11. Issue November 2015

Summary

E-learning is supposed to support teaching and learning through dedicated technology and didactics. For the design of successful e-learning, the interplay of e-learning technology, didactics and the domain of learning are of crucial importance. Issue 11 presents new insights in implementing e-learning in a dedicated domain, didactical support for learning by abstraction, and e-learning infrastructures.

Zusammenfassung

E-learning soll Lehren und Lernen durch spezielle Technologie und Didaktik unterstützen. Für erfolgreiches e-learning ist das Zusammenspiel von Technologie, Didaktik und Lerngegenstand essenziell. In dieser Ausgabe werden neue Ergebnisse zur Implementierung von e-learning in speziellen Domänen, zur didaktischen Unterstützung von Abstrahierendem Lernen, und zur e-learning Infrastruktur präsentiert.

Editorial

E-learning is supposed to support teaching and learning through dedicated technology and didactics. Consequently, the interplay of e-learning technology, didactics and the domain of learning are of crucial importance for the design of successful e-facilitated learning. Thus, this issue presents new insights in three related areas: implementing e-learning in a dedicated domain (in this issue, programming and mathematics), new didactical support for learning by abstraction, and e-learning infrastructures.

Implementing e-learning for learning programming or mathematics

Learning programming requires solving programing tasks, which are tedious to develop. Reusability of programming tasks could contribute to lower cost and to increase quality. Therefore, Sven Strickroth et al. present in their article “Erfahrbares Programmieren durch den zielgerichteten Einsatz von Flugdrohnen im Informatikunterricht” an exchange format supporting export and import of programming tasks.

Furthermore, learning programming requires high motivation from the learner to master difficulties (e.g., while solving programming tasks), to collect experiences, and to develop programming competency. For this purpose, Raphael Zender et al. propose in their article “ProFormA: An XML-based exchange format for programming tasks” an approach for experience-based programming, which combines multi-layer abstraction in a scripting platform with a fascinating domain (i.e., flying a drone). Experiences show that this approach leads to a high motivation of young learners.

For the math domain, Stephan Claus et al. present in their project report “Mathe-Üben in Studium und Abitur” an app supporting training of high school math as required by junior students of a university. Experiences show that such an app can foster activation and self-regulated learning for novice students.

Didactical support for learning by abstraction

The article “Abstrahierendes Lernen durch aktive Modellbildung” of Schümmer et al. presents an approach for supporting learning by abstraction from analyzing examples and constructing an abstract general model representing the underlying principles. The proposed learning process and corresponding learning environment has been shown to support learning by abstraction of theology students. The evaluation also shows that learners reflect on their learning process and adapt the process to their preferences.

e-learning infrastructures

Raimund Vogel et al. present in their project report “Building an Academic Cloud for 500,000 Users” the aims and technological as well as legal solution of building the sciebo academic cloud for 500.000 students and researchers in North Rhine-Westphalia.

Three books are presented, which investigate open access to formal and informal learning (G. Sampson et al.), present new trends in, among other domains, e-learning (Khaled Elleithy & Tarek Sobh), and discuss theory and implementation of e-learning systems, environments, and approaches (Pedro Isaias et al.).

Three new dissertations are presented, which deal with a fast platform for interactive e-learning systems (Ondrej Havel), a pattern-based approach to mobile games (Birgit Schmitz), and the use of social software portfolios (Marcel Kirchner).

Finally, Lisa Marie Blaschke and Olaf Zawacki-Richter report about Otto Richter’s latest book “Against the tide: Critics of Digitalization”, which discusses some of the most notable critics on political hazards of digitalization.

Joerg M. Haake
Editor-in-Chief, eleed