Foreword

Information and communication technologies are changing dramatically the way in which individuals live and work and organisations operate, creating the basis for the Information Society in which we live today. This was explicitly acknowledged in the title of the so-called “Information Society Technologies” research programme. Nowadays there is a shift towards a more ambitious concept: the knowledge society, recognising the crucial role that the skills of the citizens will play in the future competitiveness of the emerging knowledge-based economy. This has been equally acknowledged by the Council of the EU at the launch of the e-Europe initiative. Indeed when setting out the objective for Europe to become the most competitive and dynamic economy in the world particular attention was paid to digital literacy and skills in general as preconditions. E-learning is recognised as essential to this transition and will soon become its engine. Indeed e-learning technologies will play a fundamental role in ensuring that the all-pervasive, and sometimes overwhelming information available nowadays, is converted into relevant knowledge for Europe’s citizens, industries, communities and organisations, the way they need it, personalised and accessible, whenever and wherever needed.

As horizontal activities, some accompanying measures have been launched. These projects will support R&D projects in their clustering, reinforcing validation, evaluation and dissemination activities. Some of the topics addressed are standards in multimedia technologies, re-elaboration of R&D results of education communities and market watch of learning technologies.

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The European Commission has launched several initiatives in order to create a critical mass of “resources” able to support, guide and stimulate research, technological development and innovation in education and training. The main one is the IST (Information Society Technologies) research programme, where education and training is one of the key priorities and is leading to the development of new open platforms for e-learning and applications for schools, corporate training, universities and lifelong learning in general. The activities in this area cover both R&D work on common methodologies and tools and specific demonstrations in several market sectors.

The nature of all the projects involved in this initiative is described succinctly in this document. The European Commission also promotes some complementary initiatives in the field of education and training which complement and support the research activities carried out within the IST programme. Among these it is worth highlighting the initiative on standardisation of learning technologies (CENISSS workshop) - it is broadly admitted that standardisation is important to ensure that a critical mass of learning systems, services and contents can be established in a cost-effective way, taking into account Europe’s cultural and linguistic diversity. Ensuring a critical mass of actors for the deployment of these technologies is the key remit of the Memorandum of Understanding, PROMETEUS (Promoting Multimedia in Education and Training in the European Society), which provides a platform for reaching consensus and bridging current research with actual implementation. An exchange of experience and knowledge takes place through the international activities. The stakes are twofold: on the one hand e-learning is an enabling application area with a strong potential impact on the continuous education and training of individuals, on the quality of life and the competitiveness of European industry; on the other hand it is an emerging market which is going to boom in upcoming years according to all forecasts. The outstanding quality of education and training systems in Europe should be coupled with information and knowledge technologies, to ensure that Europe will be able to meet the growing demand for lifelong learning and will become a key player in this market.

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Luis Rodriguez-Roselló Head of Unit Multimedia Applications for Education and Training Directorate General Information Society

Open Platforms and Tools for Personalised Learning Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are now widely used in education and training, enabling the implementation of new pedagogical paradigms (e.g. distance learning, sharing of course materials, virtual laboratories). While there are many practical benefits in the use of ICT, the production of learning content is expensive. At the same time, new learning requirements are emerging, with a shift towards personalised learning services flexibly delivered. Thus, more cost-effective learning environments are required based on open standards and reusable learning objects. Significant contributions to reusable, interoperable and platform-independent approaches have already been made under previous EU RTD programmes. For example, ARIADNE, a TAP FP4 project, developed a distributed repository of learning objects based on open platforms and metadata standards. Project participants share their educational resources through interconnected educational databases known as the Knowledge Pool System (KPS). Teachers can combine content selected from the KPS with their existing materials to create courses online relatively quickly and easily. Learners and authors can work from anywhere provided there is Internet access to the nearest KPS node. ARIADNE, together with other FP4 projects such as REM, has been closely involved international standardisation activities, such as IEEE LOM (Learning Object Methodology) and the IMS project (Instructional Management Systems). This work is being continued under IST’s action line on Open Platforms and Tools for Personalised Learning. This aims to prove the concept of re-usable learning objects and open platforms as a cost-effective way of implementing and maintaining flexible learning services. It also aims to further develop an open architecture for building education and training applications and services. Active contributions to international standardisation activities and to European best practice are also key objectives.

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The work focuses on the development and validation of reusable components, and is closely linked to component software engineering. New tools and processes are being developed for producing and maintaining reusable learning objects at different levels of detail (“granularity”). Tools and processes for

A repository for learning resources The EASEL project is addressing the standards-based provision of online learning based on state-of-the-art repository technologies. The objective is to offer educators an environment in which they can readily combine existing learning objects to create new online educational offerings. The work involves the development of an XML metadata repository for storing descriptions of learning objects, assessment modules for interrogating objects, a Web-based search gateway and a construction kit. The project is working closely with the IEEE Question & Test working group, which is developing classification and management systems for learning objects.

locating and sharing learning objects are also being developed, including solutions for operational issues such as intellectual property rights, accreditation and payments. Another area of interest is the assembly and maintenance of new types of flexible learning environments based on reusable learning objects. The work also feeds into longer-term research on advanced learning environments and innovative pedagogical approaches. In technological terms, the main development areas include: learning object manipulation (metadata generators and retrieval systems); learning object authoring systems; security and trust infrastructures (APIs, smartcards); knowledge repositories; and language translation. The CODEX-IP project, for example, is researching tools to develop and maintain language-independent learning objects across IP-based networks. TELENET is developing a smart card based secure infrastructure for the exchange and delivery of learning materiel. An advanced lecturing system that uses the high bandwidth available to academic institutions to deliver real-time, specialised courses to students in different locations is being developed by VIRTUAL BLACKBOARD. Further info IST Action Lines: IST1999 III.3.1 Project References: 3DE CODEX-IP DIVILAB EASEL EMBER FM-Ultranet FREETEXT KOD MYTHE TRAIN.ME TRIAL-SOLUTION TWT-U UP-ARIADNE UPLOADED IT VIRTUAL BLACKBOARD WEBSET

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Commission Contacts: Joseph Bremer

Open Platforms and Tools for Personalised Learning

IST-1999-10697 IST-1999-12021 IST-1999-12017 IST-1999-10051 IST-2000-20469 IST-1999-20865 IST-1999-13093 IST-1999-12503 IST-1999-12395 IST-2000-21036 IST-1999-11397 IST-1999-20325 IST-1999-20407 IST-1999-20359 IST-1999-12670 IST-1999-10632

http://www.3DEproject.com http://www.codex-ip.com http://www.fdgroup.com/easel http://www.bioinf.man.ac.uk/ember/ http://www.latl.unige.ch/freetext/ http://www.kodweb.org/ http://mythe.ilsp.gr/ http://www.train-me.org http://www.trial-solution.de http://www.myTWT.net

http://www.3xodus.com/virtualblackboard http://www.man.ac.uk/MVC/

[email protected]

The Flexible University With higher education now a global market and knowledge transfer increasingly seen as the key driver of wealth creation, universities are having to reinvent themselves. To compete in an increasingly commercial and international market, European higher education institutions are collaborating in developing competitive curricula. They also face a major new challenge as knowledge providers in individuals’ lifelong learning. For universities to offer flexible easy access, they need more open technological solutions. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) offer the prospect of flexible learning services that meet user needs in terms of range, access and costs while adopting innovative learning processes. ICTs allow learning to be effective and cost-efficient and tailored to the needs of individuals who are demanding and increasingly mobile. It allows institutions across Europe the opportunity to collaborate in producing, managing and delivering the curricula and skills required by future students. ICT is critical for universities in their emerging role as “knowledge centres” for lifelong learning.

IST’s action line on the Flexible University aims to integrate and demonstrate emerging ICT technologies in higher education. The approach focuses on applications-oriented research involving innovative learning processes and delivery methods. Aspects covered include: collaborative learning and selfassessment; broadband networks and new Internet technologies; and standardsbased solutions for co-operative development, sharing and reuse of educational objects. The aim is for a set of compelling ICT-based demonstrations that contribute to open standards and build cross-sectoral links and partnerships. The best practices studied will be disseminated through Europe. Several projects focus on personalised course delivery. LEDA, for example, is developing a networked system to support post-graduate education in the field of digital media. The project will generate an international knowledge base on digital media production processes, methods and techniques, which will be used by universities and industry to access research results and learning materials interactively. PEARL is developing a collaborative environment for science and engineering students to undertake experiments.

Design your own courses UNIVERSAL is investigating the feasibility of an open exchange system for academic course units. The aim is to develop a brokerage platform, based on common models and standards, that will enable lecturers to enrich their curricula with remotely sourced units. Different classes of course units will be covered including live, person-to-person units and packaged, person-machine units. The system will be compatible with a variety of current business models including open universities. Students will benefit from a wider choice of course units and from virtual mobility based on mutual recognition.

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Tomorrow’s universities will be very different from those of today: increasingly, virtual institutions are serving a much wider client base. Curricula will be produced collaboratively from distributed educational resources, and flexibly managed and delivered to learners worldwide. The boundaries between academic education and vocational training will become increasingly blurred as learners access personalised and flexible learning services, available as and when they want them, as part of a continuum of lifelong learning. Students will no longer be confined to one curriculum but will be able to build their own based on courses from multiple institutions.

A virtual design school A virtual school of architecture, civil engineering and environment design is being set up under WINDS. The system comprises a networked tutoring environment for teaching design involving contributions from 23 universities in 10 European countries. Students will have access to services through the Internet by means of shared tools, Web-browsers and commercial CAD systems. Co-operation between students (peer tutoring) and between students and teachers (remote tutoring) will be supported by groupware tools.

Another area of interest is collaborative course production. A Web-based framework for sharing high-quality learning material over the Internet is being developed by OR-WORLD. An important issue in this, and other projects, is the “granularity” of the educational content – at what level should the teaching resources be reusable (course, lecture, media elements, etc.)? User-friendly brokerage systems for university courses is also an emerging area. CUBER is developing a system to support individuals and corporations in finding a three-dimensional match in courses between vocational demands, academic offers and individual learning conditions. Using brokering middleware, it will integrate European universities within a virtual network through a common knowledge base of standardised course descriptions. Further info IST Action Lines: IST-1999 III.3.2 Project References: CANDLE CUBER LEDA OR-WORLD PEARL UNIVERSAL VOEU WINDS

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Commission Contacts: Wim Jansen

The Flexible University

IST-1999-11276 IST-1999-10737 IST-1999-10567 IST-1999-11124 IST-1999-12550 IST-1999-11747 IST-1999-13079 IST-1999-10253

http://www.candle.eu.org/ http://www.cuber.net/ http://www.ledanet.org http://www.or-world.com http://www.kmi.open.ac.uk/projects/pearl/ http://www.ist-universal.org http://voeu.vitamib.com/ http://www.winds-university.org

[email protected]

Advanced Training Systems As the world of work becomes ever more complex and portfolio careers become the norm, on-the-job training is increasingly important. Future learning environments will have to address moves in and out of work and between working tasks in a world where skills, disciplines and jobs mutate rapidly. Increasingly, organisations require a flexible workforce with broad competencies rather than workers trained in a specific but limited skill set. Current approaches to ICT-supported vocational training mainly address the use of new technology within traditional training settings. The benefits sought are mostly cost reductions with little or no added value in the learning process itself. Users often fail to see the benefits of ICT-based training solutions, which are developed with little involvement of pedagogical experts. Current solutions also tend to focus mainly on technical subjects and to be applied in large industrial organisations. IST’s Advanced Training Systems action line is developing and validating radically new approaches to ICT-based vocational training. The work aims to demonstrate improvements in learning processes through ICT, including evidence of the benefits of just-in-time, just-as-required on-the-job training. This research puts the learner at the centre of a web of innovative learning processes and leading edge technologies. The outputs will be innovative, prototype training environments which are adaptive to the learner - their style, knowledge level etc., and provide support where and when required.

The smart instructor A-TEAM is developing a new approach to advanced training for complex technical domains. Artificial intelligence technologies are being integrated with dynamic simulation modelling to create a fully interactive real-time knowledge-based system for emergency management applications. The system guides the learner through a simulated emergency and monitors student reactions, providing additional help and feedback where necessary. Embedded evaluation functions monitor the student’s progress.

Research areas include new learning environments for complex, high-tech industrial situations using advanced simulation and immersive VR, collaborative training environments, and co-operative team-based training using corporate knowledge networks. The CORONET project, for example, is integrating corporate knowledge networks and group learning processes for software engineers. DERIVE is combining the use of robotics and informatics within virtual reality-based training systems. ATEAM focuses on advanced training systems for emergency management (see box). VirTEPPE is creating a fully integrated learning and teaching channel for workers in the printing industry based on satellite, ISDN-DSL and Internet technologies. Other industry-specific applications include aircraft maintenance (AITRAM) and aviation training (ASIMIL and ADAPT-IT).

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Barriers between work and learning are disappearing: in the future the emphasis will shift from “training” to “job-related learning”. As individuals take greater responsibility for their own professional development they will need to access work-related learning opportunities throughout their lives. People will be

looking to learn where, when and how they need to – at the office, in the factory, on the road. Such learning will be self-determined, tailored and specific to their skill needs, but at the same time will bring the benefits of collaborative, team-based approaches. From the employer’s perspective, the challenge is to integrate learning into dayto-day working processes as part of an overall approach to managing knowledge and leveraging the organisation’s intellectual capital. The increasing relation to work implies the application of knowledge to real tasks with an element of “learning-by-doing”. Thus, we should think in terms of flexible individual learning solutions available on a ubiquitous basis and with complete mobility. Mobility is a complex concept, not just a question of the use of portable devices. It may include movement between jobs and the ability to learn either on or off-the-job, as well as learning flexibly at different times or in different places. Research priorities include new methods of learning, as opposed to well-understood patterns of computer-based training, and the application of innovative learning methods within companies. Further info IST Action Lines: IST1999-III.3.3 Project References: ADAPT-IT AITRAM ASIMIL A-TEAM CBLPET CORONET DERIVE ELSA ENORM-VLC GAMBIT ICIS InTraServ INVITE KITS MOPLE TELENET VIDL VIRTEPPE

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Commission Contacts: Elena Coello

Advanced Training Systems

IST-1999-11740 IST-1999-12241 IST-1999-11286 IST-1999-10176 IST-2000-28520 IST-1999-11634 IST-1999-10417 IST-2000-29340 IST-2000-29422 IST-2000-28275 IST-2000-29323 IST-2000-29377 IST-1999-11722 IST-1999-13078 IST-1999-13460 IST-1999-10459 IST-2000-29390 IST-1999-10953

http://www.aitram.de http://www.aerogates.com/francais/asimil/htm http://www.ess.co.at/A-TEAM/ http://www.iese.fhg.de/coronet http://www.derive.uni-bremen.de

http://invite.fh-joanneum.at http://kits.edte.utwente.nl/ http://www.cimne.upc.es http://www.telenet-platform.com http://www.virteppe/net/dev/main.html

[email protected]

The Learning Citizen Learning today is no longer confined to institutions such as schools, colleges, universities, companies or training centres. New technologies and tools offer learners greater flexibility, easier access to information and the opportunity to match learning to their specific needs, circumstances and learning profile. The home is increasingly important as a learning environment for many citizens, including disadvantaged groups such as the unemployed or people with special needs, and those in remote and isolated locations. The challenge is to bring together educators and service providers to use the available technology and take on a new supportive, motivating and affordable way of learning that can benefit many groups in society. Initial work has already been undertaken under FP4. Amongst others, DOMITEL, a TAP project, delivered a range of courses directly to the home, allowing learners to interact with the tutor via a two-way video link. A series of prototypes were developed utilising technologies such as cable television and ISDN. In Ireland, a 30-hour course was delivered live by cable from a purpose-built interactive classroom to 60 learners based in learning centres and at home. In Portugal, a prototype interactive learning service was used to deliver an IT course, also over cable TV. And in The Netherlands, a distance learning solution was developed for a speech therapy course for people with hearing implants. Under IST, the role of new ICT-based approaches in enhancing and facilitating lifelong learning for individuals is being addressed under the Learning Citizen action line. The research addresses intelligent, user-friendly solutions with innovative integration of technologies. Projects address research into how people define their learning goals and manage the learning process and solutions will be supportive and motivating. The easy and widest possible access to innovative learning environments from remote and isolated locations is also a key issue. Projects will investigate the brokerage of relevant learning services and support the assessment and recognition of the acquired skills. New projects will address rehabilitation of young offenders, support to marginalised groups, others will address general social skills and some offer portals with aggregation of educative services. WAP technology will also be part of some projects.

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A holistic and multi-disciplinary approach is emphasised including a comprehensive evaluation of the appropriateness of the used technology and benefits for the user. When fully implemented the work is expected to result in

scalable solutions and European-level best practice guidelines and recommendations. Among the FP5 projects looking at the Learning Citizen, there is EDCOMNET which is developing a virtual learning community Web portal for adult citizens. FELLOWS will develop and validate new distant learning services for user groups who need access to education and training outside formal education settings. The main objective of HERO is to promote the rehabilitation of offenders while HOPE aims to improve the learning process of socially excluded individuals such as young prisoners. NEMO will improve the life long learning process for deaf, mentally disordered and elderly people. METACAMPUS aims at fulfilling the life long learning needs of European citizens by providing flexible access to services for personal development. M-learning will develop and test prototype products and services which will provide information, advice and guidance and portfolios of very small modules of learning via technologies which are inexpensive, portable and accessible to the majority of EU citizens.

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Further information IST Action Lines: IST-2000 III.2.2

The Learning Citizen

Project References: DOMITEL EDCOMNET FELLOWS HERO HOPE LCCN METACAMPUS m-learning

ET-1008 IST-2000-26037 IST-2000-26247 IST-2000-26274 IST-2000-26271 IST-2001-33539 IST-2000-26314 IST-2000-25270

NEMO Ped-Care PROMENTHEA

IST-2000-25308 IST-2000-25417 IST-2000-26204

Commission Contacts: Jens P. Christensen

[email protected]

http://www.cet.hut.fi/domitel

http://www.hope-project.org http://www.arttic.fr http://www.ultralab.ac.uk/projects/ m-learning/home.shtml http://www.alamosistemas.com/nemo/

School of Tomorrow The school plays an essential role in the education of younger generations. An obvious aspect of this role is the provision of the knowledge and skills that are necessary to make them active citizens of the Information Society, expressed by some experts through the concept of digital literacy. However, to be able to cope with a scenario of almost continuous change, these skills go beyond the traditional acquisition of information about facts and techniques, giving greater emphasis to the higher level cognitive activities (e.g. autonomy, creativity, problem solving, team work). The societal changes intervened in the recent decades also demand the ability to support more differentiated groups of learners, providing the teacher with the means to better take into account their individual needs. This diversity goes beyond the physical limits of the classroom promoting a more inclusive view of the school, bringing together children irrespective of their geographic location. The ubiquitous presence of information and communication technologies is also at the origin of new forms of interaction and expression leading to the emergence of what has been referred to as the culture of interactivity. This evolution challenges the typical communication processes of the classical classroom, calling for more innovative learning materials combining pedagogical effectiveness, with easy-to-use mechanisms supporting interaction between learners, tutors and other peer groups. The quest for the knowledge about the cognitive mechanisms associated with the use of ICT in schools and the development of the tools supporting more effective pedagogical approaches started in the later stages of FP4, and more particularly through the Education Multimedia Task Force. There were a number of projects aiming at bringing together the main actors of the school and supporting the gradual introduction of ICT in the teaching and learning of various disciplines.

Other interesting projects focusing on the development of multimedia resources for primary and secondary schools include EURODELPHES, MEDIAKIDS, PEDACTICE or VES. In all cases great attention is given to teachers as their active involvement is critical in making multimedia telematics into useful pedagogical tools supporting the learning process. This perspective is particularly emphasised in REPRESENTATION, which conducts a more systematic analysis of the pedagogic aspects of multimedia use in schools and their impact in the design of new products. Other projects focused on the development of learning resources addressing the specific needs of language learning (FABULA, MALTED, VIRLAN, VALASPI), LOGO language (NETLOGO) or environmental aspects (PLANET).

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Among these projects carried out, special mention should be given to the European Multimedia School Network (EUN), a virtual teachers’ college for the professional development of teachers, with extensive learning resources for pupils in European schools. This network of more than 500 schools covers all the EU Member States, Iceland, Norway and Switzerland. These schools act as a test bed, providing best practice and good examples and supporting other European schools wishing to employ multimedia telematics, offering them appropriate tools to both ease and speed up the transformation process.

The concern with a more inclusive school is also present in projects such as FLEX or ISLIL. The Flexible Learning Environment Experiment takes into account the needs of communities (e.g. circus, fairground and bargee families) for which travelling is simply part of their everyday professional lives. In the Integrated System for Long Distance Intercultural Learning, pupils have the possibility of creating, assembling and consulting new intercultural products with the help of the teacher, raising their awareness and sensitisation to the issues of cultural diversity. The project PARLEUNET is an example of how ICT can be used to facilitate a better understanding of political institutions (the EU parliament) by students in secondary schools, promoting the concept of EU citizenship. This work is expected to be pursued with a new group of projects exploiting the more recent advances of technology in the areas of virtual reality and online collaboration in the school context. Among those that deserve a special mention is the development of virtual labs, a tool of great value to help the teaching of scientific disciplines. A more in-depth analysis of the pedagogical and cognitive issues associated with the use of these novel technological tools is also the focus of some of the new projects. It is expected that the results of this research will contribute to better understanding of how ICT can be used to promote the development of the high-level cognitive abilities required by the Information Society. Another aspect to be covered is the need to provide schools with more effective ICT platforms, that are easier to manage and more adequate to their specific environment and constraints. The ITALES project, for example, aims to develop a European-wide virtual teaching and learning community whose key aims are the promotion of pedagogic content sharing and re-use, exchange of opinions and innovation and the provision of both pedagogic and pastoral support for learners. METIS will create a cooperative, multimedia, multilingual educational resource centre for primary and secondary schools. The Lab of Tomorrow project will develop tools that will allow for as many links of teaching of natural sciences as possible with everyday life. YoungNet intends to set up an integrated real-time virtual education environment offering both synchronous and asynchronous communication based on leading edge ICT technology. The Modelling Space project will permit modelling activities by young students, supporting them to express their ideas, to design and test models of various situations and collaborate with other students and teachers via the Internet. Further info

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IST Action Lines: IST-2000 III.2.1

School of Tomorrow

Project References: 5D European Multimedia Schools Network Co-Lab ITALES ITCOLE LAB of TOMORROW METIS MODELLING SPACE OASIS School+ SEED YoungNet Commission Contacts: Carlos Oliveira

IST-2000-25435 IST-2000-25035 IST-2000-26356 IST-2000-26249 IST-2000-25076 IST-2000-25175 IST-2000-25385 IST-2000-26216 IST-2000-25162 IST-2000-25214 IST-2000-25104

[email protected]

http://www.5d.org http://www.eun.org http://www.LTScotland.com http://www.euro-cscl.org

Consensus-building for education and training Telematics and multimedia-based applications and tools are widely seen as offering important benefits for learning and training. But consensus on the nature of the benefits, and how users can maximise their potential, tends inevitably to lag behind the technological and scientific developments. Researchers alone cannot decide on the applicability or usefulness of their innovations: this requires a consensus view expressed in terms of technical standards, social regulations or conventions. In such a context European Commission promotes several initiatives in order to create a critical mass of “resources” able to support, guide, stimulate and disseminate both knowledge and innovation in the education and training world. Such initiatives anticipated needs expressed in the eEurope Action Plan endorsed in June, 2000 by the European Council in Feira: “to become the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion”. To become a knowledge-based economy will be a powerful engine for growth, competitiveness and jobs capable of improving citizens’ quality of life and environment. But to foster the Information Society for all, it is necessary to create a consensus on education and training innovative tools, methodologies, technologies etc., in order to allow European youth and workers to live and work in the upcoming knowledge-based society. Anticipating that view, in March 1999 the European Commission promoted the PROMETEUS initiative, an open forum that bridges the gap between research and actual use of learning technologies, content and services in European education and training. The PROMETEUS initiative already has over 500 members, including trainers and educators, educational authorities, researchers, content producers and service providers.

Consensus building led the Commission to also promote the European Multimedia School Network (EUN), a virtual teachers’ college for the professional development of teachers with extensive learning resources for pupils in European schools. Settled up under the Education Multimedia Task Force in FP4, EUN is a network of networks in the EU Member States, Iceland, Norway and Switzerland, working for the development and validation of multimedia tools and services and offering access to high quality information and services of European interest. The participating schools act as a test bed, providing best practice and good examples while being key animators of the European School Network. They provide support to other European schools wishing to employ multimedia telematics, offering them appropriate tools to both ease and speed up the transformation process. A strategic role on consensus building is played by standardisation. The European Commission gives a strong contribution in this sense through the CEN/ISSS workshop on learning technologies and the IEEE standards group.

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PROMETEUS develops guidelines and best practice handbooks, as well as recommendations which are submitted to national and EU authorities and international standards bodies. Eleven special interest groups have also been established in areas such as: interoperability and reusability of educational media; best practices in higher education; learning environments for primary and secondary schools; and broadcast-based learning.

Efforts on standardisation of learning technologies are essential to ensure that a critical mass of learning systems, services and contents can be established in a cost-effective way. It helps to respect Europe’s culture and linguistic diversity in the global context, to benchmark learning innovation at European level and to disseminate good practice related to learning technologies. This is an important contribution to help move Europe forward through strategic investments in learning. The following projects will support clustering, validation, evaluation, or dissemination activities within the Education and Training area: 1) the EUN-Valnet project is establishing a validation network involving schools in the EU member states and some associated countries. To achieve this objective EUN counts on the privileged relationship with the Ministries of Education. 2) the LCCN project supports projects in the action line Learning Citizen to develop synergies, to make full use of commonalities, to disseminate results of the single projects as well as of the LCCN network. 3) the K2 project supports projects in the action line Advanced Training Systems to capture and capitalise on lessons learnt, to optimise knowledge sharing, to disseminate results and to carry out cluster activities. 4) the L-Change project is collecting and analyse figures about the demand and supply of ICT based E&T in Europe and the USA. 5) the LEARN project that promotes the dissemination of selected IST research results to European learners, and, more specifically, setting-up an educational multilingual online service for schools, universities, open learning centres including science museums and for learners all over Europe. 6) the PROACTe project that provides a structured dissemination activity, consolidating the results of RTD projects and disseminating them to a wide audience of professionals and decision-makers in the education and training world. 7) the SCHEMAS project collects requirements and raises awareness about the use of metadata standards in Education and Training and other areas. 8) the SEN-IST-NET is a thematic network that brings together the knowledge resources of a large group of researchers, professionals and practitioners on “Special Educational Needs”. This network is expected to emerge as the natural focal point for activities related to “Special Educational Needs” across the IST programme. Further info

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IST Action Lines: IST-2000 III.2

Education and Training

Project References: European Multimedia Schools Network EUN-Valnet LCCN K2 LEARN L-Change PROACTe PROMETEUS SCHEMAS SEN-IST-NET Commission Contacts: Marco Marsella

http://www.eun.org IST-2000-14025 IST-2001-33539 IST-2000-25017 IST-1999-12371 IST-2000-26226 IST-1999-12292 IST-1999-10010 IST-2000-26449

[email protected]

http://www.arttic.fr http://www.know-2.org http://www.dbcons.com/learn http://www.proacte.com http://www.prometeus.org http://www.schemas-forum.org/

Table of Projects

Foreword Introduction Open Platforms and Tools for Personalised Learning 3DE CODEX-IP DIVILAB EASEL EMBER FM-Ultranet FREETEXT KOD MYTHE TRAIN.ME TRIAL-SOLUTION TWT-U UP-ARIADNE UPLOADED IT VIRTUAL BLACKBOARD WEBSET

IST-1999-10697 IST-1999-12021 IST-1999-12017 IST-1999-10051 IST-2000-20469 IST-1999-20865 IST-1999-13093 IST-1999-12503 IST-1999-12395 IST-2000-21036 IST-1999-11397 IST-1999-20325 IST-1999-20407 IST-1999-20359 IST-1999-12670 IST-1999-10632

http://www.3DEproject.com http://www.codex-ip.com http://www.fdgroup.com/easel http://www.bioinf.man.ac.uk/ember/ http://www.latl.unige.ch/freetext/ http://www.kodweb.org/ http://mythe.ilsp.gr/ http://www.train-me.org http://www.trial-solution.de http://www.myTWT.net

http://www.3xodus.com/virtualblackboard http://www.man.ac.uk/MVC/

The Flexible University CANDLE CUBER LEDA OR-WORLD PEARL UNIVERSAL VOEU WINDS

IST-1999-11276 IST-1999-10737 IST-1999-10567 IST-1999-11124 IST-1999-12550 IST-1999-11747 IST-1999-13079 IST-1999-10253

http://www.candle.eu.org/ http://www.cuber.net/ http://www.ledanet.org http://www.or-world.com http://www.kmi.open.ac.uk/projects/pearl/ http://www.ist-universal.org http://voeu.vitamib.com/ http://www.winds-university.org

Advanced Training Systems IST-1999-11740 IST-1999-12241 IST-1999-11286 IST-1999-10176 IST-2000-28520 IST-1999-11634 IST-1999-10417 IST-2000-29340 IST-2000-29422 IST-2000-28275 IST-2000-29323 IST-2000-29377 IST-1999-11722 IST-1999-13078 IST-1999-13460 IST-1999-10459 IST-2000-29390 IST-1999-10953

http://www.aitram.de http://www.aerogates.com/francais/asimil/htm http://www.ess.co.at/A-TEAM/ http://www.iese.fhg.de/coronet http://www.derive.uni-bremen.de

http://invite.fh-joanneum.at http://kits.edte.utwente.nl/ http://www.cimne.upc.es http://www.telenet-platform.com http://www.virteppe/net/dev/main.html

ti an b e d uo cf t i po r no j e c t s t rl o

ADAPT-IT AITRAM ASIMIL A-TEAM CBLPET CORONET DERIVE ELSA ENORM-VLC GAMBIT ICIS InTraServ INVITE KITS MOPLE TELENET VIDL VIRTEPPE

The Learning Citizen EDCOMNET FELLOWS HERO HOPE LCCN METACAMPUS m-learning NEMO Ped-Care PROMENTHEA

IST-2000-26037 IST-2000-26247 IST-2000-26274 IST-2000-26271 IST-2001-33539 IST-2000-26314 IST-2000-25270 IST-2000-25308 IST-2000-25417 IST-2000-26204

http://www.hope-project.org http://www.arttic.fr http://www.ultralab.ac.uk/projects/m-learning/home.shtml http://www.alamosistemas.com/nemo/

School of Tomorrow 5D Co-Lab EUN-Valnet ITALES ITCOLE LAB of TOMORROW METIS MODELLING SPACE OASIS School+ SEED YoungNet

IST-2000-25435 IST-2000-25035 IST-2000-14025 IST-2000-26356 IST-2000-26249 IST-2000-25076 IST-2000-25175 IST-2000-25385 IST-2000-26216 IST-2000-25162 IST-2000-25214 IST-2000-25104

http://www.5d.org

http://www.LTScotland.com http://www.euro-cscl.org

Consensus-building for education and training

ti na tb rl oe d uo cf t i po rno j e c t s

K2 LEARN L-Change PROACTe SCHEMAS SEN-IST-NET

IST-2000-25017 IST-1999-12371 IST-2000-26226 IST-1999-12292 IST-1999-10010 IST-2000-26449

http://www.know-2.org http://www.dbcons.com/learn http://www.proacte.com http://www.schemas-forum.org/ http://www.european-agency.org/

3DE Design, Development and Delivery – Electronic Environment Educational Multimedia The global digital space for learning and training 3DE is a project that is defining, designing and building a learning environment, tailor-made for individual learners. Each time a course is created, it can be customised specifically for the needs of each learner. This unique system will build up its ”learner packages” from a library of micromodules worked out specifically for each learning style. This will be based on their competence and their final educational goals. The usual approach in the development of multimedia courses is to build teacher or institution-specific courses. With 3DE, courses can be tailor-made for the individual learners improving the effectiveness of current computer-based teaching and training packages, and reducing the cost for the development of high-quality interactive multimedia educational packages.

Adapting to the needs of the learners

The packages are built from a library of micromodules in an automated way. Several different custom packages can be built from the same pool of micromodules. The key characteristics: automated construction, re-use of parts and educational effectiveness, cut both the development time and the time required to learn, which brings a significant cost reduction. The environment works with tools to analyse the learner as an individual. These tools look at the learning style preferences, competence analysis and the analysis of prior learning in other environments (e.g. schoolwork). Other inputs the system can take include the goals of the learner in terms of final competence and skills. All these data are fed to the Custom Course Compiler, and the output is a truly personal custom course. The personalisation covers both the contents and the user interface (such as the appearance, commands and languages). Special interfaces for disabled people will also be made available. The project consists of a definition and design phase, followed by two implementation-distribution-assessment cycles. From the results of the first cycle the implementation will be revised, and a second implementation/ distribution/assessment cycle will be carried out.

Open Platforms and Tools for Personalised Learning

At the heart of the 3DE system is the Custom Course Compiler which translates the learning goals into deliverable educational packages specifically designed for the individual learner needs, taking into account the personal learning style.

Project No: IST-1999-10697 Duration: 36 months Economic Sector: Education and Training Providers Action Line: Open Platforms and Tools for Personalised Learning Full Title: Design, Development, and Delivery - Electronic Environment for Educational Multimedia

In more detail, the sequence of activities is:

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definition of the pedagogical design framework; analysis of existing standards; specification of database and micromodules; development of micromodules for the pilot projects; detailed specifications of the Custom Course Compiler; implementation of the Custom Course Compiler, test and assessment; development and distribution of pilot courses; analysis of educational effectiveness and change request.

Contribution to standards

Open Platforms and Tools for Personalised Learning

3DE is using engineering methodologies with re-usable modules compliant with international standards for design and development. The use of standards for interfaces and metadata, either existing or in development, is being enforced to reduce the costs. The modularity and re-usability of packages built within 3DE will contribute to the establishment of a global digital space for learning and training, with emphasis on adaptability to different needs of the learner and to specifications and constraints of educational institutions and companies.

Project Type: Education and Training Research Start Date: 01/03/2000 End Date: 28/02/2003 Project Objectives: The goal of the 3DE project is to define, design, build, and make usable a development environment for interactive educational multimedia packages able to build, in an automated or guided way, courses customised for the needs of each learner Target Audience: Education and training providers, designers and developers of ICT-based educational packages Keywords: Learner-centred education, automated tools, modularity, re-use of parts, educational effectiveness, competence and learning preferences Technology: ICT technologies (Web, database), pedagogical analysis and methodologies

Project Co-ordinator Prof. Dante Del Corso POLITECNICO DI TORINO COREP Corso Duca degli Abruzzi, 24 I-10129 Torino, Italy Tel: +39-011-5644044 Fax: +39-011-5644099 E-mail: [email protected] URL: http://www.3DEproject.com Project Participants POLITECNICO DI TORINO (IT) ARDEMI (FR) STI (ES) VAASA (FI)

CODEX-IP Collaborative Language Independent Development Environment for Exemplary based Re-usable Learning Objects in IP Learning Platforms The problem with tools Tools for developing ICT-based courses in open learning platforms have two structural problems. Course development tools are restrictive and provide insufficient guidance for training centres to develop quality and personalised interactive courses, and no standard methodology and tool is available that enables training centres in different language areas to cooperate in course development. The CODEX-IP project is overcoming these problems by developing a costeffective tool and methodology that enables the development and maintenance of language independent re-usable learning objects to be distributed within IPbased open learning platforms. RTD will provide insight into best practice models for collaborative interactive learning as a basis for developing an innovative model (based on exemplary learning) and Web-based development toolset (integrated workflow, authoring and machine translation).

Codex-IP is researching into best practice learning models for collaborative interactive learning. This will set out a baseline for:

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Developing an innovative learning model (based on exemplary learning); A methodology to structure ICT based courses derived from the new learning model; A blueprint for a new development process for the collaborative development of re-usable learning objects between training centres in different language areas; A completely new integrated development, environment-based on the new learning model and development methodology.

The innovation is the development of three building blocks and their integration, an authoring tool to support all phases in the development process, a common database structure to store and retrieve re-usable learning objects and modules, and a “Memory Based Translation Engine”, a newly-developed concept in language engineering. It will support the identification and development of re-usable learning objects and modules in a transnational and multilingual environment.

Open Platforms and Tools for Personalised Learning

Modelling best practice

Project No: IST-1999-12021 Duration: 24 months Economic Sector: Education and Training Action Line: Open Platforms and Tools for Personalised Learning

The blueprint for the collaborative development process will be tested at a group of three European training centres, SPC Training (NL), Professional Training (ES) and Trefz & Partner (DE). The resulting course material based on the new exemplary learning model will be tested and didactically validated at trial groups (a multinational and an SME) at Teldat (ES) and another company. The CODEX-IP project renders results which are very interesting for all organisations in Europe who wish to establish efficient and effective cooperation at a European level (both course development and training activities). The focus is on ICT training, but the tools and insights will be profitable for other sections within the training and educational sector. The experiences of this project and the acquired results of the project will therefore be disseminated through seminars and through commercial exploitation of the final products.

Open Platforms and Tools for Personalised Learning

Two major aspects which distinguish this project from other IST projects are the multilinguality within the development environment and the didactic model Exemplary Based learning.

Full Title: Collaborative Language Independent Development Environment for Exemplary based Re-usable Learning Objects in IP Learning Platforms Project Type: Education and Training Research Start Date: 01/04/2000 End Date: 31/03/2002 Project Objectives: The CODEX-IP project overcomes the structural problems of creating open platforms for learning by developing a cost-effective tool and methodology that enables the development and maintenance of language independent reusable learning objects to be distributed within IP-based open learning platforms Target Audience: Knowledge managers in SMEs and large companies Keywords: Integrated workflow, authoring and machine translation, ICT training institutes, exemplary based learning, e-learning, re-usable learning objects, language independent development environment, memory-based translation engine, development environment, open platform course development Technologies: MS Office 2000, Windows 2000, MS Discussion server, Index Server

Project Co-ordinator Mr Marcel de Leeuwe SPC TRAINING P.O. Box 107 NL-5201 AC ‘s-Hertogenbosch Tel: +31-73-6921692 Fax: +31-73-6921601 E-mail: [email protected] URL: http://www.codex-ip.com Project Participants SPC Training (NL) SPC Group (NL) Lernout & Hauspie (BE) Professional Training (ES) Trefz & Partner (DE) SCO-Kohnstamm Institute (NL) Teldat (ES) F.O.R.T.H. (GR)

DIVILAB Distributed Virtual Laboratory

The changing face of learning Providing high-quality education and training to all the European citizens is one of the big challenges of the next decades. For supporting these necessary changes there are two complementary strategies:

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The first one is to favour emergence of new actors, new services and a new economy for education and training, using the potential of Information and Communications Technologies; The second strategy is to favour changes in the traditional education and training domains whether it be organised from pupils to students, or for continuing education or lifelong learning.

Supporting Science and Technology Science and technology is a knowledge domain often required as the basis or pre-requisite of more professional qualifications in many industrial and economic human activities. The problem is the poor quality in the personal construction of this domain of knowledge and weak efficiency of the learning process, especially in the first years of the universities or colleges or even in the last years of the high schools or “lycées”. The consequence of this is the subsequent dropout effect or the change in the orientation towards less scientific domains often more attractive such as management, law, and media. This problem is exacerbated by the rapid growth of the whole scientific knowledge and the increase in volume of the curriculum relative to this knowledge domain. The learning process, as has been supported in most of the situations – i.e. a top-down approach, mostly deductive, of sciences - reinforces mainly the surface knowledge, with often a lack in the real mastering of the underlying concepts.

Open Platforms and Tools for Personalised Learning

The Divilab project is focusing on the second strategy, aiming at transforming the traditional educational system by bridging instructional gaps, locally or at a distance, rather than creating new ones. The project is focusing on the increasing disinterest of the new generations for scientific and basic technologies studies.

Project No: IST-1999-12017 Duration: 33 months Economic Sector: Education - Continuing Learning Action Line: Open Platforms and Tools/Flexible Universities Full Title: Distributed Virtual Laboratory Project Type: Education and Training Research

Approaching the problem

Open Platforms and Tools for Personalised Learning

The DiViLab project focuses on the experimental activities of the learner. These computer-mediated activities are supported, whatever the place and time constraints, the nature of the experimental systems (real, simulated or artificial), the organisational and pedagogical models. At the conceptual level DIVILAB is choosing a “learner activity centred design” based on results from learning sciences, distributed cognition, computer supported co-operative work and theory of activity. Due to the knowledge domain selected and the consensus on some generic approaches of the experimental scientific way of thinking, models for individual or collective contexts, based on re-use of the functions of a Virtual Campus platform are being devised. These models will be “tailorable”. An educational “component system architecture” has been chosen at the design level with the potential for co-operation and interoperability of these components, or agents, provided by the Web-object approach. This gives possibilities to provide component interfaces with lightweight coupling and higher semantics through the sharing of a domain ontology, compatible with the progress of the learning technologies international standardisation efforts.

Start Date: 01/03/2000 End Date: 01/12/2002 Project Objectives: DiViLab is solving the critical problem of education and training in experimental sciences and basic technologies. This problem has two affects: the visible decrease of interest for studies in these knowledge domains and a too superficial knowledge due to the growth of the relative curriculum Target Audience: Students; rural zones; continuing training; part time course Keywords: Collaborative work, scientific education, schools, universities, distance learning Technology: Under development

Design and Evaluation Different user interfaces and prototypes are being designed and evaluated. The aim is to support affordable multimedia communication tools for remote access to facilities or services and more reflective cognitive learner activities through cognitive and collaboratory tools. Several trials are being conducted to measure the user’s acceptance, the usability and the learning efficiency in various contexts. Scalability of the solution, its openness and the management of the necessary changes in the learning process are also addressed.

Project Co-ordinator Mr O Etienne ARCHIMED Place du Concert, 2 F-59800 Lille Cedex France Tel: +33-3-20131060 E-mail: [email protected] Project Participants ARCHIMED (FR) France Télécom CNET (FR) University of Aveiro (PT) Gerhard-Mercator-Universität (DE) Fundacion Unversidad Empressa (ES) Instituto de Engenharia de Sistemas e Computadores (PT) Université des Sciences et Technologies of Lille (FR)

EASEL Educator Access to Services in the Electronic Landscape

Sharing educational resources For online learning to become a widespread alternative to more traditional forms of learning, it is vital that educators have available high quality, pedagogically sound resources, which they can tailor and recombine to produce new course offerings. The EASEL project is exploring technologies which can be brought together to offer course constructors an environment in which they can readily combine existing learning objects to create new online courses.

To make re-usable learning objects, EASEL is differentiating between core learning resources, interactive assessments and background resources, which may be offered as reference material from a range of sources. The project will prototype novel technology for supporting course constructors in locating these resources, irrespective of where they are and who they belong to. The development of the infrastructure required to support this mode of cross-domain searching forms a key activity within the project and will allow feedback both to the learning technology community and the wider Web development forums such as W3C.

Open Platforms and Tools for Personalised Learning

The project combines state-of-the-art research into high quality adaptive content with a sound business model for the exchange and re-use of online content. The resulting course offerings will be capable of being used across many learning management systems, driving down the cost of online learning provision.

Project No: IST-1999-10051 Duration: 24 months Economic Sector: Education and Training Action Line: Open Platforms and Tools for Personalised Learning Full Title: Educator Access to Services in the Electronic Landscape

Building on experience EASEL takes a holistic approach to courseware construction. By combining and enhancing several crucial strands of educational technology research, EASEL will establish and validate solutions to support standards-based seamless construction of courseware, which can take advantage of both local and external learning objects and resources. EASEL is adopting a metadata-driven approach to this configurability and manageability. By extending and enhancing techniques and models for learning objects, e.g. Dublin Core and IEEE LOM, EASEL will provide significant research contribution to effecting re-usable learning objects.

Project Type: Education and Training Research Start Date: 01/02/2000 End Date: 31/01/2002 Project Objectives: The EASEL project will explore technologies which can be brought together to offer course constructors an environment in which they can readily combine existing learning objects to create new online educational offerings Target Audience: Individual citizens, corporate searching for continuing education and training, universities and other training and education providers

Open Platforms and Tools for Personalised Learning

Keywords: Course broker, non-text based search engine, virtual university portal, educational marketplace Technology: Internet, LOM (learning object metadata) standard, XML, database technology, advanced search techniques

Project Co-ordinator Mr Ricky Kay FRETWELL-DOWNING EDUCATION Brincliffe House Sheffield S11 7AE United Kingdom Tel: +44-114-2816000 Fax: +44-114-2816001 E-mail: [email protected] URL: http//www.fdgroup.com/easel Project Participants FRETWELL-DOWNING EDUCATION (UK) Institut für Psychologie, Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz (AT) South Bank University (UK) University of Bristol (UK) T.C.D (IE) The Open University (UK) Interactive Labs S.r.l (IT) SEMA Group sae (ES) ARPA-Università di Napoli Federico II (IT)

EMBER European Multimedia Bioinformatics Educational Resource A coherent bioinformatics multimedia educational package

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A survey of training needs and desired learning outcomes; Collation and revision of existing training materials; Unification of these text and Web-based materials to form a new integrated course; The creation and use of formal assessment tools to trial the course throughout Europe; The offer of a standardised course in Web-based and CD-ROM formats.

Building strength in bioinformatics Ember will help European scientists to build strength in bioinformatics through providing:

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a cost-effective, interactive multimedia bioinformatics educational resource that will help to determine a standard of education that is acceptable to industrial and academic worlds, based on the collation and expertise of existing resources; an introductory bioinformatics text; an interactive course on the Web; an equivalent course on CD-ROM.

Open Platforms and Tools for Personalised Learning

Helping European scientists to build strength in bioinformatics is a prerequisite for progress in many “post genome” research areas. However, there is a current European skills shortage in bioinformatics. EMBnet members, with expertise in biology, bioinformatics and computer science, have been involved in teaching bioinformatics for the last ten years. They are helping to develop a bioinformatics textbook and integrated website. However, the wealth of teaching material currently available exists in disparate formats and in different European locations. This project aims to meet these challenges through developing a coherent, standard package of multimedia educational materials, collectively termed EMBER. EMBER will draw on the complementary strengths of project partners, principally members of EMBnet, to complete the following components:

Project No: IST-2000-20469 Duration: 24 months Economic sector: Bioinformatics Action line: Trial and best practice addressing advanced solutions for on-the-job training services in SMEs, including development of sustainable business models

Developing the multimedia teaching package The initial phases will tailor the proposed courses to the requirements of academic and industrial employers, specifically by identifying the nature of the current skills shortfall, defining a standard of required knowledge, and establishing the optimum delivery method. This will be achieved by surveying the most up to date training currently available through EMBnet Nodes and using the considerable combined experience of the partners to distil a new syllabus from the survey.

Open Platforms and Tools for Personalised Learning

The collated material will be used to expand an existing bioinformatics textbook and to add new chapters as appropriate. The current book is already integrated with a Web practical that runs at the University of Manchester. New will be amalgamated with old to provide an updated, uniform Website and CD-ROM that will trial in stand-alone and tutor-supported contexts. Trials will be conducted in research and teaching institutions across Europe. The feedback obtained will allow a course to be provided which, appropriate for personal learning, will meet the needs of industrial and academic researchers. The final evaluated product will be offered via the Web and mass-produced on CD-ROM.

Full title: European Multimedia Bioinformatics Educational Resource Project type: Take-up measures Start date: 01/05/2001 End date: 30/04/2003 Project objectives: Address the current European skills shortage in bioinformatics by developing a coherent, standard package of multimedia educational materials (EMBER), drawing on the experience of project partners to help develop and test materials Target audience: Industrial and academic researchers Keywords: Bioinformatics, multimedia educational resource, Web and CD-ROM based Technology: Internet & CD-ROM

Building on a network of expertise EMBER brings together members of EMBnet, with expertise in biology, bioinformatics and computer science.

Project Co-ordinator Professor Teresa K Attwood 2.205 Stopford Building University of Manchester Oxford Road Manchester M13 9PT United Kingdom E-mail: [email protected] URL: http://www.bioinf.man.ac.uk/ember/ Project Participants University of Manchester (UK) Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics (CH) University of Nijmegen (NL) University of the Western Cape (SA) European Bioinformatics Institute (UK) Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciencia (PT) University of Bruxelles (BE) Canada Institute for Marine Biology (CA) Research Institute for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (TR) Expert Centre for Taxonomic Identification (NL)

FM-Ultranet Training in ultrasonography with multimedia tools

Integrating new technology into ultrasonography FM-Ultranet aims to integrate state-of-the-art techniques in the fields of Case-based Reasoning (CBR), medical image analysis, multimedia tools and computer-based training to help ultrasonographists improve early detection of foetal malformations. The result will be an on-the-job training platform which will be disseminated through DVD and Computer Supported Collaborative Working (CSCW). The project will be undertaken in five stages:

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Analysis of user requirements, feasibility mock-up, and requirements validation; Development of a case database of foetal malformations; Development of the ultrasonographist environment; Assessment, trials and evaluation; Dissemination and exploitation.

The result will be an on-the-job training platform, applying CBR techniques on ultrasound sequences to train practitioners in diagnosing foetal abnormalities. It will be made up of the following components:

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A database containing reference clinical cases related to foetal malformation and the most frequently met malformations (month 9); Tools to train the ultrasonographist in recognising and analysing a case under study from the database with guidance in diagnosis - on-the-job training tool (month 12); Experimentation with 15 end-users (months 12 to 18).

Open Platforms and Tools for Personalised Learning

On-the-job training platform

Project No: IST-1999-20865 Duration: 18 months Economic Sector: Medical, e-Learning Action Line: Integration of state-of-the-art technologies for on-the-job training in early detection of foetal malformations Full Title: FM-Ultranet

Applying CBR techniques to training for ultrasonographists

Project Type: Take-up measures

The case database of foetal malformations, on which the CBR engine will work, will be developed to:

Start Date: 1/12/2000

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include enough parameters to encode the description of malformations, clinical data and outcome of pregnancy; include the case’s ultrasound sequences, bibliography references, links to international classification of diseases (e.g. ICD 10) and the international Web servers on genetics (Orphaet, OMIM, etc.), physiopathology, evolution of diseases, differential diagnosis and prognosis of the diseases; define the similarity measure which will facilitate comparison of cases;

Open Platforms and Tools for Personalised Learning

The CBR tool will then be integrated within the ultrasonographist environment. The system will then be capable of assisting ultrasonographists to:

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build a case from an obstetrical ultrasound examination; guide the analysis of the case under study; get recommendation on the possible medical decisions and further examination; store information for further exploitation and training; produce the report synthesising the suggested diagnosis as well as further medical follow-up.

Project Objectives: Develop, experiment and disseminate an onthe-job training platform for ultrasonographists to improve early detection of foetal malformation during pregnancy surveillance Target audience: Ultrasonographists Keywords: Pregnancy surveillance, Case-based Reasoning (CBR), Multimedia platform, Medical training, Medical image analysis Technology: Case-based Reasoning (CBR), Multimedia platform

The training platform will be trialed starting with experts (initial scientific validation) and then with “standard” ultrasonographists (10 in France and 5 in Belgium) who will use the training platform daily for 6 months to evaluate the approach and refine the pedagogical aspect of the tool. On completion, the results will be promoted among the ultrasonographist community, including the CBR approach for computer-based training. This training environment will be made available on DVD ROM and will be integrated in the standard ultrasonographist working environment.

Project Co-ordinator Pr. Anne Strauss Université de Pierre et Marie Curie-(UPMC) Paris 6-4, Place Jussieu 75005 Paris France E-mail: [email protected] Project Participants Université de Pierre et Marie Curie (FR) Tec :inno - Empolis (DE) Université de Montpellier 1 (FR) Université de Liège (BE)

FREETEXT French in Context: An Advanced Hypermedia CALL System featuring NLP Tools for a Smart Treatment of Authentic Documents and Free Production Exercises A new way of learning French FreeText is a new project which is developing a hypermedia computerassisted language learning system for intermediate to advanced learners of French. FreeText uses natural language processing (NLP) tools and relies on a communicative approach to second language acquisition through meaningful tasks-based activities.

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Developing typologies of errors typical of learners from various linguistic backgrounds (Germanic vs. Romance languages), on the basis of several learner corpora to be collected and made available for automated error coding; Developing communicatively-oriented content materials featuring meaningful learning tasks which make use of authentic documents. These materials will consist of tutorials, interactive learning procedures, text comprehension exercises as well as controlled and free text production exercises; Developing and/or adapting various natural language processing (NLP) tools able to treat free productions and available at any point in the system, among which a large coverage syntactic analyser, a speech synthesiser, a sentence structure viewer, a sentence reformulator, a sentence translator, and an error diagnosis system for spelling, grammar, and semantic errors; Producing and providing reference aids such as dictionaries and a linguistically-motivated reference grammar; Creating an authoring tool allowing teachers to add their own materials into predefined formats to tailor the system to their students’ specific needs; Developing evaluation components using the learner’s navigation patterns and performance; Integrating these tools and contents into an attractive, ergonomicallysound hypermedia software.

Open Platforms and Tools for Personalised Learning

The FreeText project entails the following operations:

Project No: IST-1999-13093 Duration: 36 months Economic sector: Education and training software technology Action line: Open Platforms and Tools for Personalised Learning

Software tools for learning

Open Platforms and Tools for Personalised Learning

The software under development will incorporate authentic documents and sentence processing tools (hearing, structure viewing, reformulating, translating) that will incite learners to actively involve themselves in the foreign language structure discovering process. Using an efficient and robust error diagnosis system, FreeText incorporates error typologies based on statistical French learner corpus analysis, handles free text productions, and provides the user with meaningful feedback. The system will include reference aids such as dictionaries and a linguistically-motivated reference grammar, teacher-oriented authoring capabilities as well as evaluation routines using the learner’s navigation patterns and performance. The FreeText project will result in a complete hypermedia NLP-based CALL system for French which will include five tutorials exploring different text types, a reference grammar, NLP-based tools, and numerous exercises. These exercises will focus on the identification, the modification, and the utilisation of the salient linguistic features characteristic of the retained text genres within spoken and written environments, both controlled: word, part of sentence, sentence; and free: part of text, whole text. This system will make the most effective use of all the NLP tools available, for tutorials and exercises alike. It will also be authorable, allowing teachers to complement it with their own contributions. The system will be able to run on two different platforms with the same capabilities: on the Internet for remote learning, and on PCs for individual and closed-environment uses.

Full title: French in Context: An Advanced Hypermedia CALL System featuring NLP Tools for a Smart Treatment of Authentic Documents and Free Production Exercises Project type: Education and Training Research Start date: 1/04/2000 End date: 31/03/2003 Project Objectives: The FreeText project aims at developing a hypermedia computer assisted language learning system for intermediate to advanced learners of French that relies heavily on natural language processing tools and communicative approaches to second language acquisition Target Audience: The target audience of the product is adult intermediate to advanced learners of French and any institution providing services for that category of learners Keywords: Computer assisted language learning, natural language processing, free productions, authentic documents, hypermedia corpus Technology: 1. Communicative approaches to second language acquisition 2. Computer assisted language learning 3. Natural language processing 4. Error typologies based on the analysis of extended learner corpora 5. Hypermedia technology

Project Co-ordinator Dr Catherine Walther Green Département de Linguistique Université de Genève Rue de Candolle, 2 CH-1211 Genève 4 Tel: +41-22-7057320 Fax: +41-22-7057931 E-mail: [email protected] URL: http://www.latl.unige.ch/freetext/ Project Participants Université de Genève (CH) University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UK) Université Catholique de Louvain (BE) Softissimo (FR)

KOD Knowledge on Demand

KOD outlined The main scope of KOD is to contribute to the thematic area of “Open Platforms and Tools for Personalised Learning” by the design, development and validation of a novel dynamic and adaptive learning environment.

> Tools for Personalised Learning: To design, develop and test the KOD learning environment, as a dynamic and adaptable on-line environment which allows the individual learner to acquire knowledge according to his/her personal learning needs; > Didactic Method: To provide the methodological framework to support both front-end users (learners) and back-end users (educational content authors, publishers, e-learning service providers, etc), and their organisations, in achieving their educational and training objectives through the use of KOD technology, in a cost-effective and efficient way; > Learning Resources: To provide reusable learning material of European addedvalue in order to support the pilot implementation and the demonstration of the KOD System; > Assessment and Validation: To provide evidence for issues such as efficiency, scalability and cost-effectiveness from the pilot implementation and use of the KOD system in two different learning settings with two different discipline subjects; > Dissemination: To contribute to the emerging European and international standardisation efforts in the area, to interact with other EU initiatives towards the sharing of best practice examples and methodologies at a European level, and to demonstrate the achievements of the project to the public; > Exploitation: To investigate possible opportunities for market exploitation and commercialisation of the KOD Project Results. The KOD project aims to address the needs of the following user categories: > front-end users, i.e. learners, interested in accessing educational e-content (mainly through the internet and the world wide web) in a personalised way > back-end users: including Knowledge providers, willing to publish learning material in a common, re-usable and interchangeable format; Knowledge brokers mediator (e-learning) services, willing to provide value-added matching between learner requests and content providers; and Knowledge deliverers, e.g. educational service providers, willing to provide end users (learners) with personalised learning services

Open Platforms and Tools for Personalised Learning

The key objectives of the KOD project can be summarised as follows:

Project No: IST-1999-12503 Duration: 30 months Economic Sector: Education and Training Action Line: Open Platforms and Tools for Personalised Learning Full Title: Knowledge on Demand Project Type: Education and Training Research

The KOD project aims to deliver a vertical learning portal, which supports the above user categories to define, access, interchange and re-use adaptive educational e-content.

Open Platforms and Tools for Personalised Learning

The KOD approach is centred on the extension of current educational content interchange formats (e.g. the Content Packaging Specification currently under extension by international e-learning bodies such as the IEEE LTSC, CEN/ISSS LTW, IMS and ADL SCORM) to facilitate the definition of adaptive and conditional navigation rules taking into account user characteristics (user profiles, testing sessions, etc). These navigation rules are described together with the learning assets within a single content packaging format, called the Knowledge Packaging (KP) format. The aim of such a notation is to enable instructional designers to describe (in a common, reusable, interoperable and machine readable way) navigational logics which define how knowledge packages (i.e. educational courses, sets of learning assets, etc) can be disaggregated and presented in a different way according to different learner characteristics. As a result, e-learning applications and services can provide different knowledge routes to each individual learner, according to his/her characteristics and needs.

Start Date: 01/04/2000 End Date: 30/09/2002 Project Objectives: KOD aims to facilitate the definition of adaptive educational e-content in a common format, so that it can be easily interchanged and re-used Target Audience: Educational technology experts, educators, pedagogical experts, public and private educational technology organisations, educational content providers Keywords: Personalised learning, individualised learning, adaptable and adaptive learning environments, eLearning services Technology: Learning technologies specifications and standards, software agents, vertical learning portals

The KP format is used as the interchange format between the specific architectural modules which are developed during the project, which address the needs of all envisaged players of the e-learning arena, namely learners and educational content and/or applications and services providers.

Project Co-ordinator Dr Demetrios Sampson Informatics and Telematics Institute, Centre for Research and Technology Hellas (ITI-CERTH) 1, Kyvernidou Str. Thessaloniki GR-54639 Tel: +30-31-868324, 868785, 868580, internal 105 Fax: +30-31-868324, 868785, 868580, internal 213 E-mail: [email protected] URL: http://www.kodweb.org/ Project Participants ITI-CERTH (GR) Fretwell-Downing Education (UK) GIUNTI Interactive Labs SRL (IT) Asociacion Centro Alta Technologia En Analisis Imagen (ES) PROFit Gestion Informatica SA (ES)

MYTHE Multimedia Young Children Thesaurus for Educational Purposes

Learning to be multilingual In a growing multilingual modern society, language training and foreign language acquisition are basic conditions for any form of communication and mutual understanding of EU citizens. In addition, young European citizens with multilingual skills are better prepared for entering into the job market. It is important for children to start learning languages early enough in order to be able to think in those languages, as is the case in their mother tongue. The purpose of the MYTHE project is to design and develop a multilingual interactive environment for language teaching to young children. The system is expected to set three languages in a common interface and put the educational methodology and experience of the respective countries together.

The interactive environment of MYTHE is being designed specifically for 6 to 8 year-olds and is capable of creating an enjoyable, stimulating and engaging learning platform for young children, incorporating advanced language, speech, 3D modelling and animation tools. It will support the promotion and development of key skills such as creativity, self-expression and learning by providing the conditions that will inspire children to think creatively, take risks and implement good ideas.

Improved language learning for kids It will facilitate the linguistic development of young children by encouraging them to better learn their language and other European languages. Moreover, it will encourage both learning through collaborative effort and personal achievement by designing and developing an interdisciplinary learning system, adaptable to the needs and abilities of the learner and the learning situation. It will also empower the active participation of teachers, parents and other members of the community by incorporating meaningful roles in the learning process. 3D models and animations will be used to elicit a deeper engagement of the child and offer the child tools for viewpoint manipulation, and the teacher tools to add new content.

Open Platforms and Tools for Personalised Learning

This will unify the users regardless of their geographical residence and national or social barriers and provide good knowledge for all.

Project No: IST-1999-12395 Duration: 24 months Economic Sector: Educational software, private and public schools Action Line: Open Platforms and Tools for Personalised Learning Full Title: Multimedia Young Children Thesaurus for Educational Purposes

Finally, a robust speech recognition system for children capable of coping with noisy environments and multiple pronunciations of the words will be incorporated.

Project Type: Education and Training Research

The scientific and technological objectives of the project are focusing on the following:

End Date: 05/03/2002

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Open Platforms and Tools for Personalised Learning

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Developing an environment to be used for the teaching and learning of both the mother tongue and foreign languages; providing additional value to Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) with the incorporation of advanced Linguistic and Imaging tools (LIM); Eliciting a deeper engagement of the child, by showing realistic 3D models and animations; enhancing multilinguality in Europe; Developing a unified methodological approach for the teaching of three different European languages; offering learners of different educational and cultural backgrounds a common, well-tested and effective platform for language learning; Constructing a platform that can easily be localised for the teaching of other European languages.

The MYTHE platform aims to restore the delicate balance between advanced technology and current trends in language education. It is based on a multilingual approach involving LIM tools and language teaching. Features of advanced technology and language education are expected to constitute a European breakthrough in the field of CALL. The harmonic co-existence of both technological and educational entities guarantees the overall quality of the attempted enterprise. Aggregated experience will be gained during the validation phase of the project that will take place at primary schools in the three countries. It will provide invaluable feedback and trigger future exploitation plans in order to lead the demonstrator to product maturity.

Start Date: 06/03/2000

Project Objectives: To design and develop a multilingual interactive environment for language teaching in young children Target Audience: 6-8 year-old children Keywords: Language learning, language tools, 3D animation, open platform, multilinguality, mythfable, pan-European values Technology: The language, speech, 3D modelling and animation tools will be developed and/or adapted for educational purposes and consist of the core technologies of the platform. The organisation of the language material (simple grammar books, exercises and dictionaries) will be built upon a fable that is based on the thematic fields of environment, health, science and technology, culture and democracy

Project Co-ordinator Dr Vassilis Katsouros INSTITUTE FOR LANGUAGE AND SPEECH PROCESSING – ILSP Artemidos 6 & Epidavrou Streets GR-15125 Marousi, Athens Tel: +30-1-6800959 Fax: +30-1-6854270 E-mail: [email protected] URL: http://mythe.ilsp.gr/ Project Participants ILSP (GR) Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (BE) Televirtual Ltd. (UK) Eyetronics N.V. (BE)

TRAIN.ME Personalised learning on-demand and on-the-job

Developing a personalised learning system The Train.Me project aims to boost the competitiveness of Small and Medium Enterprises through the trial, evaluation and documentation of the impact of implementing a personalised learning system in an association of SMEs. The system will integrate two different existing developments that currently meet the requirements of two different users, content providers and education companies, but which share the use of Web-based technology:

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An offline content creation and authoring tool, consisting of re-usable software components. This tool is the product of the Multimedia Broker Telematics project (IE2093). An online learning environment, with personalisation permitting online, ondemand auto learning.

Improving the training resources available to SMEs

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An online learning environment in Spanish, Italian and English; An XML tool for content generation; An evaluation report detailing the use of the system in terms of effectiveness, cost benefit and re-usability, and a report considering its exploitation potential and market analysis.

Open Platforms and Tools for Personalised Learning

The one-year Train.Me project will assist the training needs of SMEs through producing the following results:

Project No: IST-2000-21036 Duration: 12 months Economic Sector: SMEs Action Line: Trial and best practice addressing advanced solutions for on-the-job training services in SMEs, including development of sustainable business models

Constructing the personalised learning system To achieve the objectives of Train.Me, steps will be taken to:

Project Type: Education and training research

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Full Title: Personalised learning on-demand and on-thejob

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Ensure that the project participants acquire a sufficient competency in the baseline technology, through technology transfer; Define the course content (the course content will deal with Total Quality Management); Define and adapt the learning methodology and to define the user group and test scenarios; Adapt the interface to English and Italian; Integrate the necessary software components from the online and offline tools; Define the workflow and to configure the system accordingly, both in the content creation process and the learning process; Create the course content using the system author tools; Undertake a detailed evaluation with the user, from the point of view of learning effectiveness, usability and cost/benefits; Gather, analyse and consolidate the results; Prepare and actively disseminate the Final Report.

End date: 28/02/2002 Project Objectives: Trial, evaluate and document the impact of implementing a personalised learning system in an association of SMEs Target Audience: SMEs Keywords: SMEs, personalised learning system, online learning environment Technology: Web-based technologies, XML, Java, HTML

Project co-ordinator Araceli Muñoz IBERMATICA Av. Partenón, 16-18 E-28042 Madrid Tel: +34-91-3849100 Fax: +34-91-3849144 E-mail: [email protected] URL: http://www.train-me.org Project participants IBERMATICA (ES) OIKOS (IT) Ingeneria Informatica (Engineering) (IT)

TRIAL-SOLUTION Tools for Reusable, Integrated, Adaptable Learning systems/Standards for Open Learning Using Tested, Interoperable Objects and Networking What do learners and teachers actually need?

In the second phase, the “granularity” with which the selected documents will be sliced and how the resulting learning objects will be described within appropriate metadata systems will be decided. Then detailed descriptions of the components to be developed will be agreed on as a basis for a consistent implementation in the next phase. The selected materials will be modularised and augmented with the required metadata so that automated tools can be implemented. The resulting collections of small annotated learning objects will be revised manually, after the authoring tools needed for this revision have been implemented. Within the project, a centre of competence for document re-engineering will be established. The delivery tool to be implemented will combine knowledge on various metadata with knowledge on the user to decide which learning objects are to be retrieved from the distributed library. The resulting system will be evaluated at the participating universities.

Open Platforms and Tools for Personalised Learning

The project will start with a thorough analysis of the actual needs of learners and teachers for personalised teaching materials and of their abilities to express these needs. This investigation will be done at six European universities from four countries. Similarly, possibilities for authors to provide descriptions of relevant properties of small learning objects will be investigated. In parallel, high-quality teaching materials provided by participating publishers and universities will be analysed in order to select which is best suited for the intended purpose. Emphasis will be given to the reuse of printed materials in electronic form in connection with interactive and multimedia materials. Based on tests with an existing prototype, costs for the preparation of documents in varying forms will be estimated. These investigations will lead to a detailed specification of the system to be developed.

Project No: IST-1999-11397 Duration: 36 months Economic Sector: Publishing, Education Action Line: Open Platforms and Tools for Personalised Learning

Dissemination will demonstrate the potential of the technology and provide knowledge for the use and extension of the resulting open system.

Technology on trial Traditional teaching institutions and organisations using supported open learning and integrated learning services will be used to show the wide organisational applicability. Trials across a wide range of disciplines, particularly those that involve science, technology and mathematics, will demonstrate the scope of the technology. The project will also demonstrate significant benefits over traditional methods, particularly in terms of pedagogy, ease of implementation, maintenance, cost-effectiveness, service quality and scalability.

Full Title: Tools for Reusable, Integrated, Adaptable Learning systems/Standards for Open Learning Using Tested, Interoperable Objects and Networking Project Type: Education and Training Research Start Date: 01/02/2000 End Date: 31/01/2003 Project Objectives: To use open platforms and tools to develop and then validate a powerful new way of creating, delivering and managing personalised education and training. The scalability of the approach will be demonstrated by carrying out trials in a range of learning settings across the EU, from small-group work, through to massaudience systems

Open Platforms and Tools for Personalised Learning

Target Audience: Authors, students, lecturers, publishers Keywords: Electronic publishing, personalised documents, interoperable learning objects Technology: Slicing Book Technology to combine various media, notably print and electronic publishing

Project Co-ordinator Dr Bernd Ingo Dahn UNIVERSITAET KOBLENZ-LANDAU Institute for Computer Science Rheinau 1 D-56075 Koblenz Tel: +49-261-2872771 Fax: +49-261-2872731 E-mail: [email protected] URL: http://www.trial-solution.de Project Participants Universitaet Koblenz-Landau (DE) Springer-Verlag (DE) Harri Deutsch GmbH (DE) Universitaet zu Köln (DE) Technische Universitaet Chemnitz (DE) The Open University (UK) Stichting Mathematisch Centrum (NL) Fachinformationszentrum Karlsruhe GmbH (DE) Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften (DE) Trinity College Dublin (IE) Universite de Nice Sophia Antipolis (FR) Slicing Information Technology GmbH (DE)

TWT-U Tools for Distributed Learning at the University

An integrated approach to launching TWT (Training Web Toolkit)

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The promotion of TWT’s further development and its preparation as a final product, through: software optimisation (compiling modules); pedagogical re-adjustments; international interface; standardisation efforts; upgrading to version 4.0; enhancement of technical documentation; usability evaluation; formal coherence in final packaging; The reinforcement of TWT’s development process within an R&D scope, through: trials-based monitoring and evaluation of TWT’s performance in delivering courses within different university learning environments. The results will contribute to areas such as standardisation of learning technologies and technological innovation; The production of a business plan for TWT, analysing its cost-effectiveness and strengthening its use in tested commercial areas - continuous training, edition of institutional sites and intranets management - while widening its acceptance and use by targeting new end-users (higher education) and preparing the spread out to global markets; The dissemination of TWT, as well as the project’s results, through a comprehensive set of actions within an IST framework, including adjusting to a “mainstream” policy in building systems and services for education and training.

A market ready learning resource The project will assist in promoting the development, market viability and dissemination of the TWT platform through:

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Production and implementation of a package for training of trainers; Production of TWT international version and manuals; Re-design of courses; Definition of evaluation instruments and sampling; Publication of intermediate results; Launch and conclusion of experiments/trials; Produce business plan; Upgrade to TWT 4.0 final version; Holding national seminars; Publication of results in Conferences and Journals

Open Platforms and Tools for Personalised Learning

This project seeks to exploit and build a market foundation for the TWT learning platform through pursuing the following related objectives:

Project No: IST-1999-20325 Duration: 18 months Economic Sector: Education and Training Action Line: Content and Multimedia Tools, Education and Training, Open Plataforms for a Personalised Learning Full Title: Tools for Distributed Learning at the University

The TWT platform in education and training

Project Type: Education and Training Research

The project incorporates seven complementary Work Packages, distributed as follows:

Start Date: 01/01/2001

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Open Platforms and Tools for Personalised Learning

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Set-up of the proposed methodology for the application of TWT environment in universities. A technical and pedagogical best practises manual will be produced to support a training action for TWT facilitators/trainers in the four universities; Two courses per university, in environment (UCP and IHIE) and information systems (CTU and UM) will be chosen. Each university will run a course with a set of subjects common between partners, and an independent one, both using the TWT tool. The courses will have to be re-engineered to run under TWT. This pedagogical re-engineering is supported by a facilitator in each university, centralised services in AESBUC, and informative actions to be held in each university; After the courses are launched, they will be monitored and a service of technical support installed (help lines: INESC line, TWT line) to help students and teachers; During the whole project, TWT will be improved and optimised in terms of efficiency and usability - interface, design and navigation tools. An international version will be launched, as well as TWT upgraded version 4.0. User and technical documentation, both on paper and online, will be revised and translated.; Concomitant with the project, an evaluation process will take place, collecting feedback and conclusions and integrating them, by means of refeeding the whole process; A business plan will be produced in order to strategically define a commercial basis to launch TWT in the European market, while widening its scope to a future acceptance in international markets, by enlarging its use to new targeted end-users;

Several dissemination actions will be undertaken, namely: organisation of a seminar per country for broad dissemination of the project and its results, and to introduce TWT to the new target group (higher education organisations); participation in conferences; leaflet production for mailing and information purposes production; and distribution of a product information pack.

Project objectives: To promote TWT further development and deployment, to reinforce TWT’s market approach and development within an R&D scope, to produce a business plan for TWT, to disseminate TWT as well as TWT-U’s results Target audience: Teachers and Trainers Keywords: Learning environments, trials-based monitoring and evaluation, dissemination, market preparation Technology: Web-based learning environment, Active Server Pages, Database, VBScript and Java Script

Project Co-ordinator Mr Eduardo Luís Cardoso Universidade Católica Portuguesa - ESB Portugal E-mail: [email protected] URL: http://www.myTWT.net Project Participants AESBUC (PT) Universidade Católica Portuguesa –ESB (PT) Czech Technical University, FEE, Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering (CZ) Institute D’Hygiene Industrielle et de L’Environnement – CNAM de Lyon (FR) Universidade do Minho –Departamento de Sistemas de Informação (PT) INESC Porto – Instituto de Engenharia de Sistemas e Computadores do Porto (PT) SONAE, Redes de Dados, SA (PT)

UP-ARIADNE

ICTs are widely advocated – and should become widely used - in education and training. They should support both existing and new pedagogical paradigms such as distance learning, sharing of course materials, and virtual laboratories. However, the production of learning content remains expensive and new learning requirements demand increasingly personalized and flexible services. The ARIADNE Project dealt with these challenges by developing a cost-effective learning environment based upon open standards, interoperability and a repository of re-useable learning objects. This system enables exchange of educational resources through a distributed database known as the Knowledge Pool System, and allows simple creation of online courses. Such courses incorporate, in a simple session paradigm, both learning content taken from the KPS and communication ressources, referenced by an URL. UP-ARIADNE aims to further boost re-usable and interoperable learning approaches through (i) establishing and expanding an ARIADNE Foundation, (ii)further developing the ARIADNE tools and (iii) ensuring the ARIADNE Foundation's economic feasibility during the first three years, after which it should reach selfsustainability. UP-ARIADNE aims to further boost re-usable and interoperable learning approaches through:

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establishing and expanding an ARIADNE Foundation; further developing the ARIADNE tools; ensuring the ARIADNE Foundation’s economic feasibility during the first three years.

The wider societal objectives are to set up and exploit a truly European Knowledge Pool, while adopting an approach that will favour multilinguality and multiculturalism and promote the European states’ social responsibility in education.

Expanding and sustaining ARIADNE An ARIADNE Foundation and European Knowledge Pool will be nurtured and expanded, and societal objectives met, through increasing:

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the Foundation’s membership; the number of represented countries; the number of operational nodes in the KPS; the number of electronic documents in the KPS; the number of electronic courses created; the number of ARIADNE tool releases; demand for training from the Foundation’s members.

Open Platforms and Tools for Personalised Learning

Open E-Learning Platform, a Community of Educators and a European Knowledge Pool of Re-usable Learning Objects

Project No: IST-1999-20407 Duration: 36 months Economic Sector: Education & Training Action Line: Open platforms and tools for personalized learning; The flexible university ; Advanced training systems Full Title: UP-ARIADNE Project Type: Education and Training/Take-Up

The Foundation’s scientific and technical objectives aim at the maintenance and further development of the various tools that together form the ARIADNE system and to contribute to international consensus building on which aspects of ICTbased formation should be standardized and which should be left local. These objectives will be attained : a) by a steady flow of new tool releases and b) by fostering a growing demand for training from the Foundation’s Members. c) by participating in the Education-related Standardization work of relevant European and international Bodies

UP-ARIADNE Workplan The workplan comprises five workpackages:

Open Platforms and Tools for Personalised Learning

WP1 corresponds, as usual, to coordination; financial administration & management (no deliverable). WP2 will cover activities and results transversal to the life of the international association through 2 sub-WPs:

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InfoCom tools: Creation/maintenance of Web site, software server & discussion lists (3 yearly sub-deliverables) PR work: Participation in exhibitions;production of information brochures, other PR efforts (3 yearly sub-delv’s)

Start Date: 01/03/2001 End Date: 28/02/2004 Project objectives: Prove the viability and assist during take-up and expansion of the ARIADNE Foundation: this non-profit association endeavours to exploit the results of the two-phases of ARIADNE, a successful European RTD project, namely a suite of authoring tools, an open E-Learning platform and an EU-wide repository of re-usable learning objects. The Foundation aims at fostering co-operation between educational bodies, preserving the social/citizenship aspects of education, and will contribute, through international consensus, to the standardization of certain aspects of ICT in education Target audience: Teachers, ICTE Researchers, E+T Managers, Learners Keywords: Open and distance learning, ARIADNE, European Knowledge Pool Technologies: Distributed databases, Metadata, Web-based Learning Tools, XML, JSP, Java, LDAP, Linux, MSWindows, MacOS

WP3, WP4 and WP5 will cover time-dependent activities and results of the Association during the first, second and third year of the project. Each ‘yearly WP’ will be subdivided in 4 sub-WPs:

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efforts devoted to and assessment of cultural and societal results (membership evolution, represented countries and languages, number of KPS nodes, of documents and courses created) as compared with the objectives; efforts devoted to and assessment of economic and financial results (evolution of spendings, of income sources and of the balance sheet of the Association); efforts devoted to and assessment of technical, scientific, and pedagogic results (software releases, papers and technical publications, ARIADNE Conference proceedings, ARIADNE Training Workshop results) efforts in educational standards work.

Project Co-ordinator Dr Eddy Forte Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) LEAO, Ecublens CH-1015 Lausanne Tel: +41-21-6934755 Fax: +41-21-6934770 E-mail: [email protected] [email protected] Project Participants Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (CH) Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (BE) Université de Lausanne (CH) Université Joseph-Fourier Grenoble 2, (FR) Université Paul-Sabatier Toulouse (FR)

UPLOADED IT User-Based Personalisation of Learning Objectives and Activities in Distance Education through Digital Interactive Television Exploiting the ARIADNE open and distance learning platform

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offer four distance learning courses, leading to an increased re-usability of learning objects and access to knowledge pools of learning objects across Europe and internationally; set up cost-effective and high quality Interactive Terrestrial Digital Television (DVB-T) as the broadband communication platform, with the wider aim of validating its use in distance learning to help improve mobility of learners and tutors and deliver learning to a higher proportion of the population; contribute to the wider acceptance of the concepts, standards and tools for re-useable, ICT-based learning environments, and thereby break barriers to exploitation.

The project has been designed to reflect the full life cycle of distance learning course development, implementation and evaluation. Each of the four courses reflects diversity in level and content. This lifecycle includes the following stages:

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a definition of user needs; set up of the learning and communication platforms; re-designing courses according to the ARIADNE platform; giving the courses; evaluation of the trials; dissemination of the results.

Open Platforms and Tools for Personalised Learning

UPLOADED IT aims to exploit, trial and establish the distance learning technologies that were developed through the ARIADNE project. The ARIADNE project developed a cost-effective learning environment based upon open architecture and a repository of re-useable learning objects to help meet the demand for increasingly personalised and flexible distance learning services. Exploiting these technologies, UPLOADED IT seeks specifically to:

Project No: IST-1999-20359 Duration: 18 months Economic Sector: Distance learning, Education Action Line: Trial and best practice addressing advanced solutions for on-the-job training services in SMEs including development of sustainable business models.

Stimulating demand for open and distance learning This project will capitalise on ARIADNE project technologies and contribute to the wider acceptance of the use of ICTs in education and training as well as distance learning through achieving the following results:

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website running; verified communication through DVB-T; ARIADNE platform and tools working; Four courses held and data collected; Evaluation report and exploitation plan finalised; Wider acceptance of re-usable learning objects, access to knowledge pools of learning objects, lower costs, and higher quality; Validation of DVB-T as communication platform in the distance learning domain.

Incorporating ICT distance learning technologies into education Open Platforms and Tools for Personalised Learning

The main elements of the UPLOADED IT project include:

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A definition of user needs, necessary to identify the educational outcomes and processes expected from the project, and to ensure that the project is soundly based on an understanding of learners’ needs; Set up of the learning platform, i.e. the concepts and tools of the ARIADNE project, and the set up of the broadband communication platform to be used (DVB-T); Re-designing courses according to the ARIADNE platform and the emerging standard for metadata, in order to meet the project objectives; Giving the courses, using existing or redesigned course materials and the ARIADNE platform. This will be accompanied by gathering of appropriate metrics for the evaluation; An evaluation of the outcomes of the trials compared to the objectives. This will give the basis for carrying out a full-scale deployment and exploitation; Dissemination of the results of the trials both to general and targeted audiences, with a view to encouraging exploitation of re-usable learning objects, new learning platforms, and the DVB-T based Internet access.

Full Title: User-Based Personalisation of Learning Objectives and Activities in Distance Education through Digital Interactive Television Project Type: Education and training research Start Date: 01/04/2001 End Date: 30/09/2002 Project objectives: The trial and publicity of ARIADNE open architecture technologies, with the aim of increasing the re-usability and access to knowledge pools of learning objects. Also the validation of the use of Interactive Terrestrial Digital Television (DVB-T), thereby providing the means to deliver distance learning to a far higher proportion of the population Target audience: Teachers Key words: Open and distance learning, ARIADNE, DVB-T Technology: Sending knowledge administrated in the Ariadne platform modules in the high bandwidth digital terrestrial television network (DVB-T), i.e. the same signal as for digital TV, for the downlink

Project Co-ordinator Gun Ohman-Mattsson EC-gruppen Box 14 376 23 Svangsta Sweden E-mail: [email protected] Project Participants EC-gruppen (SE) Interactive labs (IT) Kristianstad University (SE) Region Skåne (SE) Skånekanalen (SE) Teracom (SE)

VIRTUAL BLACKBOARD Distributed Lecturing Environment

Lecturing online Lecture theatres around the world come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes. Modern halls come with a range of teaching aids to help the lecturer and ultimately facilitate the teaching process. However, in essence they have remained unchanged for centuries.

Subsequently, the resulting tools and methodologies will be put to a number of uses. These include delivering highly-specialised course content for joint courses for example, when the participants and tutors do not reside in the same institution. Other possible uses are to support distributed lectures when one of the tutors is actively engaged in the field of research (i.e. in an excavation area) or when the physical presence of the student is not possible (i.e. specialised medical operation).

Lecturing tools go electronic More specifically, the project will provide specifications and guidelines for setting up a suitable communication and equipment infrastructure for implementing a virtual lecture theatre. This will follow user needs analysis to identify the best educational concept to be adopted, taking into account the optimal way of setting up the VIRTUAL BLACKBOARD environment and the available university infrastructure. A set of lecture building tools will be developed to allow instructors to maintain, set up, categorise and store the element of the lecture. Conducting the class, the lecturer will be assisted by a set of lecture management tools that will allow the management of the actual virtual lecture while the student management tool will allow students to interact with the participants in the scene. To hold it all together will require a network management mechanism that will also be designed. All these tools will incorporate modules for designing the lecture in terms of scenes, giving access rights to the users, supporting distributed lectures with two (or more) tutors from different locations.

Open Platforms and Tools for Personalised Learning

The VIRTUAL BLACKBOARD project intends to contribute to the emerging distributed learning environments in higher education by creating, testing and disseminating a consistent lecturing environment using emerging technologies such as MPEG4 and taking advantage of the high bandwidth infrastructure of the academic institutions.

Project No: IST-1999-12670 Duration: 24 months Economic Sector: Education and Training Action Line: Open Platforms and Tools for Personalised Learning Full Title: Distributed Lecturing Environment

Taking state-of-the-art technologies to the classroom VIRTUAL BLACKBOARD will investigate established and emerging technologies (XML, etc.) which will be utilised in disciplines where heavy multimedia content and 3D object manipulation is required. As such, the project will be tested to deliver lecturing content to students of combined mechanical and electrical engineering courses from all three participating universities. Based on the feedback received, following the results of the testing, evaluation and validation phase, the tools and environment will be revised.

Project Type: Education and Training Research Start Date: 01/04/2000 End Date: 31/03/2002 Project Objectives: To contribute to the emerging distributed learning environments in higher education by creating, testing and disseminating a consistent distance lecturing environment Target Audience: Universities and educational institutions Keywords: Virtual lecture, online lecturing

Open Platforms and Tools for Personalised Learning

Technology: XML, 3D objects, live and full interactive conference

Project Co-ordinator Mr Yiannis Sagias EXODUS SA Farantaton 6-10 GR-11527 Athens Greece Tel: +30-1-7450300 Fax: +30-1-7450399 E-mail: [email protected], [email protected] URL: http://www.exodus.gr Virtual Blackboard URL: http://www.3xodus.com/ virtualblackboard Project Participants Exodus SA (GR) University of Stuttgart (DE) Fraunhofer Gesellschaft - IAO (DE) National Technical University of Athens (GR) University of Sunderland (UK)

WEBSET Web-based Standard Educational Tools

Weaving a web of learning The Web is expanding at a frenetic pace. It now extends into every facet of life as developers apply it to all walks of life while users learn of its potential. As a shared network, its educational value is immense. WebSET aims to harness that power. Recognising the need for interoperability, it will develop advanced Web-based technologies to implement innovative costeffective learning tools that can be run on any workstation platform including a standard PC of average capacity. The technology developed will be generic and applicable to a wide range of learning disciplines.

Assessing the needs of the user

WebSET is using Extensible Markup Language (XML) to generate document objects for the production of re-usable information material, Virtual Reality Modelling Language (VRML) ISO standard for the creation of 3D graphics, and Web3D technologies to design interactive features, constitute the programming tools to build the virtual multi-user environment. Fully integrated with the specific learning contents, the set-up will result in a series of comprehensive training packages for local as well as distributed use via the Web. The development of sophisticated avatars in order to represent the learning sessions participants in their different roles will facilitate collaboration among users. WebSET enables trainees to access the learning tools anywhere and at any time, either alone, in which case there is no-one to check errors, or interacting with a teacher or other learners. As for the surgical training aspect, the WebSET team intends to support and augment both pre-qualification lessons, learnt by surgeons during training and in performing actual procedures, and refresher training for infrequently executed interventions. In this regard, the consortium is working with major European learning centres, such as the Royal College of Surgeons in England and the Royal Belgian College of Surgeons. Minimally invasive, thoracic, and vascular surgery, and neurosurgery are the initially selected specialities. The clinical partners in WebSET indeed include a neurosurgical and laparoscopic surgery unit, respectively at Leeds General Infirmary and at St. Mary’s in the United Kingdom. Although the training will not be as realistic as the actual operations or as complete as totally immersive virtual reality, the fidelity will be quite sufficient for cost-effective learning and practising of procedures.

Open Platforms and Tools for Personalised Learning

Continuous assessment performed by targeted user groups has to guarantee that the WebSET environment lives up to the required user needs. WebSET plans to provide an e-commerce outlet on the Web to display and sell the objects, generated by the project.

Project No: IST-1999-10632 Duration: 24 months Economic Sector: Health Action Line: Open Platforms and Tools for Personalised Learning Full Title: Web-based Standard Educational Tools

A surgical taxonomy

Open Platforms and Tools for Personalised Learning

One of the project goals consists of identifying both a standard taxonomy for surgical learning and associated metadata for surgical learning objects. In addition, a library of VRML anatomic and user interface components will be designed for re-usability purposes. The aspect of physiological education will be addressed by the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia. Researchers will develop virtual worlds and Web pages to describe the morphology and the physiology of organs and living beings. In turn, the Slovenian Ministry of Education and Sport is responsible for the organisation of tests and evaluations of the training packages in schools via teachers and students, by making use of standard metadata in the physiology discipline. The WebSET team strongly insists on receiving assessment information from key end-user groups in their fields at regular intervals, as the project evolves. In this respect, a special user group of appropriate participants from all over Europe, for example the Medical School at the University of Athens, will be established. The hospital partners from their side have the task of defining the WebSET exemplar application and provide clinical imaging as well as expertise in the design of the simulators. They will also determine target groups and validate the simulators. The overall project management is in the hands of the Victoria University of Manchester Visualisation Centre, that will co-ordinate the end-toend utilisation scenario from authoring to use in five milestones. The Belgian and Austrian industrial partners, Space Application Services and Uma, will implement the 3D visualisation and interactive multimedia technologies, in close collaboration with the Manchester Visualisation Centre.

Composing through XML The finishing WebSET touch will consist of a composition tool based on XML, to enable the creation of packaged introduction texts, documentation files to accompany the module, and the establishment of an overall structure. This tool will equally serve as a framework for presenting the generated objects to potential buyers by means of an e-commerce outlet on the Internet. First, the interested public will have the opportunity to browse demonstration previews of the available WebSET objects. IDEC, a Greek industrial development and education centre, will install this service as a distributed application on the Web, mirroring the other partners‘ sites to enhance e-commerce facilities. Genias, as the Dutch XML expert, will be actively involved in all the stages of implementation, integration, exploitation and dissemination. WebSET will take surgery training as their exemplar application for development.

Project Type: Education and Training Research Start Date: 01/05/2000 End Date: 30/04/2002 Project Objectives: Develop and exploit technology applicable to a wide range of science disciplines, demonstrated by an application to surgery training and re-used for physiology teaching in schools and higher education; Develop a cost-effective and widely available training package; Develop generic technology components that can be integrated to produce high quality collaborative training packages, delivered both locally and across the WWW; Facilitate multi-user collaboration for training with, for example, advanced avatar representations for different roles; Contribute to standards development in open learning systems, and pioneer the establishment of standards for Web-based learning tools in the targeted application areas Target Audience: Medical students, physiology students, content providers Keywords: WWW, virtual environments, medical education, simulation, surgical training, components, community and collaboration tool Technology: XML, VRML, X3D, Web3D

Project Co-ordinator Dr Nigel W. John MANCHESTER VISUALISATION CENTRE Manchester Computing University of Manchester Manchester M13 9PL United Kingdom Tel: +44-161-2756096 Fax: +44-161-2756800 E-mail: [email protected] URL: http://www.man.ac.uk/MVC/ Project Participants Manchester Visualisation Centre (UK) Space Application Services (BE) uma holding gmbh (AT) Faculty of Engineering, University of Ljubljana (SI) Dept of Neurosurgery, Leeds General Infirmary, Leeds University (UK) The Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine at St. Mary’s (UK) Industrial Development & Education Centre (GR)

CANDLE Collaborative and Network Distributed Learning Environment

Preparing for the future The Internet and the Web are changing the way work, business and leisure operate. European companies are competing within a knowledge economy where competitiveness and profitability are mainly determined by an organisation’s intellectual capital, both in terms of knowing what and knowing how. The digital revolution is fuelling many of today’s new innovations. To prepare for this changing world, citizens need to develop new competences and skills, especially in the ICT area. CANDLE aims to use the Internet to improve the quality and reduce the cost of ICT teaching in Europe by using Web and multimedia technology and to enable co-operation between universities and industry in creating and re-using learning material and improving the quality of delivery. However, what they propose is not designed to obstruct academics and trainers developing their own courseware. CANDLE guarantees this flexibility through the use of component architectures, toolkits and pedagogical frameworks that allow individual teachers to combine course objects to create their own courses designed to meet their learner’s particular needs. For example, CANDLE will develop a pedagogical model that supports a full range of different learning situations, target groups (both suppliers and users, learners and teachers) and learning styles, approaches and strategies. Key principles, guidelines and heuristic support to end-users in developing acceptable educational or training courseware will be established. A set of guidelines for the design, development and customisation of course components, as well as a taxonomy on collaborative distance learning will similarly be created.

Search and retrieve

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Besides the creation of course components, CANDLE will generate a metadata framework. This will facilitate the search and retrieval via a search engine which may, for example, be used to indicate that a course module is written in English, includes Java applets, includes exercises and describes a routing algorithm. An information broker capable of interpreting the metadata using an open distributed architecture is also part of this project’s aims.

Project No: IST-1999-11276 Duration: 36 months Economic Sector: Education and Training Action Line: The Flexible University Full Title: Collaborative and Network Distributed Learning Environment

CANDLE envisages developing authoring, navigation and course organisation tools that can meet the varied needs of the users and their organisations in a flexible and pedagogically sound manner. Re-engineering of existing courseware in the area of ICT will provide sufficient content for the testing of the CANDLE approach. However, the re-engineered content must satisfy the needs of different user groups including offering different pathways through the content which will result in different sets of courseware being created from essentially the same content.

Meeting the user’s requirements The CANDLE approach brings together pedagogical experts and engineers who provide the technical system to efficiently support re-engineering of existing courseware. Therefore either pedagogical and technical requirements must be met. The method which is applied in CANDLE to derive these requirements is called “Scenario-based User Needs Analysis” (SUNA), a strongly user-centred approach to analyse user needs and transform them into detailed requirements for the system architecture development. This method combines a number of well-known analysis elements, such as Describing a Product Opportunity (DPO) from USTM methodology, USE case descriptions (from the USE methodology), scenarios, storyboards and functional matrixes to deduce an extensive and comprehensive understanding of the user’s requirements.

Project Type: Education and Training Research Start Date: 01/06/2000 End Date: 31/05/2003 Project Objectives: The objective of this project is to use the Internet to improve the quality and reduce the cost of ICT teaching in Europe by using Web and multimedia technology and to enable cooperation between universities and industry in creating and re-using learning material and improving the quality of delivery Target Audience: Teachers, authors and learners in universities, corporate and small-to-medium enterprises Keywords: eEducation system, re-use of learning material, metadata framework, scenario-based user analysis, pedagogical framework, taxonomy, tools for Web and related applications, evaluation framework Technology: Web technology, standardised middleware, distributed database

Learning from results

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Developing a flexible university with an open platform is necessary but not sufficient. The project also addresses the question of usability and acceptability of its proposed solution. A further key objective is therefore to evaluate the impact of the system on individual learners, their organisations and on more general socio-economic factors such as improved competitiveness. This will cover evaluation activities ranging from the early inspection of design concepts, the testing of prototypes, to field trials of the completed system in three different environments (universities, in industry and within small and medium enterprises). The project will disseminate their findings to a wider audience. This includes liaising with standardisation organisations with respect to metadata, organising workshops and feeding other search engines and directories with proper references to the work. The results of the project will also be made available under the open courseware licence.

Project Co-ordinator Prof. Dr Sebastian Abeck Universität Karlsruhe Department Institute for Telematics Zirkel 2 76128 Karlsruhe Germany Tel: +49-721-6086391 Fax: +49-721-6084046 E-mail: [email protected] URL: http://www.candle.eu.org Project Participants Universität Karlsruhe (DE) British Telecommunications plc (UK) GET - Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications de Bretagne (FR) Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NO) Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya (ES) University College London, Institution incorporated by Royal Charter (UK) University of Twente (NL) Institut National des Telecommunications (FR) Institute of Education, University of London (UK) Politecnico Torino (IT) Siemens (DE) Suffolk College (UK) Universität Stuttgart (DE)

CUBER Personalised Curriculum Builder in the Federated Virtual University of the Europe of Regions Towards a federated European virtual university The Information Society will change working and living conditions quite substantially, increasing the demand for higher flexibility and mobility. The aim of the CUBER project is to build an adaptive high-precision information system for information technology (IT) courses of European universities, broadening the access to learning resources and services for all. Special emphasis will be placed on distance learning courses and other methods of “just-in-time” and “just-in-place” learning. The CUBER system will use standardised descriptions of courses based on a common metadata standard. However, it will not standardise the content and presentation of the courses that are distributed across a multitude of European universities and taught in a host of languages. In this way, CUBER will be able to preserve the identity of each and every university’s teaching and tutoring system, style of delivery and business model, but still provide a unified singlesystem view of the rich variety of course offerings.

Providing standardised information on higher education courses CUBER will integrate information on the university course offers through a “broker middleware”, which will comprise three main technical components:

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The knowledge base will be the central storage and management tool for all data, knowledge and information in the CUBER system such as course descriptions, thesauri and controlled vocabularies to generate the descriptions, user profiles and search strategies. It has to guarantee secure storage and ensure privacy of user data. It has to be able to handle large numbers of course descriptions and parallel searches. Finally, the storage and management system has to be adaptable to changes in the metadata scheme due to new developments. The metadata authoring interface and the search engine will be the tools to conveniently access the knowledge base, the former for course providers, the latter for users’ searching courses.

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An authoring interface that supports course providers in entering and maintaining their course metadata through provision of descriptors and checks for plausibility and completeness; A knowledge base of standardised course descriptions, learner profiles, and commonly used search patterns; A user-centred customisable search engine.

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Project No: IST-1999-10737 Duration: 30 months Economic Sector: Education and Training Action Line: The Flexible University Full Title: Personalised Curriculum Builder in the Federated Virtual University of the Europe of Regions

Matching vocational needs and learning patterns to courses The broker will offer individualised and demand-oriented guidance in the search for courses and course packages according to the learners’ goals, prior knowledge, and restrictions in time and resources. Its interaction style will be based on the analysis of common course selections, learner profiles and search patterns described in behaviour models. These models will be used to provide recommendations and guidance for users with similar backgrounds and interests. The project will include a study on the usability of the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) to make courses from different universities exchangeable. This would allow students to build their own curriculum combining courses of various European universities. The CUBER system will support this combination of courses to coherent packages.

Increasing transparency in the education market CUBER will serve European citizens and industries through:

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the easy choice among IT course modules; provision of a basis to compare and combine courses throughout Europe; custom curriculum building and career development through lifelong learning; synergy, competition and specialisation of education providers.

The project will achieve this by involving all actors with a stake in ICT-based higher education and lifelong learning, such as universities, students interested in distance learning programmes, industries looking for flexible education and training schemes, and citizens interested in continued education.

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The CUBER system will open access to educational services across networks of universities and other education providers and support the retrieval of knowledge resources; in this way it will broaden the opportunities for citizens in virtual learning environments to achieve greater mobility through lifelong learning in a multinational context.

Project Type: Education and Training Research Start Date: 01/04/2000 End Date: 30/09/2002 Project Objectives: To develop a broker service that provides access to the vast collection of courses from European distance universities and helps the citizens to find courses that match their vocational demands and individual learning conditions Target Audience: Individual citizens, companies searching for continuing education and vocational training, universities and other training and education providers Keywords: Course broker, non-text based search engine, virtual university portal, educational marketplace Technology: Internet, database technology, information retrieval, metadata standards (LOM = Learning Object Metadata), user models

Project Co-ordinator Prof. Bernd Krämer FernUniversität Gesamthochschule in Hagen DVT Feithstrasse 140 D-58084 Hagen Tel: +49-2331-987371 Fax: +49-2331-987375 E-mail: [email protected] URL: http://www.cuber.net Project Participants FernUniversität Gesamthochschule in Hagen DVT (DE) CNED - Centre National d’Enseignement à Distance (FR) Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (ES) University of Helsinki (FI) EuroPACE 2000 (BE) Stiftung Fernstudien Schweiz (CH) Universität Linz (AT) IMAGO – Institut für Marketing und Unternehmenskommunikation (DE) European Association of Distance Teaching Universities (EADTU) (NL) Symbia Ltd (UK) Université de Poitiers (FR)

LEDA Learning Environment for the Digital Academy

Learning how to go digital In the information age it has often been said that the world is becoming smaller and more accessible to many. With a global knowledge pool, the learning potential is immense, if leveraged correctly. The LEDA project aims to define, develop and test a networked system and the underlying pedagogical procedures to facilitate and promote active learning experiences in the context of international student-centred post-graduate education. It will facilitate the international exchange of learning experiences stimulating co-operative learning by considering students to be important actors in the learning process. As subject matter, the system will focus specifically on the quality of education in the field of design for digital media, especially multimedia asset storage and retrieval mechanisms. Configurable middleware will be designed which will generate learning environments that meet differing personal needs in different educational contexts. These environments will be formatted to promote the articulation of key components of tacit knowledge that comprises such an important part of the knowledge that is so necessary in design. This will facilitate the learning processes by mimicking as closely as possible production processes in the field, thus catering to the changing demands from industry and society.

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LEDA will support both teachers and students in monitoring and guiding learners throughout the educational process. LEDA will cater for the needs of different types of users. It will also enable academic staff to closely monitor educational processes independent of time and place constraints. Academic staff will be able to access individual and collective portfolios in order to provide them with qualitative coaching instruments. Students can learn from the experiences and knowledge of others and reflect on their own personal development. This focus on the exchange, storage and retrieval of articulated learning experiences between students, academic staff and industry will capitalise on knowledge generated by students within research and design programmes. For the industry, this will be a considerable boon as they will have access to an expanding database with just-in-time knowledge, in a rapidly changing professional field, regarding university-based research results, stateof-the-art technology, and innovative design processes.

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Guidance all the way

Project No: IST-1999-10567 Duration: 30 months Economic Sector: Education and Training Action Line: The Flexible University Full Title: Learning Environment for the Digital Academy Project Type: Education and Training Research

Leveraging and capitalising knowledge The LEDA programme will consist of configurable middleware, formatted by educational experts based on specific educational processes. Based on databasemiddleware communication, personalised learning environments will be generated, enabling students to articulate critical steps in their development and publish their research and project outcomes. To aid students, LEDA will incorporate data managers to support and facilitate the online storage and retrieval of knowledge-assets using standardised data formats and advanced metadata retrieval methods.

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All this will enable LEDA to generate an international knowledge-base on production processes, methods and techniques in the field of digital media allowing institutions of higher education and industry to interactively access research outcomes, product demonstrators, student portfolios and learning materials.

Start Date: 01/04/2000 End Date: 31/10/2002 Project Objectives: To define, develop and test a networked system and the underlying pedagogical procedures to facilitate and promote active learning experiences for international studentcentred postgraduate education Target Audience: Educational facilitators, universities, research departments Keywords: Knowledge management, student-centred education, learning environments Technology: Java-based dynamic Web technology, LDAP, dynamic data warehousing

Project Co-ordinator Mr Emile Bijk Centre for International Technology & Education (C.I.T.E.) HKU, Faculty of Art, Media & Technology Oude Amersfoortseweg 131 PO Box 2471 NL-1200 CL Hilversum Tel: +31-35-6836464 Fax: +31-35-6836480 E-mail: [email protected] URL: http://www.ledanet.org Project Participants CITE (NL) Stichting Centre for International Technology and Education (UK) GX creative online development B.V. (NL) Dublin Institute of Technology (IE) Merz Akademie GmbH (DE) University of Portsmouth Higher Education Corporation (UK) Utrecht School of the Arts (NL)

OR-WORLD Learning and Teaching Operations Research and Management Science with a Web-based Hypermedia Learning Environment Encouraging Web-based flexible learning and information sharing OR-World aims to respond to today’s need for continuing and flexible learning and develop a Web-based framework for sharing high-quality learning material between universities, educational institutes, self-learners, and interested companies, in different countries. It will also support individualised post-secondary education for young learners and support lifelong learning for adults within a flexible virtual university context. This framework will encourage learning through user-friendly tools for constructing interactive media elements such as animations, simulations, text, video, and audio, as well as their hyperlink structure. These learning objects can be combined in flexible ways to create learning hyperspaces as a web of networks according to a metastructure to be defined within the project. One of the long-term goals of the project is to develop a digital network offering flexible courses, based on standardised electronic contents that can be adopted by all universities involved. This system will encourage just-in-time and just-in-place learning. The framework will be configured and tested with contents of the interdisciplinary subject Operations Research/Management Science (OR/MS), but it will be generally extendable to cover other knowledge domains as well.

An innovative approach to learning Interactive learning is also facilitated by the use of case studies, offering an innovative virtual learning technique. The project OR-World will generate tools for building interactive case studies for distributed use and facilitate their solution. Learning with case studies will be supported by computers, but ideally involves human tutor-student and student-student interaction as well.

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The framework will encompass an interactive component for self-assessment and grading. It will be possible for an instructor to collect self-assessment results and thus be able to judge the status of a given student or a group of students.

Project No: IST-1999-11124 Duration: 30 months Economic Sector: Education in University and Industry, Dissemination of Structured Information Action Line: The Flexible University Full Title: Learning and Teaching Operations Research and Management Science with a Web-based Hypermedia Learning Environment

Creating a flexible learning framework OR-World will work on different hierarchic granularity levels, facilitating the construction of a personalised learning environment through the re-use of existing materials. The levels will be defined as follows, according to the type and size of learning object:

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Media element (typically one third of a computer screen of text); Learning element (typically one to two computer screens of text); Content module (typically about two to six learning objects belonging to similar content; flexibly combinable); Thematic network as a final learning environment, again combining content modules in a flexible way into a kind of learning hyperspace, such as a course about a certain topic.

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The framework will provide a structured environment to input new (structured or semi-structured) learning materials. Objects at each level will be tagged with metadata to facilitate their flexible use in different contexts. This framework will be usable in a multilingual environment and support networked communication between tutors and learners outside the classroom. Teachers will be able to use the framework in creating their own specific learning environments where they can combine their own learning objects with those generated by others. As a result of this framework, there will be a metastructure above the hyperspace of learning objects, allowing the user to approach the same subject from different angles.

Project Type: Education and Training Research Start Date: 01/04/2000 End Date: 01/10//2002 Project objectives: Develop a Web-based framework for flexible learning and sharing of high-quality learning material between universities, educational institutes, self-learners and interested companies in different countries Target audience: Universities, commercial education providers, university associations and networks Keywords: Learning objects, metadata, XML, hypermedia framework Technology: XML, JAVA, Learning Objects Metadata standard by IEEE WG 12

Project Co-ordinator Prof Leena Suhl University of Paderborn Department of Business Computing Decision Support & OR Lab Warburger Strasse 100 D-33098 Paderborn Tel: +49-5251-603723 Fax: +49-5251-603542 E-mail: [email protected] URL: http://www.or-world.com Project Participants University of Paderborn (DE) Helsinki University of Technology (FI) Lappeenranta University of Technology (FI) Regioworld (DE) Technische Universiteit Delft (NL) Dualis GmbH (DE) Lufthansa Systems (DE)

PEARL Practical Experimentation by Accessible Remote Learning

Access to a flexible, high quality learning experience in science and engineering for all This project, led by the Open University, has the main objective of providing high quality learning experiences in science and engineering education by bringing the teaching laboratory to the students, giving flexibility in terms of time, location and special needs. The project aims to develop a system to enable “real world” teaching experiments to be undertaken by students working collaboratively over the Internet. A key objective is improving access to science, engineering and mathematics courses for students with disabilities, where the provision of practical elements is frequently inadequate, which means that their participation in practical work is often passive or they are excluded altogether. PEARL will also have more general implications for campus-based and distance teaching and learning in these subjects and also Web-based educational services provided by museums and libraries. The provision of the practical elements of science and engineering courses for students with disabilities is frequently inadequate. PEARL presents an opportunity to widen access to real experiments that might otherwise only be offered to those able to get to a suitably equipped laboratory. Access to laboratory equipment might be restricted for such reasons as geographical location, resource restrictions in an institution, inflexible scheduling, or because it is judged impossible to offer the facility to students in a safe way. The project will provide flexibility for studying in terms of time, location, or special needs by bringing the teaching laboratory to the students and give students access to expensive and safety critical experimental facilities. It will also provide Internet-based solutions that allow students to collaborate at a distance while conducting experiments to facilitate the learning of science as a process using Computer-Based Learning (CBL) systems.

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Experimental work is a vital component of science and engineering teaching at all levels. The increasing use of multimedia packages or “virtual science” has much to offer in terms of teaching scientific facts and principles, but does not generally focus on teaching the process of scientific enquiry or engineering practice. The system being developed in the PEARL project will deliver practical experimentation where students will have the opportunity to work together over the Internet (or campus intranet), interact with the remote experiment, change parameters and in some cases modify and design experiments. Students will also be able to discuss their actions and expectations of the results of the experimentation, as well as observing and analysing the results.

U n i v e r s i t y

Experimental work and collaboration over the Internet

Project No: IST-1999-12550 Duration: 36 months Economic Sector: Educational Media for Education in Science and Engineering Action Line: The Flexible University Full Title: Practical Experimentation by Accessible Remote Learning

The remote laboratory created will have a common control and communications channel for all components and experimental elements. It will have standard modules from which much of a particular installation/experiment will be constructed and be able to rapidly integrate new items of equipment. All features of the system can be made available through the students’ and tutors’ PCs and are fully accessible using single switch control only with any visual/ audio interfaces being each fully sufficient on their own. The project’s educational software can be readily integrated into Web-based courses (with Instructional Management Systems compliance).

Partnership in educational technology The Open University (UK) leads the project, represented by the Institute of Educational Technology, the Knowledge Media Institute and the Faculty of Science. They contribute expertise in the areas of pedagogy and evaluation of educational technology, and the development of educational software and user interfaces to support effective learning. PEARL will also involve:

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The Department of Applied Computing at the University of Dundee (Scotland) co-ordinates the system developments and the user interface design in the project. They have prime responsibility for the server architecture and the integration of the collaborative learning environment. The Computer Science Department at Trinity College Dublin (Ireland) has a key role in the system development within the project and in the integration of the remotely controlled modules into the laboratory server. It will host an experiment in manufacturing engineering designed to facilitate the training of engineering undergraduates and line engineers in remote locations. The Department of Computers and Electronic Engineering, Faculdade de Engenharia da Universade do Porto (Portugal), has prime responsibility for developing the remote laboratory infrastructure, integrating the chosen control and instrumentation protocols. FEUP will host an experiment in electronic engineering where students will be able to construct and test a range of digital circuits on a remote digital electronic bench. Zenon, SA (Greece) is the industrial automation company which will be responsible for the development of the remote laboratory. Open University Worldwide (UK) has its expertise in marketing innovative distance learning materials to both the general public and professionals in the fields of education and training. The OU currently provides a series of experiments at the residential schools for its popular foundation science course. PEARL students will access this equipment remotely to test, record, analyse and interpret data.

Project Type: Education and Training Research Start Date: 01/03/2000 End Date: 28/2/2003 Project Objectives: Enable students to conduct real-world experiments as an extension of computerbased learning and distance learning systems Target Audience: Students in science and engineering, in particular from disabled groups Keywords: R&D, computer-based and distance learning systems Technology: Campus intranet

Project Co-ordinator Ms Joanna Mutlow The Open University KMi Walton Hall Milton Keynes MK7 6AA United Kingdom Tel: +44-1908-654698 Fax: +44-1908-653169 E-mail: [email protected] URL: http://kmi.open.ac.uk/projects/pearl Project Participants The Open University Worldwide (UK) Faculdade de Engenharia da Universade do Porto (PT) Trinity College Dublin (IE) University of Dundee (UK) ZENON SA - Industrial Automation (GR)

UNIVERSAL Universal Exchange for PanEuropean Higher Education

Exchanging knowledge worldwide In Europe and elsewhere in the world, with the sheer number of higher education institutions, there exists a vast body of knowledge out there. This European project, UNIVERSAL, aims to demonstrate the feasibility of an open exchange system for course units between institutions of higher education (HE) across Europe and beyond. It is envisaged that the system will embrace offers, enquiries, booking and actual delivery of course units. It will develop and validate a model and standards that could later be widened to embrace other groups of higher education institutions and that could be transplanted into the market for training in industry, commerce and government.

Open for all The key innovation will be to create and manage an open market by introducing a brokerage platform with a standard way of describing the pedagogical, administrative and technical characteristics of course units. Institutions can then further enrich their curricula with remotely sourced material. The system will be compatible with a variety of business models pursued by different institutions, including open universities and alliances between peer institutions. With the common catalogue and continuous assessment mechanisms, institutions will be able to selectively grant credits for course units delivered through UNIVERSAL. For students, they will ultimately benefit from a wider choice of course units both within their own institutions and from virtual learner mobility between institutions.

From theory to practice

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Integrating existing technologies, including the results of earlier EU and national projects, will create a brokerage platform through which units can be offered, searched for, booked and assessed. It will be possible to link the brokerage system to a variety of delivery systems to control delivery and capture feedback. The project will test and demonstrate this by adapting a number of existing delivery systems to inter-work with the brokerage system. The delivery systems within the project will be only a sample of a range of possible systems that might be used for different classes of content, but they will be sufficient to prove the openness of the UNIVERSAL concept. The brokerage platform and delivery systems will exploit academic and commercial networks, including links with guaranteed quality of service.

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The project will define the service elements needed to support an open exchange of course units. To do this, different classes of course units will be covered, including live, person-to-person units and packaged, person-machine units.

Project No: IST-1999-11747 Duration: 35 months Economic Sector: Higher Education/Industrial Training Action Line: The Flexible University Full Title: Universal Exchange for Pan-European Higher Education

Tried and tested To demonstrate the UNIVERSAL concept, the project will carry out service trials with two groups of institutions, namely, engineering schools and business schools. Trials will progressively link delivery systems to the brokerage platform and will include the use of complex pedagogical materials such as interactive lectures, simulations and case studies. As the project will not create its own materials, it will seek out existing packaged content and live courses for trial purposes. The cataloguing of this material in the brokerage system will give us a pragmatic base to examine the problems of exchange standards and selective recognition for credits. The actual course content (as opposed to the catalogue entries) will remain with the donators within a distributed architecture. A marketing and dissemination activity will facilitate the acquisition of course units and the commitment of HE institutions to the exchange system. Administrators, teachers and students will be enrolled to convince them of the value of participation and to help them to use the systems.

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As part of a system of continuous assessment, there will be a separate evaluation activity to assess how well the project meets its objectives against predetermined and quantifiable measures. The service trials will be also evaluated from both the technological and pedagogical viewpoints. Assessments of course units will be fed back to the brokerage system to improve its transparency to the marketplace.

Project Type: Education and Training Research Start Date: 01/03/2000 End Date: 31/01/2003 Project Objectives: Demonstrating the feasibility of an open exchange system for course units between institutions of higher education across Europe and elsewhere, embracing offers, enquiries, booking and actual delivery of course units Target Audience: 1. Teachers, administrators and students in higher education institutions 2. Training departments of industrial companies and training organisations selling to industry Keywords: Computer-assisted learning, brokerage, higher education Technology: Logically centralised brokerage system linked to distributed repositories of actual course materials. Conforming to IEEE LTSC architecture

Project Co-ordinator Mr Grégoire Besnier Bureau for International Research and Technology Co-operation (BIT) Wiedner Hauptstrasse 76 A-1040 Vienna Tel: +43-1-5811616136 Fax: +43-1-581161618 E-mail: [email protected] URL: http://www.ist-universal.org Project Participants BIT (AT) Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien (AT) Institut National des Télécommunications (FR) University of Lancaster (UK) NCSR Demokritos (GR) Hellenic Open University (GR) Iceland Telecom (IS) Universidad Politecnica de Madrid (ES) Hautes Etudes Commerciales (FR) Helsinki University of Technology (FI) Warsaw University of Technology (PL) Infonova (AT) Aachen University of Technology (DE) Université Libre de Bruxelles (BE) T-Nova Deutsche Telekom Innovationsgesellschaft mbH (DE) Institut Jozef Stefan (SI) Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich (CH)

VOEU Virtual Orthopaedic European University

Learning about orthopaedics now Today the specialist skills of orthopaedics are learned by the traditional qualitative apprenticeship system. However, this time-honoured system has led to a large amount of variation in orthopaedic practice throughout Europe. Some of the major issues that reside with such an educational system, include:

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Absence of consensual and quantitatively based “gold standard”; “Chapel effect”; Variance of surgeons’ skills; Limited surgical influence upon the introduction of ICT techniques.

The bones of a Virtual University To counter these problems, the VOEU project proposes establishing a Virtual Orthopaedic European University. It aims at enhancing student-teacher interaction in orthopaedics. This will be achieved through:

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Enhanced learning material, accessible online (through Internet/intranet), or offline; Orthopaedic multimedia educational modules; Reviewed IGOS expertise, thanks to a virtual, multicentric, and permanently updated observatory of ICT in orthopaedics; A virtual class, enabling distant interaction between learning surgeons and experts; Simulators of surgical procedures, designed to facilitate skill acquisition and evaluation, and providing “procedural” complement to the “declarative” content of the multimedia educational orthopaedics modules.

Making orthopaedic knowledge multimedia

The multimedia editing process will be modelled, resulting in a “template” course that will be proposed to the expert for instantiation. To ensure a standard approach is adopted, a general framework for integrating several such courses in a homogeneous format shall be proposed. This general framework will also help in integrating these educational modules with the other educational components of the university.

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Particular attention will be paid to the user needs, thanks to a specific ergonomics analysis technique that will help identify those points where education is critical.

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Orthopaedic experts will be exposed to the potential of multimedia through “editing engineers”, specialists in multimedia capable of understanding the particularities of surgical knowledge editing.

Project No: IST-1999-13079 Duration: 36 months Economic Sector: Higher education, multimedia, informatics Action Line: The Flexible University Full Title: Virtual Orthopaedic European University Project Type: Education and Training Research

The interaction between one expert and a set of students (the classical “class” paradigm) will be virtually implemented. Subsequently its educational interest in the field of orthopaedics learning will be tested.

Start Date: 01/02/2000

Learning how to watch orthopaedics

Project Objectives: To enhance student-teacher interaction in orthopaedics.

A common evaluation methodology of the medical and technical issues of Image Guided Orthopaedic Surgery procedures will be defined and implemented. An evaluation network will also be designed and run – this will form the backbone of a “virtual observatory” that will follow and observe the introduction of ICT in orthopaedics. The data that this observatory will gather will be periodically reviewed and analysed, to extract relevant knowledge about the way surgical procedures should be performed. This will form the basis of amassing knowledge on best practise.

End Date: 31/01/2003

Target Audience: Senior orthopaedic surgeons, junior orthopaedic surgeons and students Keywords: Learning, education, courses, multimedia, orthopaedics, simulators, CD-ROM Technology: Multimedia editing process; simulation; multicentric base and database

Experimenting with students Using careful ergonomics analysis, surgical simulators will be developed in a user centred strategy. They will feature the major available types of technologies enabling students to immerse themselves in a virtual world where visual integration and hand/eye co-ordination are key issues. Evaluation of the educational added value of such tools for orthopaedics will be performed.

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Finally there will be a demonstration of the “Integrated VOEU curriculum” providing user-friendly access to all of VOEU’s educational innovations.

Project Co-ordinator Prof. Philippe Cinquin Université Joseph Fourier – IMAG Faculté de Médecine - Laboratoire TIMC/ GMCAO Institut Albert Bonniot - Domaine de la Merci F-38706 La Tronche Cedex Tel: +33-4-76549507 Fax: +33-4-76549555 E-mail: [email protected] URL: http://voeu.vitamib.com Project Participants Université Joseph Fourier (FR) University of Hull (UK) SOFAMOR SNC (FR) University of Bristol (UK) Royal College of Surgeons (UK) M. E. Mueller Institute for Biomechanics (CH) MEDIVISION (CH) Scuola Superiore di Studi Universitari e Perfezionamento (IT)

WINDS Web-based INtelligent Design tutoring System

Designing the future Design is playing a more and more special role in production processes, making it a key element for the development and sustainable growth throughout the European Community. Lately, the world of design has benefited enormously from the strides made in this information age - a whole suite of tools that greatly assist the design professional. Computer-aided design, or CAD as it is more popularly known, is an example of one well-known system. However, the gains to be had from modern Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) do not just apply to the industry itself. Design teachers and students alike are in line to reap some of these advantages. WINDS is a European Commission Fifth Framework-funded R&D project that is looking at electronic means of assisting design students. Traditional design teaching suffers frequent problems that increase learning time and reduce knowledge retention. It aims at creating support instruments that will favour a more pedagogically-adequate approach to design teaching. Typically, access to learning material is strictly controlled, in terms of time and space. WINDS aims at improving the access and use of university teaching resources through the application of IT and Artificial Intelligence. It will develop a networked design-tutoring environment for a typical university’s educational resources. This will incorporate the student’s administration office, courses, teachers, reviews, libraries, and allow co-operation with other students.

Building the shared environment

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Being a European project, WINDS is keen to focus on the problem of cultural integration regarding content. It will offer education services to students coming from different nations, with extremely different cultural and educational backgrounds through its review of the structure and quality of educational content.

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Services are available to users through the Internet by means of shared instruments, Web browsers and commercial CAD systems. The groupware tools promote co-operation between students (peer tutoring) and between students and teachers (remote tutoring). Built into the system are expert systems and intelligent tutoring, based on well-established pedagogical models, that will autonomously assist students during their design courses.

Project No: IST-1999-10253 Duration: 36 months Economic Sector: Architecture, Construction Industry, Educational Market Action Line: The Flexible University Full Title: Web-based INtelligent Design tutoring System

Virtually a school At the implementation phase, WINDS will develop a Virtual School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering. This school will offer a number of educational resources, such as:

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an administration office for personalised profile management for students; a Department of Architectural Design with two basic courses and eight design courses; a Department of Environmental and Building Technology with two basic courses and six design courses; a Department of Construction Management with two basic courses and two advanced courses; a library with support teaching material.

The school will receive didactic contributions from 23 universities in ten European countries. These will be thoroughly assessed and quality reviewed by a review board, and will become operative in the third year of the project. Access to the department courses will be available as an option of the regular design courses. Students with access to the department will complete one or more course assignments in the virtual environment.

Project Type: Education and Training Research Start Date: 01/04/2000 End Date: 31/03/2003 Project Objectives: Contributing to the reorganisation of the pedagogical, cultural and functional aspects of university design education Target Audience: Students from schools of architecture, professional engineers, architects Keywords: Computer managed instruction, design teaching, remote tutoring, virtual university, intelligent tutoring systems, education, cognitive systems, artificial intelligence, product model Technology: Java applets or servlets, CORBA, http, DCOM. Web browsers, tailored database

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The effectiveness of the educational approach will be assessed by an experiment. It is forecast that no less than 400 students from 20 regular courses will have access. The experiment will be prepared and will be conducted with sound psychological methodologies.

Project Co-ordinator Prof. Mario De Grassi Università di Ancona Instituto di Disegno Architettura e Urbanistica (IDAU) Via Brecce Bianche I-60131 Ancona Tel: +39-071-2204788 Fax: +39-071-2204582 E-mail: [email protected] URL: http://www.winds-university.org Project Participants IDAU (IT) Consiglio Nazionale Ricerche - Istituto di Psicologia (IT) Forschungszentrum Informationstechnik GmbH (DE) Nemetschek AG (DE) Politecnico di Milano - Dipartimento di Disegno Industriale e Tecnologia dell’Architettura (IT) METE Srl (IT) 23 universities in 10 European countries

ADAPT-IT Advanced Design Approach for Personalised Training Interactive Tools What does training need? There is a growing realisation that Europe’s workforce needs to continually train and upskill to remain competitive. This tenet of lifelong learning is central to current thinking. It is widely acknowledged that tomorrow’s workforce will need to be flexible to adjust to organisational and technological changes. Increasingly, the required skills will be of a more complex cognitive nature. At present, training designers are not fully prepared for developing training programmes for flexible complex skills of the required level. Consequently, the ADAPT-IT project will provide ICT-based training design tools to guide the training designer according to latest cognitive science and standardisation principles. Two cognitive principles will be central to the proposed method: 1) Personalised training based on “cognitive load” training models; 2) Integration of knowledge and skills.

Personalised and focused

Through avoiding training of redundant skills while ensuring that only relevant learning is undertaken, training programmes can look forward to becoming more efficient and effective. Similarly, guaranteeing that the software tools are accessible to and usable by operational designers will help achieve better training.

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to create a harmonised training design tool for dealing with tasks requiring complex cognitive skills; to focus on the skills needed for a particular task or series of tasks; to ensure consistency in the application of training design; to support a personalised approach to learning.

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The ADAPT-IT training design methodology is generic and should meet the training design needs of training centres related to a wide variety of economic sectors. The objectives of ADAPT-IT are:

Project No: IST-1999-11740 Duration: 36 months Economic Sector: Professional training (for all economic sectors) Action Line: Advanced Training Systems Full Title: Advanced Design Approach for Personalised Training - Interactive Tools

ADAPTation is the key The development of the training design method will be prepared by analysing actual and future design needs of training centres and an overview of theoretical concepts and related technology of relevance to the project objectives. This data will be used to update and refine the current basis for the ADAPT method. A complete description for the method, including user documentation, tutorial, and relevant design standards will be provided and functional requirements for the software tools associated with the method will be specified. The ADAPT-IT Web-borne software will be developed, and will include modules to be linked with training systems for the intelligent task selection and the evaluation procedures. Contact with standards organisations and bodies will be made to ensure exchange of latest guidelines of relevance for training design.

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The method will be validated in two domains: aircraft maintenance and air traffic control. Training designers within both domains will receive familiarisation training in the method and in using the tools. Afterwards they will design training for a complex cognitive skill in a suitable topic. The training will be developed and implemented on the basis of the design and compared to a conventional training. Both the designer processes (quality, compliance to standards, time) as well as the learning outcomes will be analysed and the results will be used to fine-tune the method and tools.

Project Type: Education and Training Research Start Date: 01/02/2000 End Date: 31/01/2003 Project Objectives: To produce ICT-based tools for training designers, embodying a validated training design methodology for personalised training based on cognitive science and which optimises the integrated use of ICT training technologies Target Audience: Training designers using computerised learning environments and focusing on complex professional tasks. These designers may be active in independent training institutes or training centres/departments within both SME and large enterprises of any economic sector Keywords: Training design method, training design tool, training standardisation, training centres Technology: JAVA, 7M Integrate from SevenMountains Software A.S., User-centred design approach

Project Co-ordinator Dr Jelke Van der Pal Nationaal Lucht- en Ruimtevaartlaboratorium Man-Machine Integration Department Anthony Fokkerweg, 2 NL-1059 CM Amsterdam Tel: +31-20-5113779 Fax: +31-20-5113210 E-mail: [email protected] Project Participants Nationaal Lucht- en Ruimtevaartlaboratorium (NL) University of Bergen/EIST (NO) Open Universiteit Nederland/OTEC (NL) SevenMountains Software AS (NO) Luftfartverket/Swedish ATS Academy (SE) EUROCONTROL/IANS (LU) Piaggo Aero Industries SpA (IT)

AITRAM Advanced Integrated Training in Aeronautics Maintenance

A multidimensional approach to Human Factors training The Human Factor (HF) has been identified as one of the critical areas to address in order to reduce accidents and incidents. This has led to an increase in HF training developed by airlines, manufacturers and training organisations, as an integrated part of standard technical training, rather than through the provision of separate HF courses. In this context, AITRAM aims to contribute to the improvement of the learning process for aeronautic maintenance technicians and provide higher efficiency maintenance and HF training in aviation, by addressing training from several angles, as follows:

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Procedure assessment considering HF; Trainee assessment and self-training; Address Human Factors training in a task-oriented environment: increasing awareness of the maintenance technician in relation to hand-over problems, time pressure problems, slips in routine tasks, lack of communication, procedure violation, misdiagnosis, lack of checks, supervision); Improved planning of tasks; Task training in a virtual environment.

Improving the learning process

Virtual Reality training in aviation AITRAM aims to tackle the need for increased HF training by developing an integrated training concept, based on a user needs assessment and elaborating a Virtual Reality-based training system, integrating various pedagogic issues such as training modes and competence measures. The work focuses on the following four main components:

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Design of an integrated training concept; Modelling and simulation of HF and environmental conditions; Development of integrated VR-based training applications Authoring of training scenarios to demonstrate and evaluate the AITRAM training concept.

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reducing the time, cost, risk of training; improving the features to deliver complex contents to trainees; more learning by doing and learning from mistakes; improving the means to provide a more general understanding of the technical system as well as relationships and interdependencies; provision of means to raise awareness of HF issues as well as experiencing them personally.

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The learning process will be improved by:

Project No: IST-1999-12241 Duration: 30 months Economic Sector: Aviation Action Line: Advanced Training Systems Full Title: Advanced Integrated Training in Aeronautics Maintenance Project Type: Education and Training Research

The project is expected to support the learning process by reducing the time, costs and risks of training, delivering complex training material to trainees, providing a more hands-on approach to the learning process and improving the overall understanding of the technical system. AITRAM can potentially raise the awareness of HF issues by experiencing them personally.

Unique expertise in training for industry The AITRAM project brings together a unique European expertise to address industry needs in an innovative way. Over the past four years the Aerospace Psychology Research Group (APRG) of Trinity College Dublin (TCD) has led two major projects looking at Human Factors in the area of aviation maintenance. They provide the HF results which form the basis of this project.

Start Date: 01/04/2000 End Date: 31/11/2002 Project Objectives: Developing an advanced training system for aeronautics maintenance training, based on sound pedagogic principles, innovative concepts, new cognitive approaches and simulation technologies Target Audience: Aeronautic maintenance technicians Keywords: Human Factors, Virtual Reality training, modelling and simulation

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Technology: Performer from SGI and C/C++

Project Co-ordinator Mr Stefan Stuering FRAUNHOFER GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FOERDERUNG DER ANGEWANDTEN FORSCHUNG e.V Fraunhofer Institut Fabrikbetrieb und Automatisierung Sandtorstrasse 22 D-39106 Magdeburg Tel: +49-391-4090131 Fax: +49-391-4090445 E-mail: [email protected] URL: http://www.aitram.de Project Participants FRAUNHOFER GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FOERDERUNG DER ANGEWANDTEN FORSCHUNG e.V (DE) AIR EUROPE SpA (IT) Joint Research Centre, European Commission (IT) FLS AEROSPACE (IRL) LTD. (IE) SR Technics Ltd. (CH) Trinity College, Dublin (IE)

ASIMIL Aero user-friendly SIMulation-based distant Learning

Training and retraining through emerging technologies The new Joint Aviation Requirements (JAR) applicable in 2000/2001 for people working on aircraft, compel them to get a qualification assessed by the civil aviation national authorities and to keep their skills up to date. These European regulations concern both professional pilots and aircraft mechanics. From multimedia courses already available in STAR (e.g. AeroGATES) the question is to increase their pedagogical and didactical components, and to better take into account each trainee’s personal profile and background. Consequently, the ASIMIL scaffolding (1- Simulation, 2- Intelligent Agents, 3- Virtual Reality) addresses the major issues of current CBT systems. Simulation techniques address the lack of realism issue of “classical CBT” courses. Thus, adding simulation sequences will add interactive exercises in these courses and will contribute to a better understanding of operational know-how.

Your own personal intelligent agent Intelligent Agents are personal assistant software entities for both trainees and instructors.

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Each trainee will be assisted by his own intelligent agent. An agent is intelligent in the sense that he knows precisely the trainee’s profile and background, he tracks every trainee’s mistake and he is knowledgeable in the learning domain. He is able to give the trainee advice and help in an intelligible way closely related to the actual mistake causes and understanding level of the trainee.

Project No: IST-1999-11286 Duration: 30 months Economic Sector: Aeronautics Action Line: Open Platforms and Tools for Personalised Learning Full Title: Aero user-friendly SIMulation-based distant Learning

Each instructor will be assisted by his own intelligent agent. An instructor’s agent will assist the instructor in providing synthetic views on trainee’s path along the courses (errors, successful parts, and main difficulties…) thanks to network communications with trainees’ agents. Virtual reality will be a first importance complement in order to design a new range of cheap cost simulators with high fidelity realism. Using these emerging technologies, the ASIMIL project will develop new tutoring approaches and flexible learning environments dedicated to the future training and retraining of the workforce in aeronautics.

Project Type: Education and Training Research Project Start Date: 01/04/2000 End Date: 01/11/2002 Project objectives: ASIMIL aims to develop radically new approaches for improving the future training and retraining of the workforce in aeronautics, through utilising emerging technologies. The project covers intelligent, adaptable learning environment and new multimedia content, supporting the processes applied in real training situations Target audience: airlines, regional airlines, maintenance centres, training centres, aircraft and engine manufacturers, professional pilots, aircraft mechanics, learners, instructors Keywords: Distance learning, virtual reality, intelligent agents, multi-agent systems, desktop simulators (flight and maintenance)

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Technology: Multimedia, Virtual Reality, full-fidelity Simulation, 3D visualisation, Virtual assistant agents

Project Co-ordinator Prof. Roger Lalanne SPECIALISED TRAINING IN AERONAUTICS AND RESEARCH (STAR) Rue Marcel Issartier F-33700 Mérignac Tel: +33-5-56133150 Fax: +33-5-56133152 E-mail: [email protected] Project Participants STAR (FR) IMA (FR) KHBO (BE) CLAIRIS Technologies (FR) Universita di Bologna (IT) Université de Pau et des Pays de l’Adour (FR) Interactive STAR (FR) Technical University of Szczecin (PL) SOCATA Aerospatiale (FR) Virtuel Âge (CA) Istituto Svizzero di Pedagogia per la Formazione Professionale (CH)

A-TEAM Advanced Training System for Emergency Management

A new approach to advanced technical training Improved efficiency and effectiveness of the learning and teaching process is an important contribution towards a technological and Information Society. The A-TEAM proposal directly addresses the central objective of Key Action III.3.3, Advanced Training Systems, “to develop and demonstrate radically new approaches for improving the future training and retraining of the workforce, building on new cognitive approaches enabled by emerging technologies”. It does this through the combined use of artificial intelligence, knowledge-based systems and advanced simulation techniques, together with the related visualisation for the dynamic and interactive generation of multimedia content. Nine partner institutions from six countries co-operate in A-TEAM, providing a rich combination of academic excellence, software engineering and practical safety management experience.

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The use of modern tools and standards based on a client-server architecture using TCP/IP, http, CORBA, the use of XML/CSS, VRML and Java 3D is designed to achieve these objectives as well as interoperability and the possibility to also include multimedia content. At the same time, it opens the way to exploit future development of the Internet with a distributed architecture based on intelligent agents. The use of artificial intelligence methods integrated with simulation models for dynamic and interactive content generation addresses the requirement that “the multidisciplinary RTD should cover intelligent, adaptable learning environments and new multimedia content, supporting the processes applied in real training situations.” The focus will be on the application of simulation and animation, 3D visualisation and immersive virtual reality.

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The overall objective of Key Action III “to improve the functionality, usability and acceptability of future information products and services” is the starting point for the proposed project. A-TEAM is building a better training system for a technically demanding application domain by integrating advanced information technologies such as knowledge-based systems including a real-time expert system, case-based reasoning, and advanced simulation modelling with dynamic 3D codes and associated visualisation and animation methods.

Project No: IST-1999-10176 Duration: 36 months Economic Sector: Chemical Industry, Governmental Institutions, Civil Defence Organisations Action Line: Advanced Training Systems Full Title: Advanced Training System for Emergency Management

A-TEAM: from design to multidiscipline implementation User requirements are compiled and a functional specification and framework is developed which will be followed for implementation. The components are integrated into common tools at this stage, then thoroughly tested before evaluation and dissemination. The final training modes will have three possible formats: 1. Traditional classroom teaching, supervised by a tutor, where the interactive software provides one element in the course delivery; 2. Unsupervised learning which can also involve remote access through the Internet, thus opening the possibility of the flexibility for the student to choose the times for accessing the system freely; 3. Learning on demand, which is a simple extension of the normal use of the system for problem solving, with the possibility to explore additional background and in-depth information in the context of a specific application.

Project Type: Education and Training Research Start Date: 01/02/2000 End Date: 31/01/2003 Project Objectives: The main objective of the A-TEAM project is to improve the learning process in complex, technical domains, using the example of technological emergency management. This is achieved through integrating information technology within an innovative didactic framework that fully exploits the potential of multimedia information systems. The project is developing and testing a new approach to advanced technical training using an integration of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies and dynamic simulation modelling to create fully interactive multimedia content within a real-time knowledge-based system framework for the domain of emergency management applications Target Audience: Chemical industry, governmental institutions, civil defence organisations

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Keywords: Improved learning, traditional classroom teaching, unsupervised learning through the Internet, learning on demand, emergency management, dynamic simulation, visualisation, GIS, expert systems, case-based reasoning Technology: Artificial intelligence (AI) simulation modelling technologies, Internet/intranet, Extensible Markup Language (XML), Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), Virtual Reality Markup Language (VRML), Java 3D Project Co-ordinator Dr Kurt Fedra Environmental Software & Services GmbH Kalkgewerk 1 A-2352 Gumpoldskirchen Tel: +43-2252-633050 Fax: +43-2252-633059 E-mail: [email protected] URL: http://www.ess.co.at/A-TEAM/ Project Participants (ESS) Environmental Software & Services GmbH (AT) Chiron Sistemas de Informacao (PT) DNV, UK - Der Norske Veritas (UK) CSALT - Centre for Studies in Advanced Learning Technologies (UK) Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya (ES) Environment, Transport and Planning (ES) Syreco (IT) Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (GR) ASIT, Safety and Information Systems in Transport Ltd (CH)

CBLPET CBLPET

Comparing paper-based and online learning The project identifies and analyses the environment within which training is delivered through the development of a set of user requirements based on pedagogical, organisational, and technical issues. The framework developed is used to deliver two modules of the distance learning M.Sc. course in petroleum engineering over the Internet. The candidates nominated to undertake the courses on offer are also identified and assessed with respect to their knowledge about the subject. At the same time, the students undertaking the course using the paper-based material are also identified and interviewed. The students take the examinations after having studied for the course using either process. The costs and savings associated with a transfer of paper-based distance learning material to a computer-based delivery are also investigated during the trial.

ColIecting information for evaluation

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After the examinations and the study period is over, the supervisory and IT managerial staff within the SMEs are interviewed with respect to the educational, organisational, and technical challenges encountered during the trial. Thus, these issues associated with the delivery of distance training are evaluated, as is the effectiveness of this mode of training.

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The students are monitored continuously both by the staff within the SME and at Heriot-Watt University and the breadth and depth of the material accessed by the students using the computer-based process is recorded automatically by the learning environment software. The number of times each item is accessed is also monitored for analysis of the clarity of the content and structure of this material. The Internet traffic regarding both content and structure of the learning materials is recorded for evaluation during the trial.

Project No: IST-2000-28520 Duration: 12 months Economic Sector: Petroleum industry, SME trainers, e-publishers Action Line: Trials and best practice addressing advanced solutions for on-the-job training in SMEs Full Title: CBLPET

Applicability to other disciplines A market survey and an assessment of the challenges encountered during the implementation of Internet-based learning products in the petroleum industry is also carried out during the trial, investigating business, organisational and technical issues associated with the introduction of these products. The results of these investigations are generalised with a view to their application to European and international SMEs in other industries with similar challenges to those of the petroleum industry. A final synthesis report will disseminate these outcomes and the educational, organisational, technical, and business costs and benefits arising from the deployment of training material and services over the Internet, through a structured plan.

Project Type: Education and Training Research Start Date: 01/10/2001 End Date: 30/09/2002 Project Objectives: Evaluation of the effectiveness, and the pedagogical, organisational, technical, training, business, and financial issues, associated with delivery of distance training to SMEs over the Internet, particularly within the petroleum engineering market Target Audience: SMEs in the petroleum industry Keywords: SMEs, distance learning, the Internet, petroleum engineering SMEs

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Technology: Internet

Project Co-ordinator John Ford Heriot-Watt University Department of Petroleum Engineering Edinburgh EH14 4AS United Kingdom Tel: +44-131-4513138 Fax: +44-131-4513127 E-mail: [email protected] Project Participants Heriot-Watt University (UK) Learning Technology Centre (UK) Network of Excellence in Training Ltd. (UK) Edinburgh Petroleum Services (UK) GRAM Petroleum Consultants A.S. (NO)

CORONET Corporate Software Engineering Knowledge Networks for Improved Training of the Workforce The best of software engineering The competitiveness of most products and services is determined more and more by quality, time-to-market and cost of the integrated or related software. To be competitive, European companies have to produce best quality software at a low price in a very short time. This can only be achieved by using best software engineering practices. However, in Europe there is a great quantitative deficit of appropriately educated software engineers who are able to apply these practices. Universities and classroombased professional education and training courses play a crucial role for introducing these innovative software engineering technologies and for preparing personnel for the increasing and fast changing demands of information technology. However, they cannot solve the problem alone because of the restricted number of people reached. CORONET comes in at this point. It provides the platform and the knowledge for unrestricted professional education and training in best software engineering practices. It thereby improves the competitiveness and the working conditions of European companies as well as the employment prospects and living conditions of European citizens.

Improving competitiveness in European companies

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CORONET provides unrestricted access to up-to-date software engineering knowledge at any place and time in Europe. That is, every interested company can train their employees in software engineering technology at low cost. Employees do not have to leave their workplace to attend classes elsewhere but can learn whenever they have time, wherever they want (even at home), and as fast as they want.

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To keep up with their competitors from America and from Asia, European companies more and more have to apply best software engineering practices. However, there is a significant lack of appropriately educated software engineers. Furthermore, software engineering knowledge evolves in shorter and shorter cycles. That is, the knowledge of most currently employed software engineers, who received their education 10-15 years ago, is outdated. All in all, there is a great demand on innovative software engineering knowledge that can only be satisfied by an Internet-based education platform like CORONET.

Project No: IST-1999-11634 Duration: 27 months Economic Sector: IT Industry Action Line: Advanced Training Systems Full Title: Corporate Software Engineering Knowledge Networks for Improved Training of the Workforce

The innovative idea of the CORONET project is to develop and implement an approach for integration between corporate knowledge networks and group learning processes. Based on most recent results in didactics and pedagogics of Web-based training of the workforce, a cognitive approach of collaborative learning is developed and implemented for training on methods and techniques of software engineering. The project will develop a completely new integrated training approach, which is based on a new and flexible learning platform. While studying a specific topic, the student can communicate with other students of the same topic in order to talk about problems and their solution as well as to exchange ideas. This will bring people with the same interests together to enable them to create research groups. In the end, the solutions developed by these groups will improve the competitiveness of the European software industry.

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The lifelong learning and qualification possibilities provided by CORONET will contribute to the further qualification of all European citizens. Its qualification features will be provided via the Internet and are therefore accessible in a ubiquitous manner. This will lead to a higher qualification of individuals in all European countries by continuous further education, which also improves their employment prospects. They can start to compete for jobs requiring higher qualification. People with a profession other than software engineering can also apply for jobs in the prosperous software industry. Therefore further education in innovative, up-to-date software engineering is one of the key factors for an increased growth of the software industry. It will reduce the unemployment rate and improve the living conditions all over Europe.

Project Type: Education and Training Research Start Date: 01/02/2000 End Date: 30/04/2002 Project Objectives: To improve efficiency of Web-based training of the workforce in the domain of innovative software engineering methods and techniques. The project will develop a completely new integrated training approach, which is based on a new and flexible learning platform Target Audience: Software producing units of corporations and of SMEs; private industry seeking to improve learning patterns and corporate knowledge transfer Keywords: Corporate knowledge base, training of the workforce, training on the job, Web-based training, software engineering training Technology: Internet

Project Co-ordinator Dr Dietmar Pfahl FRAUNHOFER GESELLSCHAFT FÜR ANGEWANDTE FORSCHUNG e.V Institute for Experimental Software Engineering Sauerwiesen 6 D-67661 Kaiserslautern Tel: +49-6301-707120 Fax: +49-6301-707203 E-mail: [email protected] URL: http://www.iese.fhg.de/coronet Project Participants Fraunhofer IESE (DE) Fraunhofer IGD (DE) University of New South Wales (AU) DaimlerChrysler (DE) IICM (AT) CCG (PT) Comunicación Interactiva (ES) Highware Group (FR)

DERIVE Distributed Real and Virtual Learning Environment for Mechatronics and Teleservice The need for multidimensional training system in mechatronics The DERIVE project developed as a result of the emergence of a new type of job profile, requiring a mix of electrical, mechanical and IT skills, called mechatronics, leading to increasing pressure to combine vocational training in schools with more practical working-environment exposure for trainees. Work in mechatronics requires knowledge of structure, behaviour and functioning of mechatronic systems, as well as cognitive and operational knowledge about building systems, diagnosis and maintenance. A significant innovation is, however, the fact that working processes now are essentially characterised by the use of telemedial systems. In the professional field users need the ability to achieve their aims in (tele) co-operation with others, and they should be able to co-operate in virtual and supranational forms of organisation. In this context, the project aims to create bridges between reality and virtuality with integrated simulation and the possibility to freely replace virtual parts with real ones and vice-versa. Overall, the project responds to:

DERIVE will apply an incremental development strategy by means of installing an iterative process of analysing user needs, creating and evaluating prototypes together with external experts and redefining the user requirements. Through this project, the market for innovative training systems for mechatronics will be initialised and extended.

Combining real and virtual, local and remote media The learning environment used for vocational training in mechatronics, including first steps towards teleservice for production systems, will consist of a combination of real and virtual, local and remote media. A construction kit (suite of modular building blocks) will enable students and teachers to link by means of a new kind of telecoupling mechanism. The project will extend the concept of local coupling of real and virtual worlds by video recognition and light projection to the distributed learning application with telepointing and grasping.

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new demands resulting from the key role of mechatronics and teleservice in automation technology; the need for increased co-operation between vocational schools and industry in view of a better integration of learning and working; the need to encourage greater collaboration between technicians with different language, cultural and professional backgrounds in a pan-European dimension.

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Project No: IST-1999-10417 Duration: 24 months Economic Sector: Educational Media for Vocational Education and Training, Mechatronics, Teleservice Equipment Action Line: Advanced Training Systems Full Title: Distributed Real and Virtual Learning Environment for Mechatronics and Teleservice

The emergence of remote diagnostic systems has an appeal to companies because it allows the maintenance and service of equipment to be undertaken with greater efficiency. Problems can be diagnosed off site, and the appropriately qualified staff and equipment can be despatched to solve problems. The tele-cooperation functionality in the learning environment will allow companies to use the training facilities of vocational schools and/or other providers for training their employees. The new environment will allow groups of staff at remote locations to take part in training courses. Trainees will be able to work in a collaborative way to solve problems and explore learning situations. This new kind of interaction will allow the systematic support of skilled workers and engineers by educators in vocational schools.

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The project introduces a new kind of complex objects, which have one real part and several virtual counterparts coupled by a graspable user interface. With these complex objects, we build new environments that support the synchronous and asynchronous, local and remote construction and service of real systems together with their simulation models.

Project Type: Education and Training Research Start Date: 01/04/2000 End Date: 31/03/2002 Project Objectives: Developing a new learning environment for mechatronics and teleservice, coupling real and virtual learning spaces Target Audience: Education and Training Institutes for Mechatronics and Teleservice Keywords: Coupled real and virtual reality, mechatronics, teleservice, remote pointing and grasping, distributed simulation and learning environments, vocational training Technology: User-driven systems development; process integrated evaluation; multiperspective design groups (pedagogical, psychological, technical, economical, organisational, work-oriented)

With a special kind of electronic-electro-pneumatic coupling between the computer and a mechatronic hardware kit, it will be possible to build HybridHyper-Systems, being a free mixture of real parts and virtual, light projected ones. The system may be distributed, having one real part at one place and its virtual counterpart at remote places coupled by Internet links. By means of telepointing, it will be possible to communicate within an interdisciplinary group of distributed experts about real and virtual parts of a system. This new kind of communication will be subject to a systematic support in vocational education of skilled workers and engineers.

Project Co-ordinator Prof. Wilhelm Bruns UNIVERSITAET BREMEN Forschungszentrum Arbeit und Technik (ARTEC) Enrique-Schmidt-Strasse 7 (SFG) D-28334 Bremen Tel: +49-421-2182712 Fax: +49-421-2184259 E-mail: [email protected] URL: http://www.derive.uni-bremen.de Project Participants UNIVERSITAET BREMEN (DE) Escola Superior de Tecnologia e Gestao (PT) Stockport College of Further Education (UK) Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich (CH) Festo-Didactic GmbH & Co. (DE) Schulzentrum Im Holter Feld (DE)

ELSA ELSA

Innovative eLearning portal The ELSA project aims to demonstrate the added value, for supply companies operating in the automotive sector, of the innovative eLearning and training portal ELSA. It is based on the multilingual intranet-based platform named Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) developed by the ESPRIT TQM-online project. It offers training courses, course management functions, and a full suite of value-added services, supporting collaborative training sessions, online tutor guidance, and knowledge sharing. Three SMEs based in three different European countries participate in the consortium. In the first place, their user requirements are analysed and combined with the requirements originating from other SME members of national associations, so as to tailor the product to meet these needs. In addition to the training applications: “Quality Management Systems” and “Capable Process”, other training courses indicated by the SMEs are included in the system where appropriate. The ELSA project fine-tunes the VLE platform for the Internet and, thus, the platform allows automotive SMEs to create their own eLearning sites with customised features.

Encouraging use of ELSA

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The usability, efficiency, and effectiveness of the ELSA portal is tested during training pilot sessions in real industrial contexts. These training pilot sessions are attended by employees of the automotive supply SMEs involved in the project and a detailed evaluation plan is produced as guidelines and reference for these sessions. This evaluation plan includes a detailed data collection plan for gathering the results of the training. Emphasis is on the measurement of usability, efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed eLearning solution, and on the economic viability of the underlying business model.

Project No: IST-2000-29340 Duration: 20 months Economic Sector: SMEs Action Line: Trials and best practice addressing advanced solutions for on-the-job training in SMEs Full Title: ELSA

Analysis, evaluation, and dissemination of the findings and feedback from the training sessions allows finalisation of the eLearning solution for market exploitation. The pilot sessions are closely monitored and the empirical results analysed and compared to the target objectives outlined in the evaluation plan. A survey of the trial’s results provides the final assessment of the eLearning training solution’s effectiveness and its impact on the SMEs involved in the trial. This survey is then widely disseminated throughout Europe to demonstrate the results of the Web-based training in automotive SMEs. European and national associations of SMEs are directly involved in this stage of the project and, in parallel, the feedback collected from the trials is used to refine and finalise the ELSA portal.

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The eLearning offer is detailed for market exploitation in a business plan, which describes the pricing and partner’s alliance strategies. Thus, the effective dissemination strategy implemented ensures the widest cascading of the project results. The key challenge of this project is, therefore, to encourage SMEs to make use of the ELSA solution and to measure the impact of its introduction in order to refine the service offered to customise the technological/organisational infrastructure for an eLearning portal meeting the requirements of European automotive SMEs.

Project Type: Education and Training Research Start Dcte: 01/09/2001 End Date: 30/04/2003 Project Objectives: Demonstrating the added value, for supply companies operating in the automotive sector, of the innovative eLearning and training portal ELSA Target Audience: SMEs in the automotive sector Keywords: SMEs, customised online training, automotive sector, European reach Technology: Intranet-based platform, Internet

Project Co-ordinator Amalia Distefano Clepa Boulevard Brand Whitlock, 87/B1 B-1200 Brussels Tel: +32-2-7439135 Fax: +32-2-7320055 E-mail: [email protected] Project Participants Clepa (BE) Syndicat des Fabricants d’Equipements et de Pieces pour Automobiles (FR) GRIFO Multimedia Srl (IT) Synergie GmbH (DE) Aces Université de Lyon (FR) REED Automotive Ltd (UK) San Valeriano (IT) HB-Plastic Kunstoff produckte (AT)

ENORM-VLC ENORM-VLC

New Virtual Learning Centre The ENORM-VLC project is implemented in an SME environment in order to improve the learning process compared to existing possibilities available for learning and knowledge sharing. Scientific quality and innovation is improved through the project, as it establishes an open, interactive, virtual learning environment in an international company-based setting in which knowledge intensive professionals in SMEs are brought together in structured collaborative learning networks facilitated by ICT technologies. Furthermore, an interactive triangle of expertise in content, technology and pedagogy is created in order to accelerate the process of innovation in training. In order to achieve this, user needs and functional specifications are determined through analysis and confirmation of the requirements and production of a final functional specification of the project’s solution. This allows customisation of the tool to these needs and requirements of the targeted SME user companies in the trial project. Through the tailoring of the integrated environment into the specific needs of the SME user companies, their use of the Virtual Learning Centre is facilitated.

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The Virtual Learning Centre environment is implemented for a selected group of users for their online on-the-job training. A short introductory course is also prepared to inform the user group on the different functionalities of the tool. The project tests and evaluates the VLC environment and the TNU methodology and, in order to do so, it is implemented at the Network University and is accessible, through the use of the ASP model, to three SME companies involved directly in the validation and evaluation of the VLC. The SME employees participate in an online course on eCommerce.

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Validation, evaluation and dissemination of the VLC

Project No: IST-2000-29422 Duration: 18 Months Economic Sector: SMEs Action Line: Online training Full Title: ENORM-VLC Project Type: Education and training research

The experimentation application of the VLC to the actual learning process of SME employees allows measurement and evaluation of the concept proving that it can be deployed in an SME environment and that it improves the learning process. The gathered data is compared to a reference case that is characteristic for the currently applied learning methodologies within SMEs. As such, all advantages and disadvantages of the VLC and TNU methodology are registered and analysed. The outcomes are structured and registered in an evaluation report disseminated within the consortium. In addition, the know-how resulting from the trial project is actively disseminated to other organisations and companies that may profit from the experiences gained during the trial.

Additional packages running in parallel to ensure smooth implementation of the project

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A separate work package, concerned with project management, is also run in parallel to foster conscientious project execution. Project management is carried out by a management team comprising the project mangers of Pulse Interactive, TNU, and Spherion, and representatives of the involved SME user companies. A separate development package, entailing all development activities necessary for the smooth implementation of the VLC but not defined as content generation and fine-tuning of the environment, is also introduced at the beginning of the project. However, the activities of this project are not included in the budget as they are not subject to Community funding.

Start Date: 01/01/2002 End Date: 30/06/2003 Project Objectives: Establish an open, interactive, virtual learning environment and create a triangle of expertise. Prove that a new Virtual Learning Centre (VLC) concept can be deployed in an SME environment, and that this concept improves the learning process Target Audience: SMEs Keywords: SMEs, customised online training, interactive virtual learning environment, interactive triangle of expertise Technology: Virtual technology

Project Co-ordinator Yuri Dokter Pulse Interactive Roemer Visscherstraat 42 Amsterdam 1054 The Netherlands Tel: +31-20-5962500 Fax: +31-20-5962536 E-mail: [email protected] Claire.H.J Intvelt PNO Breda BV The Netherlands Tel: +31-76-5212122 Fax: +31-76-5210777 E-mail: [email protected] Project Participants Pulse Interactive (NL) PNO Breda BV (NL) Interim Technology Maintain SQM BV (NL) Stichting The Network University (NL) Motivaction International Holding BV (NL) Novare Consutl BV (NL) Akustik Technologie Göttingen (DE)

GAMBIT GAMBIT

SMEs needs for management training The GAMBIT project aims to evaluate the effectiveness of the online training in delivering appropriate on-the-job training for SME managers. To realise this, there will be an initial consultation phase, which includes input from 20 target end users and an analysis of already existing market research. This allows a rigorous examination of the needs of the SME market for management training and determines whether online training should be combined with other support. This also allows a comparison between online training and conventional training methods. The results of this initial phase of the project yield a detailed evaluation plan drawn up by evaluation experts and also allow the creation of a mentor for the duration of the project. Furthermore, to objectively identify the areas where managers would most benefit from training, a detailed training needs analysis and benchmarking questionnaire, designed by LEDU and based on the European Foundation for Quality Management Quality Model, is drawn up and converted into an interactive online questionnaire. This helps evaluate the potential to encourage higher levels of participation in training by SME managers, and allows better targeting of the training products to the needs of SME managers.

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Online modules are designed using KnowledgeBuilder, drawing on existing training material and publications on human resources management, small business finance and marketing, which have been delivered by the consortium for many years. The conversion of existing course materials into online materials is carried out by a specialist firm, Active, who have extensive experience in producing high quality multimedia training, including Internet-based packages.

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Online training modules

Project No: IST-2000-28275 Duration: 18 months Economic Sector: SMEs Action Line: Trials and best practice addressing advanced solutions for on-the-job training in SMEs Full Title: GAMBIT Project Type: Education and Training Research

Training modules, which include flash animation, are given an international dimension through input from experienced small business advisors from MCEB and are adapted under their direction to meet the needs of Irish managers. Course production also involves training specialists from the consortium organisations, supported by Active’s online design staff.

Dissemination throughout Europe Forty company managers from the UK and Ireland are taking part in the online training in small business marketing, finance, or human resources management. This trial intends to assess the project and the assessment focuses on:

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comparisons with the effectiveness of conventional training; user-friendliness; the ability to encourage participation; the potential of online training to contribute to regional and European economic development.

Start Date: 01/09/2001 End Date: 28/02/2003 Project Objectives: To evaluate the effectiveness of the online training system, KnowledgeBuilder, in delivering appropriate on-the-job training for SME managers and analysing their needs in order to better encourage management training Target Audience: SME managers Keywords: SME managers, online modules, management training Technology: Internet, CBT, Multimedia

The exploitation potential of the complete system, which is intended to be sold using the Application Service Provider Model, is also evaluated through this assessment.

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The results are disseminated throughout the EC by joining in clusters of similar projects, submitting papers to appropriate conferences, and other publicity activities.

Project Co-ordinator Reg Rea Active Training Systems Brussels Belgium Tel: +32-2-779-91-76 Fax: +32-2-779-91-76 E-mail: [email protected] Project Participants Active Training Systems (UK) Local Enterprise Development Unit (LEDU) (UK) Monaghan County Enterprise Board (MCEB) (IE) Mentor (UK) Visionology (UK)

ICIS ICIS

ICT HR development using an integrated solution The ICIS project integrates emerging IST technologies with existing mature building blocks in an effort to modernise and enhance the development of human resources (HR) for specific job assignments in the ICT sector. This prototype system provides support to the baseline process by allowing easy use of an integrated solution including tools such as RDA assessment, ITPro skills profile, career path development, and online training and recruitment. The main aims of the project are to:

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increase rapidity of development of HR in the ICT sector by 50% using this prototype online support system; measure the added value as a result of these personal assessments, professional skills profiles, career development paths, and online training to support the whole cycle of HR development online through trial and validation in a real-life on-the-job situation.

The project is implemented in three target countries: Italy, The Netherlands and Portugal, after evaluation of a trial pilot with a small group of users.

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The third stage of the project sees the real-life online trial as the system goes live on the Internet and is tested by the pilot users which helps measure, evaluate, and independently validate the results. The project is disseminated in the three target countries where the six SME users perform the trial.

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The trial solution is then fine-tuned towards a complete solution through the addition of content such as dedicated training modules and the evaluation of user friendliness and its functionalities.

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Initially, a pilot project is carried out first with a small pilot user group. At this stage, user requirements are determined and the overall solution is specified with all users involved: SME software developing companies, and professional software producers. This also includes establishing metrics to measure success or failure of the trial project.

Project No: IST-2000-29323 Duration: 18 months Economic Sector: Human resources development Action Line: Trials and best practice addressing advanced solutions for on-the-job training in SMEs Full Title: iCIS

Targets and validation of the project Many aspects are measured and continuously monitored throughout the implementation of the pilot project, enabling the project’s validation. The main aspects to be measured are:

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reduced lag time for a complete human resource development cycle, the target being 50% reduction; increased level of success in training programmes based on examination: increased grades and reduced failure rates; comparing online and of line personal assessments and individual satisfaction tests; coherence of career path development by comparing the number of changes of online training modules followed by a test group of ICT professionals and their peers.

Project Type: Education and Training Research Start Date: 01/01/2002 End Date: 30/06/2003 Project Objectives: Trial of a Web-based platform founded on prototype IST technologies and validated against a typical SME baseline process of developing human resources (HR), to be developed into an online, lifelong support system of integrated tools for development of HR in the ICT sector Target Audience: SMEs, HR Managers Keywords: SMEs, online human resource development, ICT, IST technologies, HR tools

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Technology: Internet, Intranet, Web-based training

Project Co-ordinator Vittorio Goletti EIDOS Sistemi di Formazione srl Via dei Mamili, 11 I-00175 Rome Tel: +39-06-76980642 Fax: +39-06-76985251 E-mail: [email protected] Project Participants EIDOS Sistemi di Formazione srl (IT) Quality Communication Management (NL) University of Twente (NL) Innova (IT) Sintesi Software (IT) Novabase (PT)

InTraServ Intelligent Training Service For Management Training in SMEs

Customising the training platform InTraServ proposes an innovative Web-based intelligent training solution for SMEs operating in different fields. In the beginning all project partners will focus on SME training needs and on the knowledge domain that is covered by the management training service. Then the learning material preparation and system customisation starts, so that the product can be tailored to SME requirements. The proposed solution is based on an already existing training platform prototype obtained through the integration of the results of two research projects: InTraSys and DiSiMa, carried out by CRMPA. This existing platform is customised by the integration of a set of business games already available as a result of other research projects. The proposed solution includes several stateof-the-art technologies such as metadata and ontologies for knowledge manipulation, fuzzy learner modelling and case-based reasoning. Courses are divided in learning objects, that is, small training modules covering a small set of specific arguments. These are indexed using metadata and ontologies. Four courses covering several aspects of the managerial training are implemented in three languages (Italian, English, Spanish):

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The first one is implemented during the project duration while the others are completed after its end during the exploitation of the product.

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Business Decision, Marketing Management, Marketing Research, Management Control.

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Project No: IST-2000-29377 Duration: 18 months Economic Sector: SMEs Action Line: Trials and best practice addressing advanced solutions for on-the-job training in SMEs Full Title: Intelligent Training Service For Management Training in SMEs

From implementation to evaluation The platform will be installed on a centralised server and the InTraServ service will start for all partners. A detailed evaluation plan will be defined and made ready at the start of the system. The experimentation phase will commence in SME environments through the application of this plan and by letting experts collect empirical data in order to evaluate the impact of the project and to what extent InTraServ fulfils training requirements. Based on the experimentation results, a sustainable business model and the related business plan will be defined. All the trial results will then be disseminated throughout the European Community by joining clusters of similar projects and the results extended to the scientific community by the submission of papers to conferences on the theme.

Project Type: Education and Training Research Start Date: 01/12/2001 End Date: 31/05/2003 Project Objectives: The main objective of InTraServ is to try and evaluate an innovative Web-based intelligent training solution for manager upgrading in real SME environments operating in different fields Target Audience: SMEs Keywords: SMEs, management training

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Technology: metadata and ontologies for knowledge manipulation, fuzzy learner modelling and case based reasoning

Project Co-ordinator Nicola Capuano CRMPA c/o DIIMA – Università di Salerno Via Ponte don Melillo I-84084 Fisciano (SA) Tel: +39-089-964189 Fax: +39-089-964191 E-mail: [email protected] Project Participants CRMPA (Centre for Research in Pure and Applied Mathematics) (IT) ASIMAG (Alonso Y Garay S.L.) (ES) 9ICTA (Iniciatives de Comunicaciò I Telemàtica Aplicada S.A.L.) (ES) Metafore ed Analogie S.r.l. (IT) CAVAMARKET S.p.A. (IT) PASI S.r.l (IT)

INVITE Intelligent Distributed Virtual Training Environment

Distributed virtual learning environments INVITE aims to develop a collaborative learning environment for distance education via distributed and shared virtual environments. It particularly aims to address the needs of companies, which co-operate very closely from different locations. The project works by developing a platform for synchronous telelearning, providing users with the functionality to support social learning processes through distributed virtual environments. The platform can be interfaced with standardised content management and/or instructional management systems. Existing learning environments providing the content management structures and asynchronous services should be integrated into this platform. The project aims to achieve these aims through the following tasks:

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Identifying the relevant cognitive and social processes in collaborative learning situations and extraction of those factors into user requirements; Developing an integrated system based on distributed virtual environment technologies, including intelligent agents’ real-time translation facilities, realistic avatar representation and enhanced interactivity of avatars; Evaluating the prototype within different learning contexts; Researching results on social learning processes within virtual environments.

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The project will draw upon the expertise of several institutions, including commercial companies, cognitive and humanistic and technological research centres.

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The project is structured according to a typical software development project, including three iterative cycles within its development process. The project adopts a rapid prototype development scheme, starting with a visual prototype with no functionality to allow early user feedback. The development work is based on cognitive and pedagogical research regarding collaborative learning experiences and the user’s response in virtual learning environments. Intelligent agents, avatar representation and functionality, audio/visual components as well as real-time translation facilities will be developed. The evaluation system will be the base for end-user evaluations, using INVITE in real learning situations.

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Structuring the collaborative learning experience

Project No: IST-1999-11722 Duration: 33 months Economic Sector: Multinational Companies Action Line: Advanced Training Systems Full Title: Intelligent Distributed Virtual Training Environment

Wider benefits for all INVITE is expected to have wider benefits, contributing to the development of a user-friendly Information Society. It will do so by:

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enhancing the use collaborative learning environments, based on a careful analysis of cognitive and social factors influencing the virtual learning process; developing a platform for synchronised telelearning supporting these cognitive and social factors.

The result of the project will be the development of a multicultural and multilingual Information Society, creating a collaborative learning platform to be interfaced with standardised content and instructional management systems, while supporting the learning experience at an individual level.

Project Type: Shared Cost RTD Start Date: 01/02/2000 End Date: 01/11/2002 Project Objectives: Developing a collaborative learning environment for distance education via distributed and shared virtual environments Target Audience: Companies involved in training and communication, co-operating from different locations Keywords: Synchronous telelearning, social learning, IST research, training platform, avatars, 3D worlds, speech translation

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Technology: 3D worlds, avatars, speech translation

Project Co-ordinator Prof. Anni Koubek TECHNIKUM JOANNEUM GmbH Centre for Multimedia and Learning Alte Poststrasse 149 A-8020 Graz Tel: +43-316-54538412 Fax: +43-316-54538432 E-mail: [email protected] URL: http://invite.fh-joanneum.at Project Participants TECHNIKUM JOANNEUM GmbH (AT) Ars Electronica Center Linz (AT) Ben Gurion University of Negev (IL) Blaxxun interactive AG (DE) Brunel University (UK) Computer Technology Institute (GR) University of Stuttgart (DE) Linguatec GmbH (DE) Systema Informatics Ltd (GR) AvatarMe Ltd (UK)

KITS Knowledge management Interactive Training System

The learning game The KITS project will develop and evaluate a learning environment that comprises an educationally supported distributed game in the domain of knowledge management. This environment is constructivist since learners are in charge and have to deduce the knowledge management rules from the game; it is situated because the circumstances presented in the game are realistic and placed in the practical context of the participants, and it is collaborative since the players need to communicate to gain optimal results. The overall objective of the KITS project is to develop a training system for active, engaged, situated, and collaborative learning in ill-defined domains. This is operationalised by developing a distributed learning environment for the domain of knowledge management.

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In order to achieve this objective, the project will develop and implement: a model for game-based training that includes requirements for instructional interventions, mechanisms for remote playing with the game, a knowledge management model, a knowledge management relevant business model, and a mechanism for adjusting part of the knowledge management relevant business model to organisation-specific aspects (cases).

Project No: IST-1999-13078 Duration: 30 months Economic Sector: Knowledge Management Training Action Line: Advanced Training Systems Full Title: Knowledge management Interactive Training System

Understanding user needs The project follows a traditional waterfall lifecycle with one iteration. First, based on user requirements and a literature study, specifications for the learning environment and the underlying models are specified. When implemented in the first prototype, the game will first be played with by users who are actively involved in the project. Then the game will be played by users outside the consortium who are subcontracted for playing once and will be selected according to organisational and culturally relevant variables. The feedback received will be incorporated in a final version of the learning environment. In parallel, investigation and implementation of metaphors for visualising the models and game results will be carried out and implemented. Attention is also paid to promoting the awareness of the KITS interactive learning environment across Europe and the preparation of post-project exploitation plans.

Project Type: Education and Training Research Start Date: 01/05/2000 End Date: 30/11/2002 Project Objectives: The KITS project has two starting points. First, the project builds on developments in learning and instruction that are enabled by new technologies and that includes constructivism, situationism, and collaborative learning. Second, the project sees a need for better training of people in knowledge management which is accompanied by a need for more detailed knowledge management models Target Audience: Knowledge managers in SME’s and large companies Keywords: Constructivism, situationism, collaborative learning, simulation, gaming, knowledge management, ill-defined problems

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Technology: Web-based collaborative technologies. Dynamic generated Web-based instruction. Use will potentially be made of the Java platfrom, Enterprise Java Beans and XML

Project Co-ordinator Prof. Ton de Jong University of Twente Faculty of Educational Science and Technology PO Box 513 NL-7500 AE Enschede Tel: +31-53-4893613 Fax: +31-53-4892849 E-mail: [email protected] URL: http://kits.edte.utwente.nl/ Project Participants Universiteit Twente (NL) TECNOPOLIS CSATA Novus Ortus S.c.r.l. (IT) Aeronautic Defense & Space Company EADS (FR) Universiteit van Amsterdam (NL) Cibit BV (NL) European Consortium for the Learning Organisation (BE)

MOPLE Development of Modular Open Platform and Tools for Personalised Learning in Computational Engineering Methods Educating engineers The main objective of this project is to develop an innovative integrated, open learning platform (the MOPLE framework) based on state-of-the-art Internet, and multimedia technology, and to implement, validate, and disseminate a computational engineering learning application (a MOPLE application) based on the MOPLE framework, sophisticated engineering simulation programmes, available educational software, and components which will be developed during this project. The project will also investigate the effectiveness of different pedagogical approaches to computer-aided distance learning, using a computational engineering MOPLE application as an investigative tool.

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The MOPLE application developed in the project will strongly influence the actual methodology for personalised education of engineers in topics related to computer-aided engineering. Typically, engineers will be able to combine traditional teaching procedures (such as courses and seminars) with intensive follow-up self-training sessions at work or home using the didactic tools developed in the project. The integration of educational software, multimedia, virtual reality and the Internet will help to create an open collaborative learning environment in which students will be personally engaged in the process of building and testing or applying their own invented models of the engineering system under consideration.

Project No: IST-1999-13460 Duration: 24 months Economic Sector: Information Technology, eWork Action Line: Advanced Training Systems Full Title: Development of Modular Open Platform and Tools for Personalised Learning in Computational Engineering Methods

The MOPLE framework The MOPLE framework will, as a minimum requirement, be able to deal with the classic tutelage triangle Theory-Example-Exercise, but will also provide authoring facilities for more advanced training material such as interactive tutorials. Furthermore, the framework will for instance enable the project to implement more complicated feedback patterns, or provide us with virtual classrooms where multiple people - students and/or tutors - can interact on a real-time basis. The terminology already suggests that the Internet will play a central part in our approach, and indeed, without the World Wide Web technology, such a project would be severely constrained, if not rendered purposeless.

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The scope of the project will allow us to develop the fully adaptive and reusable MOPLE framework, and a first prototype of a MOPLE application geared towards the educational needs of engineers, both from industry and academia, in the area of computational structural mechanics, fluid dynamics, geomechanics, and specific manufacturing areas such as metal sheet forming. By adaptive we mean that the application, by means of the tools provided in the MOPLE framework, can be adapted to the personal needs of the individual student. In fact, knowledge-based rules will allow the application to some extent adapt itself to the needs of the individual students. By re-usable, we mean that the MOPLE framework can be used as a delivery mechanism for a wide variety of educational topics.

Project Type: Education and Training Research Start Date: 01/04/2000 End Date: 31/03/2002 Project objectives: Integrated, open learning platform based on Internet technology Target audience: Industry (foremost), educational institutions, engineers in industry, university students Keywords: distance learning, open system, training authoring Technology: Computational engineering methods

Project Co-ordinator Prof. Eugenio Onate Dipl.-Ing. Gilbert Peffer INTERNATIONAL CENTRE FOR NUMERICAL METHODS IN ENGINEERING Gran Capitan, s/n Edificio C-1, Campus Norte UPC E-08034 Barcelona Tel: +34-93-4016038 Fax: +34-93-4016517 E-mail: [email protected] URL: http://www.cimne.upc.es/projects/mople http://mople.cimne.upc.es Project Participants INTERNATIONAL CENTRE FOR NUMERICAL METHODS IN ENGINEERING (ES) QUANTECH ATZ SA (ES) Rockfield Software Ltd. (UK) NAFEMS (UK) University of Padova (IT) Engine Soft Trading (IT) ISD (Institute for Statics and Dynamics of Space Structures) RUS (Regional Computing Centre University of Stuttgart) (DE)

TELENET TELEtraining Platform

Telematics and training TELENET aims to develop and validate a modular and interoperable teletraining platform that will address the needs of training centres, of users and of instigators (e.g. local, regional authorities) of training programmes. TELENET will provide a solution enabling training service providers to create training offers (or to adapt existing ones) to the changing environment created by the Information Society, which means in particular to take into account the potential of the Internet and related standards, and to implement electronic commerce concepts in training service market sectors. TELENET will develop a teletraining platform creating a trusted environment meeting these needs. Two market segments will be investigated: Vocational Education and Training oriented to the public and the corporate training focused on company internal needs for staff training.

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identify the requirements of training centres, users (trainees, trainers, administrators) and instigators in a secure, user-friendly and interoperable teletraining platform; develop a distributed infrastructure based on a local modular platform in each training centre - this will consist of three desktops: for the trainee, the trainer and the administrator; the integration of these desktops will enable the teacher to personalise the learning path for the trainees depending on the training objectives, pace and results of each person; develop a trusted environment based on smartcard technology and a central services platform to provide, in particular, management of user authentication, of e-payment, of IPR of course material, of privacy and users’ rights. A certification feature will also be provided to certify that exchanges between teachers and learners really take place. This will allow the training centres to validate their training programmes for their instigators; develop the platform by the integration of existing technology, by taking into account established and emerging standards; validate the Specific Services for Training Centres and the Common Network Services in field tests carried out by professional users in Italy and Poland, representing the two most promising market segments for TELENET: Vocational Education and Training and corporate training; prepare a technical implementation plan in order to start the economic expansion of the platform and achieve the critical mass needed for a wide deployment.

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In order to achieve the project objectives TELENET will:

Project No: IST-1999-10459 Duration: 30 months Economic Sector: Educational Media for Vocational Education and Training Action Line: Advanced Training Systems Full Title: TELEtraining Platform Project Type: Education and Training Research

Secure and interoperable TELENET aims to develop and validate a secure, user-friendly and interoperable teletraining platform addressing the needs of training centres, users and instigators of training programmes. TELENET will provide a solution for training centres to create teletraining offers adapted to the changing environment of the Information Society, taking into account the potential of the Internet and related standards and implementing e-commerce concepts in training market sectors. TELENET will rely on smartcards-based state-of-the-art security technology to implement conditional access, IPR management of multimedia course material, generation of proofs, privacy and electronic payment. Industrial companies, specialists in security technology and teletraining solutions, experts in ergonomics and two training centres as users (a large corporate training service and a public training service operator) will ensure market-oriented project results.

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The electronic delivery chain will be based on a public key infrastructure. TELENET solutions will give organisations the power and security necessary to deliver quality online education to trainees in the most cost-effective manner, taking into account needs for mobility and course assessment.

Start Date: 06/03/2000 End Date: 30/08/2002 Project Objectives: TELENET aims to develop and validate a modular and interoperable teletraining platform that will address the needs of training centres, of users and of instigators (e.g. local, regional authorities) of training programmes Target Audience: Corporate training centres, content providers Keywords: Distant training, Internet security, smartcard, certificates Technology: Web design tools, database management, PKI technology (Public Key Infrastructure), smartcards

Project Co-ordinator Lydia Montandon SEMA (ES) Albarracín 25 E-28037 Madrid Tel: +34-91-440-8800 Fax: +34-91-754-3252 E-mail: [email protected] URL: http://www.telenet-platform.com Project Participants: GEMPLUS S.C.A. (FR) Centro Studi E Laboratori Telecomunicazioni S.p.A (IT) ENEL (IT) Osrodek Informatyki - Terenowy Bank Danych Pomorskiego Urzedu Wojewodzkiego w Gdansku (PL) SEMA Group (ES)

VIDL Virtual Intelligent Distance Learning

High quality virtual training for SMEs The VIDL product provides unique on-the-job training. This solution includes an artificial intelligent model that simulates the behaviour of a human trainer and thus adapts to each trainee and adjusts according to the level and progress of the trainees. It is probably as close as possible to a human teacher as any other product that exists on the market today. Hence, this project involves the trial of an online training product that simulates a human teacher. It is probably best suited for, and especially appealing to, SMEs as it offers high quality individual training, which can be out of reach for SMEs as they may not have a training organisation or infrastructure.

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The approach is implemented in TrainVision’s technology-based product. A detailed list of indicators is collected and set in the final list of trainees, i.e. SME employees that take part in the project, and the product is installed on the two user premises: People & Computers (a computer journals publisher) and Israel Discount Bank (a bank).

Project No: IST-2000-29390 Duration: 13 months Economic Sector: Training; HR development Action Line: Trials and best practice addressing advanced solutions for on-the-job training in SMEs Full Title: Virtual Intelligent Distance Learning Project Type: Education and Training Research

During the use of the product, the trainees report any technical issues discovered which are discussed and reviewed throughout the length of the project in weekly reports and meetings. The trainees also comment on the effectiveness and acceptance indicators are collected and integrated into a monthly report, where the overall performance of the product is reflected. Decisions on product changes are taken and carried out quarterly following the reports. The evaluation includes the impact of the product according to various criteria:

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business results; training efficiency; human resources aspects, such as turnover; end-user satisfaction.

Start Date: 01/11/2001 End Date: 30/11/2002 Project Objectives: Evaluation of a low cost, high quality, and completely innovative, artificial intelligence based approach to on-the-job e-training that adjusts to the level and the progress of the trainee Target Audience: SMEs Keywords: Artificial intelligence, model, online adjusted training, virtual teacher, distance learning, SMEs

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Technology: Multimedia, database technologies, graphical user interface, Internet, CBT

Project Co-ordinator Zohar Segal Train Vision Intelligent Education P.O. Box 1116 Ramat Yishai 30095, Israel Tel: +972-4-9930484 Fax: +972-4-9930614 E-mail: [email protected] Project Participants Train Vision Intelligent Education (IL) People & Computers Israel Discount Bank (IL)

VIRTEPPE Virtual Training in Environmental Protection for Printers in Europe

The VirTEPPE classroom VirTEPPE will carry out research into and develop an integrated learningteaching delivery channel that integrates satellite, ISDN-DSL lines and the Internet. These technologies will be combined into a single virtual classroom, knowledge acquisition and interactive learning system accessible through an easily used PC user multimedia and firmware interface. It will provide European print industry SME workers with access direct from their own PCs through a single interface that provides:

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the teaching of environmental management topics via satellite broadcast and ISDN-ADSL-based interactive remote teaching methods; an environmental management interactive learning programme; a dedicated multilingual environmental website; a knowledge acquisition system that accesses various environmental information sources; the provision of an e-commerce system for the payment of or access to the on-demand services and information.

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After research and development, VirTEPPE will be promoted both through the European Print Federation(s), enabling European print industry SME’s to benefit from the environmental teaching-learning, and to other industries as an advanced environmental and vocational training model, methodology and system.

Project No: IST-1999-10953 Duration: 24 months Economic Sector: European Print Industry Action Line: Advanced Training Systems Full Title: Virtual Training in Environmental Protection for Printers in Europe

Benefits of VirTEPPE The citizen benefits of the scheme will be reduced pollution from the print industries, while the consequent reduction in industrial and motor vehicle pollution along with the development of virtual training and universities will contribute to EU policies.

Project Type: Education and Training Research Start Date: 01/02/2000 End Date: 31/01/2002 Project Objectives: VirTEPPE has 5 primary objectives - research into and development of: 1. Virtual classroom created at the Print Workers own PC desktop that combines satellite broadcast interactive teaching and teaching through remote interactive classrooms based on ISDN-DSL landlines. 2. Interactive learning and knowledge acquisition programme that accesses a dedicated, multilingual environmental management website developed by the project. 3. Content rich interactive learning and knowledge acquisition programme that will provide European print workers with the ability to learn environmental best practice directly from their own PC. 4. Integrated “package” that can be rolled out to all print workers through the European Print Federation. 5. Continuous improvement system through regular testing with a number of print workers. Target Audience: European print workers and managers

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Keywords: SME workers, printers, vocational distance teaching, remote learning, learners, satellite, terrestrial DSL, pedagogy, models, best practice Technology: Satellite, ISDN-DSL lines, internet Project Co-ordinator Mr John Everett PSYLON LTD East Linton, Keycol Hill Newington, Kent ME9 8NA United Kingdom Tel: +44-1795-842334 Fax: +44-1795-842524 E-mail: [email protected] Participants Psylon Ltd (UK) Business Eco Network (UK) Ecole Nouvelle d’Ingenieurs en Communication (FR) University of Plymouth (UK) University of Malaga (ES) BPIF - British Printing Industries Federation (UK) GA - Graphic Association of Denmark (DK) Valor & Tinge (DK)

EDCOMNET Educational Communal Net

A virtual learning community platform Nowadays, lifelong learning is increasingly important in enhancing the integration of citizens into society. EDCOMNET is an educational communal net, a virtual learning community platform for adult citizens. The primary objective of the project is the development and implementation of the virtual platform for communal learning and communication, which is based on guidelines stemming from the integration of two categories of theories:

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Autonomy oriented education and the methodology of autonomy oriented tutoring stemming from it Theories about self-organising social groups

The net acts as a portal stimulating the active learning of social skills, thus enhancing the social integration of individuals within urban communities. This will empower the individual citizens to be a self-reliant part of society, fostering creativity and autonomous opinion forming, as well as decision making.

The next generation education and lifelong learning EDCOMNET focuses on three aspects of lifelong learning:

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The implementation of this virtual platform for lifelong learning, using ideas from humanistic empowerment theory, autonomy oriented tutoring and the newest vocational training practices, allows an insight into new forms of organisation in which the citizen is more autonomous and creative, as well as more active in taking part in social activities. This underlying research and technological development project also enables new models and concepts specific for citizens for lifelong learning and the next generation education to be tested and a knowledge management system relying on virtual ways of knowledge acquisition to be developed. This platform for lifelong learning is active, developed as part of a novel multi-agent infrastructure and using the newest products in multimedia communication, which results in a set of tools that enables information retrieval to be integrated to the user’s needs and will support learners through mediating processes.

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Vocational training Family life Functioning of the individual citizen in the communal society

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Project No: IST-2000-26037 Duration: 36 months Economic Sector: Lifelong learning and training Action Line: Learning Citizen Full Title: Educational Communal Net Project Type: Education and Training Research

Implementation throughout Europe The EDCOMNET system is a network-based information system implemented on a number of local servers throughout EU Member States. The different servers communicate through the Internet but operate in the local language and are embedded in the regional cultural context. The novel multi-agent infrastructure developed enables users to retrieve relevant information to the needs of the average citizen. The EDCOMNET activities are spread throughout Europe and in time will be set up in associated countries. Therefore, focusing on three aspects of lifelong learning, EDCOMNET contributes to the Community’s social objectives on three levels:

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Dissemination of humanistic, democratic values in Europe Assisting the integration of the European citizen into society Enabling pan-European and intercultural exchanges

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The project develops an active virtual platform, using humanistic and democratic values, for education of citizens in urban communities, enabling them to take part in lifelong learning activities that enhance their autonomous functioning and integration into a European society.

Start Date: 01/12/2001 End Date: 30/11/2004 Project Objectives: EDCOMNET looks to develop a virtual learning community Web portal for adult citizens and focuses on lifelong learning. The ultimate objective of the project is to design, develop and implement a virtual platform for communal learning and communication in a community. This virtual platform is based on guidelines stemming from the integration of two categories of theories: autonomy oriented education, and the methodology of autonomy oriented tutoring stemming from it, and theories about self-organising social groups Target Audience: Individuals and Communities Keywords: Autonomy, Democracy, Sustainable lifelong learning Technology: Portal

Project Co-ordinator Dr Aharon Aviram Ben-Gurion University The Center for Futurism in Education (CFE) Israel Tel: +972-8-6461887 Fax: +972-8-6461721 E-mail: [email protected] Project Participants Ben Gurion University- Center for Furturism in Education (CFE) and, as a major subcontractor to CFE: ETE (Empowerment Through Electronics) Ltd. (IL) Groupo CEAC S.A. (ES) INSEAD/CALT (European Institute of Business Administration/ Centre for Advanced Learning Technology) (FR) CTI (The Computer Technology Institute) (GR) Ferrini Valle & Associates (IT)

FELLOWS Facilitating and Enhancing access to Life-long Learning Solutions for a Wide variety of Social categories Promoting distance learning There are a number of groups of people who cannot take full advantage of education and training provision as a result of their personal circumstances. The FELLOWS project aims to develop and test out distance learning services for such hard-to-reach groups. The project will be implemented through a user-friendly ODL training service, tailored to the needs of trainers and learners alike. Specific objectives of the project include:

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developing an ODL training service centred around its users (trainers and learners); training those “hard to reach” groups; providing technical knowledge transfer to the trainers to make sure they feel some ownership of the ODL environment and system; creation of an environment that facilitates European-wide co-operation and sharing of resources by trainers and training institutes; development of the required ODL infrastructure from common Internet standards to ensure general compatibility and easy access from any terminal.

Getting the project under way Implementation of the project can be separated out into 4 main activities: Specification and development of the ODL infrastructure accessible from any terminal, through the exploitation of XML and artificial intelligence techniques, and allowing:

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the monitoring of the trainees’ work and tracking of their progress communication between trainees and trainers course design by the trainers through user friendly authoring facilities. Specification and design of HCI (Human Computer Interfaces) adapted to the FELLOWS target groups (trainers and trainees);

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Project No: IST-2000-26247 Duration: 30 months Economic Sector: Vocational training Action Line: The Learning Citizen Full Title: Facilitating and Enhancing access to Lifelong Learning sOlutions for a Wide variety of Social categories

Training the trainers and course design:

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Training the trainers to use the ODL platform and to design training course material for the FELLOWS environment Selection and development of the training courses and suitable educational approaches to be used in the pilot for the target groups, ensuring these are transferable to other user groups and countries

Evaluation in a Pilot environment Set-up of a pilot to try out the FELLOWS ODL environment:

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with 4 different socially fragile target groups: women at home, young people in dual training system who are on the verge of dropping out, unemployed young people (incl. immigrants), semi-literate people, in 4 different countries: France, Germany, Austria and the UK.

End Date: 30/09/2003 Project Objectives: To develop and validate new distance learning services for user groups who do not have easy access to education and training Target Audience: Groups of people with no easy access to training Keywords: Learners outside formal education, ODL platform, accessibility from various terminals, HCI, XML Technology: Internet, XML, Multi Agent System

Evaluation will be a key part of the pilot process and technical as well as pedagogical aspects will be assessed to measure the impact of FELLOWS learning services on trainees and trainers. These 4 activities will not be carried out in a linear way, but with an iterative approach to provide feedback from users to the technology provider on an ongoing basis : trainers and trainees, will play a major role in this process to ensure they feel full ownership of the new learning environment.

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Guidelines will be developed to ensure further deployment of the project results in the future.

Project Co-ordinator Tracey Hipperson College of West Anglia Tennyson Avenue Kings Lynn PE30 2QW Norfolk United Kingdom Tel: +44-1553-761144 Fax: +44-1553-766961 E-mail: [email protected] Project Participants College of West Anglia (UK) La Ligue Française de l’Enseignement et de l’Education Permanente (FR) Internationaler Bund (IB) Bildungszentrum Stuttgart (DE) Berufsfoerderunginstitut Oberoesterreich (BFI) (AT) University of Leeds (UK) @rc-en-web (FR) ITTI (PL)

HERO Health Promotion and Educational Support for the Rehabilitation of Offenders Promoting the rehabilitation of offenders Prisons are a challenging test for IST, for reasons such as access, data protection, social isolation and poor motivation. HERO will attempt to promote the rehabilitation of offenders through the use of IST applications to provide health promotion and learning services. The project is aimed at the rehabilitation of “first offenders” between 18 and 25 years old (typically awaiting sentence or “on remand”) and prisoners due for release. The services aim to prepare ground for the rehabilitation of offenders by creating a “learning environment” within which (a) first offenders can be empowered to more productively manage their health and educational needs “on the inside” and (b) prisoners due for release can make more strategic preparations for life “on the outside”. Moreover, a key objective of the project is to help towards the promotion of a common content framework for health promotion and learning within rehabilitation programmes for Member States.

The main aims of the project are:

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The development and delivery of an integrated package of personal health systems, focusing on depression, drugs harm minimisation and risk reduction behaviour support for HIV/STD; The development of customised learning programmes for offenders, using scaffolded pedagogic models and multimedia authoring applications; Skills auditing and skills assessment tools, which will interface user skills profiles with online “job opportunities” websites and “back to work” initiatives. The creation of the Interactive Content Repository - an evolving knowledge base of core information resources - which will provide a “knowledge bank” for health promotion modules and other training courses. The ICR will be supported by data management and data mining tools to ensure the services are tailored to user needs, and to ensure integrity and data security.

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Project No: IST-2000-26274 Duration: 30 months Economic Sector: Education and training Action Line: Learning Citizen Full Title: Health Promotion and Educational Support for the Rehabilitation of Offenders Project Type: Education and Training Research

The services will be delivered in an innovative way through interactive user monitoring and virtual case conferencing tools to facilitate decision support for users, and collaborative working between users and professionals. They will be delivered primarily through the Internet but, if problems develop, other delivery approaches (involving DTV and hybrid platforms) will be developed. HERO will be piloted in eight sites in the UK, Greece, Italy and Germany. The pilot sites represent a range of correctional environments and rehabilitation approaches within the European criminal justice system.

Start Date: 01/04/2001 End Date: 31/10/2003 Project Objectives: To develop, demonstrate and evaluate IST applications and services to promote the rehabilitation of offenders. The project involves targeting “first offenders” and prisoners due for release with learning and health promotion services Target Audience: Prison and rehabilitation services Keywords: Prisons; rehabilitation; lifelong learning; health promotion

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Technology: HERO integrates standard client-server technology to facilitate the ‘co-production of knowledge’ that will enable health promotion and learning services to be tailored to the needs of individual prisoners within a particular rehabilitation context. The technology platform centres on an evolving distributed knowledge base or ‘repository’ (ICR) of resources that will provide the building blocks for content development and service delivery for HERO

Project Co-ordinator Dr Joe Cullen Tavistock Institute Scientific Affairs United Kingdom Tel: +44-207-4573940 Fax: +44-207-4170567 E-mail: [email protected] Project Participants Tavistock Institute (UK) Oxford Computer Consultants (UK) MWA Consulting (UK) National School of Public Health (GR) SCIENTER (IT) FIM Psychologie, Friedrich-Alexander-Universitat Erlangen-Nurnberg (DE) Departimento Scienze Dell’Educazione, University of Bologna (IT) Therapy Centre for Dependant Individuals (GR) UPM, Universidad Politechnica de Madrid (ES)

HOPE Distant Learning Brokerage Environment for Lifelong Training of Individuals with Emphasis in Socially Excluded Communities Promoting social inclusion through learning European Union policy sees the objectives of learning as social integration, the enhancement of employability and personal fulfilment. The HOPE project aims to contribute to these objectives and to the economic development of the community and the strengthening of its social fabric by providing services for enhancing and facilitating lifelong distant learning for socially excluded individuals. By providing these individuals with access to learning, HOPE aims to improve their qualifications and employment prospects, thereby improving their quality of life. It will not only facilitate their educational rehabilitation but also develop the necessary skills for an equal participation in Europe’s labour force.

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The HOPE project attempts to promote the inclusion of these socially disadvantaged individuals, in particular young offenders, through the creation of interactive training packages. The training packages will be designed so that they can be easily adapted to the targeted learning group or individual learning needs. The training programme will involve a high level of interaction and feedback between the learner and provider in order that training material can be modified and enhanced in connection with the learning goals and progress of the learner. Similarly, interactive training sessions will incorporate highly sophisticated methods of self-assessment and progress evaluation. These consist of experiments, exercises, electronic questionnaires and interactive video. The training packages themselves will be delivered using various presentation modules, for example text, interactive video and virtual reality environment.

Project No: IST-2000-26271 Duration: 30 months Economic Sector: Education and Training Sector Action Line: Learning Citizen Full Title: Distant Learning Brokerage Environment for Lifelong Training of Individuals with Emphasis in Socially Excluded Communities Project Type: Education and Training Research

Delivering the project Demonstration and verification of the results of the project will be carried out through two national pilot projects in Greece and Spain. During the pilots, the project will be tested using real data and real users (groups of young offenders). The impact of the programme on the users’ behaviour and attitudes will be studied by a team of specialised psychologists. Until then, trials of the technology to be used will be carried out through laboratory simulation models. Findings from the pilots and trials will contribute to the enhancement of the training packages ready for final implementation in the future.

Start Date: 01/03/2001 End Date: 30/09/2003 Project objectives: The creation of an interactive training package for socially excluded individuals, which can be tailored to the individual’s profile and needs Target audience: State prisons, orphan & drug addict institutes, educational organisations, government bodies, broadcasters, cybermediaries, etc., that wish to offer specialised training to their social groups or target markets Keywords: Training; Information/studies/analyses; Special education; New competences; Education and Training Market; Standardisation; Virtual Reality; Metadata; Interoperability; 3D eLearning Community; Open Source; Open Platform & Tools; Authoring Tools; Personalised Learning; Learning Technology Standardisation; Re-use; Learning Objects

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Technology: HOPE will integrate various alternative presentation modules (e.g. text, interactive video, virtual reality environment, etc.). The multi-layer architecture will be open to continuously enrich its content and services. It comprises presentation modules, functional components and multimedia data models (e.g. MPEG4, WRL, QML & databases) for meta modelling and representation of the training material. An intelligent agent for the dynamic updating of course contents will be in the system architecture. The agent will be constantly activated and its functionality will be based on newly acquired content with existing courses. Each course will be characterised by parameters and values. Intelligent functional components will support the group evaluation and selfassessment services

Project Co-ordinator Jose Estévez García SchlumbergerSema Madrid, Spain Tel: +34-94408835 Fax: +34-917543252 E-mail: [email protected] URL: http://www.hope-project.org Project Participants SchlumbergerSema (ES) Pouliadis (GR) University of Athens (GR) ARSIS (GR) ALPAO (ES) TEI (GR) UnAngel (ES)

LCCN Learning Citizen Cluster Node

Supporting lifelong learning Within the IST programme, the “Learning Citizen” action line investigates the role of new ICT-based approaches in facilitating lifelong learning for individuals. The LCCN project supports lifelong learning and the development of social skills for all citizens, the rehabilitation of offenders, the integration of socially excluded members of society, and new methods of teaching including for citizens with special learning needs. The project aims to raise awareness of potential adopters of the technology developed, to bridge the gap between technology suppliers and users, and to exploit synergies between activities within the cluster to disseminate knowledge and results from the IST programme at all levels particularly for the LC projects. It also promotes collaboration and information flow amongst the projects and contributes to the raising of the quality of the projects’ work and outputs

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The co-ordination work carried out by LCCN develops a synergy amongst the projects and allows them to make full use of commonalities by performing an audit of the “technological capital” the projects are developing, how they relate to each other and how they will relate to the final users. It also undertakes a global analysis of user requirements from the technologies and solutions provided by the development of each project.

Project No: IST-2001-33539 Duration: 38 months Economic Sector: Education and Training Action Line: Learning Citizen Full Title: Learning Citizen Cluster Node Project Type: Accompanying Measure

Dissemination and Exploitation The dissemination and exploitation activities communicate the results of the LCCN network externally to obtain an adequate and professional level of visibility and influence. The dissemination plan will be carried out at two levels:

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This plan will be established at the end of the first trimester of the project and continually revised.

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The development of best practice targets falls also within the LCCN initiative objectives. LCCN identifies and promotes cross utilisation of technology blocks from the diverse developments by the projects of the cluster and inputs external knowledge through market, business, and technology watches and workshops from selected themes in the learning domain.

Start Date: 01/12/2001 End Date: 31/01/2005 Project Objectives: The Learning Citizen Cluster Node accompanying measure gives support to coordinate the dissemination of knowledge and results of LC projects, promote co-operation amongst projects, improve validation activities, and contribute to raising the quality of the work Target Audience: Citizens involved in life long learning Keywords: Life long learning, social skills, social inclusion, coordination, dissemination of results and knowledge, collaboration, best practice Technology: Internet

Project Co-ordinator Carlos Triay ARTTIC 58 A rue du Dessous des Berges F-75013 Paris Tel: +33-1-53945460 Fax: +33-1-53945470 E-mail: [email protected] URL: http://www.arttic.fr Project Participants ARTTIC (FR) ARTTIC Brussels (BE) e-mediate Limited (UK), (DE), (FR)

METACAMPUS MetaCampus for Life-Long Learning

Providing a market for life-long learning needs The MetaCampus project aims to reconcile the increasing learning needs of society with the emergence of new e-learning services. The MetaCampus project aims to fulfil the life-long learning needs of European citizens and provide them with flexible access to services for their own personal development. This will involve designing and testing a digital marketplace for the selection, purchase and delivery of those resources best fitting the customers’ life-long learning needs, preferences and profile.

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Specification and design stage: This will be carried out by a set of representative learning resource providers (e.g. online educative service providers, editors, cultural agents and broadcasters) with the close support of the technical partners responsible for the implementation and integration of the MetaCampus components later in the project. They will aim to gather the business models and infrastructures of the participating content providers and specify and design the MetaCampus guidelines and MetaCampus marketplace. Refinement and implementation of guidelines: This will be done as part of a number of different thematic work packages. One will be concerned with cataloguing customers and training offers. The user catalogue will contain information relating to a user’s preferences, gathering a history and profile in order to be able to personalise the offers. Another work package will implement the Training Consultant, which will guide the customers in the search of the learning resources best fitting their needs. A third work package will provide financial operations and will be guaranteed by a savings bank. A final work package will develop protocols to interoperate resources from different providers and different formats, in order to create new added value learning resources. Dissemination and Commercial Exploitation: This stage will aim to promote sustainability of the marketplace. Resulting guidelines, software architecture and components will be submitted to the main standardisation bodies and working groups for their dissemination, discussion and universal deployment.

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Project No: IST-2000-26314 Duration: 30 months Economic Sector: Education and Training Action Line: The Learning Citizen Full Title: MetaCampus for Life-Long Learning Project Type: Education and Training Research

Results of the project The key results are:

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MetaCampus software platform: the software platform for managing e-learning marketplaces as the means for storing and delivering digital resources for learning. It will be based in four basic components: The User Catalogue, the end-user relationship management tool that will help track personal interests, history and profile. The Learning Resources Catalogue, the store tool of learning resources. The Training Consultant, the intelligent agent that helps match the learning interests of individuals with learning resources. The E-payment module, the module that will compute the cost of the service for end-users and the revenues for the learning resource providers based on clearing IPR based on their content. MetaCampus Guidelines provides the description, technical specification and IPR conditions about how to publish learning resources in the MetaCampus marketplace.

Start Date: 01/04/2001 End Date: 30/09/2003 Project Objectives: Developing and testing a marketplace aimed at fulfilling the life-long learning needs of European citizens, providing them with a flexible access to personal development Target Audience: Learning citizens. Keywords: Life-long learning, educational marketplace, training consultant, interoperability Technology: Object oriented, UML, Java, XML, intelligent agents

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Marketplace website: the final prototype used for validation and demonstration will be left active for further dissemination and business opportunity assessment.

Project Co-ordinator Antoni Riu Universitat Oberta de Catalunya Spain Tel: +34-93-2532400 Fax: +34-93-4539484 E-mail: [email protected] Project Participants Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (ES) SchlumbergerSema Group SAE (ES) France Telecom R&D, (FR) Caixa d’Estalvis i Pensions de Barcelona (ES) Scienter (IT) Lambrakis Research Foundation (GR) University of Cologne (DE) Gestión del Conocimiento, SA (ES) TVC Multimedia SL, (ES) Ernst Klett Verlag GMBH (DE) Comune di Bologna (IT) Cultural Heritage On Line (FR)

m-learning Mobile Communications Technologies for Young Adults Learning and Skills Development Attracting young adults to learning m-learning is motivated by concerns about three social/educational problems relating to many young adults in the EU:

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poor literacy/numeracy; non-participation in conventional education/training programmes; lack of access to ICT (Information and Communication Technology) creating a “digital divide”, resulting from inequality of opportunity in deprived areas.

The project aims to attract young adults to learning and help them to develop lifelong learning objectives. The m-learning project is developing prototype products that provide information and learning experiences for young EU adults. The design aim for the learning experiences, and the interfaces between user and technology, is to encourage independent exploration of the possibilities and resources offered by m-learning, to empower learners and to make learning fun.

Product development informed by research Prototype products being developed by m-learning include small modules of learning and learning games, imaginative interfaces between the technology and the user, e.g. microportals and voice-technology facilities, and an intelligent tutor system guide.

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m-learning product development is informed by research activities throughout the project including on-going review of current and emerging technologies and standards. A literature review seeks out relevant work by other projects and lessons which can be learned from this. Research investigating the motivation, preferences and behaviour of young adults currently using mobile phones and handheld electronic games will assist in the design of products likely to be attractive to these young people. The potential of m-learning for individuals with sensory impairments will also be considered and a close watch will be kept on research into possible health hazards of excessive use of mobile phones.

Project No: IST-2000-25270 Duration: 36 months Economic Sector: Education Action Line: Learning Citizen Full Title: Mobile Communications Technologies for Young Adults Learning and Skills Development

Developing skills and encouraging further learning The primary target of m-learning is young adults who are not taking part in education or training, or are mobile, casual, temporary or self-employed, or in low income/skill employment with literacy/numeracy development needs. The learning will involve a series of very small, quick learning experiences designed to help development of literacy and numeracy skills. Users who enjoy the learning experiences will be invited to log on at an Internet café or local on-line learning centre to take part in more substantial learning experiences. In the future access to these further experiences may be via digital television.

Project Type: Education and Training Research Start Date: 01/10/2001 End Date: 30/09/2004 Project Objectives: The motivation for the m-learning project is concern about high levels of poor literacy, poor numeracy and non-participation in education amongst young adults in many EU countries. The project seeks to use young people’s interest in, excitement about and ownership of mobile phones as a vehicle for delivering messages about learning and involving young adults in mobile learning experiences Target Audience: Young adults (16-24) not involved in education or training Keywords: mobile learning, young adults, e-learning

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Technology: mobile phones, palmtop computers and other mobile communications devices

Project Co-ordinator Jill Attewell The Learning and Skills Development Agency Citadel Place Tinworth Street, Vauxhall London SE11 5EH United Kingdom Tel: +44-207-8405393 Fax: +44-207-8405401 E-mail: [email protected] URL: http://www.ultralab.ac.uk/projects/mlearning/home.shtml Project Participants The Learning and Skills Development Agency (UK) CRMPA (IT) CTAD (UK) Lecando (SE) Ultralab, Anglia Polytechnic University (UK)

NEMO Non-Excluding Models for Webbased Education

Tackling social exclusion The NEMO project aims to promote the social inclusion of certain groups, namely the deaf, mentally disabled and elderly people through the provision of Web-based resources for education and learning. It aims to promote, among these particular groups, self-confidence, social inclusion, better social skills and the exchange of experiences among members of the groups. The project aims to carry out a study of different models, which aim to deliver education and lifelong learning services to these groups through the use of Internet technologies and tools. It then aims to create the technology to deliver an agreed model and test this model through its implementation and the provision of Web-based education (WBE) services.

Delivering the project The project will be delivered in a number of stages:

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The identification of user needs for the three targeted groups; Definition of the XML syntax, able to describe the different models for each of the three groups with the aim of reaching a generic syntax for model definition; Definition of a methodological approach for model implementation; Design of a model for the overall user group; Implementation of the site where users can gain access to the WBE services; Validation and testing of the services by their users; Refinement of the system and model according to user feedback; Dissemination of project results; Exploitation of the results in other sectors.

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Project No: IST-2000-25308 Duration: 28 months Economic Sector: Education and training Action Line: The Learning Citizen Full Title: Non-Excluding Models for Web-based Education Project Type: Education and Training Research

The overall aim of the project is to provide educational services to the three targeted groups which are tailored to their needs and limitations. As the targeted groups are often restricted in where and when they can normally receive such services, a Web-based model brings the services to them. Although the services are tailored to the individual groups, it is hoped that the methodology created during the project for model definition will allow it to be used by similar projects in the future. To further this end, the project will produce best practice recommendations for the definition of Internet-based educational systems.

Start Date: 01/04/2001 End Date: 31/07/2003 Project Objectives: To improve lifelong learning services for deaf, mentally-disabled and elderly people by providing them with a greater variety of Webbased resources and learning more focused towards social integration issues Target Audience: Deaf, mentally disabled, elderly Keywords: Social inclusion, deaf, mentally disabled, elderly, lifelong learning, Internet technology and tools, web-based education services, user needs and limitations, best practice

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Technology: XML based specification of syntax language for WBE, web Based Education combined with IMS standard

Project Co-ordinator Jose Manuel Hernandez Mayor ALAMO SISTEMAS Ronda de poniente 2, 2-D E- 28760 Tres Cantos Madrid Tel. +34-91-804-0068 Fax +34-91-806-0911 E-mail: [email protected] URL: http://www.alamosistemas.com/nemo/ Project Participants Alamo Sistemas (ES) Centre for Futurism in Education of Ben Gurion University (CFE) (IL) COCLEA (IT) Center For Research And Technology (GR)

Ped-Care Pedagogical Distributed Groups Care

A multi-dimensional approach to Human Factors training The development and application of new technologies in relation to distance learning raises new problems requiring new and innovative solutions from both an educational and technological point of view. Ped-care aims to develop tools and practices to tackle these problems and come up with solutions to enhance and improve distance learning relationships. It is hoped that the project will stimulate the process of lifelong learning by opening it up to individuals who are normally excluded from the traditional means of education. The project will aim to analyse the future of distance teaching and learning and create tools and learning environments to be used for distance learning in the future. The main objective of the project is to develop a new methodology, designated as Learners Relationship Manager (LRM), aimed at improving and optimising the relationship between learners and teachers through more efficient use of new technologies. In order to reach the project’s goals, a multidisciplinary consortium has been created involving developers, technology providers, final users, psychologists and sociologists.

Developing a methodology for distance learning The project work involves the following steps:

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Preparation of best practice for implementing distance learning services based on a tele-education system; Development of tools for the monitoring and evaluation of students and the teaching services themselves, exploring information flows and communication processes and how these impact on optimisation of the impact of the service; Preparation of pilot courses to test out the proposed methods and tools. These courses will aim to be innovative in nature providing services to students and teachers which would otherwise not be available to them.

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Projgct No: IST-2000-25417 Duration: 24 months Economic Sector: Education and training Action Line: Learning Citizen Full Title: Pedagogical Distributed Groups Care Project Type: Education and Training Research

The devised tools will need to conform to widely acceptable standards so that they can be re-used in various training scenarios and operations. One innovative element of the project is that it will aim to base its tools on lessons learned from customer-related management (CRM) techniques. This will involve technological transfer from other strongly competitive sectors such as banking and telephone operators where CRM techniques have provided excellent results and use of which is essential to ensure success against competitors.

Start Date: 01/06/2001 End Date: 31/05/2003 Project Objectives: To develop more efficient use of new technologies to promote distance learning and improve and optimise the relationship between learners and teachers Target Audience: Each partner will deal with different target groups of learners that are widely distributed in Europe (Spain, Greece, The Netherlands and Sweden). They each have different cultures due to their geographic location and to their social position Keywords: Metadata/LOM, mobile devices, intelligent agents, CRM Technology: CRM, Virtual Campus and eLearning system, mobile devices, Java, XML, WML, Metadata/ LOM, Intelligent Agents, Neural networks, Genetic Algorithms

Project Co-ordinator Miguel Arjona Villanueva Altran SDB Ramirez de Arellano 15 Planta 3 E-10960 Madrid Tel: +34-91-7440517 Fax: +34-91-4152457

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E-mail: [email protected] Project Participants Software de Base (Altran SDB) (ES) Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED) (ES) 01 PLIROFORIKI SA (01p) (GR) ACME Training (GR) VIEWROPE AB (SE) Consorzio Universitario in Ingegneria della Qualità (IT) Partner in Training & Technology N.O. B.v (PITT) (NL) Silogic (FR) Fundación Directa (ES) RETEVISION MOVIL S.A. (AMENA) (ES) Skeria Utveckling AB (SE)

PROMENTHEA Instrumental navigation and learning design (Dialogical processing / Dialogical reasoning) Learning about learning As in any discipline, ideas change over time. The science of learning is no exception. Research now focuses on understanding how the acquisition and the transfer of knowledge work. In a knowledge-driven economy, understanding is the key to how knowledge and know-how can serve as a potential for the creative discovery of new areas of knowledge. In essence PROMENTHEA aims to delve into these related mechanisms by looking at the interaction between media, content and the learners’ ways of accessing them. In the first year the project will first focus on specifying the overall research layout alongside needs-analysis. Later research will set out relevant criteria for learning environments, and develop a comparable structure for investigation in different contexts. These findings and insights will be adopted to create experimental settings for individual and community-based learning for 40+, remote access and independent learning for experienced learners with different goals - in the workplace and as part of a temporary job. The settings will be based on thorough investigation of content features and the needs of learners and trainers. It is assumed that tools for accessing and understanding lower the threshold problem with new technologies. These settings will be the subject of scientific observation and feedback.

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Guidance and backups for the learner will feature as part of the experimental setting. Each individual learner is considered a valuable source of useful information on how accessing and approaching techniques and ways of thinking and seeing mould the encounter with content and forms of presentation (media) and delivery (technology). It will help determine what kind of structures and navigation are essential. This feed-back will allow PROMENTHEA to fine-tune their understanding as to how arrangements of modes influence and meet the learners’ need for self-organisation and orientation.

Project No: IST-2000-26204 Duration: 30 months Economic Sector: Education Action Line: Learning Citizen Full Title: Pathways into knowledge/Research on Options in Media/Evolving of kNowledge/Technology/ Hypermedia/Environment for elaborate Applications of styles and skills

The settings created provide the learner with media and presentation forms combined under the aspect of “multilingual” presentation techniques: using interactions between pictures, language and “real” objects, re-using media already developed. This “multilingual” approach will encourage the learner to make the most of sensual experiences, of past knowledge and skills and of the capacity to find out what is best for a specific learning task. This study will fathom out the relationship between the intellectual, intuitive and sensory in learning and language.

Project Type: Education and Training Research

Community support

Target audience: the variety of target learners

The collaborative aspect of working with peers and seniors and as part of an existing learning and working community will also form an integral part of study. This aspect will help towards ascertaining how much support individual learners need. This web-based collaborative learning environment, called COLLEEN, will be externally validated. This will consist of experimentation with templates for analogue and digital literacy tools resulting in the revision and re-modelling of COLLEEN, and a subsequent external validation of the advanced version of COLLEEN. The navigation system will provide access to a variety of learning resources.

Start Date: 01/08/2001 End Date: 31/01/2004 Project objectives: Creation of individual and collaborative learning support environments

Key words: toolistic processing techniques, presenting forms and multimedial / multilingual navigation modes Technology: Standard international technology /ASB / oracle database

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PROMENTHEA will conclude with a report on model system structure for personalised learning environments and the third COLLEEN prototype. It will endeavour to demonstrate the potential of ICT as an incentive for design of parallel and complex knowledge forms and how it can be used to provide tools and built-in guidance, support and easy-to-use handling of resources.

Project Co-ordinator Gitta Stagl Lernfeld Sprache Mayerhofgasse 6 A-1040 Vienna Tel: +43-1-5037779 Fax: +43-1-5037776 E-mail: [email protected] Project Participants Lernfeld Sprache (AT) Norfolk County Council NCC (UK) Sigma Education AB (SE) Vardagsmakt AB (SE) Distansutbildningsmundigheten DISTUM (SE) Sveriges Utbildningsradion UR (SE) Folkbildningsföreningen Alterna (SE) Statens Skola foer Vuxna i Norrköping SSVN (SE) Förderungsstelle des Bundes für Erwachsenenbildung für das Burgenland FB (AT) Bildungskooperative Oberes Waldviertel BIKOO (AT)

5D 5th Dimension- Local Learning Communities in a Global World

5th dimension We are all familiar with the traditional approach to learning - a single teacher using a set of standard textbooks. With rapid developments in new technologies and the development of new approaches to learning, made possible through computer-based learning, this may not be so familiar for much longer. It may well be replaced by the multimedia, or 5D, approach. In parallel, it is increasingly recognised that local education benefits from a community approach, in which local universities, colleges, schools, local organisations and companies participate and pool knowledge. The aim of the 5D project is to develop a model system for creating new educational communities and to design multimedia components that can be used to build them. The new system will facilitate learning that is independent of time or place. The name Fifth Dimension (5D) refers to the fact that education and learning go beyond the three dimensions of physical space and the fourth dimension of time. 5D is about making learning meaningful.

Background The Fith Dimension (5D) is an environment of learning and a community of practice where computers and telecommunication are used in a deliberate combination with all kinds of suitable artefacts. Its aim is to develop and strengthen the communicative relations between the menbers of this “miniature society”. The pedagogical ideas if the 5D activity are guided by a socio-cultural, also called a cultural-historical perspective on learning, implying that knowledge is generated in diaologue mediated by physical and conceptual artefacts. These theories are explored and tested in different 5D sites located in connection to the university, and to primary and secondary schools. As well as children, as well as undergraduates, researchers and teachers have in those sites opportunities to find out new ways of teaching and learning. Collaboration is organised between different school institutions and school levels. Co-operation is also organised internationally aiming at research interaction and collaborative writing.

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The first 5D learning community site in Europe was created at Ronneby in Sweden. Since 1997, 300 children and 200 undergraduates have participated in this learning community, together with researchers from the Blekinge Institute of Technology (formerly the University of Karlskrona/Ronneby). The research

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The name Fith Dimension (5D) refers to the fact that education and learning go beyond the three dimensions of physical space and the fourth dimension of time. 5D is about making learning meaningful.

Project No: IST-2000-25435 Duration: 36 months Economic Sector: Education Action Line: School of Tomorrow Full Title: 5th Dimension – Local Learning Communities in a Global World Project Type: Education and Training Research

element of the Learning Lab project will attempt to understand, explain and describe the processes of learning and development, focusing on the interdependence of, and relationship between, the social context and the physical arrangements in the learning process. The 5D site in Barcelona started in 1998, and Copenhagen launched a 5D site in September 2000. Together these sites constitute an initial attempt to run 5D in Europe. One aim with the 5D project is not only to secure but also to develop and spread the 5D ideas and practices in Europe.

Building learning communities The 5D project is based on the concept of the Fifth Dimension (5D) - local learning communities in a global world. This means using new computer and telecommunications technologies to strengthen communications between members of local communities, to build meaningful inter-generational and interinstitutional learning environments. The idea of 5D started 15 years ago in San Diego, California, and today there are between 40 and 50 5D sites in the USA, Mexico, Brazil, Russia, Australia, Finland, Spain, Sweden and Denmark. The key to the 5D approach is the sharing of knowledge among the participants. The local coalitions that create and operate 5D activities may comprise organisations such as universities, schools, associations and companies. These new 5D educational communities may be real or virtual. Virtual communities will be created as extensions of real learning communities and one of these will be the Internet-based 5D “Eurohouse”.

Start Date: 01/04/2001 End Date: 31/03/2004 Project objectives: Develop knowledge about learning as well as design and creation of new forms for learning and multimedia artefacts Target audience: Teachers, researchers within the education area, people engaged in development of new ways of learning Key words: Facilitate learning, school, education, multimedia artefacts, fifth dimension, 5D, network, communication, interaction Technology: Multimedia and internet based applications

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Project Participants Blekinge Institute of Technology (SE) Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ES) University of Copenhagen (DK) TicTac Interactive AB (SE)

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Project Co-ordinator Eva-Lisa Ahnström Blekinge Institute Of Technology Sweden Tel: +46-457-26739, Mobile: +46-709-728720 Fax: +46-457-26739 E-mail: [email protected] URL: http://www.5d.org

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The 5D approach is designed to be flexible enough to adapt to the needs of individual learners, irrespective of the time of day or the location where they choose to learn. Reflective problem solving is one of the key words for the 5D approach. By promoting contacts between universities and schools, the ICT skills of university staff are applied to help develop computer-based learning systems. The technology needed to build and operate the 5D communities will be developed in conjunction with computer game and multimedia companies. This technology will be thoroughly tested and evaluated to determine how it enhances communication and learning. The 5D applications (learning tools) themselves will be designed to be used to produce re-usable lessons and courses for a wide range of users. Innovative aspects of the project work planned include a virtual maze and virtual task cards, controlled and uncontrolled virtual communities of learners and participatory design by children.

CO-LAB Collaborative Laboratories for Europe

A new type of collaborative learning environment In today’s working environment, employees have to collect, make sense of and use more and more information to keep up with developments in their field. To make the most of this information they need to acquire new knowledge and skills and develop better ways to collaborate with fellow workers based at different locations. The Co-Lab project is designed to develop a learning environment that will give users remote access to a virtual workspace for collaborative inquiry-based learning using experimentation and modelling. Initially Co-Lab will develop demonstration software for the fields of water management and climate control in greenhouses.

Developing a coherent workspace The objective of the Co-Lab project is to design, develop and evaluate a new system for collaborative, inquiry-based learning. The design of Co-Lab will be tailored to meet the needs of learners and teachers and will include simulations, modelling facilities, local laboratories and electronic whiteboards used to create virtual classrooms and collaborative workspaces accessible via the Web. The work will focus on integrating the various components so learners experience the CoLab learning environment as a single coherent workspace. This will require careful design of both the user interface and the technical architecture. In parallel with the technical development of the new virtual learning environment, a comprehensive support system will be developed to help learners in their experimentation, collaboration and modelling activities. In addition, Co-Lab will be designed to be integrated with the curriculum. The Co-Lab project comprises three main phases:

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Definition of the requirements of learners and teachers; Development of the Co-Lab system and its components; Evaluation studies.

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Project No: IST-2000-25035 Duration: 36 months Economic Sector: Education and Training Action Line: School of Tomorrow Full Title: Collaborative Laboratories for Europe Project Type: Education and Training Research

Learners and developers will be consulted from the start of the project and will be involved throughout, to ensure that the final product meets the needs of potential users of the Co-Lab system. Evaluation studies will be performed to analyse the use of the various Co-Lab applications, to refine their operation and also to generate requirements for new applications. These studies will include the use of mock-ups and testing of prototypes by potential users. During evaluation, the emphasis will be on finding out about the learning process, including important aspects such as ease of use of the modelling language, the structure and operation of the collaborative workspaces and the effectiveness of interfaces to experiments. During the latter part of the project, evaluation activities will also concentrate on making assessments of how much knowledge users are gaining through using Co-Lab.

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Co-Lab will bring together existing virtual learning software products and European expertise to produce a powerful new integrated tool that will enable learners to collaborate on experimentation and modelling activities in a coherent virtual workspace. Because Co-Lab will provide an open architecture for the exchange of inquiry-based learning material, it will be available to others to develop third party material to integrate with Co-Lab learning environments. This approach will open up possibilities for universities, schools, science museums and publishers to set up their own experiment spaces that can be accessed remotely by learners throughout Europe.

Start Date: 01/04/2001 End Date: 31/03/2004 Project objectives: In the Co-Lab project a new type of learning environment is created that helps learners to develop flexible knowledge and skills to collect and synthesise information and to collaborate with others. This learning environment brings together, in an integrated way, facilities for experimentation (including remote laboratories), collaboration, and domain modelling. In each of these facilities, guidance for learners is available. The Co-Lab project develops demonstrators in the applied science areas of water management and climate control (in greenhouses). The resulting open learning architecture provides standards to enable the integration of third party products Target audience: Teachers and students (aged 12-18) from standard school curricula, publishers Key words: Discovery learning; inquiry learning; collaborative learning; situated learning Technology: The learning environment will be based on client-server technology. Clients are standard browsers, complemented by applets and/or plug-ins. The server will be based on XML-RPC technology, with components for communication (ANTS), simulation, measurement and modelling

Project Co-ordinator Prof Ton de Jong University of Twente PO Box 513 NL-7500 AE Enschede Tel: +31-53-4893613 Fax: +31-53-4892849 E-mail: [email protected] URL: http://colab.edte.utwente.nl/index.html Project Participants University of Twente (NL) University of Amsterdam (NL) Universidad de Murcia (ES) Studio Teos (IT) IPN Kiel (DE)

EUN VALNET European Schoolnet Validation Network

Making the most of innovation in schools Given the large and ever-increasing numbers of computer-based learning projects, initiatives and products around, there is clearly a need for coordination and validation. In the case of the European Commission’s Information Society Technology (IST) projects in the field of education (the “School of Tomorrow”), the European Schoolnet Validation Network (VAL NET) project is designed to provide a framework for a number of validation and dissemination activities. These include the development of a framework validation methodological and analytical tool, providing a platform for the validation of products and services, consolidation and integration of project results, animation of clustering activities and the use of a dissemination network to influence policy and practice in computer-based learning for schools. The results of the School of Tomorrow projects, when taken together, represent much more than the sum of the individual parts. Thanks to VAL NET, the benefits of our increasing knowledge about innovation in schools can be maximised and made available to a large audience.

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To realise the benefits that projects supported by the European Commission under the ”School of Tomorrow” theme can bring to our knowledge of innovative computer-based education, the results must be widely validated, consolidated and disseminated. The aim of the VAL NET project is to set up an integrated infrastructure for validating and demonstrating products and services arising from these projects. The project will begin with a study of existing practice and future scenarios in the field, and identify the key issues facing policy-makers. This analysis, which will include consultations with officials from European education ministries, will underpin the development of the framework validation methodologies to be applied to the IST projects. VAL NET will provide standard guidelines for validations to allow users to produce comparable results for all the projects evaluated, irrespective of their context and types of partners participating. Templates and cost calculations for use in planning validation activities will also be included. A validation network of at least 500 schools will be set up. Its members will be selected from the European Network of Innovative Schools (ENIS), an established group of innovative test-bed schools in 20 European countries. The schools selected will be trained in the use of the validation tools. The validation framework will be adapted for each of at least five IST projects and then used to test products and services developed as a result of these projects across at least 50 ENIS schools, in at least four countries.

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Project No: IST-1999-14025 Duration: 24 months Economic Sector: Education Action Line: School of Tomorrow Full Title: European Schoolnet Validation Network Project Type: Education and Training Research

Prepare for take-off To complement the validation activities, the VAL NET project will include a number of dissemination, awareness-raising and commercial exploitation activities, designed to accelerate the implementation of innovative ICT learning systems in Europe’s schools. IST projects about schools will be brought together as a cluster, so that they can share experience and identify areas of potential collaboration. Another function of VAL NET is to consolidate the results of the projects and integrate them into the wider context of innovation and identify trends in the field of computer-based learning in schools. The results of this activity will be presented in a final report and synoptic overview. Dissemination will be supported by a network designed to promote and facilitate implementation of the products and services developed by IST projects. VAL NET will also carry out activities aimed at standardising such products and services and will provide feedback to the European Commission that will be used in preparing the next call for proposals under the IST programme.

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The VAL NET project is being co-ordinated by European Schoolnet (EUN), the organisation for co-ordination between European education ministries in the field of ICT and education.

Start Date: 01/04/2001 End Date: 31/03/2003 Project Objectives: The objectives of the project are to provide a framework for validating and demonstrating products and services arising from projects within the European Commission’s IST projects for education. It will also consolidate and integrate project results, and cary out a number of dissemination, awareness-raising, and commercial exploitation activities to accelerate implementation of ICT learning systems in schools Target Audience: Schools Keywords: Coordination, validation, ICT, dissemination, European Commission, IST projects, School of tomorrow Technology: Internet, knowledge clusters

Project Co-ordinator Ulf Lundin MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND SCIENCE, SWEDEN (on behalf of EUN) Tel: +32-2-7907580 E-mail: [email protected] Project Participants Ministry of Education and Science (SE) Ministry of Education, Flemish Belgium (BE) Ministry of Education (IS) Ministry of Education (IT) Ministry of Education (PT) BECTa (UK) Nottingham University (UK) Open University (UK)

ITALES Innovative Teaching And Learning Environments for Schools

Building an eCommunity for schools The overall aim of ITALES is to develop a European-wide virtual teaching and learning community that will enable teachers to share and re-use digital learning content, and allow both teachers and their learners to work together with the support of several innovative tele-presence/ communication tools. Within the eCommunity, learners will be able to follow eLearning courses prepared by their teachers using the ITALES authoring and content management tools. The ITALES system will also provide a central repository containing digital learning content that teachers will be able to access for building courses for their learners. In addition to course customisation, teachers will also be able to configure the web-based 3D virtual learning environment – both visually and functionally – to suit the needs of their learners. Specifically, ITALES is developing the following components:

Prior to the development of the above components, an integral aspect of early research and requirements gathering will be to determine what types and scope of educational content teachers and learners find most valuable. As key stakeholders, teachers will play an important role during this stage of the project; not least, they will help the project team identify the nature of the

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Importantly, this project will use appropriate Learning Technology Standards to facilitate storage, retrieval and interchange of learning content. Of equal significance are those increasingly important issues related to open source approaches to the exploitation of educational software. ITALES will therefore develop its own tools and content according to such approaches. In designing and developing the ITALES system, the project team will also take into account the important issues of interoperability and access – where possible, the tools and content will be usable outside of the ITALES environment and, conversely, the ITALES environment will be able to link to external tools such as suitably chosen third party authoring tools.

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1. A set of authoring tools that will enable teachers to prepare suitable and meaningful content for personalised learning; 2. New content management tools that can be used by teachers to facilitate planning and construction of customised online courses; 3. A library of databases to allow content sharing and re-use as well as teacher configuration of the 3D virtual learning environment in terms of its visual appearance and the tools and content accessible by the learners; 4. A web-based 3D virtual learning and teaching environment containing all the above tools together with suitable tele-presence/collaborative tools to allow teachers and learners to communicate with one another and to work together.

Project No: IST-2000-26356 Duration: 36 months Economic Sector: Education & Training Action Line: School of Tomorrow Full Title: Innovative Teaching And Learning Environments for Schools Project Type: Education and Training Research

authoring tools considered most useful in their own pedagogic situations. They will further help the team to establish the kind of tele-presence and collaborative tools considered most beneficial for themselves and their learners. Results from the project’s user needs assessment will then be used to inform the next stage of the project – technological research and development of the ITALES tools, content and services. During development, the teachers will continue to be deployed in an advisory capacity to help influence the functionality of the tools (authoring, content management and communication tools) as well as the 3D virtual teaching and learning environment. Towards the end of the project, these same teachers, together with their learners, will participate in the ITALES experiment. This will involve extensive user assessment of the ITALES developed tools and content at three European pilot sites – in Spain, Italy and Scotland.

Customising the teaching and learning experience

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From the teacher’s perspective, the ITALES virtual teaching environment provides teachers with a collection of authoring tools – ITALES-developed and third party – from which they can choose to prepare their own learning content. Beyond content preparation, teachers can further access the ITALES content management tools/learning content database to assemble customised ITALES online learning courses for their learners. Finally, the virtual teaching and learning environment itself can be configured by the teachers in terms of the tools needed for themselves and their learners as well as the user interfaces of the 3D virtual learning environment. From the learner’s perspective, the project team believes that school learners need to be initially motivated, interested and engaged. The children will require an enriched environment that is stimulating and will fully engage them in the learning process. ITALES is developing such an environment which, it is hoped, will help motivate the children to learn. They will be able to navigate inside ‘immersive’ 3D worlds, assume their own configurable online identities by means of 3D avatars and use interesting tele-presence/communication tools such as 3D chat, voting, pager, meeting board and so on. ITALES will develop and experiment with a web-based user interface that uses virtual reality technologies to present the metaphor of a school building containing rooms and other areas, as would be found in a real school.

Start Date: 28/06/2001 End Date: 27/06/2004 Project objectives: To develop a European-wide virtual teaching and learning community whose key aims are the promotion of pedagogic content sharing and re-use, exchange of opinions and innovation and the provision of both pedagogic and pastoral support for learners Target audience: European schools; teacher resource centres and training colleges; Ministries of Education and National Governments; regional and local administrations with education competencies Key words: eLearning; 3D Virtual Reality; 3D Worlds; Open Source; Open Platforms & Tools; Authoring Tools; Personalised Learning; Learning Technology Standardisation; Re-use; Sharing; Learning Objects Technology: ITALES will be an open system, heavily reliant upon open source approaches (Linux, XML) as well as learning technology standards (e.g. Learning Objects Metadata Standard for school use). ITALES should also allow externally developed/third party tools to be linked to its own environment for use by teachers and learners. The same applies to importing and exporting learning content. ITALES is exploiting virtual reality technologies and 3D animation technologies

Project Co-ordinator Mr Gerard Queen LEARNING AND TEACHING SCOTLAND Glasgow G12 9JN United Kingdom Tel: +44-141-3375058 Fax: +44-141-3375070 E-mail: [email protected] URL: http://www.LTScotland.com Project Participants Learning and Teaching Scotland (UK) EPTRON S.A. (ES) CEAC Instituciones S.L. (ES) Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche - Istituto Matematica Applicata (IT) DIDA*EL S.R.L. Societa Per La Didattica Con Elaboratore (IT) Center for Futurism in Education - Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (in co-operation with Empowerment Through Electronics, ETE) (IL) Limburgs Universitair Centrum - Expertise Centrum Digitale Media (BE)

ITCOLE Innovative Technology for Collaborative Learning and Knowledge Building A new dawn for collaborative learning Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) is set to play an increasingly important role in education. The ITCOLE project is developing a new Web-based environment for collaborative learning and knowledge building. The ITCOLE system will be a shared electronic workspace that students and teachers can use for asynchronous and synchronous collaboration. The system will provide tools for community and team building, as well as awareness tools and tutorware. The new system will provide users and their tutors with real-time information on several aspects of collaboration and will help them to manage the process of knowledge building. The new system will be based on innovative and practical learning models developed as part of the project. A working prototype for this next generation CSCL system will be evaluated on a large scale and the ITCOLE software will be made available free of charge to educational institutions, under open source terms.

From research to reality The ITCOLE project has three main objectives:

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To develop models of collaborative knowledg e building for European education; To develop the software and tools needed to implement a modular knowledge-building environment to support collaborative learning; To evaluate, test and disseminate the new models and technology widely to European schools.

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1. Generating practical models for the use of CSCL tools and refining these into a set of best practice guidance; 2. Developing a working prototype and testing and evaluating it; 3. Large-scale evaluation of the approaches and software tools developed; 4. Dissemination of the software and models free of charge to European schools.

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The main work of the project comprises the creation of software tools and best practice guidance for implementing collaborative learning environments. The work will be carried out in four main phases:

Project No: IST-2000-26249 Duration: 24 months Economic Sector: Public Education and Training sector Action Line: School of Tomorrow Full Title: Innovative Technology for Collaborative learning Project Type: Education and Training Research

The first stage in the ITCOLE project will be to carry out a comprehensive review of the state-of-the-art in CSCL tools and their use. As a result of this study, the project team will be able to develop practical models that will overcome some of the problems inherent in current practice. In this way, sound foundations will be laid for a real “next generation” CSCL system. The models developed will be refined into a set of best practice guidelines. Next, a working prototype for the new CSCL system will be developed and tested. This will be designed to facilitate collaborative knowledge building activities based on the best practice models set out during the initial phase of the project. The prototype system will be thoroughly tested and evaluated through several development cycles to produce a high-usability, robust and scalable learning environment that can be used by multiple users via the Web. The next step will be to evaluate the new approaches and software in real educational environments. This evaluation will take place on a large scale in schools across Europe and will allow further refinement to ensure a match between the new system and learning models and local practices.

A European collaborative learning network

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The final task of ITCOLE will be to disseminate the results of the project as widely as possible to schools across Europe. The final version of all the software, tools and supporting guidance for the new learning environment will be distributed free of charge to educational institutions to promote its widespread use. The aim is to promote the establishment of local centres of expertise in Web-based collaborative learning, which will form a Europe-wide learning network based around common goals and practices. Participants will be able to share expertise, content, practices and tools.

Start Date: 1/04/2001 End Date: 31/03/2003 Project Objectives: The project has three key scientific and technical objectives: 1. Develop pedagogical models of collaborative knowledge building for European education 2. Develop a modular knowledge-building environment to support collaborative learning 3. Evaluate, test and disseminate the environment in European schools in order to build meaningful pedagogical practices and to advance the use of collaborative learning technology Target audience: European schools (mainly secondary/high schools), pupils, teachers, educational planners, administrators and education authorities Keywords: Modular learning environments, knowledge building, scaling up Technology: The Web-based educational software will consists of an educational server application (working title ITCOLE CSCL), integration component with existing WWW servers (i.e. Apache and other freely available servers) and documentation for the platform

Project Co-ordinator Prof. Philip Dean University Of Art And Design Helsinki UIAH Hämeentie 135 C FIN-00560 Helsinki Tel: +358-9-75630594 Fax: +358-9-75630555 E-mail: [email protected] URL: http://www.euro-cscl.org Project Participants University Of Art And Design Helsinki UIAH (FI) GMD - German National Research Centre for Information Technology (DE) University of Murcia (ES) Helsinki City Education Department (FI) University of Amsterdam (NL) University of Salerno (IT) University of Rome La Sapienza (IT) University of Athens (GR) University of Utrecht (NL) University of Helsinki (FI)

LAB OF TOMORROW

Science teaching through everyday experience Sometimes students lose interest in science because they cannot relate what they are being taught to their everyday lives. The Lab of Tomorrow project aims to overcome the barriers imposed by the traditional classroom setting by using an innovative combination of a new approach to learning and the development and application of new technologies. Tiny wearable computers and intelligent sensors will be developed that can be used by students to gather data, which can then be used to graph trends and patterns and investigate the laws of engineering and physics. This should provide students with the ability to apply science more widely, not only in specially-designed experiments in controlled laboratory conditions. Networks of schools will gather data and compare measurements. In this way, teaching will make as many links as possible between the natural sciences and daily life, and research will become more of a collective process.

Breaking out of the classroom

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The aim of the Lab of Tomorrow project is to develop a learning framework that will allow the application of emerging technologies to everyday learning and promote a hands-on approach to learning about science. The use of tiny computer devices and sensors embedded in clothes or toys will facilitate a shift away from traditional classroom learning to daylong learning. This will reinforce a constructionist approach to science teaching, where learners are given the opportunity to interact with sensory data and ”construct” their own models of the natural world. This stimulates students’ capacity for scientific enquiry and allows for deeper understanding of the subject. This approach also encourages interdisciplinary and collaborative activities, which are also conducive to improved learning. In this way learning should be seen as the outcome of formulating questions, investigation, research and the sharing of results.

Project No: IST-2000-25076 Duration: 36 months Economic Sector: Education and Training Action Line: School of Tomorrow Full Title: Lab of Tomorrow Project Type: Education and Training Research

New technologies for hands-on learning The Lab of Tomorrow project plans to develop a family of tiny, fullyprogrammable computer devices, called “axions” by the project team, which can be embedded in everyday objects, including clothes. These axions will be used to collect data in a format compatible with analysis and graphical software, so students can easily investigate trends and patterns in the data they have collected. Development of this concept of intelligent clothing and wearable computers will include investigation of how electronics and sensor components can be engineered, miniaturised and integrated into fabrics and an assessment of the suitability of existing materials, products and components for use in intelligent clothing. Three technology strands will be studied:

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Intelligent clothing and wearable sensors; Advanced real-time communication systems; Data manipulation, analysis and integration.

The axions will comprise a sensor interface, main board controller and communication system. Two options for transfer of data between the devices and a control centre will be considered - CDMA and Frequency Allocation. A graphical user interface will be used to plot the information collected and create mathematical models to fit the data. Examples of the types of axions to be developed include: accelerometer and local GPS (to study Newtonian Laws), recording of heart signals (ECG), piezoelectric sensors counting steps, thermometer sensors to investigate the basic principles of thermodynamics and sensors to record acoustic signals for use in the analysis of wave phenomenon. Examples of applications being considered include the use of embedded axions in footballs, athletic suits, shoes and belts.

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Students and teachers working together Teachers and scientists will be closely involved in the design of the methodologies to be adopted for use of the new technologies in teaching. The final prototype devices will be applied, using an adapted curriculum within a solid educational framework, to real school activities. Subsequently, students and teachers will be able to develop their own projects, setting up their own experiments and defining which parameters to measure. The activities and results of the Lab of Tomorrow project will be systematically evaluated using clearly defined methodologies. The aim is to develop an improved theoretical understanding of how different types of tools and learning environments support different types of thinking, reasoning and understanding.

Start Date: 01/04/2001 End Date: 31/03/2001 Project Objectives: The development of a pedagogical framework that will allow successful application of the emerging technology in everyday learning. Enhancement of a constructionist approach in science teaching. Development of new educational tools and learning environments. Equal and parallel development of pedagogical and technological innovations. Development of a concrete evaluation scheme of the educational and technological aspects Target Audience: Students and Teachers Keywords: Constructivism, science instruction, wearables Technology: Wearable computers, wireless communication

Project Co-ordinator Prof. Nikolaos Uzunoglu ICCS/NTUA 9, Heroon Polytechniou St GR-15780 Zografos Athens Tel: +30-1-7723556 Fax: +30-1-7723557 E-mail: [email protected] Project Participants ICCS/NTUA (GR) University of Birmingham (UK) COREP (IT) ANCO SA (GR) University of Dortmund (DE) Ellinogermaniki Agogi SA (GR) BG und BRG Schwetchat (AU) Helen-Lange Gymnasium (DE) Phoenix Gymnasium (DE) Technical Senior Secondary School “G.B Pininfarina” (IT)

METIS Multimedia Interactive Environments for Distributed Teamwork Promotion in Schools IT solutions to support advances in teaching The wealth of new computer-based learning systems and resources available to today’s schools makes it possible to develop exciting new approaches to teaching and learning, allowing for new ways of working and interactions between teachers, pupils and parents. The aim of the METIS project is to create a co-operative, multimedia, multilingual educational resource centre that primary and secondary schools can use to realise this potential. The promotion of pan-European collaborative and distance-learning activities will form a central part of the project and as many actors as possible (students, teachers and parents) will participate. The emphasis will very much be on the educational applications of the technology developed and on modifying existing ways of learning in schools, rather than on the technology itself.

Usability is the key to success

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In terms of technology, the core of the project is to build a platform that allows access, via a network of educational organisations, to a common knowledge repository. This complements another key objective of METIS - to promote collaboration between schools across Europe. Collaboration activities will be built up and demonstrated by the promotion of a series of co-operative networks, which will link schools in different countries and which represent different cultural backgrounds. Participating schools will each bring a different focus to collaborative work on common educational themes. The platform will be accessible to both teachers and learners and external modes of access will also be provided to tutors, parents and other interested groups during different educational processes and activities.

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The METIS project will result in the development of a new IT-based educational resource system that comprises an interoperable set of tools, services and content repositories. The system will be used to demonstrate the various improvements in the quality and accessibility of learning at primary and secondary levels of schooling that are possible through the use of appropriate IT facilities. It is recognised by the METIS team that usability is the key attribute in the success of IT-based learning systems, as children are discerning users. So although ubiquitous learning, remote repositories and large-scale demonstrations will be offered as a result of the project, the emphasis will be on delivering improvements in usability and on achieving generic improvements to IT-based education.

Project No: IST-2000-25175 Duration: 24 months Economic Sector: Education Action Line: School of Tomorrow Full Title: Mutlimedia Interactive Environments for Distributed Teamwork Promotion in Schools

Faciltating cross-cultural teamwork Two applications will be developed by the METIS project, each with a different potential end-user in mind:

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An application for primary schools, with the emphasis on using new technologies to promote and demonstrate teamwork in a monolingual teaching environment. An application designed for secondary schools with the emphasis on the use of a common language (English) by schools in different countries. This will demonstrate how teamwork, facilitated by new technologies, can promote adaptation to multicultural environments.

The consortium carrying out the METIS project comprises specialists in teaching and learning, five primary and secondary schools in Spain, Sweden and the UK, a specialist in the usability of IT systems and two technology providers.

Project Type: Education and Training Research Start Date: 01/07/2001 End Date: 30/06/2003 Project Objectives: This project will innovate existing educational approaches in schools through the promotion of cooperative teamwork attitudes and the use of learning distance facilities. The main objective of METIS is to increase the independence and speed in obtaining information for teachers, students, and parents, specially by the use of existing IT facilities and the development of a common platform and repository accessed by a network of schools. To demonstrate the project achievements, specific cooperative courses will be proposed to a set of pan-European schools Target Audience: Schools Keywords: Teamwork, learning process, multimedia

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Technology: XML, intelligent agents

Project Co-ordinator Aureo Diaz-Carrasco Fenollar IBERMATICA, S.A. R&D Department Avda. del Partenon, 16-18 E-28042, Madrid Tel: +34-91-3849100 Fax:+34-91-3849144 E-mail: [email protected] Project participants IBERMATICA, S.A. (ES) Associacio de Mestres Rosa Sensat (ES) ACit (DE) Cnet (SE) Liceo Europeo, Princess Margaret, Escola del Mar (ES) Parrs Wood School (UK) Fullriggaren Malevik (SE)

MODELLINGSPACE A space for ideas’ expression, modelling and collaboration, for the development of imagination, reasoning and learning A new open learning environment for modelling One of the most exciting applications of new computing technologies in the field of science education is their use in modelling. In this project a new open learning environment called MODELLINGSPACE will be developed, which will contain a series of components that can be used to produce multimedia presentations of scientific ideas, situations and concepts. This will allow models to be designed, tested and validated. In addition, learning activities will be devised to allow the system to be used within the school subjects of mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, and environmental science as well as across the curriculum. The project is based on a previous successful national project in Greece.

Multimedia Situations, Simulations and Models

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MODELLINGSPACE will be a complete open learning system, available in four languages (English, French, Portuguese and Greek), for use by students of 11 to 17 years old. In terms of educational theory, the approach adopted is based on the social-constructivist paradigm supporting discovery learning. The software environment will be designed to develop students’ model processing and metacognitive skills, creative and flexible thinking, and communication and collaboration skills. With these skills, students will be better equipped to solve complex problems in science and, indeed, in everyday life. Using the MODELLINGSPACE learning environment, students will be able to express their own ideas, to design and tests models for various situations and to collaborate with other students and teachers via the Internet. The system will allow them to create and work on different categories of models, including quantitative and semi-quantitative ones. To support this activity and make it more interesting to students, MODELLINGSPACE will offer rich visualisation features, real-world simulations, alternative and multiple forms of representation and meta-cognitive tools.

Project No: IST-2000-25385 Duration: 30 months Economic Sector: Education-Schools Action Line: School of Tomorrow Full Title: MODELLINGSPACE: A space for ideas’ expression, modelling and collaboration, for the development of imagination, reasoning and learning

Promoting collaboration An important element of the MODELLINGSPACE system is the tools that it will include to facilitate and support collaboration between students, and to support teachers. These will include “awareness of others” activity tools; tools supporting coordinated dialogue-action collaboration, tools providing automated comparison of the work of online students; activity meta-analysis tools for students and teachers, etc. MODELLINGSPACE will draw on a previous national project in Greece that resulted in a prototype system (ModelsCreator) which has already been tested in a number of schools. It will also use the results of research in the fields of science education, cognitive psychology and technology-based learning environments, taking account of analyses of the needs of students and teachers in different educational systems.

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In developing and testing the MODELLINGSPACE system, experimental research will be carried out in conjunction with participating primary and secondary schools. The use of the applications developed for collaborative distance learning and teaching will also be investigated in a multinational context using ethnographic (systemic) and discourse-analytic methods. The MODELLINGSPACE software will be developed through successive evaluations of a series of prototype versions. In addition the whole learning environment (software, manuals, learning activities, pedagogical approach) will be evaluated in real school contexts.

Project Type: Education and Training Research Start Date: 1/04/2001 End Date: 30/09/2003 Project Objectives: MODELLINGSPACE permits modelling activities by young students, supporting them in expressing their ideas, by designing and testing models of various situations, while they collaborate with other students and teachers via the Internet . The situations to be modelled can be interdisciplinary or related to the existing national curricula of particular disciplines. The system and the accompanied material will be delivered in English, French, Portuguese and Greek Target audience: Secondary Education Keywords: Learning environments, modelling systems, collaborative systems, schools, secondary education, sciences, mathematics, computer science Technology: The MODELLINGSPACE software environment will be implemented as client-server architecture. The server-side will support repositories of libraries of components, models and themes of studies and management of these repositories. The client-side will be based on PCs and through them the students/ teachers will communicate using a peer-to-peer protocol over tcp/ip with other users or with the server in order to affect asynchronous interaction with other clients, and to browse and update the contents of server repositories. Tools will be included in the client-side for building new components to be stored in local databases and for analysis of collaborative activity. The system will be developed following a component based architecture Project Co-ordinator Angelique Dimitracopoulou Assistant Professor Learning Technology and Educational Engineering Laboratory University of the Aegean 1, Av. Demokratias GR-85100, Rhodes Tel.: +30-241-99127 Fax: +30-241-99127 E-mail : [email protected] Project Participants University of the Aegean (GR) University of Patras (GR) Universite de Mons-Hainaut (BE) New University of Lisbon (PT) Universite d’Angers (FR) Sema Group (ES)

OASIS Open Architecture and Schools in Society

Small schools, big ideas The development of computer-based, and in particular Web-based, technologies and systems for use in education, should be especially suitable for small schools, which do not necessarily have the resources required to implement new technologies on their own. By getting together to form virtual communities, these schools can avoid missing out on the revolution in computer-based education, sharing information and applications to improve education services in a cost-effective way. The OASIS project is developing the concept of a small school community using a “school portal” as the main tool. The development of such a system poses several challenges, not least how to achieve interoperability to ensure that users equipped with different applications and services can share information. This is essential if usability, accessibility, efficiency and cost-effectiveness are to be achieved.

Collaborative ICT-based learning The OASIS project aims to maintain public educational systems as leaders in Internet-based education by developing the concept of the small school virtual community. There are two main objectives:

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To prepare a blueprint for interoperability that will allow schools to share information via a virtual community, irrespective of the applications and services that individual schools are using; To develop a cost-effective school Zone Server, with accompanying procedures and tools, and user-friendly administration solutions.

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The initial phase of the project will seek to define the requirements of schools and to develop and test different models for collaborative ICT-based learning. This will be followed by a study of interoperability, standardisation and harmonisation, including an evaluation of, and recommendations on, the

Project No: IST-2000-26216 Duration: 30 months Economic Sector: Education Action Line: School of Tomorrow Full Title: Open Architecture and Schools in Society Project Type: Education and Training Research

suitability of the Schools Interoperability Framework (SIF) for implementation in Europe. Interoperability is one of the most critical challenges facing the computer-based education sector. Many existing systems allow access only through proprietary user interfaces and data formats. The SIF is an ICT industry initiative to develop an open specification for educational software that will ensure that information can be accessed via different applications and can thus be shared by users at different locations using a variety of software. An important element of the OASIS project will be the setting up of a software library of open code supported by harvesting and metadata cataloguing tools. The library will be designed for use by both software professionals and teacherauthors, and will include distribution and training systems.

Start Date: 01/09/2001 End Date: 29/02/2004 Project Objectives: The project aims at developing the concept of the small school virtual community to make sure that public educational systems are still leaders in Internet-based education. It will achieve interoperability to ensure that users can share information irrespective of the applications and services used and will develop a cost-effective school zone server Target Audience: Small school communities

Prototypes of three key OASIS components will be developed - a Zone Server, a School Server and a Java-based Kernel. These will be designed in accordance with the specifications for interoperability defined previously.

Keywords: Small schools, ICT, virtual communities, education, interoperability, software library

Piloting and validation

Technology: Internet, local and regional telematic and informatic architectures, zonal servers, school networks

Once the development work is complete, the three prototype OASIS components (Zone Server, School Server and Java-based Kernel) will be implemented as pilot applications. In addition, during the pilot phase, the three prototype components will be integrated with wireless technologies to link up schools and local communities. Participants in the European Schoolnet will be provided with the results of the pilot projects and tools will be made available to enable them to implement the applications into school networks if they wish. Validation work will be carried out in a number of public sector schools in Sweden, France and Spain.

Project Co-ordinator Agustin Quintana Torrelaguna, 58 E-28027 Madrid Tel: +34-91-4082000 Fax: +34-91-3680709

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E-mail: [email protected] Project Participants Ministerio de Educación Cultura y DeporteCNICE (Centro Nacional de Información y Comunicación Educativa) (ES) Ministry of Education and Science, SweedenKommitten for Europeiska Skoldatanatet (KES) (SE) Académie de Grenoble (FR) Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (ES) Universiteit van Amsterdam (NL) Umea Universitet (SE) Sun Microsystems (BE) Apple (IRL) Sistemas y Redes Telemáticas (ES)

SCHOOL+ More than a Platform to Build the School of Tomorrow

Re-engineering the school environment If we are serious about developing a true Information Society, ICT tools should not simply be used in schools to complement existing, subject-based educational approaches. It is important to re-examine the whole educational environment and determine how best new technologies can help to address a range of challenges such as motivation, information overload and how to equip young people to cope with uncertainty and complexity. The SCHOOL+ project will develop a comprehensive teaching and learning environment that integrates a progressive educational approach with ICT, and which can be used to help students develop the knowledge and skills that they need as future citizens of the Information Society. The new learning-environment system, embedded in a holistic educational approach will help to overcome the narrowness and lack of integration of many existing ICT-based educational approaches.

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The SCHOOL+ system will be designed to support and manage educational processes and social interaction between learners, tutors, peer groups and community members, while the emphasis on collaborative activities will help to

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1. An assessment of the needs of schools, teachers, students and parents will analyse what goals schools have with respect to the Information Society and identify the educational processes that need to be promoted and implemented to achieve those goals. 2. An educational approach will be designed, developed and implemented to promote high-level cognitive emotional and social activities that emphasise autonomy, creativity, problem solving and teamwork and make use of ICT tools. 3. A comprehensive learning environment system based on state-of-the-art technologies (such as VR, 3D, CSCW, WWW, WAP and MPEG4) will be designed, built, implemented and tested. 4. A series of collaborative learning activities will be designed, developed and tested in European schools. 5. A socio-economic evaluation of the SCHOOL+ system will be carried out to investigate its educational and technological benefits. 6. Further development of the SCHOOL+ system will allow its widespread exploitation by most European schools. 7. The new knowledge and expertise acquired during the project will be widely disseminated to education professionals and policy-makers.

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The SCHOOL+ project will comprise the following seven phases:

Project No: IST-2000-25126 Duration: 36 months Economic Sector: Education Action Line: School of Tomorrow Full Title: SCHOOL+ More than a Platform to Build the School of Tomorrow Project Type: Education and Training Research

foster a European perspective. All the main stakeholders in education will be involved in carrying out the socio-economic evaluation and investigation of the educational and technological benefits will take account of institutional constraints faced by schools as they strive to introduce innovation in teaching. Testing of the new system will be carried out in 20 schools across Europe. Where possible, content from existing ICT applications will be adapted and transferred to the new system in the interests of cost-effectiveness. The new system will have a modular structure to allow for easy modification, enhancement and expansion.

Bridging the gap between developers and users In recent years many schools have implemented ICT systems. In many cases, however, equipment may not be available in sufficient quantities, or be of a high enough standard to make full use of Information Society technologies. In addition, many educational software products and projects to promote the use of ICT in education have a narrow focus on the computing tools themselves, without necessarily giving consideration to the fundamental changes required to make the most of the new technologies. Indeed, it can be argued that in many cases ICT programmes for education do not deliver alternative forms of schooling but simply reinforce existing organisational structures and curriculum content and established relationships between students and teachers.

Start Date: 01/09/2001 End Date: 31/08/2004 Project Objectives: The School + project aims to develop a comprehensive teaching and learning environment using stat-of-the-art technologies to integrate a progressive educational approach with ICT for promotion of high-level cognitive emotional and social activities, promotion of autonomy and creativity and enhanced communication. Thus, the project will adapt technology to the needs of schools Target Audience: Pupils and educators Keywords: ICT, teching and learning environment, education, knowledge, skills, social interaction, innovation Technology: State-of-the-art technologies, such as VR, 3D, CSCW, WWW, WAP and MPEG4

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SCHOOL+ aims to harness state-of-the-art and emerging ICT technologies to build a complete computer-based learning system with 24-hour accessibility, which will promote autonomy and creativity in learning and enhanced communication among and between pupils, teachers, parents and school administrators. The educational approach used in designing the system will be one where technology must be adapted to the needs of schools, rather than one where schools have to adapt to the technology. Project Co-ordinator Dr Juana Sancho Gill Didàctica i Organització Educativa Vall d'Hebron, 171 E-08035 Barcelona Spain Tel: +34-93-4035052 E-mail: [email protected] Project Participants Didàctica i Organització Educativa (ES) University of Barcelona (ES) IES Bernat Metge (ES) Extreme Solutions (GR) Ellinogermaniki Agogi S.A. (GR) The Samuel Neaman Institute (IL) Alliance High School, Haifa (IL) University of Uoulu (FI) Oulunsalo Secondary School (FI) Univerzita Larlova (CZ) Gymnazium F.X. Saldy (CZ)

SEED Seeding cultural change in the school system through the generation of communities engaged in integrated educational and technological innovation Sowing the seeds of collaboration Project SEED is about seeding cultural change in the school system through the generation of communities engaged in integrated educational and technological innovation. The project will develop innovative educational materials and technologies and methods for generating innovative use of IST at small scale and systemic levels. The specific outputs will be: a) the design of innovative activities supporting a social mode of learning in a collaborative setting, an augmented awareness of learning processes and meaning construction and autonomy and responsibility for learning, b) the development of methods for generating integrated communities of education researchers, teachers students and developers designing and implementing context-sensitive school-based and at the same time innovative activity, c) the development of technologies that support authoring and scripting, collaboration, reification and reflection of learning activities, integrated learning activity, kinaesthetic and concrete representations, d) the development of methods for using the above experience, tools and infrastructure to proliferate innovative activity in the school system. An important part of the method will be to develop a Center for Collaboration and Exchange enabling the propagation of activities and the generation of educational communities.

Building your own learning community

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The concept at the heart of SEED is to generate integrated communities (meaning teachers, students, educationalists and software developers) who will design, develop and try out a series of computer supported innovative learning activities based on clear learning objectives. Each activity will be accompanied by suggested methods for teaching and introducing the activity into schools and suggestions for the use of the software tools. Software development and authoring will adopt a component-oriented approach, extending and adapting the platform and software developed by the project partners.

Project No: IST-2000-25214 Duration: 36 months Economic Sector: Education and Training Action Line: School of Tomorrow Full Title: Seeding cultural change in the school system through the generation of communities engaged in integrated educational and technological innovation

The Centre for Collaboration and Exchange to be developed as part of the SEED project will support communication among all members of the integrated communities of teachers, students, researchers and software developers. The Exchange will also facilitate the spread of information about the activities of the SEED project to a wide audience of potential users and, perhaps most importantly, act as a source of support and advice for those using it.

Spreading the word

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As with all projects designed to test and demonstrate innovative approaches in education, it is important to investigate how the new systems, materials and methods are working in practice and to evaluate their impacts. As part of the SEED project, a pseudo-ethnographic evaluation will be carried out to determine how the integrated communities are developing, to determine how the methods and processes developed are being implemented and to investigate the potential of the methods adopted to promote widespread propagation of the approach. The evaluation will include extensive observations made on site in the participating schools, interviews with users, exchange of experience and results between project partners and analysis of outcomes in the different schools to identify case studies of best practice methods and processes.

Project Type: Education and Training Research Start Date: 1/04/2001 End Date: 31/03/2004 Project objectives: design and develop innovative activities, generate integrated communities, develop technologies supporting construction and development by users Target audience: Teachers, Educational Policy, Students, Educational Software Developers, Educational Researchers Keywords: Educational communities of change, software authoring Technologies: Component architecture, scriptable environments, communication forums

Project Co-ordinator Prof. Kynigos Chronis Computer Technology Institute Research and Development Devision, Research Unit 3 61, Riga Feraiou st GR-26221 Patra Tel: +30-13416220 Fax: +30-13416700 E-mail: [email protected] Project Participants Gerhard-Mercator-Universität Duisburg, UDUI Universite de Geneve, TECFA (CH) 0/1 Pliroforiki S.A. (GR) University of Hull (UK) University of Athens, School of Philosophy, Dept of Education (GR)

YOUNGNET Youngsters Learning and Playing Network

Virtual meeting place makes learning fun Youngsters love to play, but are not always keen to learn, particularly in traditional teaching environments. The key to overcoming this problem may be to soften the boundary between learning and leisure. One way to achieve this is to motivate students through the use of ICT technologies such as virtual reality, 3D representations and multimedia. The aim of the YoungNet project is to set up an Internet-based, virtual reality education environment, taking into account what was developed by a previous IST project (VIRLAN). A community-based platform will enable young people aged between 8 and 14 years to use innovative services and learning materials and communicate and collaborate at school and with each other across national boundaries. This environment will undoubtedly provide pupils and teachers with enormous opportunities to interact with and learn about other countries and cultures in a fascinating and enjoyable way.

Bringing together schools from across Europe

School

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The YoungNet learning community will be built using the results of a previous IST project, VIRLAN. The VIRLAN prototype has been tested successfully by a limited number of users and evaluation focused on functionality and technical issues. Now, YoungNet will take the results and focus on developing content and widening the range of applications available. The first task of the YoungNet project will be to carry out an analysis of the habits and requirements of target user groups. To do this, the project includes ten schools in each of four countries (Germany, UK, Finland, Switzerland) together with 10 international/ American schools to assess the requirements for home use as well as institutional use. Thus, 50 schools, with up to 1000 pupils, will take part from an early stage in the development of the system. Once the YoungNet System has been built and the content developed, validation and evaluation of the system will centre on its impact on learning. Again, the input of the participating schools will ensure a realistic assessment of the system’s impacts.

Project No: IST-2000-25104 Duration: 24 months Economic Sector: Publishing Action Line: School of Tomorrow Full Title: Youngsters Learning and Playing Network Project Type: Education and Training Research

Security and safety on the Internet is becoming increasingly important. A key element of the YoungNet virtual community will therefore be a comprehensive system for allocating rights and roles using electronic identification and registration. The YoungNet system’s virtual meeting place for young people will focus on three main types of activities:

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Co-operation - supporting teachers to organise joint projects and allowing children to work jointly, “publish” their results, play multi-user edutainment games or stage live events and organise competitions; Communication - to enable young people to meet and make friends in different countries; Personalisation - giving users the option to create their own features.

Start Date: 01/04/2001 End Date: 31/03/2003 Project objectives: YoungNet offers a virtual e-learning meeting place that brings together young people and their teachers from different European countries Target audience: 8 to 14 years old children and their teachers Key words: Learning community, collaborative learning, elearning Technology: VR, openness, interoperability, multimedia

Pay as you learn

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To date, online communities for training and learning have not met with much commercial success. An important part of the YoungNet project will be a market analysis in which users (potential customers) are offered a choice of commercial models and methods of payment for services. An evaluation of the amounts that potential customers are willing to pay will give an indication of the suitability of different models for implementing the YoungNet system. This information will then be used to prepare a business plan.

Project Co-ordinator Mr Jürgen A. Schmidt Ernst Klett Verlag Rotebühlstrasse 77 D-70178 Stuttgart Tel: +49-711-66721491 Fax: +49-711-66722044 E-mail: [email protected] Project Participants Ernst Klett Verlag (DE) Klett und Balmer AG (CH) Hyperwave Software F&E Ges.m.b.H (AT) Mindlab Krieger & Partner (DE) University of Helsinki (FI) University of London Institute of Education (UK) University of Stuttgart (DE)

K2 K2: knowledge square

Knowledge sharing services for E&T projects The K2 project will offer 3 interrelated sets of services to Education and Training projects. It will create opportunities for face-to-face knowledge sharing, will provide information packs to support projects in their efforts to share and disseminate knowledge and will provide a web repository that contains valuable knowledge resources, fit to the needs of projects.

Face-to-face knowledge sharing The main objective of the K2 project is knowledge sharing. This is achieved through a suite of events where the participating projects can meet and share experiences. K2 activities are primarily targeted at the following projects:

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Advanced Training Systems projects; Self-Learning for Work projects; Open Platforms and Tools projects; Advanced Solutions for On-the-job Training for SME’s trial projects.

K2 will support existing clusters and facilitate the emergence of new cluster activities around common themes such as evaluation, exploitation and dissemination and IPR. K2 will support and liaise with other accompanying measures.

K2 will organise facilitated sharing days where participants have focused discussions on the specific sharing themes. Each of the sharing days will provide concrete outputs for individual participants, which they can apply in their project directly.

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The support will be provided through an application of the KALiF (Knowledge And Learning InFrastructure) methodology, consisting of ways to organise and integrate thematically organised set of events and electronic services.

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Knowledge sharing will not end with this core group. K2 will provide interfaces to Education & Training (related) projects from other action lines within IST (School of Tomorrow, E-Learning Futures, etc) and outside of IST, such as LEONARDO, Equal and TSER.

Project No: IST-2000-25017 Duration: 36 months Economic Sector: Other service activities Action Line: Education and Training Research Full Title: K2: knowledge square Project Type: Accompanying measure

K2 will also help projects to capture the lessons learned in project debrief sessions. These lessons learned will be made available on the K 2 website (www.know-2.org) and will inform face-to-face sharing events.

Start Date: 01/10/2001

K2 will also organise and facilitate sessions aimed at knowledge sharing during concertation events of the Commission.

Project Objectives: K2 aims to: help projects identify knowledge and experiences that can be shared; capitalise on these; support the projects by disseminating their results to a wider audience; support the emerging community on education and training technology

K2 aims to make sure that the right knowledge is made available at the right time for the projects. In order to do so, K2 continually reassesses its environment and its activities to add benefit to the projects as they develop.

Info packs for effective knowledge sharing and dissemination K2 will also develop on-line and paper-based information packs that can help individual projects and clusters of projects in their efforts to be more effective through the use of knowledge management principles. For example, there will be an induction pack that will introduce project members to the services of K2, a guide for effective dissemination and exploitation and a guide for successful clustering activities. The use of these packs can be followed up by specific face-to-face interventions facilitated by the K2 team. We acknowledge that we may not have all the expertise required for this so external experts may be invited, when appropriate, to help make K2 interventions a success.

End Date: 30/09/2004

Target Audience: Education and Training projects, specifically: Advanced Training Systems projects; SelfLearning for Work projects; Open Platforms and Tools projects; Advanced Solutions for On-thejob Training for SME’s trial projects Keywords: Knowledge sharing, knowledge and learning infrastructure Technology: Web-based knowledge sharing platform

Knowledge resources on the web

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All knowledge generated through the face-to-face sharing events is captured and published on the K2 web area (www.know-2.org) which, integrated with the web services of Proacte (www.proacte.com), functions as a collective memory for all participating projects. The K2 web area provides a knowledge map of the projects, participating organisations, and the people involved. The most important contributions to the site will also be distributed through an e-zine. Furthermore, an education and training technology watch service will be set up specifically for the projects K2 serves.

Project Co-ordinator Eelco Kruizinga CIBIT Arthur van Schendelstraat 570 P.O. Box 19210 NL-3501 DE Utrecht Tel: +31-30-2308963 E-mail: [email protected] URL: http://www.know-2.org Project Participants CIBIT (NL) Learning Futures (UK) Aspen Enterprises (UK)

L-CHANGE European Observatory on IST related change in learning systems Creation of an observation system for IST related change in learning systems The L-CHANGE project aims to create an observation system analysing the changes affecting education, training and lifelong learning as a result of Information Society Technologies (IST). This observatory will be able to provide a constantly updated information service on the state of the art and the development trends of the E&T European market and support Key Action III projects and other interested parties active in this field. A HELPDESK supporting IST and KAIII Education & Training projects is also implemented, with on demand provision of tailor-made reports, based on the information collected and contained in the project database, and focussed on the most relevant issues related to the evolution of the market. Furthermore, the project fosters collaboration among IST projects and other EC funded Programmes such as: ADAPT, LEONARDO, SOCRATES, etc, and raises the general public awareness on the impact of IST on E&T and lifelong learning through the publication of main project activities and results in the project web site, active from January 2002.

The presentation of L-CHANGE results will be embedded in relevant international events (workshops, conferences), and an on-line helpdesk service will be active from February 2002 to support IST and KAIII E&T projects. The main expected result is the creation of a permanent observation system able to conduct prospective studies on future scenarios for E&T market development and operating in synergy with and with the support of complementary/similar projects, researches and initiatives.

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The most important milestones the research will bring out are the production of two main annual reports providing a detailed analysis of the European Education and Training market, as well as an overview of policies, research and innovative practice trends in education and training in Europe. Country reports will also be produced, covering the key areas of interest of the project for the following European countries: DE, DK, ES, FR, GR, IT, UK, and for the US.

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The main objectives of the L-CHANGE project are therefore to review and conduct prospective studies on future scenarios for learning systems, and develop a method to update forecast on a yearly basis. A systematic literature and press review on IST in education and training is undertaken and made accessible, through the PROACTE Web site, to everybody interested. Systematic field research on industrial actors’ strategies in this market is conducted and a yearly report on Change in European Education and Training Systems related to IST is produced giving a synthesis review of the most important facts, figures and trends of the year, accompanied by the updated forecast for the coming three years. Finally, all necessary connections and collaborations with similar and complementary projects are established.

Project No: IST-2000-26226 Duration: 24 months Economic Sector: Market related to IST in the E&T sectors Action Line: IST Support Measure Full Title: European Observatory on IST related change in learning systems

Investigation of 4 key areas The L-CHANGE Project identifies four Key Areas at the centre of its field of interest. First of all, the Market of IST to support education and training and its evolution into future business scenarios through the analysis of current and future market trends and of determining factors. This leads to reliable estimates of the current and future market volumes, which cover the main market segments (education, training, home, and LIFELONG LEARNING) of the EU as a whole and of selected EU countries (DE, DK, ES, FR, GR, I, UK) as well as of the USA. Secondly, the whole of Research activities and projects relevant to the field of IST for education and training. Thirdly, the Public Policies and programmes adopted at local, regional, national and international level in order to promote, support and monitor the implementation of IST in education and training systems. Finally, the range of Innovative Practices adopted in schools, universities, training organisations, workplaces and home to make meaningful use of IST in the learning process. This service is provided mainly through the interaction with other projects in which some members of the L-CHANGE Consortium are partners such as E-WATCH, approved in the framework of the Socrates/Minerva programme and focussed on the analysis of innovative practices in primary and secondary education.

Project Type: Accompanying measure Start Date: 01/01/2001 End Date: 31/12/2002 Project Objectives: The project objectives are to review and conduct prospective studies on future scenarios for learning systems, develop a method to update forecast on a yearly basis, conduct a systematic literature and press review on IST in education and training and systematic field research on industrial actors’ strategies in this market, produce a yearly report on change in European education and trainingsystems related to IST and establish all necessary connections and collaborations with similar and complementary projects Target Audience: IST programme, KAIII projects, E&T suppliers, policy makers Keywords: Information Society, E&T Market and Supply Technology: Web-based technologies

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Contribution to EU policy and innovation The contribution of the L-CHANGE project to EC policies is consistent with the main objective of Key Action III of the IST programme, i.e. to enhance education and training systems for lifelong learning. Furthermore, the creation of an observatory exercise on the European market of IST, which could become permanent and provide European suppliers with a constantly updated information service on the evolution of the market, is a very innovative idea, as innovation consists in trying to promote synergy with all the relevant existing projects/initiative in the field within and outside IST.

Project Co-ordinator Mr Claudio Dondi Scienter Via Val D’Aposa 3 40123 Bologna Italy Tel: +39-051-6560401 Fax: +39-051-6560402 Email: [email protected] Project Participants Scienter (IL) MENON Network (BE) Guilford Educational Services (UK ) Middlesex University (UK )

LEARN Learning IST

Learning from the past and present – looking to the future A large body of knowledge has been accumulated through the efforts of European researchers from past and present research programmes. To capitalise on this, LEARN will present the fruits of IST research. They will be transformed into learning modules for learners aged approximately between 16 to 23 – the age when most people are approaching univeristy-level studies and/or are about to make their professional choices - and those wanting to learn more about the subject areas of IST research (life-long learning). LEARN aims to become one the principal EU-based online services for learners providing first-hand information on the most recent technological research and innovation carried out by the European research in the Fourth Framework Programme and, in particular, the current FP5 IST programme. Consequently, LEARN will target an extremely wide audience, and expects to be able to reach several hundreds of thousands Europeans until 2002.

An easier way to learn? To facilitate this LEARN will set-up a user-friendly, attractive, fully multimedia website delivered entirely in all 11 languages of the European Union. This will include a wide spectrum of IST-related educational features such as tutorials, training courses, success stories, activities for individual and classes, contact with key experts, online debates and bulletin boards, useful links, etc. Particular attention will be paid to the potential disclosure of new job opportunities for learners interested in working in the emerging professional areas related to the IST Programme.

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Initially LEARN will cover 15 research themes during the 32 months lifetime of the project, by producing and promoting the corresponding learning modules. They will adopt a flexible approach to the design of the learning modules. All learning modules will cover different degrees of complexity.

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Part of this process is the provision of content for the LEARN website. LEARN will achieve this by creating, developing, producing and delivering a series of original learning modules related to specific IST research themes.

Project No: IST-1999-12371 Duration: 32 months Economic Sector: Education Vocational training Recruitment Action Line: IST Support Measure Full Title: Learning IST Project Type: Accompanying measures for studies

In particular, for each learning module LEARN will consider both the relationship between the subject and the age of the learners as well as the relevance of the subject for particular audiences. As a result, each learning module will be produced taking into account different users’ perspectives, with a strong dependence on age and subject.

Learning about the site While in itself to build the site is an achievement it is only part of the process. LEARN will reach an audience of several hundreds of thousands of learners throughout Europe during the project’s lifetime. LEARN will promote their website to the academic community and secondary schools, additionally they will also implement a strong dissemination strategy, targeting a variety of distribution channels including the media, the Web, European science museums and major ICT fairs and exhibitions (including the annual IST Conference).

An iterative process

Start Date: 01/04/2000 End Date: 31/12/2001 Project Objectives: LEARN aims to present the IST research results and transform them into learning modules for learners aged between 16-23 and for those willing to learn more about subjects covered by IST research. Target Audience: Learners, students, teachers, vocational trainers, lifelong learners, media Keywords: Learners, students, job opportunities, learning modules, website, IST research Technology: Web-based technologies and learning modules

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LEARN will measure the effective benefits brought by its service to its users and feed them back them to their website. This will be achieved partly through monitoring project results.

Project Co-ordinator Mr Mario Martinoli Databank Consulting Corso Italia 8 I-20122 Milan Tel: +39-02-72107515 Fax: +39-02-72107402 E-mail: [email protected] Project Participants Databank Consulting (IT) Cognitive Applications (UK) European Open Universities Network (NL) Gedeon Programmes (FR) Institut de l’Audiovisuel et des Telecommunications en Europe (FR) Teleport Sachsen-Anhalt (DE)

PROACTe Promoting Awareness and Communicating Technologies in Education Aiding education and training community PROACTe is a Web service for projects covering educational and training technologies under the European Commission’s Information Society Technology programme. This service gives users immediate access to information about educational technologies and research across Europe. PROACTe’s key objective is to be a central portal for raising awareness of education and training technologies and research across Europe. The site is for the projects to display results as well as receive information on other initiatives, form virtual communities, and provide resources on all educational technologies in Europe. It also acts as a gateway to national, European and global information in educational technologies. PROACTe compiles and maintains up-to-date, high quality information on the website, encourages participation, gives examples of best practice, lessons learnt, news, events and provides a communications service. Other services include printable information sheets on all the projects and a report on Educational Technologies in Europe 2000-2004.

Supporting projects

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PROACTe supports, valorises and facilitates the dissemination and take-up activities of the projects of the Education and Training Action Line, as well as implementing actions in support of consensus building between the projects. PROACTe also undertakes activities (targeting both the projects and a wide range of external players, end-users, providers, the press, and policy-makers) aimed at actively promoting the dissemination of information from the European Commission through clearly identified dissemination channels to the

Project No: IST-1999-12292 Duration: 36 months Economic Sector: Education and Training Action Line: Education and Training Area Full Title: Promoting Awareness and Communicating Technologies in Education Project Type: Support Action

interested public. It will provide a full repository of project information based on the needs of the projects themselves, a central communications service, virtual communities for feedback, discussion and debate and a review of educational technologies in Europe. PROACTe will also undertake organisation and support for focused thematic workshop meetings concerned with exchange of experience and support of community building between projects.

Start Date: 01/01/2000 End Date: 31/12/2002 Project Objectives: PROACTe is providing a service for the projects supported under the education and training area of the IST programme. Communication is the key to PROACTe and will encourage exchange of experience between projects involved in using technology to support learning and assist them in raising awareness and disseminating information on their progress, achievements and results. PROACTe will support, valorise and facilitate the communication and take-up activities of these projects and implement actions in support of consensus building between the projects. PROACTe is a Web-based service that will give access to information and provide a context for European Research into technologies to support learning. PROACTe is providing information not only on the issues surrounding the take-up of technologies but also on the impact of learning mechanisms on all areas of society Target Audience: All people interested in Educational Technologies Keywords: Dissemination, promotion, awareness raising

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Technology: Web

Project Co-ordinator Dr Tara Morris ECOTEC Research & Consulting Avenue de Tervuren 13b B-1040 Brussels Tel: +32-2-7438949 Fax: +32-2-7327111 E-mail: [email protected] URL: http://www.proacte.com

SCHEMAS Forum for Metadata Schema Implementers

Information about information

With the rapid development and consolidation of these new metadata schemas, implementers of information services on the Web today are faced with a complex new challenge. Wherever metadata is needed, schemas must be designed to be as compatible as possible with existing and emerging standards. However, many of the standards needed are still under development and lack good documentation or user guides. Moreover, it is rare that all the requirements of a particular project or website can be met by an existing schema “straight from the box.”

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Schemas that are designed to cover the basic needs of users in a wide range of fields and applications are called “core” element sets. In the Web environment, the most important of these is the Dublin Core element set – a set of fifteen broad categories such as Title, Creator, Subject, Publisher, and Date. This element set was designed to be simple and intuitive enough for ordinary people to use without special training. As of November 1999, the definitions of the Dublin Core elements have been translated into twenty-five languages, making it a truly multilingual standard. Alongside the Dublin Core, efforts are under way to standardise element sets for purposes other than simple resource discovery, such as digital commerce and rights management, and for use with specific domains, such as instructional materials, museum objects, archives and government information.

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The rise of the World Wide Web has created an urgent need to define standard methods and vocabularies for describing its contents in a consistent and orderly manner. Since 1995, a number of related initiatives have arisen in what has been called a Metadata Movement. “Metadata” is a broad term that covers many types of “structured data about data” – from traditional resources such as library catalogues, subject indexes, book reviews and abstracts, to new forms of technical and descriptive data for Web resources ranging from digital signatures and digitised co-ordinates to online mail-order catalogues. In its most familiar form, metadata may be used to list the author, title and subject of resources in a collection. Other types of metadata may list the price or quality rating of those resources, specify the format of their computer files, name the administrators responsible for their preparation, or clarify the terms and conditions under which they may be viewed or copied. Some of these metadata types are meant to be read by humans, while others are designed to be processed directly by computers. No single type of metadata can suit every application, every type of resource, and every community of users. Rather, the broad diversity of potential metadata needs can best be met by a multiplicity of separate but functionally focused metadata packages, or schemas.

Project No: IST-1999-10010 Duration: 24 months Economic Sector: All Action Line: Education and Training Full Title: Forum for Metadata Schema Implementers Project Type: Support Action

The purpose of SCHEMAS The purpose of SCHEMAS is to look at this diverse and often confusing landscape of new and emerging metadata standards from the viewpoint of project or service implementers who must use these standards to design their own interoperable schemas. We picture these schema designers as institutions and companies who want to publish on the Web or provide information services at a high level of access quality. This is precisely the audience that is of interest to developers of software tools for managing metadata and to the developers and maintainers of metadata standards. To delimit the audience in a practical and operational sense, we will focus on institutions and companies that are participating in projects under the IST programme and in related initiatives on a national level in Europe. Many of these projects will need schemas that are customised but interoperable. Indeed, SCHEMAS could help improve access to European project results while contributing to the standardisation of metadata schemas for EU-sponsored projects in a more general and lasting sense.

Start Date: 01/02/2000 End Date: 31/01/2002 Project Objectives: SCHEMAS aims to provide a training platform for metadata schema designers involved in projects under the IST Programme and national initiatives in Europe The main objectives are: 1) to guide and educate metadata schema implementers about the status and proper use of new and emerging metadata standards 2) to promote good-practice guidelines for adapting multiple standards or metadata modules for local use in customised schemas Target Audience: FP5 projects in IST Key Action III, also other key actions, industry in general Keywords: Metadata schemas, training platform, metadata watch, standards framework, metadata schema registry

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Technology: Web-based training tools, metadata registry structure (ISO 11179, RDF schemas)

Project Co-ordinator Mr Makx Dekkers PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS 400 Route d’Esch B.P. 1443 L-1014 Luxembourg Tel: +352-4948484618 Fax: +352-4948482900 E-mail: [email protected] Project Participants PriceWaterhouseCoopers (LU) GMD – Forschungzentrum Informationstechnik GmbH (DE) University of Bath, UKOLN (UK)

SEN-IST-NET European Network of Excellence in Information Society Technologies for Special Educational Needs Pedagogical and technological challenges SEN-IST-NET addresses the problem that certain groups of learners are at risk of not being fully involved in new ways of learning, either because of social disadvantages or disability or both. This issue presents pedagogical and technological challenges of the highest order. In order to build a socially inclusive Information Society based on participation for all, new pedagogical approaches and appropriate technologies must be developed and applied to suit the learning requirements of all children and young people, including those who have special educational needs Orienting Europe’s research and technological development community to this challenge requires an “inclusive” approach to the development of a new learning culture in general and to technology-enabled learning in particular. With the rapid pace of developments in information and communication technologies, there is an increasing concern among the educational community that technological advances are inhibiting the role of educational objectives in shaping educational environments. Yet there are also some technological developments that have the possibility of radically shifting established paradigms of learning. SEN-IST-NET addresses these and other research questions in an ongoing fashion by providing a common platform – delivered through a Thematic Network – for discussion and debate, not only on the development of technologies per se but also on the fundamental questions concerning pedagogy and technologyenabled learning. SEN-IST-NET presents a vision and a plan to establish a European Network of Excellence to share knowledge between two communities:

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“IST” - researchers and developers working in the field of Information Society Technologies and “SEN” - researchers, professionals, policy-makers, industrial enterprises and NGO’s in the area of Special Educational Needs.

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Project No: IST-2000-26449 Duration: 30 months Economic Sector: Technology Supported Learning Action Line: Learning Citizen Full Title: European Network of Excellence in Information Society Technologies for Special Educational Needs

Combined approach to networking Most networking activities are mediated through a “virtual” space of a dedicated SEN-IST-NET Web portal (http://www.senist.net). A range of core services is established on the website, including the SEN-IST resource guide and a digital, full-text virtual library. A high level of service on the Internet website ensures that data communication, collaboration in the Web space, and dissemination activities are made accessible to all. Through compliance with widely accepted accessibility guidelines, the activities are also made available to persons with disabilities. SEN-IST-NET follows a combined approach of virtual and face-to-face networking to secure the best use of the project’s resources and to allow the widest possible reach. The stimulation of networking activities in Special Interest Groups (SIGs) make the network the natural focal point for the development of SEN-related objectives and activities within the whole IST programme. It also provides IST researchers with direct access to policy-makers and practitioners at European and national levels and to NGOs working in the field of special education for children, young people and adults.

Project Type: Accompanying measures and thematic networks Start Date: 01/07/2001 End Date: 31/12/2003 Project Objectives: The aim of SEN-IST-NET is to establish a European Network of Excellence to support the development of a culture of pedagogical and technological innovation. This will be for the benefit of Information Society Technologies (IST) and for all learners, including those with Special Educational Needs (SEN), through the involvement of a wide range of researchers, professionals and practitioners Target Audience: Researchers, professionals, policy makers and practitioners in Special Educational Needs and in Information Society Technologies Keywords: Special educational needs, thematic network, network of excellence, Special Interest Groups (SIG), resource guide

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Project Co-ordinator Jørgen Greve European Agency for Development in Special Needs Education Teglgaardsparken 100 DK-5500 Middelfart Tel: +45-64-410020 Fax: +45-64-412303 E-mail: [email protected] URL: http://www.european-agency.org

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Technology: Network, Internet, portal, digital library

Project Participants European Agency for Development in Special Needs Education (DK) Department of Education, University of Innsbruck (AT) Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas, Institute of Computer Science (GR) GIUNTI MultiMedia Srl. (IT) European Disability Forum (BE) Swedish Institute for Special Needs Education (SE)