Future ALE Programs
By Thomas Cavanagh and David Metcalf
FSRI is currently planning a program for knowledge capture of cryogenics expertise that will build on the current prototype effort. Partnering again with the Institute for Simulation and Training at the University of Central Florida, as well as with the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC), located at the University of West Florida in Pensacola, Florida, FSRI intends to utilize concept map methodologies to elicit and document the embedded expertise of the cryogenics experts at the Kennedy Space Center.
The curriculum will initially concentrate on post-college training of cryogenic engineers. Cryogenics is a highly complex field in which Kennedy Space Center currently invests three years of on-the-job training to qualify new cryogenic specialists. It’s important to provide a learning methodology which shortens this training cycle and which also preserves the most important expert knowledge of those who have been performing Shuttle-related cryogenic work for years and who will reach retirement age within the next few years.
Project objective
The specific goals of the planned work will be four-fold.
1. Establish the usability of IHMC’s concept maps as a mechanism to design independent cryogenics knowledge modules that can be brought together as a course
2. Adapt concept maps to a problem-based learning environment to prepare cryogenics engineers for the situational variability that they will encounter in the real world
3. Use concept mapping as the basis for knowledge elicitation and representation of the most critical expert cryogenics knowledge to be retained for future training and reference
4. Incorporate complex cryogenics simulations and e-learning modules into the concept map structure as additional instructional resources.
Brief project description
The planned initiative is a research and development effort that will build on the foundation already developed for FSRI’s next-generation ALE.
Computer systems typically require the human user to conform to the needs of the machine. The proposed work expands on the most recent developments in computer-mediated learning to create an electronic training and performance support environment for cryogenics engineering in which the computer conforms to the needs of the human user.
The primary focus of this effort is to research the effectiveness of an expanded concept map strategy to capture the knowledge of a complex engineering domain and then use it as a delivery mechanism for eventual training and performance support. This initiative will provide even more robust media and instructional modalities to the concept map application, via the incorporation of simulations and Web-based e-learning objects. A prototype will be developed.
Project discussion
Concept mapping is a revolutionary approach to learning. Using non-linear representations of interrelated nodes, the learner can better understand the context of information and how concepts relate to other concepts. Although current electronic concept map applications include text, graphics, photos, and media, this project proposes to include two additional media components that have not yet been included in concept map presentations: complex cryogenics simulations and discrete cryogenics-related Web-based learning objects. The research associated with this project will evaluate the hypothesized increase in learning effectiveness with this next generation concept map strategy.
Because the training sections of ALE will be developed in an object-oriented model, the individual assets and components created specifically for particular cryogenics courses will be available for incorporation into the concept maps, which will serve primarily as a repository of embedded knowledge. The research will explore the feasibility and effectiveness of enhanced concept maps as a structure for an electronic cryogenics performance support system.
Two parallel paths will be developed concurrently. The first path will develop short, discrete learning objects as a result of traditional instructional systems analysis and design. The second path will capture incumbent expert knowledge via concept mapping. As the two efforts develop, they will begin to converge as learning objects and other training resources, such as online simulations, are embedded within the concept maps.