The use of computers for knowledge transfer does not result automatically in success: the efficiency of the process depends on the approach to instruction underlying the knowledge‐transfer system in question. In this paper, the authors describe and compare computer technologies used for instruction in Computer‐Aided Instruction (CAI) courses, electronic books, and knowledge‐transfer systems based on heterogeneous information. They also deal with some psychological issues involved in dialogue, with the adaptability of knowledge‐transfer systems, and with psychologically‐based computerized instruction

Komissarova, Helena

Pilipenko, Oleg

Research in Learning Technology

English

ALT Open Access Repository

Approaches toknowledge-transfer systemsOleg R Pilipenko* and Helena Komissarova*** Odessa State University, Ukraine** Kiev Institute of Psychology, UkraineThe use of computers for knowledge transfer does not result automatically in success: the efficiency ofthe process depends on the approach to instruction underlying the knowledge-transfer system inquestion. In this paper, the authors describe and compare computer technologies used for instruction inComputer-Aided Instruction (CAI) courses, electronic books, and knowledge-transfer systems basedon heterogeneous information. They also deal with some psychological issues involved in dialogue, withthe adaptability of knowledge-transfer systems, and with psychologically-based computerizedinstruction.IntroductionThe use of computer technology in instruction is based on known approaches toinstruction, and also promotes new approaches. Contemporary problems in instructiontend to be determined by intensive information-flow and the short timescale of therelevance of information.Computer-aided instruction coursesHistorically, the primary method of teaching is the so-called 'Nurnberg funnel' method.This is based on the assumption that knowledge in the teacher's head is linked to some'correct' structure, and the objective of the teaching is to place facts and relations betweenthem into the heads of a student with minimal distortion. Obviously, this is a simplifiedapproach to teaching, which nevertheless, under certain conditions, provides reasonablygood results. However, its effectiveness depends heavily on the personality of the teacher,and it significantly underestimates the student's personality, thus decreasing thepossibilities of creative learning.The introduction of the personal computer caused an exponential growth in the numberof knowledge-transfer systems based on this approach, and the possibility of widelydisseminating an outstanding teacher seemed to be one of its major advantages.42Aa-J Volume 3 Number 2Knowledge-transfer systems of this kind are built as restricted models of a humanteacher. Traditionally, the teacher determines objectives and the means of instruction,makes decisions about the level of interaction, manages time, and evaluates the student'sactivity and performance. So, in human-computer dialogue which simulates the dialoguebetween a teacher and a student, the student is mainly a passive partner and the computeris an active, leading partner. This model often assumes that the learner knows almostnothing about the domain in question, nor about the ways to study it. Under theseconditions, the computer imposes the sequence in which the domain is to be studied, andthus determines the skeleton of the knowledge-transfer system. Knowledge-transfersystems of this kind are often called Computer-Aided Instruction (CAI) courses.Two major obstacles are encountered in implementing and using CAI courses. Manypeople use computers as tools in their everyday work, where the computer is considered apassive partner in the human-computer interaction. For such people, a contradictionappears when it comes to computer-aided learning: the computer which is thought of as atool and a slave becomes an instructor and a master. Under such conditions, people mayfeel uncomfortable because their role in the dialogue, now controlled by a computer, haschanged (Kommisarova, 1994). Such discomfort may adversely affect students'motivation, as well their emotional state, and may decrease the effectiveness of computer-aided learning. The second obstacle is that since learning depends so heavily on thepersonality of the teacher, it makes sense for one author (or a small group of authors) todesign a CAI course. This in itself is a constraint.Electronic booksAccording to current educational theory, direct transfer of knowledge from teacher tostudent is impossible. Learning is a process involving the juxtaposition of, on the onehand, new facts and theories, and on the other, facts and theories already formed in thestudent's mind, a process which may result in augmenting or restructuring the latter.Instruction within higher education relies heavily on such a process, and thus independentstudy, in which students can adapt the procedures associated with knowledge acquisitionto their own cognitive processes, is encouraged. This approach is also effectivelysupported by modern technology in the form of electronic books which can be used todeliver information not only as text but also as images, sound and animation (see Barker,1991), with hypermedia links.Knowledge-transfer systems of the above-mentioned type use a different model ofhuman-computer interaction. Here, the computer is considered to be a tool whichimmediately appears comfortable to use although the activity may be new. But there is aclear difference between using the computer as a tool in an everyday activity and as a toolfor learning. The field to be studied and its internal structure may be terra incognita forthe user. Tables of contents and indexes do little to help a student who does not know therelevant terminology, nor how to begin. The student needs guidelines for an efficientacquisition of knowledge, and additional information about the logical structure of theknowledge-transfer system, as well as about the logical structure of the field in generaland the potential links between information 'frames' within the knowledge-transfersystem. The feeling of being an independent explorer of a knowledge-domain can increase43Oleg P. Pilipenko and Helena Komissamva Approaches to knowledge-transfer systemsthe motivation of a student, but he or she can easily be distracted and simply go offcourse (Barker, 1990). This can prevent effective knowledge transfer and evoke a negativeemotional attitude to the computer, or at least to computer-assisted learning.We believe that any knowledge-transfer system should incorporate both the knowledgeand the techniques needed to use it. The teacher's knowledge about the sequence in whicha student should ideally approach the information is of particular importance, and thestudent also needs to know why certain parts of it are more important than others. Thuscategorization of the links between information frames should be an essential feature ofthe above-mentioned kinds of knowledge-transfer systems. For example, we may specifylinks which describe a recommended way to learn the proposed material, or severaldifferent ways recommended by different teachers, or determined by different learningobjectives. Links to information frames relevant to the study of the current frame, andlinks between frames exploiting the same methodological approach, might also beassigned to particular categories of links.Adding power to a knowledge-transfer systemby means of dialogueDialogue can be used as a method of access to data contained in knowledge-transfersystem. The dialogue scenario should generate information about why and how oneshould use the system. Some authors of electronic books offer a sequence of questionsand answers. In such cases, the roles of the participants are strictly determined: one is theactive partner, the other is the passive partner, though this situation can be reversed - theanswering (passive) partner can momentarily take the initiative if he or she does not haveenough information to answer the question. The answering partner may also take theinitiative when the asking (active) partner fails to put the question in a way that is clearlyunderstandable by the answering partner, and the latter may need to ask a series ofquestions in order to determine the precise demands of the asking partner. The changingof roles in partner dialogues of the kind under consideration here are discussed in moredetail in Pilipenko (1994).We believe that a reasonable balance between activeness and passiveness in suchdialogues is vital for effective learning to take place when using knowledge-transfersystems. At each step of the human-computer dialogue, the system should provide theuser with all necessary information, including information about its own built-infunctionality. Students feel comfortable if they feel they are in control, and if they canpredict the overall behaviour of the knowledge-transfer system.Knowledge-transfer systems delivering heterogeneous informationElectronic books lend themselves well to situations where information from differentsources needs to be presented in a homogeneous form, though it is then important toexplain the connections and differences between the viewpoints, and perhaps theterminology, adopted by different authors. However, a particularly interesting trend,based on the idea of the usage of heterogeneous information in knowledge-transfersystems, is that of so-called open hypermedia systems. A significant development related44Volume 3 Number 2to this approach is the Microcosm system developed at Southampton University (Davis etal, 1992). The Microcosm environment allows information frames created with differentapplications to be incorporated into one system. Markup information, which is used todesignate links between information frames, is physically separated from correspondingframes. Thus the documents included in the knowledge-transfer system are alwaysavailable for modification within the applications which were used to create them.Computer-based knowledge-transfer systems can thus be modified dynamically, andeasily extended not only with new information frames, but also with new links.Knowledge-transfer systems based on this approach can support several methods ofstructuring information simultaneously, and along with heterogeneous informationframes, can contain a heterogeneous system of links, for example recommendations as tohow and why to access information frames composed by different teachers or intendedfor students with different backgrounds or different objectives. Learning supported withknowledge-transfer systems based on open hypermedia can also be underpinned bydynamic modifications made by a teacher while using the system, as he or she finds newlinks which can then be added: learning by doing is thus especially suited to such systems.New links, and possibly new information frames, can be created as a direct result of thesearch for information relevant to the problem in hand.Shared computer booksAnother way to use the unique potential of dynamically modifiable knowledge transfer-systems lies in the idea of shared electronic books, that is, made available to several userssimultaneously. Shared electronic books can be open not only for joint access, but alsofor modification by all users. Users can add new facts, new ways of handling facts alreadycontained in the systems, and comments. A shared electronic book can become the jointcreative output of many people.The potential of the World Wide Web is also interesting in terms of the development ofshared electronic books. The most interesting feature of the World Wide Web is that thereis no centralized maintenance or support. It is the result of the creativity of many people.On the other hand, the very absence of centralized support means that the Web cannotperform the role of active partner in a human-computer dialogue: the informationcontained in the Web is poorly structured (and searching for information can at presenttake an unacceptably long time). Nevertheless, we believe that information has thestrange ability to be self-structuring, a property which can manifest itself both in theintentional actions of a co-ordinated group of people, and in the chaotic activity ofdifferent people who do not even know of the existence of each other. We therefore expectthat the increasing amount of information available on the Web will not lead to itscollapse, as many would argue, but rather to an improvement of its structure.Adaptability of knowledge-transfer systemsKnowledge-transfer systems should ideally be able to adapt to student needs, includingtaking into, account different personal styles of knowledge acquisition. Knowledge-transfer systems should also keep track of the dialogue between user and computer, andmemorize which information frames have been accessed by the student, as well as45O/eg P. Pilipenko and Helena Komissarova Approaches to knowledge-transfer systemsevaluating the student's progress and level of comprehension of the material placed in thesystem. Monitoring dialogue traces is particularly important, since the student who is juststarting to tackle a new subject can then have access to the ways in which it has beentackled by other students. In addition, the teacher (or group of teachers) responsible forthe maintenance of the knowledge-transfer system can make appropriate corrections tothe dialogue scenario if most the students are not using it efficiently (at critical pointsstudents may have to be guided more actively).ConclusionThe ultimate degree of adaptability in instruction is complete individualization. Toachieve this, a computer-based knowledge-transfer system would have to take intoaccount not only the intellectual background and progress of a student, nor only errorsand general and specific performance, but it would also have to adopt a style ofinstruction precisely fitting the learning style of the student, including his or her cognitiveand personality/psychological features such as holism/serialism, impulsivity/reflexivity,flexibility/rigidness, verbal/image thinking, introversion/extroversion, field-dependence,level of anxiety, and so forth. Such a task would require a thorough probing of a student'spersonal characteristics with a series of psychological tests, and careful monitoring of hisor her learning activity and performance.We do not foresee such knowledge-transfer systems in the near future. At present, onlythe first of the four accepted divisions of computer-based instructional systems (domainor field knowledge-base, pedagogical module, student module, and interface) have beendeveloped to a satisfactory degree. Theoretical and technical progress in interfaceconstruction is significantly poorer. The same applies to the pedagogical division, and theproblems of student-module design are not even yet solved in principle. Nevertheless,while waiting for progress in these areas, we should pay as much attention as possiblewhen designing knowledge-transfer systems to individualization, and to the issues relatedto the dialogue between human being and computer.Editorial noteThis paper was given at a NATO ASI (Advanced Studies Institute) held in Heriot-WattUniversity in the summer of 1994.AcknowledgementsWe should like to thank Professor Ray McAleese and the British Council for theirassistance and support.ReferencesKommisarova, H. (1994), 'Psychological peculiarities of man-machine communication ininstructional systems' in: Brouwer-Janse, M.D. and T. L. Harrington T.L. (eds), Human-Machine Communication for Educational Systems Design, NATO ASI Series, vol. F129,Berlin, Springer-Verlag.46Aa-j Volume 3 Number 2Barker, P. (1990) 'Designing interactive learning systems', Educational and TrainingTechnology International, 27 (2).Barker, P. (1991) 'Electronic books', Educational and Training Technology International,28 (4).Pilipenko, O.P. (1994), 'Modeling a partner in a dialogue' in Brouwer-Janse, M.D. andHarrington, T.L. (eds), Human-Machine Communication for Educational Systems Design,NATO ASI Series, vol. F129, Berlin, Springer-Verlag.Davis, H.C., Hall, W., Heath, I., Hill, G. and Wilkins, R. (1992), 'Towards an integratedinformation environment with open hypermedia systems' in Lucarella, D., Nanard, J.,Nanard, M. and Paolini, P. (eds), Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Hypertext:ECHT '92, Milan, ACM.47

Designing interactive learning systems',

Electronic books',

Modeling a partner in a dialogue'

Psychological peculiarities of man-machine communication in instructional systems' in:

Towards an integrated information environment with open hypermedia systems'

Approaches to knowledge‐transfer systems

The use of computer technology in instruction is based on known approaches to instruction, and also promotes new approaches. Contemporary problems in instruction tend to be determined by intensive information-flow and the short timescale of the relevance of information

Oleg P. Pilipenko

Helena Komissarova

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