providing relevant knowledge assets based on learner...

Providing Relevant

Knowledge Assets

Based on Learner NeedsBased on Learner Needs

2010 Innovations in eLearning Symposium

George Mason University | June 3, 2010

Mike LambertKnowledge Project Officer

BPCh Program Manager

Defense Acquisition University

Raimund L. FeldmannTechnical Lead, Knowledge & Experience Mgmt.

Fraunhofer USA, Center for Experimental

Software Engineering, Maryland

• 126,000

• 193,334

• 491,805

• 1.5 million

Numbers Increasing at DAU…

• 126,000 members in DoD AT&L workforce

• 193,334 DAU resident/DL grads in FY09

• 491,805 DAU CL grads in FY09

• 1.5 million CL/DL/KS contact hours in FY09• 1.5 million

• 5 million

• 181 million

• 1.5 million CL/DL/KS contact hours in FY09

• 5 million ATLAS CMS logons in FY09, and

• 181 million page views of DAU Knowledge

Sharing systems in FY09

2010 Innovations in eLearning Symposium, June 3, 2010 2

…As Are The Challenges!

• Increased push for 24/7/365 learning, performance support and reach-back for better program outcomes and success

• Infrastructure and human capital resources • Infrastructure and human capital resources must be added to support a DoD acquisition workforce expanding from a total of 126,000 to 180,000 members

• A culture change from course management to learning asset management


Good News, Bad News…

• Good News: DAU offers world class formal and informal learning assets

• Bad News: There is an EXPLOSIVE expansion of DAU formal and informal learning assets

• MORE Bad News: There’s are inadequate faculty • MORE Bad News: There’s are inadequate faculty & staff hours to properly manage all assets

• But MORE Good News: LAMP created to focus on process & resource solutions

• And EVEN MORE Good News: Mass, real-time collaborative techniques for learning asset management possible w/ MOSS & Ecco platforms


Cure-All: Let’s Track Best Practices!

“BEST” practices have always been recommended, but…

– There are too many lists to choose from

– No basis for selecting specific practices

– Proof of effectiveness is not generally available

– Not easy to see connection between practices and specific – Not easy to see connection between practices and specific

program risks or issues

– Practice’s success factors not well understood or

documented

– Resources are limited and the return on practice

investment is unknown (costs/benefits)

– Implementation guidance is inadequate


BPCh Content “Flow” ocean of informationcold and user unfriendly

BPCh leadscandidate sourcesrejected leads

BPCh processesfiltering & purification

user selectioncontrolled, on-demand, filtered

publicly available

BPCh contentpracticesevidencesresources

publications

interviews

user feedback

& experience

guidebooks

standards

courses

failed the test for quality


BPCh: Content Types

PRACTICE: may include commercial offerings, such as trademarked methods or commercially available tools

EVIDENCE: evidence builds a profileof contextual results and data describing what is observed about a practice in a given contextdescribing what is observed about a practice in a given context

LEAD: any potential information for inclusion in BPCh; could be a practice, lesson learned, experience, story, feedback or comment

STORY: any potential information for inclusion in BPCh; could be a practice, lesson learned, experience, story, feedback or comment

These content types all

interlock to create a

functional net of vetted and

approved learning assets in

the form of contextualized

best practices


Deeper Dive: Defining A Practice

• A documented activity that is described in an actionable,repeatable way

• A description of how to do something, not a general goal of what to do

Distinguished from:

� A best practice area

…a type of activity the user can’t

neglect, without specific advice

on how to do it.

e.g., Risk management

Operational Definition:

of what to do

• Usable by targeted (acquisition) end users

• About which we can collectempirical data or experiences

� e.g., The RISK-IT approach for risk management

e.g., Risk management

�� A lesson learned

…good advice, drawn from

experience, without enough

detail to be clearly repeatable.

e.g., “Don’t overestimate cost

savings from using COTS

components.”


BPCh: What Makes It Special?

BPCh leads with a different approach:

• Stores evidence information about how each practice was used in

different situations and what the results were

• Acknowledges that not all good practices are “best” for everybody

– Content includes descriptions of past results in context, not just what to do

– Allows context-sensitive search (show me just the practices that programs like

mine have used)

• Provides pointers to existing sites, resources, examples

• Offers a sophisticated front-end to allow users to browse and search

through content based on needs and current situation


Supporting Search and Retrieval

Situation: Find supporting material for a specific task / situation.

• Task: Write an essay, understand a context, find relationship, execute a process step/task (e.g., according to SEP, DAG etc.)

• Supporting material: (PDF/ text) documents, web-sites, pictures…

Search and retrieval solutions:Search and retrieval solutions:

• Facet classification (library style organization)� find content according to classification (e.g., a kind of TOC)� user needs to know the facets to brows / find content

• Full text search (today’s standard / “Google search box”)� user must use keywords that are in material/document � What about pictures?

• Tagging (additional keywords / information)� allows to add keywords to find all kinds of material � user must still know the “right” keywords


Example: Keyword TaggingBackend view (info provider) User view (info seeker)

Keywords


Drop-down keyword list

supports users in finding the

“right” keyword

Improved Keyword Tagging

Issues with classical keyword approach:

• Depending on the task you often do not know what to look for.� What keywords do you have to use?

Idea:

• The one thing you know for sure is your current situation� The task / situation is key

• The one thing you know for sure is your current situation� The task / situation is key� Use user’s context information as an search index

Situation-specific Browsing Views:

� Guide user to material by task/situation specific information

� facet classification combined with tagging

� works with any structure that describes a user specific situation (e.g., process descriptions, handbooks, TOC, career fields, …)


Example: BPCh Browsing Views (1)

Browse

Content Views



Choose Technical

Review Management


Four different

Browsing Views


Browse

Content Views



Choose

Program

Management


Implementing Browsing Views (1)Backend view (info provider)



Maps to user view

(info seeker)



Browsing View in Front End

User view (info seeker)


Implementing of Browsing Views (2)

Backend view (info provider)


Implementing of Browsing Views (2)

Backend view (info provider)

User view (info seeker)


Summary of Approach

Browsing Views:

• Approach combines ideas oftagging and facet classification� provide additional information

with the material

• Start from the user’s point of view� tagging information in the material

is secondary� tagging information in the material

is secondary

• Avoid having users to guess� offer a structure / lists the user knows

A word of caution:

• Browsing views should not be used alone!

• Use in addition to common approaches such as full text search and tagging

• As with all (manual) tagging approaches: it is cost intensive!


BPCh: The Way Ahead

• Implementation of a digital asset management

system (DAMS) that can also serve as a LEARNING

asset management system

• Inclusion of Web 2.x and social media • Inclusion of Web 2.x and social media

functionality (RSS feeds, blogs & embedded

discussions)

• Focus on web services – “DAU In A Box” – that

can be repurposed for other sites and portals at

other organizations


Sneak Peak: BPCh v2.0


Caveat: “Look, I Found This For You!”

We don’t need to lay another

unused “trophy” system at

the feet of the Defense

Acquisition Workforce.

If you believe you have viable

DoD acquisition practices or DoD acquisition practices or

supporting evidence or even

leads, please submit your

content to BPCh.

Help us make BPCh a practical,

hands-on repository to help

support those who support

the warfighter!


Q&A Session / Contact Info

Don’t forget to complete your surveys

and give them to us before leaving.

Thanks for your attendance and attention!

Mike Lambert

Knowledge Project Officer

Global Learning & Technology Center

Defense Acquisition University

Email: [email protected]

Phone: 703-646-1859

Twitter: http://twitter.com/daumgl

Blog: http://bit.ly/daumglblog

Raimund L. Feldmann

Technical Lead, Knowledge and

Experience Management

Fraunhofer Center for ESE, MD

Email: [email protected]

Phone: 240-487-2912

Web: www.fc-md.umd.edu


providing relevant knowledge assets based on learner...

Documents