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The QMELLON incorporates the best functional and transmittal
characteristics of the above two categories within a frame
oriented to the fast and easy development of purely training
applications by non-computer experts. It is about the improved
network version of GENITOR, a tool which materializes a
more general systems architectures which are characterized
as “Generators of Intelligent Training Applications”.
The system supports two categories of services: composition
of multimedia training applications and management of the
course of training of the learners. Every application developed
with QMELLON comprises an instructional cycle, which consists
of stages. A stage undertakes to transmit the teaching knowledge,
materializes a certain training strategy (e.g. discovery
of knowledge, presentation of knowledge, application of
knowledge, etc). The knowledge taught, which is incorporated
in every application, is of two kinds: declarative and procedural.
The procedural knowledge usually constitutes the core of
the application (that the training application aims at the
transmittal of skills), and is materialized in the form
of a methodology, which consists of successive phases and
activities, which are comprised in every phase.
The declarative knowledge consists of Application Learning
Units (ALUs), and escorts and explains the procedural knowledge,
the phases and activities, the frame of its application,
etc. An ALU is a multimedia section of the application which
is materialized as a network page and which is stored as
an HTML file.
The QMELLON supports four categories of users: author,
learner, instructor and administrator. The author of the
application uses the authoring subsystem to compose the
application. This procedure comprises:
· The description of the sequence of stages, which constitute
the instructional cycle and the pedagogical condition of
transition to the next stage every time.
· The description of each stage separately. The author
chooses from a se t of predefined categories of stages (stage
templates), which he customizes subsequently to his training
needs. No programming at all is required.
· The description of the methodology. The author describes
the phases and the activities of the methodology, without
being obliged to describe the correct sequence of its steps
also. This job is undertaken by an expert system, which
is incorporated in QMELLON.
· The composition of ALUs. The author can compose the ALUs
comprised in his application, by using the ready-made models
(ALU templates) provided by the system or by using any external
tool of composition of HTML pages. In every ALU, the author
puts the multimedia objects (they are called Learning Units-Lus).
Let it be noted that, as Lu, can be considered also any
application that is developed with an external authoring
system (e.g. Authorware). · The creation of tests, from
within the incorporated test editor. The learner uses the
system to be trained from within an application. Thus, after
choosing the application, the learner chooses the stage
of training which will attend (the available, every time,
stages are defined by the pedagogical conditions of every
stage, set by the author). Proportionally to the training
strategy that every stage materializes, the learner discovers
the correct procedure of application of the methodology,
he has access to the library with the ALUs, he attends a
presentation of the methodology or of the ALUs, his performance
is marked, etc. The system interferes, indicating the next
step of training, the need of repetition of certain stages,
etc. The instructor can control the training course of the
learners from within the special profile (student profile)
that the system creates for everyone. Also, he manages the
provision of applications, he can form groups of learners,
etc. Finally, the network administrator determines which
learners have access to which applications, distributing
user name and password to each one of them.
Summing up, the QMELLON supports the composition of training
applications on the management of the training procedure.
Although, itself, it does not provide tools of multimedia
applications development, it supports the incorporation
of any multimedia object or other multimedia application
in an HTML-page, which the author can build from the beginning,
or choose from a set of ready-to-use ones. The applications,
which are produced, are purely for training, but they do
not require special computer knowledge from the authors.
The authors simply choose which stages they will use from
a set of model stages, which subsequently they customize
to the needs of the application. Thus, they compose the
instructional cycle. The applications that are produced
transmit procedural and declarative knowledge and they may
comprise tests for the control of the cognitive progress
of the learner. Beyond the performances in tests, the system
records the whole course of training that the learner attends,
according to the internationally accepted standard AICC.
Finally, the system supports the composition of applications
for personal training or instructional training and their
provision from within the network.
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