Mass homogeneous markets do not exist in this area. 1.1. Teleworking. Teleworking applications ..... for handling an email client and WWW search engines. 3.2.
Working and learning at homeDesigning a virtual working and learning environment for teleworkers Iris Braun, Katrin Borcea, Alexander Schill Chair for Computer Networks Dresden University of Technology D-01062 Dresden (Germany) E-mail: {braun|borcea|schill}@rn.inf.tu-dresden.de Tel: +49 351 463 8261 Fax: +49 351 463 8251 Abstract
1. Introduction
The progress of the information society is having a profound effect on the development of a new working and learning culture. Multimedia and telematics based tools and content services are widely considered as central ingredients for evolving new ways and means of working and learning.
Working in the information society is undergoing radical changes. The new challenges make it necessary to rethink the working process and the ways of educating workers so that they can cope with them. The role of training within organizations is changing, so employee learning becomes a central element of overall corporate strategies.
Teleworking is the key to a more flexible design of working time and places of work on the way to the modern information society with a knowledge oriented growth of economy. The rapid development of co-operative application software and electronic networking systems and the penetration of ISDNbased applications have demonstrated the enormous potential of technical facilities for new employment models. This makes the need for training and learning practically life-long. Learning is dependent on context and on appropriate and timely access to knowledge. Our project aims at creating a life-long learning environment especially for teleworkers. This paper will present the key challenges and success factors for the new ways of networked working and learning, based on modern information and communication technologies. We were evaluating the effectiveness of new learning models, analyzing the benefits and social impact of implementing teleworking and creating telelearning software prototypes based on innovative learning models. A pilot course developed on the basis of JaTeK is outlined in the paper.
Keywords Teleworking, Telelearning, Teleteaching
Personnel competence has become synonymous for Return On Investment (ROI). This translates directly to the need for continuous and better targeted, produced and mediated multimedia oriented training. Network-based learning technologies enable us to achieve this goal economically. Challenges facing a learning environment from the customer's side include the diversity of learners. Efficient training in enterprises is difficult to achieve, due to the numerous and opposing factors involved. [4] Workers of a globally operating company are extremely heterogeneous in such matters as language, age, culture, education and motivation. Often internet and computer based learning content and tools are designed for and used by a large, homogeneous mass of young universitylevel students with sufficient new media literacy. This is practically never the case in small and medium-sized companies and enterprises. Mass homogeneous markets do not exist in this area.
1.1. Teleworking Teleworking applications are mainly characterized by distribution of their components: one terminal at home and one in the office, connected via telecommunication services. So, teleworking is an umbrella term for a wide range of alternative office
arrangements with variable working time and places of work. In general, the following basic categories of teleworking scenarios can be distinguished: • • •
• •
•
•
Homeworking: Working at home during normal business hours Alternating teleworking: Variable commuting between office and home workplace Desk sharing: Shared office space in a company location designed for use as a drop-in basis for employees who are in the office only a few days a week Satellite office: A fully equipped office location established by the company, usually in suburban locations Telecenter: Similar to a satellite office, however, used by employees representing numerous public and private employers, located closer to employees’ homes Mobile / virtual office: Employees equipped with the communications tools and technology needed to perform job duties from wherever they need to be Telecooperation: General use of electronic networking methods among individuals and enterprises to enhance communications and access to information to achieve mutual benefits
The different forms of teleworking were specified and analyzed on dissemination and user acceptance during former project work [1]. Alternating teleworking is surely the mostly used form of teleworking because it combines the advantages of teamwork in an office with the flexibility of homework. Fields of using teleworking solutions can be all businesses using information and communication technologies for performing working tasks such as writing services, data recording, software design and programming, financial transactions, computer aided design etc. Teleworking is of special benefit to businesses and public authorities which tend to decentralize value-added services in rural areas. [2] As with most innovative solutions teleworking represents both opportunities and risks. A very frequently cited disadvantage of homeworking, as one form of teleworking, is that it is reducing or even eliminating the daily contact of the worker to colleagues and managers. The homeworkers may be barred from internal communication and may find it difficult to reach the manager or chief, when they have problems. Another barrier is that many companies do not yet understand how to implement
teleworking programs into the working process or how to manage teleworkers. Traditional hierarchical management structures can not be directly mapped to workplaces of teleworkers. Moreover, there are still uncertainties because of open questions about the juridical status of the teleworker which must be answered by experts of law. Overall, teleworking has been rather successful at all participating companies and workers up to now.
1.2. Telelearning A telelearning environment is a networked computer application that enables people to learn from a distance. Learners can be physically separated from teachers and from each other, and they can participate in the learning environment at their convenience. Choosing which web-based learning environment to purchase is an important decision as it often involves a substantial investment for organizations and significantly impacts how people will learn. The internet is an exciting new medium for providing courses to distant learners. It is considered as an ideal medium for effective courseware delivery to users anywhere in the world at any time. A telelearning environment may be defined as "a place where learners may work together and support each other as they use a variety of tools and information resources in their pursuit of learning goals and problem-solving activities". A web-based learning environment is a hypermedia-based program that uses the attributes and resources of the World Wide Web to facilitate learning. It can be considered as the place where learners and teachers interact. [6] We will restrict this definition to learning environments that support distributed learning. With distributed learning we mean placeor time-independent learning; teacher and individual learners may be in different physical locations or may engage in learning at different times. Distributed learning lessens the possible disruption to students' lives by giving them more control over their learning environment. Some of the problems that learners report with traditional or corresponding types of distributed learning such as lack of motivation and a feeling of isolation, may be remedied by well designed and technologically enhanced learning environments. [10] We propose the following four additional principles for developing telelearning courses to address learners' special needs.
A telelearning environment • should help learners to understand what they are doing; • should help to motivate learners; • should accommodate the diversity of learners; • should account for the fact that people change and grow as they learn. The objective is to contribute to bridge the gap between research and actual use of learning technologies, content and services in companies, organizations and private life in education, training and life-long learning in general. Success factors of a good computer aided, network or internet-based learning environment are obvious: help respective training on different levels of detail is always accessible, just in time to the end user. Pedagogically correctly designed learning material and documentation in multimedia format should be comprehensible. It can relieve customer trainers of presenting tedious basic-level information and let them concentrate on real knowledge sharing. Virtual presence technologies stretch the limits of classrooms to a global scale.
2. Telelearning for Teleworkers 2.1.
Model of Integration
Our new concept is to combine telematic-based working and learning in a new integrated manmachine environment. So it will be easier for the teleworker to handle the new applications and techniques. It provides them access to various resources: office applications, multimedia objects and documents, educational software, tutorial and training tools, communication tools such as email and conferences, individual and group assignments. For easier handling especially for inexperienced users we created an integrated user interface (see figure 1) that enables access to all services. As applications standard software like MS Office or self-developed tools like the telelearning environment JaTeK or a tool for document management for teleworkers could be used. [3] Our model establishes a web-based learning framework that combines communication facilities and multimedia packages to be used stand-alone for self studying or in the context of collaborative learning in an virtual classroom. Collaborative learning is a learning process that emphasizes active
participation within groups of learners and the teacher(s). Learners develop their knowledge while sharing ideas, reflecting and interacting in learning groups. Using the same technology for learning as needed for teleworking enables a so called learning-bydoing. So inexperienced users will loose their fear of dealing with new technologies and applications. An important factor for the success of the integration is that the knowledge is always available. The main idea of the just-in-time education is that everyone should be able to access the education and training that they want, when and where they need it. This implies that high quality learning material should be available on demand at home, the workplace, at educational or training institutions or even when travelling. [8]
2.2.
Content of courses for Teleworkers
The pedagogical philosophy that guides the development of our courses aims to promote an active, participatory and collaborative learning process, as defined by the constructivist philosophy. Teachers in constructivist learning environments are facilitators. Instead of being disseminators of knowledge, they guide learners by coaching and supporting them in their knowledge building efforts. Telelearning for Teleworkers should offer a wide range of topics, for instance: • working knowledge of computer hardware • handling of applications and software • computer networking • internet technology and services: email, www, ftp, chat, news • groupware, workflow management systems • tele- and videoconferencing • data and resource management • special management of teleworkers • juridical and social status of teleworkers • application specific topics • team and individual training (inhouse and/or in cooperation with other companies)
2.3. JaTeK (Java Based Teleteaching Kit) In the project we have selected JaTeK as a webbased interactive and multimedia supporting telelearning environment. JaTeK (Java Based Teleteaching Kit) was developed in another research project of our group. JaTeK represents a client/server system that consists
of a database and three main modules (see figure 2):
literature or external web pages etc.
JaTeK as the core module implements integration of multimedia lecturing material, user administration, management of user groups, and several auxiliary tools. This module consists of two modes: the student’s mode is for learning using the lecturing material, and with the tutor’s mode it is possible to create and edit the lecturing material. The JaTeK module serves as login component to the system, server and viewer for the learning documents and as gateway (server side) and frame (client side) for the JaWoS and Javal components. Besides it is also responsible for permission management.
(3) Online interactive exercises: Students have the possibility to access exercises in an asynchronous way. Exercises can be text-style questions where solutions are sent to the tutor via email or they are given graphically. In this case the student can check if his/her solution matches a reference solution. The reference solution is either calculated by the system or given by the tutor and stored in the database.
JaWoS (Java Based Workgroup Support) offers various multimedia-based CSCW tools for interaction within learning groups and allows synchronous and asynchronous communication. With Javal (Java Based Evaluation System) instructors can evaluate their teaching material. Javal offers two different tools: The form generator allows to create, to show and evaluate questionnaires. The automatic evaluation tool gives a statistical overview of the learning material usage. [7] The architecture of JaTeK is client/server-based, i.e. the JaTeK server is the basic component that interacts with the JaWoS servers, the Javal server, and all JaTeK clients running on the students' and tutors' sites. On data request from a client the JaTeK server connects to a database, retrieves the according material objects, and extracts the requested data. In the database all lecturing material and glossary items are stored as well as all exercise parameters. [5] The usage of the programming language Java makes it easy to develop platform independent software that is able to run with various web browsers. Java enhances the functionality of the internet in such a way that makes it possible to use this language for realizing such complex teaching scenarios as the ones listed below: (1) Creation of online teaching material: JaTeK offers utilities for structuring the teaching material in chapters and subchapters, creating lecturing material using material templates (including interactive exercises) and inserting it into the course structure, and creating glossaries etc. (2) Offering teaching material online: JaTeK supports teaching material in various forms such as scripts, exercises, video and audio sequences, simulations, animations, and links to important
(4) Workgroup support: The system offers the possibility to work in groups over larger distances by using such functionality like blackboard, whiteboard, text and audio chat, and a shared text editor. The communication and collaboration tools can be used for asynchronous and synchronous communication. (5) Evaluation of the teaching process: The system offers two major viewpoints: the evaluation of teaching material by logging and monitoring various access data and the evaluation by gathering data from questionnaires.
3. Instantiation of the Scenarios 3.1. Example Course A first pilot course about telecommunication technologies for teleworkers was created and implemented in the JaTeK-System (see figure 3). The course introduces teleworkers to office automation and telecommunication technologies which they will need in their new working environments. The example course contains material to the following topics: • basic knowledge about personal computer hardware • handling of office applications and standard software • basic knowledge about computer networking, hardware and protocols • internet technology and services: email, www, ftp, chat, news • handling of internet applications like teleshopping and videoconferencing • teleworking, organization and technical infrastructure
The material is arranged in chapters which can be
selected over the list of content in the left frame. Among text modules other media are used like animated pictures and videos. After working through one chapter a multiple-choice test is provided for self-controlling of the achieved level of knowledge (see figure 4). Besides there are 2 practical exercises for handling an email client and WWW search engines.
3.2.
Hardware and Infrastructure
The technology needed for full-scale teleworking is roughly the same as required in the principal office. Using fairly basic information-processing equipment (PC, modem, printer), the teleworkers are linked to their companies via national and international communications networks like the internet. Hardware used in our specific project are PCs running Windows NT or 95 on the client site and Windows NT Server on the server site. Because of the complete implementation in Java the telelearning-system JaTeK can operate at all platforms with a JVM (Java Virtual Machine). The hardware requirements for the server are predefined by the requirements of Java. That's why it is advisable to have a minimum of 128 MB RAM. [9] The software needed in the home office depends on the content of work and is typically the same as used in the office. For communication and information exchange between the teleworker and the office familiar browsers and email clients are being used. The JaTeK clients for applying the courses have to be installed at the home PC. Additional tools supporting cooperative work like CSCW, videoconferencing and electronic meeting systems may complete the teleworking environment [2].
3.3.
Evaluation
Within our project work we were evaluating the effectiveness of new learning models and analyzing the benefits and social impact of implementing teleworking and telelearning. There are different possibilities of evaluating the learning environment. One kind of evaluation is to ask the users for their personal experiences. JaTeK offers an integrated tool for creation of questionnaires as well as the integrated assessment of the data gathered with help of the questionnaire tool. In consideration of the companies' feedback during
the implementation process of training material we can improve the handling of the JaTeK environment. Another function for evaluation of the quality of the teaching material is realized in Javal by logging the count and important properties of the users' accesses as well as the assessment of that data. The collected data can further used in other applications like prefetching mechanisms or to create a learning history for each single learner. [11] Our experiences with the pilot courses have been rather positive. The teleworkers can work and learn directly from a home office, which is especially beneficial for small startup companies. A questionnaire campaign in the pilot companies has shown that teleworking and telelearning has been rather successful at all participating companies and workers up to now.
4. Conclusions and Future Work In summary, it is obvious that today’s multimedia facilities, network infrastructures and Internet services already enable rather sophisticated, interdisciplinary telelearning scenarios. Learning is no longer just for students in classrooms. With the acceptance of notions such as life-long learning and learning organizations, professionals are being called upon to constantly learn, change and grow. Since learning in the context of doing is more effective and since workers in knowledge-intensive industries almost all have personal computers, these increasingly powerful computers could be used to support learning and teleworking. Our approach represents a significant advance over the typical Internet approach of delivering educational information using text, static images and a few video clips over hypertext HTML pages. So it is possible to create innovative learning environments and new opportunities for teleworkers. Our new methodology aims to deliver courseware elements ("content objects") to distributed users smoothly. The strength of the system stems from the proposed courseware data model as well as database schema, the developed database engine, the integrated system's software modules, the generated courseware presentation agents and the courseware reusability. For the future we plan to implement new JaTeK extensions that are well suited for the application in the integrated teleteaching/teleworking environment. At the moment we are working at the realization of a
hybrid version of JaTeK. So it will be possible to use JaTeK in an offline/online combination whereby telecommunication costs could be saved. For the same reason we'll implement a caching mechanisms that will reduce the loading time of the material.
8.
Dietinger, T., Maurer, H., Pivec, M.: Multimedia Learning Environment: Combining easier courseware production and new learning methods; IFIP World Computer Congress '98, Wien / Budapest, Aug.-Sept. 1998
In addition to the already mentioned evaluation extensions in Javal the possibilities for monitoring and assessing of learning results will be improved. Besides an email client for JaWoS is being developed and the separation of the JaWoS tools for using outside of the JaTeK environment is planed.
9.
Schill, A., Franze, K., Neumann, O. : An Infrastructure for Advanced Education: Technology and Experiences ; 7th World Conference on Continuing Engineering Education, Turin, May 1998
REFERENCES 1.
Braun, I., Hess, R., Schill, A.: Teleworking support for small and medium-sized enterprises; IFIP World Computer Congress '98, Wien / Budapest, Aug.-Sept. 1998
2.
Braun, I., Schill, A.: Experiences with Regional Teleworking Support for Small and Mediumsized Enterprises; 1st European Regional Telematics Conference, Tanum, June 1999
3.
Braun, I., Franze, K., Hess, R., Neumann, O., Schill, A.: Integration von Telelearning- und Teleworking-Applikationen; Workshop GeNeMe 99, in Virtuelle Organisation und Neue Medien, Engelien/Hofmann (Hrsg.), Josef Eul Verlag, Lohmar, Köln, October 1999
4.
Forcheri, P., Molfino, M.T., Quarati, A., Riccio, F.: A Computer-based Model for Continuous Traing in SMEs; IFIP World Computer Congress '98, Wien / Budapest, 1998
5.
Schill, A., Franze, K., Neumann O.: InternetBased Telelearning: Architectural Support and Experiences. Proceedings of the ED-MEDIA & ED-TELECOM 98, Freiburg, 1998
6.
Man-piu, Hui: Teleteaching using Active WebBased Instructions; IFIP World Computer Congress '98, Wien / Budapest, 1998
7.
Franze, K., Wehner, F.: A Document Model for Generating Adaptable Courseware Using Background Data, WebNet Conference in Honolulu/Hawaii, Herausgeber: AACE, Charlottesville, October 1999
10. Palloff, R.M., Pratt, K.: Effective Teaching and Learning in the Virtual Classroom; IFIP World Computer Congress '98, Wien / Budapest, 1998 11. Franze, K., Neumann, O., Schill, A. : Systemumgebung für interaktive Lehr- und Lernumgebungen; DFN-Spezial "Verteiltes Lehren und Lernen im Deutschen Forschungsnetz", March 1999
Figures:
Fig. 1: Integrated Teleworking-Telelearning-Place
Fig.2: JaTeK-architecture
Fig. 3: Example course
Fig. 4: Multiple-choice test
