Jacopo Armani

One implicit assumption in the research on hypertexts is that the reader can be more active playing a more determining role in the construction of meaning. This is generally associated with the multiple reading paths enabled by the non-linear nature of hypertexts (Landow, G. P. 1998: 88-92). Conversely, the role of the writer is assumed to change from author to knowledge provider and facilitator. Without going in depth in hypertext theories, we will approach the issue from an applied research viewpoint: how can we exploit the potentialities of non-linear structures in learning environments? The issue of the non-linear nature of hypertexts becomes in fact particularly relevant in an educational environment. Even though knowledge is more likely to be represented in a network-like structure, learning is actually a sequential process. Information is presented and learnt in a linear way, one lecture after the other, one page after the other, one concept after the other. From the point of...

The paper presents a design strategy for e-learning hypermedia interfaces based on the notion of conceptual-navigational map. It proposes to analyze the cognitive and communication problems that arise in the use of hypermedia applications with specific goals, such as e-learning courseware modules, with the linguistic tools of pragmatics and discourse analysis, and shows how this can help in identifying specific communication problems related to the grounding and contextualization of new information, and how it can lead to new insights for design and to interfaces inspired by the linguistic means used in verbal communication to manage analogous problems. The implementation of such a design strategy in the SWISSLING courseware modules is discussed, and future directions of development towards context- aware adaptive hypermedia are briefly outlined.

Adaptive Hypermedia Systems represent a great potential for e-learning; nevertheless instructors and designers find it difficult to develop adaptive application within their framework. This paper presents a map-based visual design method, developed at the AHS atelier in the University of Lugano and tailored for non-technical people, for designing adaptive courseware according to different instructional strategies.

Abstract: The impact of new technologies in education has brought to the perception of an educational web site has a more or less standard features in several contexts. Yet, an analysis of the existing literature reveals that the practices of Instructional Design and Hypermedia Design have few if any contact points. We claim that an integration of the two processes – namely learning activities design and hypermedia design –

So far educational adaptive technologies have proven their effectiveness only in small-scale lab courses, thus they still wait for being released to the large community of educators. Among the reasons, there is the difficult task of designing and authoring an interactive adaptive course, especially for non-technical group of educators. In this paper we present VIDET, a visual authoring tool for designing web-based adaptive courses with the ADLEGO adaptive engine. The authoring tool is tailored to the community of nontechnical instructors. It is pedagogic-neutral, allowing to define several different instructional strategies. The VIDET tool was implemented as a prototype in Macromedia Flash. Some results from a summative evaluation are available: the tool is effective at reducing the instructor’s burden for creating structured adaptive courses. The basic set of adaptive techniques available is complete enough to support several different application scenarios.

Hypertext Exploitation in Teaching and Learning One implicit assumption in the research on hypertexts is that the reader can be more active playing a more determining role in the construction of meaning. This is generally associated with the multiple reading paths enabled by the non-linear nature of hypertexts (Landow, G. P. 1998: 88-92). Conversely, the role of the writer is assumed to change from author to knowledge provider and facilitator. Without going in depth in hypertext theories, we will approach the issue from an applied research viewpoint: how can we exploit the potentialities of non-linear structures in learning environments? The issue of the non-linear nature of hypertexts becomes in fact particularly relevant in an educational environment. Even though knowledge is more likely to be represented in a network-like structure, learning is actually a sequential process. Information is presented and learnt in a linear way, one lecture after the other, one page after the other...

The impact of new technologies in education has brought to the perception of an educational web site has a more or less standard features in several contexts. Yet, an analysis of the existing literature reveals that the practices of Instructional Design and Hypermedia Design have few if any contact points. We claim that an integration of the two processes – namely learning activities design and hypermedia design – would bring benefits in term of efficiency and effectiveness of the development process and quality of the final application. As a first step in this direction, we propose a general framework that integrates the existing approaches adopted in Instructional Design and Hypermedia Development for both design and for requirements analysis.

So far educational adaptive technologies have proven their effectiveness only in small-scale lab courses, thus they still wait for being released to the large community of educators. Among the reasons, there is the difficult task of designing and authoring an interactive adaptive course, especially for non-technical group of educators. In this paper we present VIDET, a visual authoring tool for designing web-based adaptive courses with the ADLEGO adaptive engine. The authoring tool is tailored to the community of nontechnical instructors. It is pedagogic-neutral, allowing to define several different instructional strategies. The VIDET tool was implemented as a prototype in Macromedia Flash. Some results from a summative evaluation are available: the tool is effective at reducing the instructor’s burden for creating structured adaptive courses. The basic set of adaptive techniques available is complete enough to support several different application scenarios.

Adaptive Hypermedia Systems represent a great potential for e-learning; nevertheless instructors and designers find it difficult to develop adaptive application within their framework. This paper presents a map-based visual design method, developed at the AHS atelier in the University of Lugano and tailored for non-technical people, for designing adaptive courseware according to different instructional strategies.

ABSTRACT This paper presents a work in progress on the design of an adaptive learning management system (LMS). LMSs have spread among teachers' communities in virtue of their friendly interface for organizing existing contents, and authoring new one, into Web-based e-learning courses. On the other side educational adaptive technologies have proven so far their effectiveness only in small lab experiments, thus they still wait for being released to the large community of educators. Our research effort is aimed at merging the most established adaptive techniques with the state of the art of LMSs.