DOI: 10.5176/2251-2195_CSEIT18.131
Authors: Carsten Lecon and Marc Hermann
Abstract: In order to address the heterogeneity of the student´s learning behaviour at universities, it is useful to offer additional electronic material for a better understanding or to deepen the learning content. However, producing these materials is often a very timeconsuming process, since often multiple views to the learning matter have to be considered and different learning trails could be helpful. Therefore, we present an approach that allows a considerably ‘easy’ construction of ‘mini- courses’ with learning objects (texts, figures, animations, videos, quizzes inclusively answers and hints, exercises, …) and the relation between them: intra-page (composition of the media and layout), and inter-page (sequences of pages or learning trails). We have implemented a tool that allows creating an HTML website (‘mini course’) based on an XML file. This document defines the structure (sections, subsections, hyperlinks …), metadata (also pedagogical metadata) and content. In addition, learning trails can be specified for different paths through the learning matter; for example a ‘visual trail’ (only sites which contain figures), ‘exercise trail’ (sites which contain exercises or quizzes) or a ‘summary-trail’ (sites which summarize the previous subject). The corresponding navigation structure will be generated automatically. Based on the metadata in the XML document, offline search functionality is integrated in the generated HTML course (full text, metadata and structure information). The underlying data structure uses an attributed context free grammar approach, for example in order to inherit XML attributes. A graphical sitemap on every page offers an overview and a quick navigation. The generated HTML files can be used online (in a learning management system), and offline (desktop PC or mobile devices). In addition, the tool allows generating LaTeX and PDF files, and new content can easily be added to an existing mini-course.
Keywords:E-Learning, Informal Learning, Data Modeling, Learning trails, Content Generation, Student´s heterogeneity
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