Expanding e-learning effectiveness. The shift from content orientation to knowledge management utilization.

The e-learning industry in recent years faced a tremendous development. The technological capabilities of modern tool-sets expand from off-line to on-line solutions covering a wide spread of learning needs (Close et al, 2000), (Ruttenber et al). Nevertheless the requirements of modern business units seem to diversify from training seminars to corporate learning portals implying a desired reinforcement of capacities for effective actions. Academic institutes such as universities have to adopt their traditional approaches in the modern setting. The e-learning initiative both in corporate and academic environment defines new ways of improving performance. The objective is to reveal the necessity to formulate dynamic learning environments capable to be customized according to value perceptions. The research effort is concentrated on the definition of variables that will enhance the value justification of such systems and will realize the modularity of a value creating e-learning environment through advanced knowledge management systems. INTRODUCTION The establishment of e-learning systems within business settings or academic institutions is something like fashion. Many models, many different types, many markets, many interest groups, different degrees of satisfaction and many users looking for customized solutions (Urdan & Weggen, 2000). Unfortunately the e-learning market is not as mature as we would prefer in terms of effective solutions, advanced functionalities and learning standards. The analysis of the e-learning market in Europe as well as in USA is not only difficult but it has to be based on issues closer to effectiveness than to population increase. In most of cases the virtual universities, the e-learning systems base their functionality on a simple browsing mechanism accompanied with a section of web links and a few on-line quizzes. In other words which is the value of such a system when in most of cases the employment of the ICT’s is limited on static learning scenarios. We could state that these systems secure the growth of the so-called distance-learning marketplace in Europe even though the learner satisfaction from such a system is very limited. A critical question is can we enhance the learner satisfaction on an e-learning system or his first impression will be negative. The mass of integrated e-learning platforms seems to be unable to support different degrees of value delivery. They seem to construct their powerfulness over common characteristics that in general simulate the traditional way of teaching. So a number of critical questions emerge: Does e-learning differentiates from the traditional learning? Can we define concrete ways of content enrichment in virtual environments, which add value in traditional learning content and support dynamic learning settings? Can we justify theoretical foundations that prove the different value layers of learning efforts? Can we test the ability of learning environments to support different educational goals through the employment of different learning processes? Can we develop learning environments capable of supporting the intellectual capital exploitation both in academic and business environment? Finally but not least, can we formulate a framework that will support the Enterprise Application Integration in a manner that will take into account the learning needs of business units? In other words can we define an application layer within business Intranets that will establish knowledge management architecture? Our experiences from various projects related to e-learning can be summarized in the figure 1. The learning effectiveness, a concept with various quality factors included, has a direct relation to the technological complexity of the e-learning environment. The distinction of five relevant learning paradigms is not only a theoretical value hierarchy that formulates a contextual setting for analysis. It rather gives an essential feeling for the inability of many e-learning initiatives to be effective for the trainers and the trainees. Learning Effectiveness T ec hn ol og ic al C om pl ex it y Static Content Delivery Learning objects M anagement Learning Processes Orientation Customized Learning Scenes Integrated Learning Figure 1: The e-learning paradigms evolution The five learning paradigms that deliver different levels of value are: STAGES OF E-LEARNING EVOLUTION 1. Static Content Delivery Content selection, Html Authoring 2. Learning Objects Management Knowledge Base, Metadata, Value Components 3. Learning Processes Orientation Learning Processes Specification, Pool of LP 4. Customized Learning Scenes Learning Needs Recognition, Learners Profiling, Learning Styles, Learning Paths 5. Integrated Learning Application Integration, Corporate Portals Table 1:The technological characteristics of the five e-learning paradigms: The majority of e-learning initiatives are limited on the application or the customization of learning platforms that facilitate the delivery of learning content on a predefined, static and sequential way. The flexibility of such implementations is rather inadequate to support the dynamic nature of learning, but as it is the easiest form of doing e-learning it is also the common one. The incorporation of knowledge management mechanisms in learning platforms such as learning objects databases supports the effective management of learning content in terms of reusability and utilization of knowledge bases. This functional enhancement of e-learning environments is not enough to utilize the learners’ perception for e-learning usefulness. The inability of the two first e-learning paradigms to provide dynamic features to the learners as well to the trainers set a “wall” that has to be penetrated in order to exploit further the effectiveness concept. This penetration has to be based on more sophisticated technological components that allow the establishment of dynamic e-learning strategies. The orientation of elearning to the learning processes that define the learning paths for the trainers is very critical. The detailed analysis of different learning processes provides a pool of available learning scenarios. The reveal of learning paradigms that penetrate the “wall” require more advanced technological infrastructures. For example the dynamic combination of learning processes in e-learning environments have to take into account the full support of the embedded learning subtasks. In other words the engineering of such a system will need enormous effort for the well-justified distinction of learning subtasks and subsequent technological required components. Another consideration for the enhancement of effectiveness should be the profiling capability of an e-learning platform to utilize its components on the direction of creating one to one learning situations. The recognition of learning needs, the diversification of learning styles, the categorization of learners according to their preferences in specific learning processes, their interest in specific learning objects that cover their knowledge deficit are namely parameters that differentiate the elearning paradigm of customized learning scenes. The profiling procedure for the accomplishment of such a scope has to be based on advanced algorithms and of course extensive parameterization of the e-learning environment. The multifold flexibility seems to be a well-defined effective learning goal but in order to be tested and to be implemented it needs enormous research effort. Finally the need to develop effective knowledge management mechanisms in modern business units, sets a subsequent goal to integrate e-learning systems with other critical enterprise applications. The orientation of elearning to business process knowledge management in modern e-businesses and enterprises of the digital economy formulate a context on which the learning content has to be discovered in all the spread of the daily business operation. The tacit and explicit knowledge that is hidden in people, business processes and services has to be captured and promoted in elearning systems. The Enterprise Application Integration dimension of e-learning paradigms nowadays is the piece of the puzzle that has to be incorporated in e-learning paradigms. The critical issue from this perspective is to be able to develop a grid on which every business processes could be related with specific learning processes. A first implication of our intention to create a theoretical tool capable to map the relation of a business processes to a mix of different learning processes is a grid that helps the relation of any business process to specific learning processes according to their embodied value. A learning scenario is a combination of learning processes that formulate the educational space for the trainer and the executive trainee. A first approach is presented in figure 2. Figure 2. The business to learning process grid The two dimensional grid defines four separate quadrants capable to describe four different learning situations. We distinguish four learning situations that are supported by different learning processes: 1. Understanding 2. Meaning creation 3. Process understanding 4. Intellectual Capital Exploitation The conceptual model implies that every business process could be break down into separate business tasks that can be positioned somewhere on the learning grid. Consequently this approach could be analyzed further in order to specify in a more detailed way the parameters of each learning situation. The selection of specific learning processes changes the mode for the executives training. The selection of advanced learning processes with increased information transformation requirements enhances the quality of the achieved learning goals. The value delivery through the e-learning paradigm is organized through the employment of specific learning templates. So, the Author of such a system is going to be navigated through an