COFALE: An Authoring System for Creating Web-based Adaptive Learning Environments Supporting Cognitive Flexibility

Abstract

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; layout-grid-mode: char;" align="left"><span class="text"><span style="font-family: ";Arial";,";sans-serif";; font-size: 9pt;">Constructivism is a learning theory that states that people learn by actively constructing their own</span></span><span style="font-family: ";Arial";,";sans-serif";; font-size: 9pt;"> <span class="text">knowledge, based on prior knowledge. A significant number of ICT-based constructivist learning systems have been proposed in recent years. A critical problem related to the design and use of this kind of systems has been the lack of a practical means to facilitate the instructional design process. Our research aims to help designing truly constructivist and adaptive learning environments. Our approach is based on a set of operational criteria for certain aspects of constructivism: We use these criteria as a useful pedagogical framework to provide tools and guidelines facilitating the instructional design process. One facet often mentioned as being strongly relevant to constructivism is cognitive flexibility. This paper presents COFALE—a new, domain-</span> <span class="text">independent, and open-source e-learning platform that could be used to build adaptive learning environments supporting cognitive flexibility—and an example of its use: the design of a course on recursion.</span></span></p&gt

COFALE: An Authoring System for Supporting Cognitive Flexibility

“…In earlier work [6,8], we transformed the pedagogical principles underlying the previous two learning conditions for CF into operational criteria and we showed examples of their use. An operational criterion for CF is a test that allows a straightforward decision about whether or not a learning situation reflects the pedagogical principles underlying CF.…”

“…In this section, we show for each criterion for CF, how a course designer (Tom) uses Web-based authoring tools provided by COFALE to present Alice with learning situations satisfying the corresponding criterion. Because of limited space, we invite the reader to explore [8] to understand COFALE's instructional design tools better. Criteria MM1 and MP1.…”

“…For instance, the tool (Figure 4) provided by ATutor (COFALE) allows Tom to associate "Simple text search" with "Arithmetic expressions" by selecting the checkbox next to "Simple text search". On the basis of those definitions, COFALE automatically generates the hyperlinks in a menu "Related Topics", presented to Alice in her learning hyperspace (see also [7]). Criterion MP4.…”

“…A 2-week-long study was performed to formatively evaluate the recursion course we designed using COFALE [8]. Here is the method: Nine first-year engineering students at the Université catholique de Louvain, with prior knowledge of programming and Java but no knowledge of recursion, were randomly organ-ized into two groups: four in the COFALE group and five in the control group.…”

“…In earlier work [6,8], we have defined a set of operational criteria for cognitive flexibility (CF), one of the important facets of constructivism. In this paper, we show that operational criteria may be used as a useful framework to exploit advanced learning technology in the design and use of learning environments supporting CF.…”