In order to successfully execute SRL processes, a certain routine on the side of the learner has to be promoted. Thus, the competences and processes that are needed for an effective self–regulation are usually conveyed in specific trainings. However, trainings (distributed as a WBT or given by a personal coach) are mostly designed to help a learner to getting started and rarely accompany the whole learning process. Therefore, a systemic approach has the advantage that it is available over a longer period and during the actual learning process.
Thus, in this section, a concept of additions to ELWMS.KOM (cf. chapter 2.5) for internet search is derived from the presented theoretical principles of SRL and the implementation is presented. The central additional component of ELWMS.KOM is a goal–management component. Learners can enter goals, organize them into goal hierarchies (setting super– and sub–goals), move them via drag and drop and attach found resources relevant to the respective goals. Each goal can have an arbitrary number of sub–goals and resources, organizing everything in a tree structure with exactly one super–goal —- analogue to the directory structure of a common file system.
For the two studies presented in section 6.4, two different versions of ELWMS.KOM were implemented based on the requirements of the respective study.
6.3.1 Conceptualization
The goal–management component is an addition to ELWMS.KOM that partitions the learning process into the three phases before learning, while learning and after learning (cf. [173]). A focus is set on the metacognitive processes of goal–setting, planning, monitoring, regulating and finally reflecting and mod- ification of the learning process. In ELWMS.KOM’s base form, the scaffolds that support those processes are implemented indirectly, which means that the learner is not instructed to take direct action, but she may choose to use the functionality if she sees the need to (cf. [76]). Before beginning with the internet
search, the learner chooses a goal–directed approach and plans her course of actions in the learning pro- cess. For example, if a learner has the task to search for information about the topic Classical antiquity, she may begin to structure her approach with the goals “I need to get a general idea about the ancient Rome” and “I need an overview of the ancient Greece”. Each goal can be further subdivided into specific sub–goals, e.g. the ancient Rome may contain the sub–goals Roman Republic and First Triumvirate. This way, the learner organizes her search goals into a goal hierarchy (cf. figure 6.4). Hence, ELWMS.KOM supports processes of goal–setting and planning.
During the learning process the learner may attach found information in web resources to the set goals and rate their relevance for the respective goal. As the learner’s information need often is quite specific, just storing a whole web resource is usually not enough. Instead, the possibility to extract only the relevant part of the information is more target–oriented towards the real learning goal. Thus, the selected fragment (called snippet) of an imported web resource is stored in the goal’s metadata; learners can access that relevant information later without having to access the original web page. Monitoring the learning process is supported by multiple scaffolds, e.g. setting the progress of attainment of a certain goal and displaying the goal hierarchy in combination with the already found web resources. Both stimulate the learner to contemplate where in the learning process she is right now, which goals she has already achieved and what goals are still open. In order not to lose focus on the goal the learner is following right now, in the 2nd version of ELWMS.KOM it is possible for her to activate one goal at a time. This goal is displayed prominently, giving a reminder not to go astray and antagonizing the well–known lost–in–hyperspace phenomenon (experiencing disorientation due to information overload and aimlessly following hyperlinks [55]). Further, all goals and found resources can be displayed as a knowledge network (see figure 6.5) and an outline displaying all goals and resources. This enables the learner to reflect on already found information and the current course of action. Is the learner aware of her inefficient advance, she may alter her search behaviour according to her current situation –– for example by defining new goals, re–structuring her goal hierarchy or focusing on other goals that are more promising at the moment. Hence, during the search the processes of monitoring and regulation are supported.
After learning, the learner has the choice between different alternatives of visualizing all goals and resources: the goal hierarchy, the knowledge network and the outline. However, the theory of SRL differentiates between the monitoring and regulation processes mentioned above and the processes of reflection and modification, as these occur after having finished the search process. Here, the visualiza- tions enable learners to reflect on the finished learning episode, both from the view of the results and the taken approach. Thus, if the learner decides to optimize her approach based on her reflection, processes for modifying the approach are executed.
Metacognitive Processes Supporting function in ELWMS.KOM
Goal–setting & Planning Creating goals, structuring the goal hierarchy
Monitoring & Regulation Setting the progress of a goal, displaying the goal hierarchy in combination with already found goals as a knowledge network or a list, activate a currently followed goal, scaffolds prompting learners to plan, monitor and reflect
Reflection & Modification Different visualizations of content, prompt to reflect on found resources
Table 6.1:An overview of metacognitive processes and the supporting functions in ELWMS.KOM
Table 6.1 briefly summarizes the supported metacognitive processes and the associated supporting functionality in ELWMS.KOM.
6.3.2 Technical Foundations and Implementation
Searching and learning using web resources mostly takes place in the web browser, as most web re- sources are represented as HTML markup. The browser is a virtual window to the Internet, downloading and rendering web resources and displaying them to the learner. Therefore, ELWMS.KOM has been implemented as an add–on to the popular open source web browser Firefox (cf. chapter 2.5).
Due to portability and extensibility reasons the core functionality has been realized in a Java1 applet. Data transmission between Firefox and the applet is performed via an ECMAScript2 interface that both orchestrates the data flow and forwards user interaction within Firefox or the web resource to the applet. The graphical user interface and data storage has been implemented in Java. Applets as a technology were chosen as they allow integration in HTML as well as in XUL3, the Firefox–specific XML dialect for creating graphical user interfaces.
The metadata of goals consist of a title, a description (which may serve to outline a course of actions or additional information) and the level of progress (with the stages not started, 25%, 50%, 75% and
finished). This level of progress can be set by the learner to keep an overview of her open and finished
goals. Further, goals can be tagged (i.e. attaching freely chosen key words) for organization and display in the knowledge network. For long–term learning episodes, further functionalities that provide adequate archiving and retrieval would be necessary, but in this work this has been neglected because only short– term learning episodes are focused.
The web resources are inserted into goals by use of the import functionality, similar to the process of bookmarking in a web browser. Similar to goals, resources have a title, a description, a relevance rating and tags. The description encompasses the snippet of a web resource the learner has selected and / or arbitrary text. Rating the relevance of a resource or the snippet with the stages not rated, not relevant, a
little relevant and relevant is possible as well.
The goal–management component for ELWMS.KOM is displayed in the browser’s sidebar. Its user interface shows an overview of the current goal hierarchy and resources (see figure 6.4). Alternative representations of goals and resources may be used, e.g. a display of the goal hierarchy as a knowledge network (figure 6.5). While browsing, web resources can be imported into the goal tree at the current selection. Both goals and resources may be edited and reorganized later–on.
1 http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/index.html, retrieved 2011-01-12 2 http://www.ecmascript.org/, retrieved 2010-11-30
Figure 6.4:Screenshot of the 2nd version of ELWMS.KOM in the sidebar of Firefox. The goal hierarchy is shown
with the currently attained goal prominently presented at the top. The brick icons denote goals, the page icons denote web resources. In this example, the learner has adopted the titles of the web re- sources as descriptors of the web resources, thus the descriptors reflect their source with the Wikipedia page title.
Figure 6.5:Screenshot of a Knowledge Network built by connecting Resources and Goals via Tags.