Knowledge management and life long education in scientific matter

1. Knowledge management and life long education in scientific matter Anna Moreno, Casaccia 7 aprile 2005

2. About ENEA (www.enea.it) ENEA is the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and the Environment is a public undertaking operating in the fields of energy, environment and new technologies to support competitiveness and sustainable development

3. ENEA mission for the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) • Promotes, fosters and supports innovation technology processes in the national production system, especially in small and medium sized enterprises; • Collaborates with regions and local administrations to promote productive development of local resources, through joint actions; • Promotes technical and professional training, also through ad-hoc agreements with national and international universities.

4. High technology UEB patents European innovation scoreboard High technology USP patents European Innovation scoreboard and number of patents in Italy (2003)

5. Knowledge management and technological transfer The virtuous circleKnowledge-Education-Training-Innovation

6. Knowledge and technological transfer “There is nothing that brings the man to be suspicious as the little knowledge” Francesco Bacone

7. Percentage of University degree Percentage of basic education Education and training in Europe and Italy (1 di 2)

8. Education and training in total Education and training in Europe and Italy (2 di 2) Percentage of professional training

9. Level of education and job place Job and education level

10. The size of Italian SME (Small and Medium Enterprises):1 worker with technical university degree every 130 enterprises Italian SMEs cover the 97% of the national production

11. The Italian paradox and the “knowledge islands” There is a good quality of scientific production and a large number of good quality University and research centers, but there is a low number of patent and low technological transfer capability Knowledge sharing

12. Inhabitants in Europe

13. 100 Billion Nerve Cells Million Billion Connections 2 Million Miles of “Wires” 1.5 Liters in Volume 3.3 Pounds in Weight 10 Watts of Energy The best network: the human brain

14. Information, training, diffusion and technological transfer • The information is useful if the right one arrives to the right people in the right moment • The adults learning and training is useful only when is designed with the adults themselves and by them can be managed • The diffusion is efficient only if it arrives to any level of the organization • The technological transfer is efficient only if it is sustained by the right information, learning and diffusion process.

15. Internet User

16. Percentage of internet in Europe Internet: an instrument to be used with intelligence

18. Number of hosts and search engines Total number of internet hosts (Netsizer) January 1999 44.282.000January 2001 101.308.000March 2003 ~ 250.000.000 Increase: > 50 Mio. p.a. Search for 'Organic Chemistry' – ~1.940.000 hits Search for 'Organic Chemistry' – ~ 2.370.000 hits

19. What does the press say • The New York Times reports that the limits of current search engines’ indexing ability means that they have access to less than one percent of all the pages on the Web. • Up to 500 billion pieces of content are hidden from the search engines, according to search specialist BrightPlanet.com.

20. The Minimum Data Set for the presentation of the content

21. The origin of the ENEA e-learning platform • The platform was launched in 1996 thanks to a National ADAPT project funded by the FSE (European Social Funding) • The project was devoted to the continuing education and qualification of workers. • Has become a door open to and from the SMEs world

22. The ENEA e-learning platform mission • To promote the sustainable development through the diffusion of scientific culture and technological transfer • To provide scientific knowledge to anyone, anywhere and at anytime • The users must be free to learn what they want, when they want, and where they want

23. The ENEA web site as a link between research and productive world Public and Private fund ICT Research Dr. Flavio Fontana Information, learning, technological transfer Services for SMEs and PA Research in the field of e-learning Dr. Maria L. Bargellini Research in the field Of Environment, En

24. The isolation of SMEs PMI PMI PMI PMI PMI PMI PMI PMI PMI PMI PMI

25. The wish to be in a network

26. Scuole superiori High school Istituti formazione Training istitution Tesi di laurea Thesis works Università University ENEA E-LEARN ENEA E-LEARN Assegni di ricerca Research grant Istituti di ricerca Research institute The network promoted by the ENEA e-LEARN platform Stage

27. The IEEE P1484 Learning Technology Systems Architecture (LTSA)

28. The IEEE P1484 Learning Technology Systems Architecture (LTSA) ENEA platform doesn’t cover assessment, this function is left to a third part such as High Schools, Universities and Enterprises themselves. The assessment must be based on the learner’s knowledge and on the needs of the commitment and is not based on the time that people have spent in training

29. About ENEA’s Platform • Nowadays the users are more than 20.000 • The courses are 43 and they will sensibly increase during this year • The courses are free • Many agreements have been signed with Universities, Schools and local training organizations

30. The actual home page(http://odl.casaccia.enea.it): a user frienly interface

31. The services

32. The actual offer (1 of 2)

33. The actual offer (2 of 2)

34. Future development Many courses are under development: • Biological agriculture, • Natural fight against parasites and infesting plants, • The UN convention on climate change • Energy manager and energy save • Reclaiming of disposal land • Cultural heritage • Radon protection • Fuel cells • …

36. Uniquely of the ENEA experience • ENEA experience in e-learning didn’t start from an already made platform filled with courses without any logic; • the requirements of the users have been carefully interpreted and the platform has been developed and it’s still developing following their needs • ENEA usability laboratory (U-lab) has developed a very friendly interface for non expert users • The U-lab has created simple tools such as web lessons and web seminars which allow to a real life long education on scientific and technological themes

37. The main characteristic of the ENEA ODL (Open Distant Learning) • “Open” means that the knowledge can be acquired by different classes of users, at different time and in different places: • The courses can be utilized both in synchronous and asynchronous mode. • The course is structured in sections, modules and lessons. • Each module is self consistent so that the user can follow a personalised learning process; it means that different users with different background knowledge can study only what they need and are not obliged to study modules that they already know or that they are not interested in. • At the end of each module there is a self evaluation section in order to give the users the opportunity to evaluate their level of comprehension. The test at the end of the modules is usually a test with multiple choice answers.

38. The learning object standard for the ENEA ODL (Open Distant Learning) • The modules are divided in lessons with explicit titles. For instance instead of : “lesson 1”, “integrated resources of STEP model”. • The lesson has a length that allows the user to study (not only to read) in an average of 20 minutes. It means that the text has to be between 800 and 1500 words depending on the subject difficulty. • The index allows the user to easily follow the learning process he has chosen. • In order to facilitate the on line study different colours have been used in order to highlight the main concepts; • Links to other parts of the modules facilitate the connection between different concepts • Images, clip art and cartoons are used to draw the attention on the main concepts and facilitate the process of memorization • Links to other modules or courses as well as links to other web site related to the subject are useful in order to promote the enlargement of the knowledge in an automatic way.

39. The Minimum Data Set for the presentation of the content

40. Example of one course: http://192.107.71.126/cascade

41. Example of a self test evaluation

42. Sex of the Users

43. Age of the users

44. Users occupation

45. Satisfaction about the contents

46. Comprehension of the learning material

47. Connection during the week

48. Connection during the day

49. Interest to print instalments

50. Conclusions • Italian enterprises system is such that a very user friendly e-learning platform has to be used • The gap existing between the scientific world and the production can be overcome only if the knowledge is freely accessible to anyone • A standard model of courses has been built for facilitating the life long education of workers • ENEA is open to international collaboration for the development and the share of other contents