as these can be interconnected with each other to a

topical unit that has a collection of content, practice items and summary based on a common

learning objective.

Fig: Structure of content

Traditional training material has a large structure and duration that is difficult to re-design into

searchable self-paced learning units. In order to ensure that the self-paced learning is met and that

LU LU LU

Topical Unit

Learning

Units

LU

LU

LU


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the power and limitations of delivery platform are effectively drawn up, the content needs to be

designed, developed and published in a different way

Content design

A topical learning unit is developed through a collection of overview , summary, test items and

reusable learning units. Making all learning units concise for every context may not be truly

realistic. Providing completely contextual content may also hinder innovation by the learners

during application.

A good way to handle reusability is to wrap the context-driven overview, summary and

assessments around a collection of reusable learning units. Under such scenario, the reusable core

content gets encapsulated within the learner context through specific overview, summary and

measurement.

Fig: Context-driven overview, summary and assessments

Content Publishing and Usability

From the learners perspective, the learning unit can be taken as a stand along job aid for just-

in-time performance support. Learning units can be tagged to a set of data called metadata for

quickly finding, filtering and selecting the relevant content. Metadatais a set of information about

the content something like labels. Even for the technology to combine learning units into a

Pre-Assessment

Post-Assessment

Overview

Summary

LU

LULU

LU

LU


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topical learning unit automatically, it needs to know what each learning unit contains. To do so

metadata can be used.

Learners can take a collection of learning units, a complete topical unit for just-in-case learning

. Depending on the results of the pre-assessment attached with each learning unit, learners will be

served a learning plan specific to the area that needs remedy.

Again in this case, the smaller the size of the content, the more specific could be the test items

used to measure a particular skill. As a result, organisation will be able to manage their training

content much more effectively.

Metadata

Metadata has two parts:

o

Objective

o Subjective

Objective metadata provides factual information about the content, most of which is usually

generated. Objective metadata includes information such as authors name, date, unique

identification number and the owner.

Subjective metadata is attributed by the actual context of the content

Content personalization

One of the major advantage of having small, bit-sized learning units is that personalisation. As

the size of learning unit in terms of the content reduces , it becomes easy to provide specific rather

than generic metadata for the learning units. This specific metadata becomes a highly useful feature

for providing personalised content.

On the basis of the search criteria entered or through their pre-defined preferences, users can

receive personalised content with a high degree of context sensitivity

Content delivery mechanism

Content in the e-learning domain can be broadly categorised into three forms

Computer based content (CBC)

Web based content (WBC)

Web based instructor led content(WILC)


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1. Computer Based Content (CBC)

o A CBC is a mix of text and media content that fully exploits the high-end desktop in the

market today.

o In its initial application, CBC was found to be extremely effective in handling content areas

such as fixing a car or operating a crane. In addition to the instructions provided as text on the

screen or delivered through audio, an actual video of an expert fixing a car or an expert

operator working on the crane operation, can be included in the training.

o One area that has been extremely receptive to CBC has been that of IT professionals wanting

to learn about new software or technology.

o CBC has proved to be an effective solution for such professionals as it allows them to learn at

their own pace without relying on the instructor.

o

Continues to be preferred choice for stand-alone learning

2. Webbased Content (WBC)

o Content itself is not sufficient to impart learning. Learning is a function of content and

experiential sharing around the content that was being ignored in computer-based content.

o The web provided a platform to the content providers from where distribution could be easily

controlled. Instead of sending out versions of content in different CDs each time the content

was changed, content developers were able to quickly distribute the changed content by

simply updating it on the point of delivery on the web.

o In addition to handling updates, the web-based content also proved effective in reaching out to

larger audiences. Web-based content has filled the gap rampant in computer-based stand-

alone content, by connecting communities of learners via the Internet.

3. Web based Instructor Led content(WILC)

o Despite the internet boom and the extensive availability of large amount of content over the

web, most popular training method is instructor-led as it offers more interactivity and

collaboration

o It is deployed through software such as Centra and WebX, WILC can be delivered to learners

at remote locations and help to bring them together in a virtual class with multiple learners

and instructors. Just as in a classroom, instructors here hold the sessions on-line and learners


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confer with one another or raise hands to ask the instructors a question or to share a

comment with the rest of the class.

o WILC also enables:

Application Sharing: This enables both instructors and learners to share live applications with

all the learners. The instructor can pass the control of application to any student.

Whiteboard sharing: Instructors and learners can emphasize a particular part on the screen

through freehand drawing or shapes that can be viewed by the entire class.

Streaming of audio or video: Live or pre-recorded audio or video can be played to the entire

class.

Although it might have its limitations of narrow band, web based learning has by and large

emerged as a preferred way of learning primarily because of its strong capability to link knowledge

seekers and knowledge providers

Educational institutions are using the web as a medium to provide distance learning and to

extend their brand of education beyond boundaries. For corporate, web based content is emerging

as an ideal medium to communicate, control, share and accumulate (knowledge) in a global

economy.

Each delivery mechanism has its advantages and disadvantages. More than the technology ,

learning need is the one that defines the delivery mechanism. Eg: Taking advantage of its reach,

WBC should be used in situations where content/updated content needs to be presented at short

notice to a highly disbursed audience. WILC could work well in situations such as the worldwide

launch of a product where training needs to be imparted to geographically scattered audience

groups at the same time.

DYNAMIC CONTENT

Another advantage offered by the web is that of collaboration and connecting people. Some of the

biggest names in the Internet such as Gmail for e-mail, e-bay for online auction and innumerable

list groups thrive on communities and collaboration between individuals.

In e-learning, learners can take advantage of this feature and share their opinion and seek a

perspective of other learners in the community.

The context of opinions and perspectives shared in the community may either be the content in the

learning unit that is currently being accessed by all the learners or purely experiential sharing from


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daily lives such as: What are your views on the current business environment?. Figure below

illustrates the context of opinions and perspectives in the community.

Fig: Context of opinions and perspectives in the community

In addition to sharing between learners, the collaborative form of learning also connects the

learners with experts, online. Usually the interaction between the learner and expert revolves

around the content and its application by the learners.

Fig: Interaction between learners and experts

In either of these cases-sharing among learners or discussions between learners and experts- the

output is the creation of dynamic content. In the case of sharing amongst learners, dynamic

content results in the form of discussion threads with loads of perspectives. If moderated well, the

dynamic content generated in peer discussion could be of extremely high value. For instance, a

moderated discussion of sales force on the new sales strategy of an organization could provide the

latter with a first-hand impression of the market, which in turn, may result in change or tweaking

of the strategy to a re-alignment with the market scenario.

The discussions need not be limited only to a specific group. Such discussions can be arranged for

cross functional group say between the product development and marketing departments. A

moderated discussion between the product and marketing group could provide both the sides with

immense information about the product and the market, thus bridging the gap between the

productions and marketing functions.

The collaboration between the learner and experts generates dynamic content in the form of expert

answers to both known and unknown problems. This not only allows learners to resolve their

Ask and clarify Content Driven Expert Answer

Share and Seek

Content Driven

Experience Driven

Discussion Threads

Discussion Threads


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queries but also enables the organization concerned to find an effective way of ensuring that

learners have a window to seek help from whenever required. By providing such a window,

organizations ensure that learners become competent with expert support, and share with experts

some of the issues that may not be known to other learners or even the expert. For instance, expert

opinion can be used to connect the sales person selling highly complex products with the

appropriate product specialist in the organization, which would help reduce the time taken to solve

customer queries and also ensure customer satisfaction. The interaction between the learner and

experts could result in the generation of FAQs that could be of great value in managing expert

knowledge.

The development and management of new content is a manual process as it involves an intelligent

filtering out of the noise generated as a result of collaboration. Such a distillation of content

requires an appropriate deployment of services.

TRENDS

Biggest issues associated with e-learning is high drop-out rate. Drop-out is because of the lack of

bandwidth due to which learners have to wait for long durations to access e-learning content which

leaves them de-motivated enough to never return again. Even-though technology is a show-stopper,

the learners lack of motivation has more to do with the content rather than downloading time. Eg:

news channel websites or Sports information sites :- Motivation to access these sites is high even if

there is bandwidth problems. So the content should be able to gain attention even if there is bandwidthproblem. So different trends are evolving. The trends in e-learning content are as follows:

1. The Content Pull

To take maximum advantage of the speed provided by the technology, e-learning content will be

broken down into bit-size. Learners in such a scenario will have the flexibility to choose content

as per their individual pace and time constraints.

Building a strong tie-up with business imperatives will also enable a strong knowledge pull from

the content. Knowing that learning could impact their business performance substantially,

learners will be motivated to use the e-learning content much more than they are today.

In addition, the availability of bit-sized content on demand will also result in the reduction of

drop-out rate that is experienced in e-learning today. In a nutshell, learning content would

become a key puller for learners to embrace e-learning.


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Learning content suffers from ageing process and so organizations may find it risky to spend

time and effort in developing new content all the time. In such a scenario, organizations would

find it easy to record the experts in action and pump the content on-line, real-time or can it for

web-cast at a later date. Doing so will not only save incredible development costs for the

organizations but will also allow a turnaround in the content on real-time basis without making it

go through the long cycle of content development.

2. Content: Shared and Scalable

With more people collaborating directly, e-learning will create, as its bye-product, a lot of

dynamic content. Users, of their own volition, will be able to share their knowledge or wisdom

with each other or others in the communities of common interests. The knowledge thus shared

will spawn better understanding leaving in its wake a lot of dynamic content.

Based on the learners needs and gaps in understanding, content will scale in-depth accordingly.For instance, starting from the basic or fundamental topics, the content will scale unto advance

topics as the learners quest for knowledge grows.

Rather than being pre-sequenced before delivery, the content in future will be dynamically

assembled in small modules on the basis of the needs of the learner.

3. Content: Just in time

To be delivered just-in-time, the content first needs to become just-enough. The just-enough

content in this case would be synonymous with one-page knowledge pieces that would look

similar to the news pages available on sites such as cnn.com.

Today, the lowest assignable unit is usually a topic that consists of multiple pages. Tomorrow, a

single page would be an assignable learning unit. As a result, it would become easier for learners

to assemble the content as per their learning needs. In addition, it would become easy for content

providers to update information and at the same time, tag the knowledge pieces for better

reusability.

4. Content: Share as you shall seek

The current wave of e-learning is largely focusing on eContent. However, the success and

growth of e-learning in the future rests more on the individuals capacities to share and

contribute to the content. Even today and more so in the future, the role of e-learning will be to

provide an environment where learners can interact with a large set of fellow learners, experts

and even with cross-functional audiences to create a large pool of knowledge.


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The overall change in the e-learning domain will ensure that the knowledge is shared, due to the

following reasons:

o With a high level of personalization of content, learners will have more time to spend interacting

than receiving the content.

o

The fear to share because of the lack of knowledge will be taken care of by just-in-time content

and community learning. Just-in-time learning will provide fundamental knowledge to learners

to share whereas peer-to-peer pressure in communities will motivate the learners to show their

competence through knowledge sharing.

5. Smart Product-Smart Content

Smart products, as they are known, will act as a source of personalization and push relevant

learning content to the corporate learners. For instance, a smart refrigerator, one of the smart

products in the market today, is already capable of monitoring the familys consumption of milkand order a replacement carton to the preferred dealer before the folks run out of milk.

Using this information from the smart products, the new digital system can collect, analyze and

learn about product usage and customer needs. A regular update can then be sent to the

executives in the organization to inform them about what their customer needs. This not only

includes the refurbishment of consumables such as milk but also knowledge about when an

equipment supplied by the company needs maintenance or when a part needs to be replaced and

more importantly, how to operate the equipment.

2. SERVICES

The current economy is referred to as service economy primarily because service acts as the key

differentiator between the competitors. Similarly the service component in the e-learning tripod is also

a source of competitive advantage for organisations. In the new economy, learning must be updated

every day , every moment in order to enable organisations to remain competitive.

The services component of e-learning ensures that content keeps pace with the dynamics of the

organisations by constantly enabling the creation of new content over the static content. Essentially

services can be slotted into the following three categories

Expert service

Information search service

Knowledge creation service


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1. EXPERT SERVICE

As organizations become learner, they may or may not have experts in-house, especially in non-

core businesses, but may yet want to utilize their potential and learn from them. As the pie of

non-core business increases due to the convergence of businesses, thanks mainly to the Internet

and e-business, organizations can ill-afford not to connect with thye specialist, whether in-house

or external. In both the cases, organizations can turn to service providers in the e-Learning space

for expert services

Organizations that do not have experts in-house or are not willing to have them on-board full-

time, can tap into expert services provided by service providers. The service providers in such a

situation play the role of a middle-man and create a business-to-business expert marketplace

wherein expertise can be battered via the Internet.

In the business-to-business marketplace, the arbitrator brings experts together virtually at a singleplace and connects the organization with a pool of experts on a required area or function.

Organizations can then take the opinions of various experts based in remote locations and

upgrade their knowledge.

The service providers in the e-Learning domain assimilate the knowledge by recording the

problems and solutions discussed by the experts during the course of fault rectification. The

recorded content is then tagged appropriately with the learning content on equipment

maintenance and troubleshooting and the knowledge base is updated. When a new recruit joins

the drilling operations, he goes on the job, fully aware of the latest problems and their solutions.

The expert-based service therefore allows the deployment of expert communities whereby

organizations connect with the experts to share problems and unravel the solutions. Later, these

solutions are fed back into the static learning content as FAQs so that the content is updated with

a new situation that was previously not covered in the static content.

2. INFORMATION SEARCH SERVICE

Today, when large data repositories exist within and outside organizations, the problem is not as

much lack of information as the excess of information. While at the operational level, its the

content that matters, as we move up the organizational chain, decision-makers are interested in

contextual information rather than in the learning content.

The decision-makers need context-sensitive information served to them on demand rather than

having to search for it. With so many resources available in internal and external knowledge


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repositories, using a search engine to get information links is as good as not getting information at

all, the reason being that any search in the knowledge repository usually yields more than 100

results. Going through each one of them to get access to the information that is contextually

correct, is extremely time-consuming, which an executive may not be able to afford. This is

where information search services from the service provider in the e-Learning domain can help.

The information search service accesses the content available in the internal and external

knowledge base, intelligently links contextual pieces and serves the content to the decision-

makers, on demand. For instance, if a request for competitive information is submitted,

depending upon the context established by the decision-makers, infosearchers can scan the

environment for both current and probable competitors. Infosearchers thus help in providing

context to the content and packaging it together with relevant pieces that may or may not connect

otherwise.

For instance, in the case of gathering competitive information, an infosearcher may connect a

content piece on upcoming technology that may change the competitive scenario in the industry,

whereas the search engines currently will not be able to provide such a service via technology.

\In the process of infosearching on a specific context, a lot of new contextually sensitive content

is created from the content already existing in internal and external knowledge repositories. This

contextually sensitive content is then archived in the knowledge repository, ensuring constant

updating of the existing static content.

3.

KNOWLEDGE CREATION SERVICE

During the course of collaborations between them, both learners as well as experts share their

tacit knowledge or what is also known as the intellect. This tacit knowledge is shared in the

context of a particular content or a piece of information and results in the creation of further

enriched content known as the dynamic content. Services play a key role not only in the creation

of dynamic content but also helps in managing and formalizing this dynamic content.

Collaboration can be done through two modes- asynchronous and synchronous. Asynchronous

modes such as discussion forums and list server communities allow individuals to post their

perspectives, thoughts and learning in the form of messages. These messages lead to threads of

discussions that may contain newer ideas and perspectives on and around the content. Individuals

respond to a topic with their opinions or comments. This widespread sharing of ideas, solutions,


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counter-arguments, and counter-solutions leads to the generation of a lot of content, albeit with a

lot of noise.

Synchronous modes of collaboration such as online chats, and web-based seminars or webinars

also lead to the creation of dynamic content, again with noise. Individuals chat either amongst

themselves on a given topic, situation, problem or information, or on chats organized with

experts. Chats can also be organized around generic topics such as those in case of interviews and

celebrity chats.

In both the cases, though a lot of tacit knowledge is shared, it does contain a lot of noise in the

form of unwarranted discussion. For example, in any discussion, only 20% of the total discussion

time produces the actual content, while 80% of the discussion time is taken up by noises such as

emoticons, flares and non-focused discussions.

Knowledge conversion services ensure that the noise from collaboration is separated from the realcontent and that the content is finally made available to the recipients in a usable format. As a

matter of fact, any dynamic content, or content created on the fly as in the case of expert services

or information search service, follows through the knowledge conversion services to distill the

real content from the noise.

Also ensure that the content does not suffer from something like leisure book syndrome. Any

content on the net that is not going to change with time, bears a risk of not being taken seriously

primarily because of its anytime accessibility.

By dynamically updating the content, services ensure that the eyeballs keep returning to the

content, thereby leading to learning that is truly anywhere and anytime.

3.TECHNOLOGY

Technology is to e-learning what an MCI backbone is to the Internet. But for technology two

critical features of e-learning viz. distribution and collaboration may not have been available.

The technologies used within e-learning may be segregated into the following three categories:

Authoring

Delivering

Collaboration


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1. AUTHORING

Once the instructional design for the content has been established on the basis of the audience

profile and the content type, the next step is to select the right authoring environment. This

largely depends on the learners runtime environment and the treatment required by the content.

So, for instance, if the learners authoring environment is Windows 7, it is prudent to check if the

selected authoring environment can deliver content on Windows OS.

A number of tools are available to develop content in a specific web-playable authoring

environment. Some of the popular authoring tools used for e-learning content development are:

HTML/ASP/XML, Macromedia Authorware, Macromedia Director and Java.

The selection of the authoring tool depends upon a number of factors. Some of them are as

explained below:

A.

Security of the content Before selecting an authoring environment, it is imperative to analyze the importance of the

intellectual property for organizations deploying e-learning as a business model. For instance,

an insurance institute going online may well want to spend a few extra dollars to ensure that

the content should not be easily copied. This may not be true in the case of organizations

deploying e-learning.

While Java is the most secure environment as far as content security goes, HTML is the least

secure. The content served via HTML can be easily saved onto the local disk, which puts the

intellectual material at a greater risk. The content secured through Java can be encapsulated in

an applet and hence cannot be copied as easily as the HTML content. However, making

content secure via Java may cost more than the HTML option and hence the trade-off needs to

be established prior to the selection of the authoring environment.

B. Time to Distribution

Information or content is the primary source of competitive advantage. It is therefore

imperative for the content to reach its beneficiary on time. This is especially true for new

economy darlings, such as IT or telecom, wherein the rate of obsolescence of information is

very high, and the speed of communication exponential. It thus becomes important for

organizations to distribute the content quickly.

HTML/ASP score high on flexibility to deploy the content quickly. As for industry wide web

publishing standards, numerous tools such as Front page and Dreamweaver are available.


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These tools allow the content to be saved from a document to a web-playable format for quick

and easy deployment.

The maintenance and updating of content is equally easy and faster as compared to other

authoring environments such as Macromedia Director, Macromedia Authorware or Java.

C.

Update from Information Source

While a lot of content development is being outsourced by organizations today, this may not

be the case in the near future. A typical duration of content development that is outsourced is

about 2 to 3 calendar months depending upon the duration of the content. Looking at the rate

of obsolescence and changing technologies, organizations are being forced to consider

outsourcing of content development to other vendors.

Some companies are keen to deploy a model where-in a subject matter expert prepares the

content and ports it on a platform intelligent enough to distribute the content. Their argumentis that the importance of content hinges more on mass distribution rather than on

development.

In case of such a situation, XML is the best option for an authoring environment. Given an

intuitive interface, experts input the content in a standard format. At the back-end, the content

is saved in a database. Once the expert finishes with the content input, the runtime engine

picks up the content from the database and publishes it on the web in a jiffy.

Although some of the parameters such as the number of lines of text or graphics need to be

standardized upfront, this solution is the best in cases where the content requires direct

treatment by subject matter experts and time to distribution does not allow the organization to

go through a vendor for custom content development.

D. Plug-in

Over the years, people have become fond of plug-ins, as they would allow the content

developer to dare to dream about good visuals around the area where the content was being

developed.

Not all users of content are technology-savvy. For instance, in some cases, users, especially

kids, require clear instructions to carry out specific tasks. In such a situation, giving away a

plug-in dependent content meant assuming too much of awareness on their part, which was

not correct. So, instead of using plug-ins, it was imperative for us to either deploy content


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without any plug-ins or to stay within the range of standard plug-ins already deployed by the

organization.

In addition to problems pertaining to download, plug-ins could pose a serious security threat

to the network of an organization. Most corporate are thus unwilling to use them, even if they

are supplied by default with Internet browsers.

In such a situation wherein plug-in is an issue, using Macromedia Authorware or Director is a

strict no-no. The best choice here would be to go with plain and simple HTML, the ASP,

because it is a server side and not a client side language, or Java due to its portability, could

be other serious contenders.

2. DELIVERY

Once authored and developed in an electronic form, the content needs to be packaged and delivered to

the learners. The e-Learning may be delivered either in a stand-alone mode or through an LMS.A.Stand-alone

One of the most common ways is to deliver the WBC content as a stand-alone content on a web-

site.

WBC can be hosted on a server on the Internet and individuals may be allowed to access the WBC

via a URL to the server. The content may be delivered in a stand-alone mode in case the primary

need is to distribute the content and not to track the involvement of learners in the content, or their

performance.

B.LMS

An LMS enables organizations to control and administer both the learning material and the learner

even though learning is conducted via the Internet. Although the application by different vendors

varies, an industry standard LMS usually, and must support performance improvement through a

three-step PLP cycle-starting with Pre-test, providing personalized learning prescription and

ending with Post-test.

Pre-test

Learning

Prescription

Post-

test


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i. Pre-test

Just as in the case of a classroom where the instructor uses Q&A to test the current levels of

the skills in a class, a pre-test component in the LMS administers a check on the learner to

measure the current level of skills to perform a specific task.

On the basis of the results of the pre-test, each learner is provided specific remedial learning

paths to improve his performance and attain the desired level of competency. Each path

contains a learning capsule package that may contain web-based content hosted under the

LMS.

ii. Learning Prescription

The path generated as a result of the pre-test contains a list of web-based content hosted via

the LMS. The learner is expected to go through the prescribed content. While the learners

attend to the content, their activities, such as total time spent on content and areas accessedwithin the content, are monitored.

iii. Post-test

After the completion of the prescribed learning cycle, a post-test is administered to the

learners again to re-check the level of skills on a task. This helps to re-measure the skill levels

post-learning and to compare them with the pre-test scores in order to determine the

remaining gaps.

On the basis of the new identified gap, the learning management system recreates a fresh

learning prescription and the cycle may continue till the learner is competent enough to

handle a specific task. The post-test scores can also be used later to rank learners.

3. COLLABORATION

A. VCR

The VCR, as the name suggests, provides a virtual classroom-like atmosphere, wherein the

instructor holds the class on the Internet and can virtually see and interact with the learners

attending the classroom. Learners can interact and collaborate with the rest of the class including

their peers and the instructor.


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A typical VCR experience consists of 2 components:

i. Content Push

As a part of the content push, the instructor can upload the power point presentation in a pre-

defined window. The instructor can then use the power point presentation to go through the

content as in a normal class.

ii. Interaction

The VCR offers a great intuitive interface to handle interaction during the class. The

instructor can ask a question via the voice channel and prompt the learners to choose either of

the yes/no buttons to respond to the question.

Similarly, learners can ask the instructor a question via the voice channel and the latter can

reply through the same channel. The conversation is open to other learners who can then

raise their hands to ask a question to make a comment. In addition to these aids, VCR has a strong support for collaboration in white board that can be

used to quickly share ideas or options for sharing applications.

B. Chat

Chat software is popular tool for synchronous collaboration. The chat software comes with

options to create multiple chat rooms for different kinds of synchronous discussions. The software

also allows chat administrators to save the chat as a file on the local machine of the administrator

so that the same can later be used to create dynamic content.

C. Discussion Forums

These are relatively cheap to implement and can be used to initiate asynchronous conversation

on a topic or an area of interest. Learners then respond to each others comments to create a large

conversation thread around a topic.

The e-Learning site manager can deploy these forums on the website that hosts the web

content, and can, in fact, enable a default discussion thread around every content area hosted on the

website.

LEARNING OBJECTS

Small chunks or granules of information that can be accessed individually or mixed, matched, and

glued together to form a variety of instructional courses or minicourses.

Knowledge objects are discrete items that can be integrated into lessons. Eg: a text, a graphic,

audio, video or interactive files. Learning objects are more highly developed, consisting of discrete


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lessons, learning units or courses. Eg: A video clip from a speech would be an example of a simple

knowledge object.

It becomes a learning object when a lesson is added to it. Many different learning objects can be

created from such one knowledge component. The principal benefit of learning objects comes from

their reusability. As discrete units, they can be incorporated into a wide range of course or learning

scenarios. Their standard based structure makes them available for use in many different learning

management systems and other applications.

Learning objects have the following key characteristics:

Learning objects are a new way of thinking about learning content. Traditionally, content comes

in a several hour chunk. Learning objects are much smaller units of learning, typically ranging

from 2 minutes to 15 minutes.

Are self-containedeach learning object can be taken independently

Are reusablea single learning object may be used in multiple contexts for multiple purposes

Can be aggregated learning objects can be grouped into larger collections of content,

including traditional course structures

Are tagged with metadata every learning object has descriptive information allowing it to be

easily found by a search

Educational Uses

The principal benefit of learning objects comes from their reusability.

As discrete units, they can be incorporated into a wide range of courses or learning

scenarios.


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Their standards-based structure makes them available for use in many different learning

management systems and other applications.

They also appear to be pedagogically effective.

Advantage of designing as learning objects

Flexibility. (Reusability)

If material is designed to be used in multiple contexts, it can be reused much more easily than

material that has to be rewritten for each new context.

Ease of updates, searches, and content management.

Metadata tags facilitate rapid updating, searching, and management of content by filtering and

selecting only the relevant content for a given purpose

Customization.

When individual or organizational needs require customization of content, the learning object

approach facilitates a just-in-time approach to customization.

Modular learning objects maximize the potential of software that personalizes content by

permitting the delivery and recombination of material at the level of granularity desired.

Interoperability.

The object approach allows organizations to set specifications regarding the design, development,

and presentation of learning objects based on organizational needs, while retaining interoperability

with other learning systems and contexts.

is to be reusable it should operate on a variety of hardware and software platforms.

Facilitation of competency-based learning.

The tagging of granular learning objects allow for an adaptive competency-based approach by

matching object metadata with individual competency gaps.

Increased value of content.

From a business standpoint, the value of content is increased every time it is reused. This is

reflected not only in the costs saved by avoiding new design and development time, but also in the

possibility of selling content objects or providing them to partners in more than one context.


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E-LEARNING STANDARDS

Standards can be defined as "documented agreements containing technical specifications or other

precise criteria to be used consistently as rules, guidelines, or definitions of characteristics, to

ensure that materials, products, processes and services are fit for their purpose"

In the context of e-learning technology, standards are generally developed to be used in systems

design and implementation for the purposes of ensuring interoperability, portability and

reusability.

E-learning standards refer to a system of common rules for content, authoring software and

Learning Management Systems (LMSs). Rules that specify how courses can be created and

delivered over multiple platforms so that they all operate seamlessly together. The adoption of

standards and specifications facilitates the dominance of platform independent, open technologies

and promotes user-centric e-learning systems.

Standardized technologies have several merits that protect and nurture an e-learning investment.

These are in general:

Interoperability:

Content from multiple providers can be easily disseminated within consumers and a multitude of

systems. Problems of translation, communication, information exchange are easily solved and

transparent interaction of systems is achieved.

Re-usability:

Content and code can be assembled, disassembled, and re-used quickly and easily. Additionally

content objects can be adapted and used in a context other than that originally designed.

Manageability:

Systems can track the appropriate information about the learner and the content. Learners

profiles, educational target and content speak the same language so it is easier to find, manage

and assembly the right stuff for each case.

Accessibility:

A learner can access the appropriate content at the appropriate time on the appropriate device.

Content warehouses can be developed and become available to amateurs or professionals that use

any application based on the common standards.


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Durability:

Content is produced once and transplanted many times in different platforms and systems with

minimum effort. Buyers are not "trapped" by a particular vendor's proprietary learning technology

and their investments become permanent and adverse to risk.

Scalability:

Learning technologies can be expanded in functionality in order to serve broader populations and

organizational purposes. An organizations return on investment in e-Learning products can

increase if they can be leveraged beyond their original scope

Currently, e-learning standards are being developed by four main organizations: AICC, IEEE,

IMS, and ADL.

Steps for establishing e-learning standards

1.Specification

Co-operating organizations should first define the tasks they carry through the learning process

and the respective needs for standards. The requirements analysis is followed by an in-depth

description of the e-learning process workflow.

2.Validation

Based on the market and workflow analysis performed in the first step and on the suggested

specifications, vendors develop new products that incorporate the new requirements. They initiate

pilot programs that test the effectiveness and usability of the new products, and establish test-beds

for validating their conformance to the specifications. Products that fail the tests are abandoned,and similarly specifications that do not cover user needs are reformed.The integration and

interoperability of potential standards is first priority during the validation process.

The output of the validation step comprises many reference models which show how different

specifications and standards work together to support a complete e-learning environment.


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3. Standardization

The third step comprises:

a) the refinement of specifications in order to avoid repetitions, to become concrete and clear to

users,

b) the consolidation of competing efforts into a single output,

c) the clarification of conformance requirements in order to avoid misunderstandings and

incompatibilities,

d) the official recognition of standards by international organizations and committees.

It is important to clearly distinguish between a specification, which is an evolving work in

progress, in which many individuals and organizations may offer their recommendations, and an

accredited standard, which is ideally based on actual implementations and experience, and

provides very clear and unambiguous criteria for implementation and conformance.

Bodies creating accredited standards for e-learning are:

IEEE Learning Technology Standards Committee (ieeeltsc.org), and

ISO/IEC Joint Technology Committee Subcommittee on Standards for Learning.

4. Dissemination

The final step for the establishment of standards is the dissemination of the widely accepted

standards to all the participants of the e-learning community.

New members should be informed on the existing standards and old members should become

aware of the accredited standards and update their processes to conform.

The decisions of international organizations should become accredited by national comities and

disseminated to local users and producers.

The e-learning communities all over the world should become aware of the new standards and

should be supported to better understand them and apply them to their e-learning processes.


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Main attributes(categories) of e-learning standards

The most e-learning standards can be organized into some general categories:

1.Metadata.(Content description)

Content is the nucleus of e-learning. Learning content and catalogue offerings must be labelled in

a consistent way to support the indexing, storage, discovery (search), and retrieval of learning

objects by multiple tools across multiple repositories.

Data used for this purpose is referred to as learning object metadata.

Several initiatives are creating metadata standards like:

Learning Object Metadata (LOM) standard (LOM, 2002), which has been adopted and

adapted by the IMS Global Learning Consortium, the Advanced Distributed Learning

initiative, the Alliance of Remote Instructional and Distribution Networks for Europe, andother organizations.

The Dublin Core Metadata Initiative has its own metadata standard for e-learning which is

used by libraries, publishers, government agencies, and other organizations.

2.Content Packaging

The goal of content packaging specifications and standards is to enable organizations to transfer

courses and content from one learning system to another.This is crucial because content can

potentially be created by one tool, modified by another tool, stored in a repository maintained by

one vendor, and used in a delivery environment produced by a different supplier.

Content packages include both learning objects and information about how they are to be put

together to form larger learning units. Content packages include: a) raw content, b) assembly,

delivery and presentation of information.

Initiatives dealing with content packaging include:

The IMS Content Packaging specification (IMSGC, 2003b) (commercialized as LRN by

Microsoft and supported by multiple vendors),

The IMS Simple Sequencing specification (IMSGC, 2003c),

Aviation Industry CBT Committee (AICC) guidelines and recommendations for computer

managed instruction (specifically their notion of a course structure file),


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The Advanced Distributed Learning initiative (ADL) Sharable Content Object Reference

Model (SCORM, 2005),

3.Learner profiles. (Learner management)

Learner management requires a standardized description of learner profile data, registration

information and privileges.These standards allow different system components to share

information about learners across multiple system components.

Learner profile information can include personal data, learning plans, learning history,

accessibility requirements, certifications and degrees, assessments of knowledge

(skills/competencies) and the status of participation in current learning.

The most important standardization efforts are:

The IMS Learner Information Package (LIP) specification,

The Public and Private InformationPAPI specification that was originally an IEEE draft

and is now being looked at by ISO.

4. Communication of Results

In order to provide feedback to content and course creators we need to generate performance

reports. As a learner interacts with content or assessments, activity and performance information is

generated that should be communicated to content creators. In order to share the status of learning

activities and learners results across multiple components of a learning environment we needstandards. This can be accomplished by creating standardized communication protocols and data

models that allow learning content to communicate with the system that delivered it.

Two such initiatives are done by:

The Aviation Industry CBT (Computer Based Training) Committee (AICC) and

The Advanced Distributed Learning initiative with Sharable Content Object Reference Model

(SCORM) project.

DIFFERENT E-LEARNING STANDARDS

1. Sharable Courseware Object Reference Model SCORM

The SCORM is basically a comprehensive suite of e-learning standards to enable interoperability,

accessibility and reusability of the e-learning content.


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The ADL (Advanced Distributed Learning Initiative of Defence Dept. of US) is accountable for

the Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) which is a widely implemented and

accepted standard that is built upon the work of other standardization bodies such as AICC ,IMS,

IEEE , or ARIADNE

SCORM defines

Content Aggregation Model (CAM),

Runtime Environment (RTE),

Sequencing and Navigation (SN)

The Content Aggregation Model specifies the way to assemble, label and package the e-learning

content. The Runtime Environment specifies the way e-learning content is launched, content

communicates with the e-learning system, tracking of learners progress and error handling. The

Sequencing and Navigation specifies the way e-learning content is sequenced and navigated.

SCORM standardizes the following:

1. Packaging

Provide content to move among different system

Based on IMS Global Learning Consortium


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Content packaging create a container for shipping learning content from one place to another

2. Metadata

To share standard information that describes the nature and purpose of the content.

Based on IEEE Learning Technology Standards Committee (LTSC)Learning Object

Metadata (LOM) Specification

This information can serve many ends, including cataloging, search and discovery, right

management, checking technical requirement etc.

3. Communication

Guidance for launching, communication with and tracking content in a web-base environment.

Based on run-time environment functionality defined in AICCs CMI 001 guideline for

interoperability.

4. Sequencing

Defined a method for representing the intended behavior of an authored learning experience

such that any LMS can sequence discrete learning activities in consistent way.

Based on the IMS Simple Sequencing Specification

SCORM will provide a web-based control system to

Launch executable content authored by using tools from different vendors, and to exchange

data with that content.

Launch the same executable content and exchange data with that content during execution and

Access a common repository of executable content and to launch such content.

2. IEEE LOM (Learni ng Object Metadata)

IEEE is an international organisation that develops technical standards and recommendations in

the technical areas ranging from computer engineering, biomedical technology and

telecommunications to electric power, aerospace engineering and consumer electronics among

others.


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IEEE LTSC (Learning technology standards committee) developed a standard for learning

materials. The most widely acknowledged IEEE LTSC specification is the learning object

metadata (LOM). The first version of the LOM Standards was approved by the IEEE in June

2002.

The standard specifies the syntax and semantics of learning object metadata, defined as the

attributes required to adequately describe a learning object. LOM elements have been primarily

divided into nine categories namely General, Lifecycle, Metametadata, Technical, Educational,

Rights, Annotation, Classification (IEEE 2005). Now each one of them may either represent a

branch or a leave, a branch being an aggregate element containing sub elements and a leave being

a simple element containing the data.

For example, the General element represents a branch containing further eight sub elements

namely Identifier, Title, Language, Description, Keywords, Coverage, Structure and Aggregation

Level. Similarly the Identifier element contains two sub elements namely Catalogue and Entry,

both of which are simple elements that may contain value.


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3. UK Learn ing Object Metadata Core

There have been efforts by the Centre For Educational Technology Interoperability Standards

(CETIS) to optimise the IEEE LOM for the UK educational communities, by defining the UK

Learning Object Metadata Core (CETIS 2004).

The CETIS has, as a result optimised the IEEE LOM for use by the education community in the

United Kingdom by identifying common practices and issuing guidelines for the values for the

various metadata elements.

4. IMS Content Packaging

The IMS which was known as Instructional Management Systems (IMS) project in 1997 is a

non-profitable organization of more than fifty contributing members and affiliates and develops

open technical specifications for interoperable learning technology.

IMS content packaging describes how to describe and organise learning resources in packages. An

IMS content package consist of mainly two elements

A special XML document called the manifest file describing the content structure and

associated resources of the package

Physical files making up the content package

Manifest is divided into four sections

Meta-dataspecific description of the file manifest as a whole

Organizationsspecific description of one or more ways to organise contents

Resourcesresources contained in the package is descrbed

(sub) Manifest(s)nested manifests


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5. IMS Simple Sequencing

The IMS Simple Sequencing (IMSSS 2003) defines specifications to represent the intended

behaviour of an authored learning experience.

These specifications allows the learning designer or content developer to declare the relative order

in which elements of content are to be presented to the learner and the conditions under which a

piece of content is selected, delivered, or skipped during presentation.

Thus it helps to describe the flow of learning activities according to the outcomes of a learners

interactions. It is possible to specify the least score to reach in a test to continue to higher levels

6. IMS Question and Test I nteroperabil ity (QTI )

The IMS Question and Test Interoperability (IMSQTI) defines specifications to represent the

question, test and the test results, which enable to exchange the questions, test, and the test

between various authoring tools, test constructional tools, learning systems and assessment

delivery systems. It allows representation of different type of questions , definition of feedback,

and computation results

The main types of supported questions are

Multiple response

Single response

True or false

Fill in the blank

7.IMS Learner Information Package

The IMS Learner Information Package (IMSLIP) defines specifications to represent information

about the persons involved during the various stages of e-learning process such as an individual

learner or a group of learners, learning content creators, providers and vendors. This information

can then be exchanged between the various IMS compliant Learner Information server and

Learning Management Systems.

8. Aviati on Industry Computer Based Training Committee (AI CC)

The AICC is considered as the oldest e-learning standard in the world. The AICC is an

international association of technology-based training professionals. The AICC develops


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guidelines for aviation industry in the development, delivery, and evaluation of CBT (Computer-

Based Training) and related training technologies.

The objectives of the AICC are as follows:

Assist aeroplane operators in development of guidelines which promote the economic and

effective implementation of computer-based training ,

Develop guidelines to enable interoperability,

Provide an open forum for the discussion of CBT (and other) training technologies.

The main artifacts of AICC are subsumed under the AICC Guidelines and Recommendations

(AGRs). Relevant e-learning AGRs issued by the AICC include:

AGR-002 (Courseware Delivery Stations): Includes technical recommendations for the

acquisition of CBT stations.

AGR-006 (Computer-Managed Instruction CMI): Recommends guidelines for the

interoperability of CMI systems, enabling them to use CBTs from different origins.

AGR-007 (Courseware Interchange): Includes guidelines for interchange of CBT courseware

elements such as text, graphic, audio, etc.

AGR-010 (Web-Based Computer Managed Instruction): Adapts the AGR-006 interoperability

guidelines particularly for Web-based CMI systems.

9. Al li ance of Remote Instructional Author ing and Distribution Networks for Europe (ARIADNE)

Metadata

ARIADNE is a non-profitable organisation which aims to exploit and further develop tools and

methodologies for producing, managing and reusing computer-based pedagogical elements and

telematics supported training curricula.

ARIADNE work in educational metadata. ARIADNE Metadata are grouped into six categories

General : general information that describe the learning object such as title, language etc.

Semantics : groups elements that describe the semantic classification of the learning object like

science type, main discipline etc

Pedagogical: describes the pedagogic and educational characteristic such as interactivity level

Technical : describes the technical requirements such as OS version


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Indexation: describes the information about the metadata itself such as metadata creation date,

creator etc

Annotation : Describes people or organisations note about the learning objects

10. Dublin Core Metadata

The Dublin core metadata initiative is an organisation dedicated to promote the adoption of

interoperable metadata standards. It develops metadata vocabularies. The original Dublin Core

Metadata Element Set consists of 15 metadata elements.

Title

Creator

Subject

Description

Publisher

Contributor

Date

Type

Format

Identifier

Source

Language

Relation

Coverage

Rights

PROCESS OF E-LEARNING

Organisational learning is the capability within the organisation to develop learning processes tomaintain and improve performance across groups and functions. This process handles the

maintenance part by devising a system of knowing the level of expertise required for various roles

in the organisation for performing to achieve the set goals.

Organisational learning also looks at where the organisation is heading ie the new projects that are

going to be completed , and the kind of technology and skills required to handle the new projects

Organisational learning can be categorised into stages as:

Knowledge acquisition and creation

Sharing of knowledge across groups and geographies

Utilisation of knowledge

While these stages are unique, they are not water-tight compartments. One or more stages could

merge together based on how people and processes are interrelated.


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1. KNOWLEDGE ACQUISITION AND CREATION

Knowledge acquisition and creation actually refers to the capabilities that exist within an

organization that lead to the development and creation of skills. An environment that encourages

people to merely execute the project as per the specified process will not encourage knowledge

creation. The organizations need to encourage people to have insights and establish relationships,

which were so far not thought of.

E-learning offers a lot of scope for people to refer to a variety of resources, best practices and

other solutions to solve a problem or to do things in better way

2. SHARING OF KNOWLEDGE

While there is no doubt that knowledge grows through sharing and sharing is critical for new ideas

and innovation to breed on, getting people to share and create knowledge is the toughest task in

the process of sharing and capturing learning.

Organizations are adopting a two-pronged strategy to deal with the aspect of knowledge creation

through sharing. Organizations are increasingly providing systems and tools for sharing

knowledge across the board in a systematic way. Using internalized systems and tools such as

Intranet, Internet, e-mail and chats, organizations are leveraging the power of e-Learning to

capture and disseminate knowledge.

The other aspect of knowledge management is to ensure that knowledge is shared. it is a

Herculean task to make sure that people share. Learning that takes place during the course of

executing a business process remains in the minds of people. It is not always explicit and there is

no way people can be forced to share if they dont want to do so. It is in this context that the

internal environment of an organization plays an important factor. If the organization encourages

people to share insights and ideas, people would be willing to come forward and share. If people

trust that they will get the right recognition for what they have created and articulated, people

would respond.

3. UTILIZATION OF KNOWLEDGE

The utilization and institutionalization of knowledge that gets created and assimilated in the

process of business transactions is one of the prime focuses of a learning organization. It is often

found that the enthusiasm of learning received and shared dies before the learning is actually

implemented in the organization fairly and squarely. Training or learning that is imparted to


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people in this case doesnt translate into generalized business practice that will bring in a

qualitative change in the organization.

Organisations that are working towards the objective of providing knowledge solutions to a wide

spectrum of businesses and areas are coming up with systems that would ensure the

institutionalisation of the knowledge. E-learning with its systematic reach and electronic capability

is new and closer answer to the need of institutionalisation

Figure below shows how various phases in knowledge are interlinked and how each of them

contributes to the other.

Fig: Stages of knowledge creation and utilization and their relationship with each other

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT IN E-LEARNING

What is data, information and knowledge?

Knowledge is commonly distinguished from data and information. Data represents facts often

in the form of measurements. Information places data within a meaningful context. Knowledge

is an understanding of information acquired by study, investigation, observation, or

experience. Knowledge is also defined as the ability to turn information and data into effective

action. In this sense "managing knowledge" means delivering the understanding of information and data

that people need to be effective in their jobs. The relationship between data, information, and

knowledge can be view as a pyramid where data forms the foundation, information forms the

middle section and knowledge resides at the top. In terms of volume, data takes up the most space,

information takes up a little less, and knowledge forms the small portion at the top.

Knowledge Acquisition

Utilization/Institutionalization

FinalizationKnowledge Sharing

Knowledge Creation


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Extracting knowledge involves interpreting volumes of data and information to arrive at concepts

and guidelines that can be documented, packaged and delivered.

Knowledge can be classified as tacit or explicit.

Tacit knowledge is subconsciously understood and applied, difficult to articulate, developed

from direct experience and action, and usually shared through highly interactive conversation,

storytelling and shared experience.

Explicit knowledge is consciously understood and can be more precisely and formally

articulated. Explicit knowledge is readily codified, documented, transferred and shared.

Explicit knowledge can be of several types:

declarative knowledge - knowledge about something - concepts, categories or descriptors

procedural knowledge - knowledge of how something occurs or is performed

causal knowledge - knowledge why something occurs

Knowledge management

Knowledge management (KM) is the process of capturing, developing, sharing, and effectively

using organisational knowledge. Knowledge management is particularly challenged in attempting

to explicate, share, and leverage tacit knowledge.Knowledge management is a discipline

originating from management studies, but always going hand in hand with information

technologies both as a reason for its necessity and as a technical solution for the implementation.

Knowledge management takes an organizational perspective on learning, and the main problem it

tries to address is the lack of sharing knowledge among members of the organization.


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Main objectives of KM

Conversion of individual knowledge into organizational knowledge:

It involves the conversion of knowledge, which is only in the minds of employees, into

organizational rules, standards, structures and technologies.

Creation of knowledge transparency:

The organization should be able to determine capabilities which it currently has and must

have them in the future. In this context, the organization should lead their employees to

acquire necessary skills.

Facilitation of information-based operations:

It has an important role regarding the management of data and information that constitute

the basic elements of knowledge. The correct processing of real data, and so theconversion of data into accurate information enable to have accurate knowledge and to

decide effectively. Hence, knowledge and decisions are created on the basis of existing

data and information.

Preservation of important experiences:

It can decrease the dependence on people and substantially prevent repetition of past

mistakes

Development of an organization-specific knowledge assessment system:

Phases of knowledge management

One way of understanding the impact of knowledge management on a corporation or organization

is to look at the knowledge management lifecycle and the flow of knowledge in the organization

Nonaka and Takenuchi have investigated the relationship between tacit knowledge and explicit

knowledge and have described four phases of knowledge conversion: (knowledge spiral model)

Socialization, Externalization, Combination and Internalization.

According to this model, organizational knowledge is created with interactions/conversions which

take place continuously between tacit and explicit knowledge.

The goal of the implementation of knowledge management in an organization is to increase the

amount of tacit knowledge that an individual has available to apply to solving business problems.


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This suggests that there is a fifth phase, Cognition, which is the application of knowledge that has

been exchanged through the other phases.

Socialization: Transfer tacit knowledge from one person to another person

Externalization: Translate tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge in a repository

Combination: Combine different bodies of explicit knowledge to create new explicit

knowledge

Internalization: Extract the explicit knowledge from a repository that is relevant to a particular

persons need and deliver it to that person where it is translated into tacit knowledge

Cognition: Apply tacit knowledge to a business problem

E-Learning enhancements to Knowledge Management

e-Learning technology has been evolving separately from knowledge management technology.

There have been recent investigations into the integration of these technologies .e-Learning

technology will enhance the effectiveness of each of the five phases of knowledge management as

shown below. A sixth phase, Feedback, has also been added.

Socialization:

Competency and skills measurements help identify the people with specific interests,

skills and knowledge in the organization. Staff share their expertise and knowledge with

each other by means of the interaction and collaboration options provided by the system;

These options can be the chat rooms, discussion forums and coordination meetings thru

internet calls. New possibilities for interaction and communication provided by

knowledge management systems would definitely increase the efficiency at this stage


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Externalization:

The tacit knowledge is converted into explicit knowledge in a repository.The e-learning

system can capture knowledge to teach other people. This improves the knowledge

capture process.

Here the knowledge and experiences shared by the staff in the previous stage, should be

saved in the e-learning system. The saving procedure should be done within the

framework of a certain structuring and classification system.

Content management systems and knowledge structure maps can be useful at this stage.

Combination:

The explicit knowledge is extended with other explicit knowledge assets. Knowledge about

products and processes of the business is structured to enable that learning processes are

carried out more effectively and efficiently. In this context, pedagogical techniques are used.

Internalization:

In this mode, the explicit knowledge that is needed by a particular person or group is extracted

from the repository and transferred to him/her or the group, where it is translated into tacit

knowledge. Competency and skills measurements help identify which people lack the

knowledge to do their job effectively and provide them with online training.

e-Learning will insure that a person has learned the knowledge using assessments andalternative learning methods, if necessary.

Cognition:

People can be provided with on demand performance support by getting just the training

that they need at the time that they need it to complete a business task.

Feedback:

Assessments provide feedback concerning how well a person has learned and how well

they have applied what they learned to a business problem.


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Above figure represents the knowledge management phases with e-Learning enhancements.

a Knowledge Holder can either transfer tacit knowledge to a Knowledge Seeker through

socialization or create explicit knowledge and store it in a knowledge repository.

The Knowledge Organizer is a person (or software program) who relates the created knowledge to

other knowledge in the repository or further refines the created knowledge.

The Instructional Designer is a person (or software program) who organizes the learning of the

knowledge by adding pre-assessments, additional learning aids, and post-assessments.

The Knowledge Seeker then learns the explicit knowledge through an online guided learning

experience. The Knowledge Seeker then uses the knowledge gained through socialization or

internalization to make decisions and perform tasks in the enterprise.

The performance of the Knowledge Seeker on these decisions and tasks is measured and returned

to the knowledge repository as feedback that can be used to help determine if the skills have been

learned and to suggest additional e-Learning experiences.

E-Learning alone is not enough. Though online training will have dramatic benefits, it's only a part of

the solution. The benefits of true organizational learning go beyond the traditional "course," whether

it is in the real world or in the virtual world. What is equally important is to harness the collective

knowledge and experience of the entire company through knowledge management. This is possible by

e-learning: module 3 (complete)

Documents