Student Status Monitoring Tool (SSM): Proxy for the Real World Expert in Online Course Delivery

摘要

Distance Education has entered a new era, where it is now possible for courseware to be delivered online in a very effective, efficient and appealing manner. At the Institute for Advanced Education in GeoSpatial Science (IAESG), a project funded by NASA, it is our objective to develop a repository of dynamic online coursework in the field of Geospatial Information Technology. These courses are intended to enhance the traditional university learning through visually rich content, and also through closely emulating the concept of an Expert in a virtual environment. It thus becomes imperative to address a number of pedagogical issues in the design of such a dynamic web-based course delivery system. Traditional education generally involves two main entities: an Expert, and some form of reference material such as a textbook. The Expert imparts knowledge interactively in the real world, and is in some sense the more 'active' or 'intelligent' agent, whereas the textbook is just reference since it has limited scope, and hence is the 'passive' or 'static' agent. Thus the pedagogical issue that needs the most immediate attention, while dealing with learner-centered online course delivery is the issue of how to emulate the real-world Expert in a virtual learning environment. We realize that the role, the Expert plays in knowledge transfer is multi-faceted. One of the roles of the Expert is to use traditional testing methodologies like quizzes and exercises to evaluate the performance of a learner. In an online environment, the best way to achieve this continuous evaluation is to get constant feedback on the performance and learning style of the student, via 'Student Status Monitoring' (SSM) tool. The research we present focuses on this pivotal aspect of effective online learning.