Knowledge environment for personalizing e-learning
Chao Boon Teo · 2007
Economic, social and technological forces have continued to change the landscape of education and the way of learning and teaching.The critical importance of human capital, the rapid obsolescence of knowledge and training, the need for just-in-time training delivery, advancing technology, and the search for cost-effective ways to meet the diverse learning needs of learners have called for a redefinition of the traditional processes that underlie design, development and delivery of training and education [Urdan, 2000].In addition, we can also relate the pressing need for educational reform to the widening skills gap, demographic changes [Urdan, 2000], mismatch of learning solution to learner query and demand for flexible and personalized access of life-long learning.In response to these demands, the term, e-learning, has been coined to characterize such learning innovation and transformation [Wentling, 2000].E-learning has proven its worth by transcending both geographical and time boundaries to provide training and education to students minus the chore of providing classroom facilities or learning under time constraint.Aside from issues such as expenses and access, e-learning also offers collaborative benefits that are not easily attained in a traditional classroom setting.For example, e-learning allows students from diverse locations and cultures to exchange ideas and learn from each other.Furthermore, the interactive and multimedia nature of the learning content also attempts to provide an enhanced learning experience.Beyond the technological benefits, the nature of the e-learning materials (i.e.size, scope and structure of the learning materials) also permits better pedagogical considerations to be implemented.For example, most e-learning designers favor designing the learning materials in smaller chunk.These smaller-grained learning materials can be pieced together or re-sequenced easily to form a new learning module to support different pedagogical approaches (i.e.support different dominant learning style).Other e-learning advantages include: Learning at the learner's pace More interactivity with the learner Greater relevance iii