Abstract:

Since the institutionalization of education, the organization of educational contents in a linear and sequential manner has always been a pedagogical axiom, where school subjects establish a knowledge sequence that will be passed on to the apprentice subject. The conception of this organization of the contents took place at a time when the book was the media used for registration and transmission of information, and it has a practical limitation: the written content must follow the linear sequence that has been created by its author.

Within the Cognitive lines of learning process theorization, there is an essential role for the discussion regarding how the structuring of concepts takes place in the mind of the apprentice. Each theorization line defines this process in different stages and events, but there is a consensual idea that this structuring is made in a non-linear manner, from the connection of pre-existing and new conceptualizations. Another important aspect in the learning process discussion and that is shared by cognitive and behaviorist lies within the importance of the attention given by the apprentice to the subject of study.

In a long-distance course, from a conductive line between the topics that comprise a discipline, the person shall explore the concepts to be studied in a passive and usually linear manner. The contents are proposed by the system and the apprentice must follow this sequence. However, the apprentice interest concerning the subjects that comprise the topics of a discipline does not follow the same content order developed by the teacher, but a personal and individual sequence, from subjects that are part of the context of the individual’s life.

The web technology has brought to the daily world a new manner of organizing information and knowledge. With the creation of the HTTP protocol it became possible to establish semantic links between information (hyperlinks), rather than the linear and serial organization.

The purpose of this work is the proposition and implementation of a new format of E-learning courses that favors the spontaneity of the apprentices from a non-linear content organization.

By bringing a new view of this content that is presented to the apprentice, differently from that one structure and chosen by the teacher, it is intended to create an environment where the content can “bring about interest” of the apprentice. For such, besides breaking the sequence of the content, complementary materials will be used in the formal content of the course, which have a more attractive and common language to the apprentice. This will be the “bait” used to attract the apprentice to the formal content. This content will always bear a correspondence with the “official” contents of the course, and the student will be able to see, at any time, what official topics correspond to this material and how much of the official content has been explored.

Keywords:

e-learning, non-linear interaction, moodle.