Dexter Fletcher (JD Fletcher)

Robert A. Wisher and J. Dexter Fletcher 23 The Server and Intelligent Tutoring Systems As many trainers will note, the greatest technical challenge for the ADL initiative is in construction of the Server shown in the middle of Figure 1. Help is on the way. Beginning in the late 1960’s, and in parallel with research into computer-based instruction (CBI), groups of researchers began to explore the greater potential of ‘information structure-oriented’ approaches to represent human cognition and learning. The use of these structures to represent how we learn, master skills, and define subject domains eventually led to the development of an approach we now call Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS). 13 ‘Intelligent’ in the context of intelligent tutoring systems refers to the specific functionalities that are the goals of ITS development. These functionalities are distinct from those found in more conventional approaches to computer-based instruction. They require ITS to: • Generate instruction in real time and on demand as required by individual learners; • Support mixed initiative dialogue, allowing free form discussion between the technology and the student or user. This generative approach is also the goal of the Advanced Distributed Learning initiative, which is intended to combine the benefits of object oriented development and Web delivery with those of technology-based instruction to achieve its objectives. The ADL initiative and the development of ITS, then, have a number of key goals in common: • Both are generative in that they envision the development of presentations on demand, in real time; • Both are intended to tailor content, sequence, level of difficulty, level of abstraction, style, etc. to users’ intentions, backgrounds, and needs; • Both have a stake in research intended to accomplish such individualization; • Both can be used equally well to aid learning or decision making; • Both are intended to accommodate mixed initiative dialogue in which either the technology or the user can initiate or respond to inquiries in natural language; • Both will benefit greatly from a supply of sharable instructional objects readily available for the generation of instructional (or decision aiding) presentations. 24 The Case for Advanced Distributed Learning Web Development and ADL The World Wide Web has essentially reset the development agenda for both CBI and ITS development. It has established an ever-improving communications and delivery platform for accessing knowledge. Much of the development work once needed to adapt to the latest technology platform has been eliminated. The Web has become the universal delivery platform. The use of Internet and Web standards and infrastructures has freed learning system developers to focus on next-generation learning architectures. The emerging semantic Web, which along with its ontology will allow us to export any knowledge representation system onto the web and link it to any other, will only strengthen this link – substantially. Discussions are underway within many standards organizations regarding next generation Web-based learning architectures. These discussions are expected to eventually result in implementable specifications. The Way Ahead The ADL initiative is intended to take advantage of the rapid growth of electronic commerce and the World Wide Web, and apply it to the needs of the learning community and life-long learners. It will help provide the learning resources that the defense community needs to ensure the operational effectiveness of its forces. It will help provide similar resources to all federal agencies, which also depend on human performance and competence. Cooperative development among all sectors— government, private industry, and academia—is needed and is being used to achieve the goals of the ADL initiative. For example, ADL is seeking ways to integrate with simulations, through the High Level Architecture standard (IEEE Standard 1516). ADL is also seeking ways to integrate with multiplayer online games and collaborative learning environments. 14 Users will (eventually) communicate with a personal learning associate using natural language dialogue initiated either by the device or by its users. It will be portable, perhaps small enough to be carried in a shirt pocket, or it may be the shirt itself. At present PDAs, laptops, and other personal computing capabilities are sufficient for ADL needs. Notes: 1 Thomas M. Duffy and David H. Jonassen, “New implications for instructional technology,” Instructional Technology 31, 5 (1991): 7-12. 2 Ellen Wagner, “In support of a functional definition of interaction,” in Teaching and learning at a distance: What it takes to effectively design, deliver and evaluate program s, ed. Thomes E. Cyrs (San Francisco: Jossey Bass, 1997), 19-26. Robert A. Wisher and J. Dexter Fletcher 25 3 Philip V.W. Dodds and Schawn E. Thropp, Sharable Content Object Reference Model, SCORM 2004 Overview (ADL Resource Center), <http://www.adlnet.org/index.cfm? fuseaction=rcdetails&libid=648> (9 February 2004). 4 Corporation for National Research Initiatives, The Handle System , <http://www.handle. net/introduction.html> (9 February 2004). 5 International Digital Object Identifier (DOI) Foundation, The Digital Object Identifier System , < www.doi.org> (3 May 2004). 6 http://adlnet.org/ 7 Benjamin S. Bloom, “The 2 sigma problem: The search for methods of group instruction as effective as one-to-one tutoring,” Educational Researcher 13 (1984): 4-16. 8 John A. Kulik, “Meta-analytic studies of findings on computer-based instruction,” in Technology assessment in education and training , ed. Eva L. Baker and Harold F. O’Neil (Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1994), 9-33. 9 Robert A. Wisher and Tatana M. Olson, The effectiveness of Web-based training , Research Report 1802 (Alexandria, Virginia, USA: U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences, 2003). 10 J. Dexter Fletcher, Effectiveness and cost of interactive videodisc instruction in defense training and education , Paper P-2372 (Alexandria, VA: Institute for Defense Analyses, 1990). 11 Beverly P. Woolf and Wes Regian, “Knowledge-based training systems and the engineering of instruction,” in Training and retraining: A handbook for business, industry, government, and the military , ed. Sigmund Tobias and J. Dexter Fletcher (New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2000), 339-356. 12 Fletcher, Effectiveness and cost . 13 Martha C. Polson and J. Jeffrey Richardson, eds., Foundations of Intelligent Tutoring Systems (Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1988). 14 Curtis J. Bonk and Robert A. Wisher, Applying collaborative and e-learning tools to military distance learning: A research framework , Technical Report 1107 (Alexandria, VA: U.S. Army Research Institute for the Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2000). ROBERT WISHER is Director of the Advanced Distributed Learning initiative, Office of the Secretary of Defense, Washington, DC, USA. He leads a network of ADL Co-Laboratories engaged in ADL. He received a doctorate degree in Cognitive Psychology from the University of California, San Diego. Dr. Wisher has published widely on the topic of training technologies. He is currently on the Editorial Board of The American Journal of Distance Education . For correspondence: Dr. Robert A. Wisher, Office of the Secretary of Defense, DUSD(R), 4000 Defense Pentagon, Room 1C757, Washington, DC 20301-4000. E-mail : Robert.Wisher@osd.mil. J. DEXTER FLETCHER is with the Institute for Defense Analyses, Alexandria, Virginia, USA. Dr. Fletcher is a renowned world researcher and analyst in the fields of learning sciences, educational technology, and military training. He received his doctorate degree from Stanford University. He has since worked in the defense laboratories, in research universities, and in his current position at a leading military research institution. He recently was Co-Editor of Training and retraining: A handbook for business, industry, government, and military , published by Macmillan Reference USA