Dynamic Learning Experience
A portlet for IBM Lotus Workplace 2.0 that allows users to query, assemble, and organize learning content into custom courses.
Date Posted: November 23, 2004
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What is Dynamic Learning Experience?
Dynamic Learning Experience (DLE) is a portlet for IBM Lotus Workplace 2.0 that allows users to query, assemble, and organize learning content into custom courses. This demonstration includes learning content related to transforming a company into an "On Demand" Business. With Dynamic Learning Experience, users can access learning in small custom courses that are targeted to their immediate learning needs, their preferences, and their work constraints.
DLE provides two basic options by which users can assemble custom courses. Using a dynamic assembly option, the system automatically selects and arranges learning content into a custom course to fit a user's topic query, available time, and desired depth of study. Using a manual assembly option, users find and select learning content for what they want to learn by issuing a query and the system assembles and sequences the selections into a custom course. Query parameters include keywords, desired media, intended use for learning, and desired level of difficulty. A recommendation feature is also provided that proposes learning content that is relevant to the users' selections.
Assembled custom courses consist of a sequence of "learning objects," each containing short, modular Web content, such as a few slides of a presentation or a section of reference book, with associated assistance in the form of learning objectives and questions. Each learning object has a title, description, topic, intended use, duration, and difficulty level. Topics are related to one another through a topic graph that provides many possible dynamic learning progressions through the content.
Custom courses built using DLE are saved in a personal workspace on the server. The courses can be played right away using the included course player or replayed later, with the ability to suspend and resume at any point. Courses can also be bookmarked for easy reference or reorganized for optimal learning using a drag-and-drop feature. Optimized courses can then be shared with other users through optional e-mail notification.
How does it work?
The software is implemented as a portlet running on IBM Portal Server. This preview includes a sample repository of learning content related to IBM's "On Demand" vision consisting mostly of learning modules that are sections of IBM redbooks, short sequences of slides taken from educational presentations, and printable PDF files. The repository is stored as files on the IBM HTTP Server and preindexed using IBM's Juru™ technology. Email notification is done by making a connection to the Lotus Workplace mail server.
The portlet uses a set of Java™ Server Pages (JSPs) to provide the graphical user interface for all functions. Search results from Juru are organized using a patent-pending dynamic assembly algorithm. This algorithm uses XML metadata stored with learning objects and a "Semantic Web" RDF graph that relates topics referenced in the metadata. Each user is given a private data area managed by WebSphere® Application Server in which to store their custom courses and associated personal data.
Further information is available in these two award-winning papers:
This technology won a Brandon Hall Exellence in Learning Gold Award for Innovative Technology.
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| | About the technology author(s):
 Brian F. White is a programmer in the Learning Technologies department at the IBM T. J. Watson Research Center in Hawthorne, N.Y. He is the developer of the Dynamic Learning Experience portlet. Mr. White has a long history at IBM working on natural language processing, knowlege representation systems, and data mining. He has received several awards for this technical work in the Research division; he is the author of several patents; and he has successfully transferred research technologies into IBM products.
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 Robert (Rob) Farrell is a research staff member in the Learning Technologies department at IBM T. J. Watson Research Center in Hawthorne, N.Y., where he is project leader of the team that developed Dynamic Learning Experience. Mr. Farrell received his M.S. and M. Phil degrees in Computer Science from Yale University and his B.S. in Mathematics from Carnegie-Mellon University. He is a technical lead in the Next-Generation Web department and a member of the Institute for Advanced Learning, a center for learning research at IBM. He has over 20 years of experience in the development of software for education, training, and workplace performance improvement. Mr. Farrell is the author of two books and over forty articles.
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Other contributors to the DLE technology are as follows: Douglas N. Gordin, Stephen E. Levy, John C. Thomas, Daniel V. Oppenheim, Amy G. Katriel, Bill Rubin, Sam Dooley (former IBM employee), and Soyini D. Liburd (former IBM intern).
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