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MODULAR E-COURSE WITH VIRTUAL COACH TOOL SUPPORT

MODULAR E-COURSE WITH VIRTUAL COACH TOOL SUPPORT. The project is co-financed by the European Union within the Lifelong Learning Programme, Leonardo da Vinci Action, reference number 142835-LLP-1-2008-1-IT-Leonardo- LMP. INTRODUCTION.

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MODULAR E-COURSE WITH VIRTUAL COACH TOOL SUPPORT

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  1. MODULAR E-COURSE WITH VIRTUAL COACH TOOL SUPPORT The project is co-financed by the European Union within the Lifelong Learning Programme, Leonardo da Vinci Action, reference number 142835-LLP-1-2008-1-IT-Leonardo-LMP. Romanian Society for Lifelong Learning

  2. INTRODUCTION The e-learning constraints COACH-BOT project intends to cope with concern the lack of an online assistance able to solve learners’ needs, to provide them with constant feedback and motivation. Learners in web-based settings may feel isolated and it may lead to a loss of motivation. Feeling that someone is present as a support may reduce the feelings of isolation giving learners a sense of “online presence”. The previous researches do not offer a theoretical basis for this “presence”, do not examine the preconditions for and effects of this “presence” on learning gains and factors such as acceptance or satisfaction. Furthermore adults need to find a training solution able to combine their work and life with the training activity. The target group choice derives from EU and national (IT, DK, RO, SI, UK) politics which underline the role of social health care(EU Health Programme 2008/13). There are many indicators that show the huge training needs felt as an acute problem in the health care system: skills shortages at all levels, lack of IT infrastructure, recruitment increase, reorganisation, duplication of effort. The current training system is too slow to cope with the change. An IT based learning methodology can help to solve these problems. Romanian Society for Lifelong Learning

  3. The aims The project aims at designing a new model of adult distance education, addressing professionals of home care health services, based on a elearning methodology that combines the conversational agent technology (chat-bot) with an ad hoc designed modular learning path. A new on-line professional, the Virtual Coach will support the participants “individually” inside the modular e-course. In order to provide a suitable solution to cope with the abovementioned needs, this methodology offers various features: - EASY TO USE/USER-FRIENDLINESS. By using only natural language, the Virtual Coach does not require that the user learns the meaning of icons or functionalities of menus. This user-friendliness allows learners to focus on the contents to learn; besides it also opens the system to people not familiar with PC and learning management systems like, for example, elderly or people who have not used it before. - ADAPTIVENESS. The Virtual Coach can suit each student’s profile. The adaptive character of the Virtual Coach is also related to its dialoguing nature and applies to all the functionalities described. The Virtual Coach is not a fixed medium like a book, a web page or a multimedia learning object but provides different contents to solve specific questions by the student. It is thus possible to adapt the learning process thank to the modular path designed for specific workers’ needs. - CONSTANT PRESENCE. The Virtual Coach is always online, available to help the learners, teaching and dialoguing. This availability is particularly relevant for working students who will have the chance and freedom to select in this way the best times for studying and learning. - MOTIVATION. The Virtual Coach can give emotional support to the learner motivating him/her with friendly chit-chat times. Romanian Society for Lifelong Learning

  4. The target group The project address professionals of home care health services (nurses, in-home assistances, doctors, etc.) and intends to update their skills on medical and psychological issues, national/European health laws, social and ethical aspects of medical home care assistance. These professionals have to cope with personal context of patients that entail, compared to hospitality or clinical context, to manage with social and psychological problems, besides medical emergency issues. They need also flexible and efficient training environment and tools. The training for adult workers should focus on their real training needs and work experiences. The COACH-BOT methodology thatmixes a personalized e-learning path with the conversational agent tool can answer to these needs by providing learners with an easier and selfdirected way to enter different learning contents according to their own needs or skills. Romanian Society for Lifelong Learning

  5. ACTIVITIES • The project key milestones are: • Definition of COACH-BOT curriculum • Definition of COACH-BOT methodology • Drawing up of Technological Architecture Report • Production of e-course platform and Virtual Coach • Drawing up of experimental plan • Evaluation of COACH-BOT methodology Romanian Society for Lifelong Learning

  6. Activities (2) Definition of COACH-BOT curriculum The needs analysis project phase aims at analysing the European context (European literature, national reports and researches) about the adult training offer for home health care professionals to the purpose to identify a properly and detailed curriculum and for the following definition and designing of the COACH BOT modular e-course. A Training needs report will be drawn up and it will contain: needs analysis objectives and methodology; description of needs analysis tools utilized; description of target groups identified; best practices and case studies identified and analysed; needs analysis results achieved in the different European countries. Definition of COACH-BOT methodology The research includes the collecting of existing representative e-learning courses /best practices in each country related to the application of e-learning courses in home health care vocational training and the use of the intelligent agency technology within the e-learning courses, showing how the e-learning solutions can facilitate and support the worker learners’ training path. These data will provide the needed information to design the e-course didactic model and methodology, that will be described within the Instructional Design Handbook according to the previous needs analysis and consequently COACH-BOT curriculum developed. The Instructional design Handbook will describe the model indicators and features according to the workers needs, flexibility, scalability and modularity training requirements. It will also include the modular e-course integration with the conversational agent tool by showing it active interaction with the participants to promote a more attractive and an easily e-learning environment and to stimulate a high level of motivation. Romanian Society for Lifelong Learning

  7. Activities (3) • The COACH BOT curriculum will contain a list of the main training topics and contents necessary to the improvement of skills and knowledge of working professionals in the home health care. • The e-course syllabuses will be divided into topics, units or periodical assignments and it includes: • Course Objectives (learning objectives and expected results) • Course Description (detailed description of course contents) • Didactic Materials (downloadable materials and lecture notes) • Available Support Services (chat/video chat, videoconferencing, forum, online Tutoring Session, and so on), Course Calendar (scheduling of course contents delivery). • Drawing up of Technological Architecture Report • At the same time, the technological team will engaged in designing the COACH BOT e-learning environment, which comprehensive of an innovative e-learning architecture that combines a multimedia modular platform • with an innovative virtual professional called “Virtual COACH” based on the conversational agent technology. • The structure of the e-learning platform will be designed in order to produce a friendly ergonomic interface that can easily houses modular courses and a metadata channel that allow the platform to communicate and integrate with other applications. • Moreover, it will be designed the new Conversational Agent Technology, in order to make a new experience of virtual assistant. Users can communicate actively with the Virtual Coach that is able to interface in a human-like way with students and to customize the learning process on the specific needs of each student. Romanian Society for Lifelong Learning

  8. Activities (4) Following the definition of the e-learning platform requirements (COACH BOT platform architecture report) and the detail of the Virtual Coach features (Virtual Coach technology report), it will be drawn up the COACH-BOT Technological Report including the Technological Architecture of the whole tool (platform hosting the course and Virtual Coach). Production of e-course platform and Virtual Coach The e-course platform will be able to provide a modular e-learning environment (entry test, Learning Objects, FAQ, and so on) and a dialoguing interface mixed with the CBR system (Case-based reasoning). The platform will be created using PHP language integrated with an Apache web server and a MySQL database, while the Virtual Coach’s conversational agent engine will be created by AIML open source technology (Artificial Intelligence Mark-up Language). The e-learning environment serves the purpose of trying two different settings of training path: with the Virtual Coach (experimental group session) and without the Virtual Coach (control group session). Finally, it will be produced the modular e-course Learning Objects (e-course for health professionals). To facilitate this work is important to train the trainers in order to increase theirs knowledge to the new methodology (through the definition of guidelines to develop Learning Objects). the e-course platform structure providing the technical instructions to effectively merge the two technologies. Romanian Society for Lifelong Learning

  9. Activities (5) Drawing up of experimental plan The experimentation phase will allow to test the COACH BOT methodology and technology. To this purpose it will involve two kind of learners: experimental group and control group of users. The experimental group will test the full e-learning environment while the control group will be in charge in the e-learning modular path experimentation but accessing to an e-learning environment without the Virtual Coach support. The experimentation plan will contain the experimental strategy and principles, the guideline for setting up the two training sessions, indications to monitor the e-courses, as well as the guideline to carry out the selection phase including the main features and requirements of both the control and experimental group participants. Evaluation of COACH-BOT methodology The COACH BOT project includes the setting up of the Quality and Evaluation Team(QET), composed by partners’ staff and an External Quality Expert devoted to the carrying out of the external evaluation process. The project evaluation strategy and process is based on the assumption that it should cover all representative aspects of ‘process’ and ‘content/product’. The evaluation process deals with both qualitative and quantitative aspects of the project and will monitor and evaluate both process- e.g. project management- and products- e.g. training contents and methodology. Romanian Society for Lifelong Learning

  10. ROMANIAN SOCIETY FOR LIFE LONG LEARNING Address: no. 249, Calea Calarasi Str., bl. 65, sc. 1, 5th floor, 21th ap., Bucharest, 3rd sector, ROMANIA Phone/Fax: 40-21-327 3887 E-mail: office@srep.ro http://www.srep.ro Romanian Society for Lifelong Learning

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