July 1996
Overview. The Center for the New Engineer at George Mason University
is learning how to serve self-paced, proficiency-based, hands-on learning
at the student's desktop. The supporting technologies fit hyperlearning,
a non-linear model of learning that will dominate education in the
years ahead. Our first generation of hyperlearning
environments are embodied in a library of eleven CNE modules, our architecture
for hyperlearning. The current major challenge is cultivation and certification
of student competence. We will report on our experience in constructing
these modules and will speculate on how to approach the difficult technical
challenges of certification .
Hyperlearning Model. A traditional course is a sequence of topics
covered in a series of lectures, held in classrooms at weekly intervals,
with homework practice in between. This is a linear model of learning. Everyone
proceeds at the same pace regardless of their interests, prior experience,
talents, or other demands on their time. At the end, grades indicate the
level of achievement a student was able to make in the fixed time period
allocated for the course.
Imagine a new model. Instead of a classroom, see in your mind a large "learning
room" with an entrance, an exit, and a number of learning stations
(booths). You meet the teacher on entry. The exit is guarded by a certifier,
whose job is to assess your competence against well-defined standards. You
visit the stations to learn particular topics or practices. Colored lines
on the floor suggest paths among the stations. You can visit as many stations
as you need, and in any order consistent with your current knowledge, to
prepare yourself for final certification. You can take trial certifications
and then backtrack to the stations needed. You can take self-assessment
tests at any time you like. You call on the teacher for help at any moment
you are stuck. In contrast to the linear model, everyone who exits gets
the same "grade" (a certificate of competence); the variables
are the length of time and the path followed. We call this the hyperlearning
model. The prefix "hyper" means outside of a fixed space, the
ability to jump to other dimensions, as in a mathemetician's hyperspace
or an author's hypertext.
CNE Modules. The hyperlearning model is easily implemented in the
World Wide Web: a learning module contains information objects representing
the stations, self-assessment tests, texts, pictures, demos, workbenches,
links, and certifiers. For navigation, we use a subway map whose colored
lines connect the stations and lead to the certifier. At http://www.cne.gmu.edu
we have constructed a libary of 11 hyperlearning modules: eight in computer
science subjects, one on the general engineering subject of senior design,
a refresher on high-school mathematics, and a refresher on college statistics.
The CS modules are used in classes, where they allow instructors to shorten
the classroom time on those topics and the students to do more sophisticated
projects. The math and stat refreshers are being used by the Defense Acquisition
University. A Module Authoring System permits teachers to construct their
own learning modules. The CNE modules site receives at least 4,000 "hits"
per week and has been awarded a 3-star Magellan rating.
Certifiers. A certifier confirms that a student has met the learning
objectives of a course and issues an authoritative declaration of the student's
competence. The first generation of certifiers deal with problems whose
answers are algorithmically computable, such as occur in math, science,
and engineering courses. The technical challenges include: designing test
generators that accurately assess students according to given criteria,
validating the tests, providing a data system giving instructors feedback
about student performances on self-assessment tests, scrambling questions
and multiple-choice answers to prevent fraud and allow students to meaningfully
retake. The certifier should generate tests that completely cover the target
domain, and it should provide feedback to the students about correcting
their weaknesses. A Certifier Authoring System (under construction) will
allow instructors to create certifier templates containing text, formulas,
graphs, images, video clips, applets, and sound.
Knowledge Engineering. We constantly iterate prototypes to verify
that the content and design is effective for students, is complete, and
meets their stated learning objectives. The design of the modules has improved
steadily, but it requires patience. Our ultimate objective is a tool set
that is so good that teachers can create and maintain modules within the
same time constraints as they presently do for ordinary course preparations.
Teaching. The transaction for learning is a loop in which
the student is the customer and the teacher is the performer.
Hyperlearning opens the way to better teaching.
The technology will relieve the teacher of the work of preparing and
presenting materials, grading student work, and maintaining
detailed records databases. This will enable the teacher to
spend more time as an inspirer, motivator, manager, and
coach.
Perelman on Hyperlearning. Lewis Perelman introduced the
term hyperlearning in his book School's Out (Avon 1992).
He used it to name the new paradigm for education that he sees
emerging. Although his conception would include the
hyperlearning software described above, it is much broader. In
his view, Perelman believes that the current school (universities,
high schools, grammar schools) is historically obsolete. It was
appropriate for the information age, but not the knowledge age.
For him, information is descriptions, data, and symbols, and
knowledge is the capability for action. Our schools transmit
information. Because they do not put students into
apprenticeship roles and in fact they remove students from their
parents homes and businesses where they might serve in such
roles, they do not teach knowledge. The institution of the
school will be swept away, he says. Those who argue for reform
will be as effective with their argument as were those arguing
for reform of horse-drawn carriage transportion at the turn of
the century. Reform will not change the nature of school, which
he believes is fundamentally at odds with the learning
practices of the knowledge age. Perelman was interviewed in the
Journal
of Bionomics in
September 1996. You don't have to like his ideas or even agree
with him to be provoked by what he says, but you cannot ignore
what he says if you are designing learning environments for the
students of the next century.
Slide presentation. These ideas are summarized in pictures with our slide presentation on hyperlearning. (Postscript file.)