In the first 24 months of the project, KP-Lab members were highly dedicated to dissemination and were engaged in various dissemination activities that contributed to the prime objective of the KP-Lab dissemination efforts which is "to make the project widely known to a variety of prospective users and, at a later stage, to promote the…

Although protocol analysis can be an important tool for researchers to investigate the process of collaboration and communication, the use of this method of analysis can be time consuming. Hence, an automatic coding procedure for coding dialogue acts was developed. This procedure helps to determine the communicative function of messages in online…

The major purpose of this study is to assist college students in constructing mental representation of referential resolution in a computer system. Ninety students were asked to draw mental maps indicating the relationships between references, take reading comprehension tests, and fill out open-ended questionnaire. Results showed that the…

This deliverable has been produced in the context of the Knowledge-Practice Laboratory (KP-Lab) project. KP-Lab focuses on innovative practices of working with knowledge in higher education, teacher training, and workplaces. Participants of WP10 are University of Helsinki, University of Oslo and Poyry Forest Industry representing both researchers…

The concept of a qualitative model is used as the focus of this review of qualitative student models in order to compare alternative computational models and to contrast domain requirements. The report is divided into eight sections: (1) Origins and Goals (adaptive instruction, qualitative models of processes, components of an artificial…

This paper describes the Shakespeare Project, an interactive videodisk computer program developed at Stanford University which permits students to study, design, and enjoy theater. The prototype consists of three basic programs, which are described in detail: (1) a videodisk-based "tutorial" called "Page to Stage," that teaches…

This study evaluates the usability of the proposed MOA (mouse-over-abstract) interfaces that could be implemented in Web-based or stand-alone applications. The MOA designs provide users with an abstract that serves as context cues about the information presented in the linked page. The context cues are available in visual and/or audio formats.…

From an instructional perspective, it is conceivable that employing an appropriate hypertext architecture should have the advantage of facilitating learning by representing logically the interrelationships between different units of information contained within the hypertext. Furthermore, there would, however, appear to be a sound theoretical…

This paper presents an outline and a discussion of the philosophy and rationale for a course taught on Web design and production for teachers at the University of Nevada, Reno. Concepts illustrated on the demonstration page are listed, as are sites to which the main course page has links. Aids and cautions for instructors are provided. The problem…

Discussion of educational computer simulations focuses on the parallel instruction theory that was developed at the University of Twente to combine the simulation with instructional materials, including those that may be printed. The MacTHESIS design system and philosophy are discussed, and simulation and learning environments based on the…

Reports on an experiment in which a course in psychology was replaced by a mixed formula consisting of a CD-ROM complemented by seminars and workshops. The CD-ROM was conceived as a collection of documents linked together with Netscape facilities. Students searched through these documents for information to answer questions (challenges) on the…

Background: The literature on immersive virtual worlds and e-learning to date largely indicates that technology has led the pedagogy. Although rationales for implementing e-learning have included flexibility of provision and supporting diversity, none of these recommendations has helped to provide strong pedagogical location. Furthermore, there is…

Cognitive Structures and Linguistic Sequential Memory or Memory of Serial Order are not very well developed among illiterate people contrary to educated people. It affects the comprehension of abstract ideas and the usability of the system. Therefore the cognitive limitations of illiterate must be considered for instructional design and user…

Design pattern creation, especially in the e-learning domain, is a highly complex process that has not been sufficiently studied and formalized. In this paper, we propose a systematic pattern development cycle, whose most important aspects focus on reverse engineering of existing systems in order to elicit features that are cross-validated through…

In this paper, we present an ontology to represent the semantics of the IMS Learning Design (IMS LD) specification, a meta-language used to describe the main elements of the learning design process. The motivation of this work relies on the expressiveness limitations found on the current XML-Schema implementation of the IMS LD conceptual model. To…