The Organization of Knowledge Spaces for a Virtual Learning Environment Supported by a

Digital Library

Terence R. Smith, Olga Agapova, Michael Freeston, Alex Ushakov

University of California, Santa Barbara, CA93106 USA

smithtr@cs.ucsb.edu, olga@geog.ucsb.edu, freeston@alexandria.ucsb.edu, ushakov@alexandria.ucsb.edu

Alexandria Digital Library (ADL) • Consortium of researchers, engineers, and educators;

• Distributed and Heterogeneous;

• A framework for building distributed digital libraries of georeferenced information;

• Provider of a uniform interface to one or more collections;

• Bucket framework - is the base of architecture;

• Balance between simplicity of Web document delivery and and

richness of Z39.50.

• A new service is a a concept-based learning environment for the

science education.

INTEROPERABILITY LANDSCAPE

Z39.50+MARC+AACR2

ADEPTSDLIP

OAI

HTTP+HTML

SOAP

increasing structure, standardization

incr

eas

ing

fun

ctio

nalit

y

increasing generality

GDLIP

The approach of ADEPT

to Concept-Based Learning

• Scientific activity and learning are based on a large core of scientific concepts;

• The syntactic and semantic information may be represented in terms of a strongly-structured model (SSM) of the concept;

• A deeper understanding of any domain of science is promoted when learning environments are based explicitly on the use of SSMs to

represent important sets of concepts and their interrelationships.

Components and Associated Services of a Concept-Based Learning Environment

Input/Edit Services

ConceptKnowledge

Bases

LectureCollections

ADEPTObject

Collections

Search Services

Display Services

ADEPT Search Services

Display Services Display Services

Input/Edit ServicesSearch Services

Input/Edit ServicesSearch Services

Concept space visualization

ADL middleware

ADN metadataDB

SQL/ODBC

Concept model ingest

Concept instance ingest

Concept model DB

Distributed Learning Object Repository

SRB

Concept instance search and visualization

Instructor’s preparation and presentation tool

Learning Module DB

ADEPT middleware

XML

Local Learning Object Repository

Local and distributed ADL collections XML

ADEPT Virtual Learning Environment Architecture Diagram

A Three-Window Display of Concept-Based Learning Materials

Abstract Model (SSM) of a Concept and Correlative Relationships

Concept ModelConcept Model

IDENTIFIERIDENTIFIER

TERMTERM

DESCRIPTIONDESCRIPTION

CLASSIFICATION(S)CLASSIFICATION(S)

KNOWLEDGE DOMAINSKNOWLEDGE DOMAINS

HISTORICAL ORIGINSHISTORICAL ORIGINS

EXAMPLESEXAMPLES

HIERARCHICAL RELATIONSHIPSHIERARCHICAL RELATIONSHIPS

REPRESENTATIONSREPRESENTATIONS

DEFINING OPERATIONSDEFINING OPERATIONS

PROPERTIESPROPERTIES

CAUSAL RELATIONSCAUSAL RELATIONS

CORRELATIVE RELATIONSHIPSCORRELATIVE RELATIONSHIPS

PreferredPreferred

AbstractAbstract

MethodologicalMethodological

PhenomenologicalPhenomenological

Non-PreferredNon-Preferred

FieldsFields

IsaIsa

PartitivePartitive

TopicsTopics

ConceptualizationsConceptualizations

Manipulable modelsManipulable models

Lecture Presentation

The lecture is presented on three projection screens, showing the Lecture Plan window (center), the Concept window (left) and the Illustrations window (right).

The Lecture Plan Window• The left-

hand frame displays the structure of the lecture

• The right-hand frame displays the content of the lecture

• ADL icons (globe image) attached to a concept link to a display of concept properties in the concept window

Other icons attached to a concept link to a display of concept examples in the illustration window

The Concept Window

The concept window displays the properties of concepts.

The Illustrations Window

The illustrations window displays examples of concepts

Conclusions

• A key issue in the development of ADEPT learning services based on SSMs of scientific concepts is an evaluation of the degree to which they deepen a student's understanding of both the conceptual basis of science and scientific knowledge in specific domains.

• We are currently instrumenting the teaching of courses in order to develop such evaluations.

• It will take time to assess the pedagogic value of using KBs of strongly-structured representation of scientific concepts, together with the associated collections and services, in learning environments.

• Nevertheless, recent developments in both text publishing and in educational psychology indicate their potential value.

• Evaluation (add more)

Acknowledgments

• The Alexandria Digital Library Project's research and development activities are supported by the National Science Foundation under awards IS IRI- 9411330, NSF-ATM-9732665, and NSF-DUE-0121578.

• Operational activities are supported by the Map and Imagery Laboratory at the Davidson Library, University of California, Santa Barbara.

• Additional support is or has been provided by: Alias|Wavefront; Digital Equipment; Informix; Microsoft; Oracle; Sun Microsystems; and the U.S. Geological Survey.