Objective. Developing and testing Internet based training and education technologies in support of DoD distributed training initiatives continues to be the overall focus of the contract. We have tested the technologies in DoD training situations and made the results available for other DoD training efforts, college and university curricula, and K-12 schools. The experience from all parties involved is very positive.
Refresher Modules. We have worked closely with Defense Acquisition University (DAU) to provide two CNE tutorial modules for refreshers in high-school mathematics and college statistics. These modules are intended to deliver, to the desktop of those who are signed up for DAU cost accounting courses, refresher information on high-school subjects about which they may have become rusty. They contain clear statements of the educational objectives of each segment. They contain many examples taken from cost-accounting. They also contain several self-assessment tests to assist the student in assessing his or her progress. The modules are in the public domain. We have set up password protection that DAU can use to restrict access to other modules (containing materials for their courses) to their enrolled students.
The web site on which the modules are available is http://www.cne.gmu.edu. This site receives between 4,000 or more "hits" per week. The site received an (unsolicted) 3-star rating from the Magellan rating service.
Module Authoring Systems. One of the objectives is to make the modules technology available to course instructors. The central concept for navigating a module is the subway map; the map also organizes all the files in which module segments are stored. We are building a subway map editor that will allow an instructor to (a) draw a map representing the conceptual structure of the domain, (b) create sensitized icons representing subway stations that are linked to files for the corresponding module segment, (c) arrange the lines, stations, and colors for a pleasing and usable appearance, and (d) perform a consistency check on the links connecting the entire set of files constituting the module. The map editor is planned for completion by September 1996.
We have also constructed a tool for building HTML files as used on the pages representing module segments.
Testing and Assessment. The next major section of the project concerns the technologies for testing and assessment. Our immediate goal, scheduled for completion by October 1996, is a subsystem including these parts: (a) an editor that allows instructors to prepare templates for test questions using both correct and incorrect algorithms, (b) a program that processes a template into a particular exam by substituting numerical values for parameters and computing results according to algorithms supplied by the instructor, and (c) a database containing all templates and student records. Even when these tests are used for self-assessment, the database will record a student's progress and can give the instructor information about strong and weak areas of knowledge both for individuals and for an entire class.
CNELink. We are scheduled to complete the CNELink portion of the project in May 1996. CNELink is a set of 14 regional K-12 schools connected by ISDN with GMU as the hub to Internet. The schools are using Internet facilities in their classrooms at an affordable $40/month ISDN rental fee, after the initial $1000 hookup. This tasks has been performed in cooperation with the Community Learning and Information Network (CLIN). Now that the schools have been trained in the use of Internet in their classrooms, we are assisting them to transition to commercial ISP's.
Collaboration with DISA. Another focus of our activity is a collaboration with the ARPA/DISA AITS-JPO that was approved and funded with an increase of $80,000 in the HPC in the Curriculum contract ceiling. This in-scope work falls in Task Area 4 of the contract SOW, "Establishing a Partnership with Government and Business Organizations in the HPC Curriculum." Walt Corliss, who is coordinating the effort, is assessing and promoting appropriate technology transfer between selected HPC technologies that could be applicable to DOD and state-of-the-art government technologies and encourage research opportunities within the academic community.
Milestones. Summary of Objectives for Duration of 1996:
Objective. Create hyperlearning modules that can be used in class to help engineering students learn about the design of complex systems or subsystems, and test the effectiveness of the modules.
Status. A library of eight CNE modules on various computer science topics has been created at http://cne.gmu.edu. The modules contain text, graphics, demos, and workbenches. The modules on virtual memory, interprocess communication, system performance modeling, and networking are used in classes. They have allowed the instructor to spend less class time on the topic of the module but give more sophisiticated homework problems over the material; students find the information and workbenches they need in the module.
Current Work. A group of students is working in the CNE lab for the summer, under the directio of Professor Menasce', to develop Java applets that implement workbenches in the library of modules. This is a major improvement over the previous approach to workbenches, which were typically run as separate applications in separate windows or on separate servers, and were not integrated into the module learning environment. The current Java applets are not as sophisticated as the separate applications, but they are sufficient to introduce the functionality of those applications.
We will use the improved modules in the Fall 1996, and given a final assessment when we complete our final project report at the end of the year.
The workflow module continues to receive positive comments. Most of the comments come from industry people who are trying to learn more about workflow technologies. We are in the process of installing the new Action Technologies Metro system and for use in our offices and possibly our classes. We have recently appointed Sudhanvshu Pethe, a master's student, as the manager of this workflow and collaboration software efforts.
Another group of four students completed the Sense21 course in Spring 1996. As their course project, they defined projects that would produce innovations in their selected domains. They worked closed with a customer in that domain and designed a software tool to support the proposed innovation. They are continuing to monitor their tool to measure and document the innovation. The purpose of the project was to demonstrate that innovations can be purposefully designed using methodologies discussed in the course. The course will be offered again next spring 1997 as ENGR 490, "Human practice of engineering design". The student group Sense 21 consisting of the alumni of this course in the past have been active in e-mail conversations about topics of interest to them and in reading provocative new works about design.