Abstract:

In a typical case of distance learning, the basic form of the interaction between a student and a teacher is a text and video chat or some form of newsgroup. For teachers, it is a very time consuming approach, especially in the case of a large number of students or teaching complex topics. At the same time, research results carried out in many countries, confirm the growing tendency among students to use multimedia content available on the Internet while learning. A good example can be YouTube channels, which points to more than 90% of the students of our university, as a source of inspiration and exploration examples. This state of affairs leads us to propose the concept of informatics system, which we call Ask-Listen-Use (ALU). The main objective of the system is to provide the most natural forms of knowledge transfer, which would complement the typical forms of contact between lecturers and students.

The system is based on podcasting (text. audio or video) technologies and semantic techniques. The multimedia content of ALU system consist of three databases: background (B), cases (C) and examples (E), respectively. The database B is created with the thought of the typical content like lectures, general intros and presentations. The database C includes case studies provided by lectures but also delivered by representatives of organizations, companies cooperating in the implementation of the practical aspects of teaching. The principles of the system ALU assume also that database C also includes the presentation of selected students` theses and results of research projects. This approach allows to build customized knowledge database related to the specific area of activity of the university and to facilitate the exchange of ideas, experiences and achievements. However, for improving the efficiency of distance learning, the most important is database E. It contains answers to frequently asked questions and extended explanation of the issues that make the biggest difficulty in the course of teaching. Detailed contents depend on the lecturer and the results of his analysis of the teaching process. What is important, the content of part E are available at any time and it is, naturally, complemented with time (after each semester) in a manner consistent with the needs of students.

The first part of the article, in addition to detailed discussion of factors tending to undertake the topic, describes the structure of the proposed system ALU, the roles of its elements and relations between them from the point of view of the process of teaching. The main emphasis will be placed on these relationships because they are the foundation of building an ontology for the system ALU. While the databases are responsible for part of the "Listen - Use" in the system ALU, the ontology is the foundation for the implementation of the "Ask" part. Based on this ontology, the system ALU has a mechanism for semantic search for content available in all parts of the multimedia knowledge base. This search (questioning) in a more natural way of finding information and inspiring examples than standard methods, typically used in the distance learning. For this reason, the second part of the article contains the description of dedicated semantic for the system ALU.

All of the conclusions and proposals contained in the article are based on the analysis of the test system developed in the Computer Science Institute, the Lublin University of Technology, Poland.

Keywords:

Distance learning, knowledge base, remote knowledge exchange, ontology, semantic search.