Virtual interactive studentoriented learning environment Extending the frontier of webbased learning

Virtual Interactive Student-Oriented Learning Environment (VISOLE)-Extending the Frontier of WEB-Based LearningJ.H.M. LeeDepartment of Computer Science and EngineeringThe Chinese University of Hong KongShatin, N.T.Hong Kong SAR, ChinaF.L. LeeDepartment of Curriculum & InstructionThe Chinese University of Hong KongShatin, N.T.Hong Kong SAR, ChinaAbstractWEB-based teaching is one of the new directions for education. The approach aims at using the WEB, being a networked, anytime, interactive, high-capacity and content-rich environment, to enhance and facilitate independent learning and teacher-student communication. This goal is only partially fulfilled since existing WEB-based teaching systems use the WEB more as a publishing medium, without utilizing the available immense computing power. In this project, we propose the Virtual Interactive Student-Oriented Learning Environment (VISOLE) approach to WEB-based teaching and learning. The aim of the VISOLE project is to study how the full functionality of the WEB can be exploited in helping students to learn from (near) real-life experience and collaborating with others. Briefly speaking, VISOLE encompasses the creation of a virtual interactive world modelled upon a set of selected related subject areas on the WEB, and allowing students to participate as citizens who take part in shaping the development of this virtual world. By involving in the VISOLE environment, students are anticipated to learn to analyse the problem situation, devise the problem solving strategies, solve the problems and evaluate the consequences, all of which are considered as high-order abilities required in this new era. Last but not least, we suggest a possible topic for the implementation of a VISOLE system based on the theme of sustainable development, followed by a proposed implementation and administration schedule. A brief design of virtual environment and its parameters are also given.Keywords: Web-Based Teaching, Student-Oriented Learning.1 IntroductionThe recent rapid expansion of applying the Internet in education has aroused an enthusiastic discussion of Web-based teaching and learning. Some educators (for example, Parker, 1997) argue that Web-based learning would eventually lead to a paradigm shift of learning style, from teacher-centred to student-centred. The traditional role of teachers as knowledge providers will be changed to that of learning facilitators, since students can learn from the wide repertoire of information enabled by the Internet. Researchers and policy makers (see for example, Hong Kong Education and Manpower Bureau, 1998) suggest that teachers should play the role of helping students develop high-order abilities such as problem-solving and creativity rather than just delivering factual knowledge like what it used to be. Students are expected to learn through communicating, either in a real environment requiring personal contact or on the Web, and then construct and reorganize their own knowledge. As suggested by Parker (1999), “The result of interactive learning can be new knowledge, reorganized knowledge, or simplify the awareness of a need for additional understanding.” The result of such interacting learning process will “lead to internalized, long-term understanding” (Kiesler & McGuire, 1987).Students should not be seen as empty vessels or sponges that absorb knowledge imparted by the teacher (Akyalcin, 1997). Learning as it normally occurs, as argued by Lave (1988), is a function of the activity, context and culture in which it occurs (i.e., it is situated). The physical context is referred to as the situation and this kind of learning is called situated learning. Situated learning is usually unintentional rather than deliberate (Lave & Wenger, 1990). As classroom learning activities involve knowledge which is abstract and out of context, learning through such activities is meaningless in the sense that knowledge learned cannot be applied in the real context. Therefore, learning should be facilitated by the provision of real-life experience so as to bridge the gap between classroom learning and real-life experiences by enabling students to learn in a simulated situation similar to the real ones.Learning, both outside and inside school, advances through collaborative social interaction and the social construction of knowledge (Brown, Collins & Duguid, 1989). Students need to learn by interacting with their peers so that knowledge can be constructed. Knowledge construction is a process of making sense of what the students are studying by synthesizing new information and experience into existing mental structures that they already possess (Yam, 1997). The modern WEB technology enables the creation of simulated situations for students to explore as well as the communication convenience for students to interact. It is therefore an ideal venue for students to construct their knowledge. This is what a WEB-based teaching environment is for. This goal is only partially achieved with the advent of sophisticated authorware and virtual classroom environment, allowing students to access course information and lecture materials, conduct discussions, and communicate with the teachers in a much more effective and efficient manner. To better utilize the WEB resources and power, we propose the Virtual Interactive Student-Oriented Learning Environment (VISOLE) approach to WEB-based teaching and learning. The aim of the VISOLE project is to study how the full functionality of the WEB can be exploited in (1) helping students to learn from (near) real-life experience and (2) supplementing classroom teaching. Briefly speaking, VISOLE encompasses the creation of a virtual interactive world modelled upon a set of selected related subject areas on the WEB, and allowing students to participate as citizens who take part in shaping the development of this virtual world. For example, the virtual environment could be a coral reef and students could play the role of different coral species. Students have to decide how the coral species that they are representing should initialise and how they interact with other species. Different decisions will result in a different coral reef eco-environment. Students learn by acting as decision-makers using information of the current state of the virtual world and observing the outcome as a result of their decisions and those of other participants combined. VISOLE is not another virtual classroom or cyber campus project, and is much richer than simple WEB page and virtual laboratories. Teachers serve only in a guidance role to ensure the smooth completion of a VISOLE session and to lead class discussion on the proceedings of the session. VISOLE can be applied in subjects that involve complex evolving systems or organizations, such as ecosystems in biology, city development in human geography (or economics, political sciences, etc), financial markets in economics, business organizations in management science, and so on. The rest of the paper is organized as follows. Section 2 describes the current practices in WEB-based teaching and reveals the characteristics and power of the WEB. The conclusion is that the WEB is under-utilized in what it can contribute to teaching and learning enhancement. Section 3 details the VISOLE approach to WEB-based teaching and learning. In Section 4, we discuss the possible advantages of the VISOLE approach. Section 5 suggests a possible topic for a VISOLE system based on the theme of sustainable development. Section 6 summarizes the paper and shed light on possible directions of research.2 WEB-Based Teaching and The WEBCan we do more with the WEB in enhancing teaching quality and learning efficiency? Before we embark on the question, we need to analyze (1) how the WEB is being utilized in current practices and (2) the characterizing features of the WEB so as to understand how the WEB can be exploited to its fullest extent. Current WEB-based teaching environments support the following functions: As a repository of teaching materials: Hyperlinks can be provided on the course WEB page so that students can conveniently download class notes, assigned reading materials, and class exercises, etc. Class administration: The course WEB page can be used to allow students to register for a course (especially true for the university environment) and the class list is maintained and published automatically on the WEB. This can be extended for other class administration exercises, such as taking attendance. Information dissemination: The course WEB page can be used to disseminate important course announcement, such as amendments to lecture materials and deadlines of assignments. Student-Teacher interaction: Email services can easily be integrated into the course WEB page to allow for efficient communication between teachers and students. The email services can be enhanced in such a way that emails on different topics are sorted and relevant emails are sent to only the relevant teachers. Threaded course discussion forums can also be set up and integrated into a course WEB page to facilitate students discussion on particular course topics. Broadcasting medium (anytime learning): The course WEB page can also be used to deliver multimedia teaching materials and even broadcast live/stored video lectures. Searching for information: Of course, the WEB is an excellent medium for searching course-related information. Examination medium: The course WEB page can also be used to conduct assignments, quizzes, and examinations. Students are required to complete the exercises using the WEB interface. The collected submissions can then be sent to the teachers for manual or automated scoring. More intelligent systems should also be able to mark and give comments to the students, in addition to simply scoring the exercises.The advancement of the Internet and the WEB revolutionizes the way computing is done. The slogan Network is the computer summarizes accurately and vividly the current state of affairs and is a realistic forecast into at least the short-term future. The idea is that a network of interacting and communicating computers as a whole can be regarded as a powerful computer in itself. The interaction among the computers in the network is the source of computing power. The WEB is more than a medium. It is the WEB-computer, which has the following characteristics: Distributed and interconnected so that geographical separation becomes a non-issue. Interactive and communicative. Always (almost) up and has virtually zillion connection points so that users can access the WEB anytime and anywhere. Multimedia since it contains and can exhibit information of various sorts. Asynchronous so that users can join and participate in WEB activities again anytime they want without worrying about having to synchronize with other users. A super database so that it can be used to store a huge quantity of material information and computation states. An intelligent super computer with virtually unlimited computing power.In summary, current practices in WEB-based teaching use the WEB more as a storage and I/O medium, and less as a powerful computing machine. The functionalities of the WEB are under-utilized.3 The VISOLE ApproachThe ultimate goal of the project is to improve the efficiency and quality of teaching using the WEB-computer. The project should foster students abilities to learning independently with the help of the WEB. Before we define the aim and objectives, we review the shortcomings of classroom teaching and discuss how the situation can be resurrected with WEB technology. Classroom teaching is basically textbook exposition augmented with teachers explanation and, perhaps, sometimes with pictures and videos. The students can only use their imagination and intuition to get hold of the subject materials and concepts. That is why, in certain subjects, laboratory exercises and field trips are especially important to aid students understanding. Students, however, act mainly as observers in most field trip studies and laboratory experiments. Classroom discussions, assignments, and laboratory exercises train and test students on knowledge only in a piecemeal manner. Students are not given a complete picture of the subject materials. Nor are they shown how the various elements of the subjects interact and are related to one another. Case studies and simulations could alleviate the deficiencies of lecturing and laboratory exercises. However, the case study or simulation models are usually overly simplified and unrealistic since the design and implementation of a realistic case study can be expensive, time-consuming, and tedious. Thus, the scale of such case studies has to be usually kept small and the complexity kept simplistic. In some cases, the complexity of a subject simply forbids the implementation and administration of a full-scale simulation. Classroom teaching is traditionally subject-based, failing to nurture and to arouse an awareness of an interdisciplinary culture. In reality, many phenomena are results of influences from not just a single source but many. For example, the well being of a city can depend on the climate, location, natural resources, economic development, and political atmosphere, etc.As a result, students are good only in paper talking and usually fail to put theory into practice. This greatly undermines students problem-solving skills in real-life circumstances.The aim of the Virtual Interactive Student-Oriented Learning Environment (VISOLE) project is to study how the full functionality of the WEB can be exploited in (1) helping students to learn from (near) real-life experience and (2) supplementing classroom teaching. In particular, we propose VISOLE as a new form of WEB-based teaching approach. Briefly speaking, VISOLE encompasses the creation of a virtual interactive world modeled upon a set of selected related subject areas on the WEB, and allowing students to participate as citizens who take part in shaping the development of this virtual world. Students learn by acting as decision-makers using information of the current state of the virtual world and observing the outcome as a result of their decisions and those of other participants combined. VISOLE represents an assimilation of virtual reality, machine intelligence and distributed computing in realizing an advanced interactive multi-user computer gaming environment for teaching on the WEB. A VISOLE system provides an interactive and distributed virtual environment, which encapsulates: a multi-user (or multi-team) gaming context and a realistic game model, a set of realistic and complex game rules, which governs (1) the interaction among the parameters of the simulation model, (2) how the model evolves with time and external stimuli, and (3) how users can interact with the state of the model, an ICQ-like or E-mail facilities to log the official message exchanges among the various parties during the proceedings of the system, and an advanced graphical and multimedia user-interface.VISOLE is virtual since the environment is artificially created on the WEB-computer. Students are free to experiment with ideas without having to bear any undesirable physical consequences and/or penalties. VISOLE is interactive in nature since the virtual world develops only as a result of user input. VISOLE is a student-oriented learning environment since it allows students to gain first hand experience and learn directly from participation in the development of the virtual world. Teachers serve only in a guidance role to ensure the smooth completion of a VISOLE session and to lead class discussion on the proceedings of the session. VISOLE is a platform for teaching and learning, teaching research, and, to a certain extent, student evaluation. VISOLE can be applied in subjects that involve complex evolving systems or organizations, such as ecosystems in biology, city development in human geography (or economics, political sciences, etc), financial markets in economics, business organizations in management science, and so on. Application domains of VISOLE include physical sciences, sociological sciences, and management sciences, etc. VISOLE-based teaching and learning should typically be administered in the following manner: Participating students, preferably from different schools, are divided into teams, each held responsible for a particular aspect of the virtual environment. The features of the system, the objectives of the game, and the topics being studied should be explained in details to the students and the teachers concerned. A VISOLE session/exercise lasts typically for 5 to 15 weeks. A coordinating committee formed by subject experts and teachers of participating schools will monitor the progress of the system and inject suitable perturbation to the system to steer the direction of proceedings of the system. More importantly, teachers should also extract representative scenarios in the proceedings to motivate class discussion. In particular, it is useful to perform what-if analysis to help students understand the different possible outcomes other than the one that is currently resulted. A VISOLE exercise can be posed as either a game or a competition. Students performance can be used as the basis of student evaluation or winner selection.VISOLE supplements but not replaces classroom teaching. We have just described what VISOLE is. It is also important to understand what VISOLE is not. VISOLE is not yet another course WEB page project as VISOLE, being a virtual environment, contains much more than static and passive material content. VISOLE is not virtual classroom/cyber campus. The setting of VISOLE is not in the classroom but the virtual environment corresponding to the subjects being studied. VISOLE is not just a virtual laboratory allowing students only to perform simple experiments in the cyber space and see the results. In contrast, VISOLE sustain multi-user participation and the users interact symbiotically (or adversely) to shape the final outcome of the simulation. A virtual laboratory, on the other hand, can be a part of a VISOLE, in which users have to perform simple experiments or tests, and use the results to decide the next move. VISOLE is more than a multi-user gaming environment, such as SIMCITY. First, multi-user games can take place either only on a single computer or the Internet, while VISOLE takes place specifically on the WEB, which has an established protocol. Special client-server architecture may be needed for the former. Second, the content of a VISOLE system is supposed to be educational and designed specifically for teaching and learning. The running of a VISOLE execution session should also be under the supervision of teachers, who play important guidance role to the students.4 MeritsThe potential advantages of the VISOLE approach include: The gaming and competition metaphor is fun and provides stimuli for learning. With powerful computer in the backend, it is possible to implement realistic and full-scale simulation. A realistic virtual environment provides a first-hand immersion experience for the students, which is otherwise impossible to provide in a typical classroom environment. VISOLE is fully automated. It saves teachers the tedious task to administer a complex case study or a simulation game manually. VISOLE inherits all advantages of the WEB architecture. First, it is distributed so that users from different schools can take part in a VISOLE game. This fosters cooperation among schools, inter-school cultural exchanges, and a collaborative problem-solving experience for the