Design and implementation of an object oriented learning activity system

Abstract

For the pedagogical needs, many researches have applied the IMS Learning Design Specification (LD) to express the higher level learning activities. Although the specification of LD can express various learning activities, its technical-driven nature results in the hardness of understanding for teachers. For solving this problem, we propose an Object Oriented Learning Activity model (OOLA) which is a directed graph structure including the following components to model the learning activities: Learning Activity Node (N-LA), Application Node (N-AP), Examination Activity Node (N-EA) and Directed edges connecting the nodes. Based on the OOLA model, we also design and implement an OOLA authoring system, and an OOLA learning system. The OOLA learning system provides the display of learning activities and contents following the learning flow designed by teachers. The OOLA2NORM algorithm is also proposed to transform the course modeled by OOLA to the New Object Oriented Rule Model (NORM). The learning activity of OOLA is then stored in Learning Activity Rule Base (LARB) where each learning activity can be played on the inference engine. For evaluating the OOLA model, the pedagogical theory of Scaffolding Instruction has been implemented. The experimental results show that the OOLA learning system can improve the students' learning.