Italo De Diana

The portability of computer-related educational resources : an overview of issues and directions

The portability of educational software is defined as the feasibility of software usage, with or without adaptation, in an educational environment different from that for which the software was originally designed and produced Portability is a desirable characteristic of educational software from scientific, practical, and economic considerations. Many factors can affect portability; an overview of clusters of technical and human factors is given. The factors are further organized in a way that shows their interdependence. Research questions relating to educational software portability are given and illustrated with a seven-level analytical model. The chapter serves as an overview to this Special Issue in that the research questions and factors influencing portability that are defined within it are taken up, in various ways, by the authors of the following chapters. The concluding chapter of the Special Issue refers again to this opening chapter, as well as to a synthesis of the intervening work.

Courseware Engineering Outlined: An Overview of Some Research Issues.

SUMMARY Courseware engineering is described as a division of the discipline of educational technology. The development of this division stems from practical educational needs that can be itemized as practical goals. These goals could be served by the development and subsequent evaluation of specific approaches, methods, tools, and techniques. Such approaches, methods, tools, and techniques can to a fair degree become computer‐based and would come to form the regular instrumentation for the courseware engineer. In fact, such a de facto growth of the discipline of courseware engineering is taking place. Yet, the growth of courseware engineering as a discipline can not be based solely upon the availability of tools to support development work. The growth of courseware engineering as a scientific discipline can be depicted as a knowledge acquisition process, in which the aim for knowledge is identified, gathered, processed, and refined. The acquired knowledge is initially presumed to be of a rather practical ...

Electronic Study Book Platforms

SUMMARY Recent publications have drawn attention to various forms of the electronic book. Intelligent electronic books and superbooks have been discussed. We intend to increment this set with another concept as we are convinced that electronic study books could imply a useful contribution to this emerging set of learning media. Several paradigms have been mentioned to describe the nature of electronic books, such as hypermedia and reactive media. Describing electronic study books makes it necessary to consider some other paradigms as well, such as annotation, information sequencing, and book distribution. Implications of these paradigms for the architecture of future electronic study books are discussed. Finally we outline the concept of an electronic study book platform, being a networked environment for the use of electronic study books.

The Impact of Different Portability Factors during the Life Cycle of an Educational Software Adaptation Project.

In this article an example is worked out that illustrates the interrelationship of the various factors that influence educational software portability. Five phases in the life cycle of a software product originally created in one setting but being adapted for use in another are considered, and in each of these phases some of the various portability factors are shown to be most critical.

Courseware Evaluation and Decision Support Based upon Courseware Use

SUMMARY The use of auto‐instructional materials (usually referred to as courseware) in instruction has led to the question as to how and to what extent the quality of courseware can be assessed and, if necessary, improved by courseware users. In this article the design, the development and the test of a prototypical decision support system is described. The system is referred to as ‘DSS’ (Decision Support System) and has been designed to support both the quantitative and qualitative quality assessment and improvement of tutorial courseware products.

The portability of computer-related educational resources : summary and directions for further research

In this Special Issue of the Journal of Research on Computing in Education, the portability of computer-related educational resources has been examined by a number of researchers and practitioners, reflecting various backgrounds, cultures, and experiences. A first iteration of a general model of factors that influence the portability potential of educational software was given in the opening chapter by Collis and De Diana (1990b). In this final chapter of the special issue the general model is reconsidered, based on a synthesis of the intervening articles. Some factors were found to receive little notice by the authors of those articles; other factors were identified that were not explicit in the initial general model. Altogether, the perspectives of the authors complement each other and as a set support the validity of the model.

Implementation of networked organizational communication: A communication reference model

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe a communication reference framework in order to understand and support the implementation of ICT in corporate communication from a local perspective.Design/methodology/approach – A practical framework was developed. Based on this, recent literature in the field of implementation of ICT in organizations was analyzed.Findings – This analysis resulted into a communication reference model for the implementation of networked organizational communication (NOC).Research limitations/implications – The resulting reference model for the implementation of NOC is not theory‐driven, but is a practical base for understanding the situated nature of the implementation of ICT.Practical implications – The applicability of this model can be viewed in three ways. First, one is able to use the model in cases to identify relevant factors in order to understand and intervene. Second, one is able to constitute a knowledge base in order to improve the effectiveness and efficiency...

Towards personal portals for professional development

In general, online learning platforms are institution-based and mainly meant for the management of course-based education. From the perspective of a lifelong learner, these platforms are only temporarily useful for specific courses and have no significance for their further professional development. We are interested in the realisation of personal portals for lifelong learning. These professionalisation portals are personalised and give access to a wide range of local and networked personal study and professionalisation services, formal as well as informal, from a variety of institutions. Here we focus on the concept of a personal professionalisation portal as a Rich Internet Application. The question is: what is this portal and what factors contribute to the effectiveness of these portals? At the end, we discuss future trends in the development and application of these portals and related research issues.

Relating GTE and Knowledge-Based Courseware Engineering: Some Epistemological Issues

The ‘GTE approach’ to create instruction, as described by Van Marcke, is related with ‘courseware authoring’. ITS-approaches such as GTE and ‘conventional’ courseware authoring may seem diametrical approaches to the generation of instruction. Authoring, if carried out in a principled, systematic, and method-supported way has been called ‘Courseware Engineering’. In research on Courseware Engineering the two authors have attempted to extend Courseware Engineering into Knowledge-based Courseware Engineering. This approach to authoring has much in common with GTE. They concern the application of knowledge-based methods and techniques for the generation of instruction. There are basic differences in viewpoints though and an epistemological analysis is applied in order to make correspondences and differences with respect to shared problem issues visible. The analysis shows that from a technical point of view a symbiosis of both approaches might be feasible and worthwhile to attempt. Differences in vision on the role of the human in authoring remain though.