Indian Journal of Science and Technology, Vol 10(14), DOI: 10.17485/ijst/2017/v10i14/109982, April 2017
ISSN (Print) : 0974-6846
ISSN (Online) : 0974-5645
Improving Learner’s Cognitive Learning Skills
in Course based Learning Environment
Kalla Madhusudhana*
Department of CSE, Teegala Krishna Reddy Engineering College, Hyderabad – 500097, Telangana, India;
[email protected]
Abstract
Objectives: The existing metadata standards in e-learning domain have been subject to much criticism for its lack of explicit
category of metadata to allow cognitive-based description of learning resources. In order to overcome the deficiency of
existing metadata standards, this research work proposed the content model for course based e-learning environment.
Methods/Statistical Analysis: A course-based e-learning approach is employed to assist the students in constructing
their own knowledge, by taking cognitive constraints into consideration. We are proposing the semantic based framework
to describe the educational material for the course based learning environment. Findings: The researcher examined
the required background knowledge for cognitive thinking, the differences between knowledge and cognition and then
proposed the semantic based structuring of course contents for providing adaptable and intelligent learning environment.
Application/Improvements: The proposed course content model influences the thinking skills, cognitive behaviour of
learner and to overcome the deficiency of existing metadata standards.
Keywords: Cognitive Skills, Content Modelling, Course-based E-learning, Knowledge, Ontology
1. Introduction
To facilitate student-centred learning and to improve
students’ learning outcomes, the technology should be
used to present practical problems and provide related
cases to students.1 To improve the learner’s understand
ability and cognitive skills, most of the existing course
based learning environments deliver learning materials
based on learner’s preferences but they are not construing
about what extent the course material can influence the
learner’s investigative thinking and creativity.
Cognitive-strategies resulted with the deep processing
of information which needs conventional organization
and presentation of course material that increases
student’s critical thinking.2 At every level of education,
the promotion of thought process and active learning is
the focus of educators. The active learning instructional
strategies can engage students in critical thinking.3
The Cognitive Load Theory (CLT) explains about the
interaction of human mind with instructional materials,
and it leads to great impact on working memory.4 So, there
is a need of increasing richness of learning environments
* Author for correspondence
trough incorporating proper instructional material.5 The
instructional design models associated with the distance
education holds great influence in skills training.6
In a web-based learning environment, the learner’s
prior knowledge influence in the process of understanding
the concepts. The prior knowledge and pedagogical
strategies in learning environment mediate the learner’s
ability to develop cognitive skills. Thus, Learners are
required to develop homogeneous background knowledge
on the topic.
The researcher has discussed the semantic based
structuring of course contents using ontological approach,
aims to provide a more adaptable and intelligent learning
environment. So that learner gets exposed to higher order
thinking skills and can interpret the correlated and indepth concepts of learning domain. The primary purpose
of proposed framework is to deliver the topics that are
concerned with the course curriculum based on learner’s
thinking skills so as to enhance the learning outcome.
This is used to found the required background
knowledge for cognitive thinking and the differences
between knowledge and cognition. Then we proposed
Improving Learner’s Cognitive Learning Skills in Course based Learning Environment
the ontological framework for the description of learning
resources in student-centred course based learning
environment. The proposed approach can enhance the
learning skills and cognitive potential of e-learner.
2. Background Knowledge for
Cognitive Thinking
The distinctions between the cognitive thinking and
knowledge actuation process are not always clear-cut.
The prior knowledge/ (background knowledge) helps the
learner in the mental processes to activate new ideas. It
also helps in the process of understanding and realizing
various types of relations among groups of information
of particular subject area. Knowledge structure is the
organization of large amount of information about object’s
context relevance and action (i.e., Meta layer above the
information objects). Some of the basic differences
between knowledge and cognition are as shown in Table
1.
As shown in Figure 1 (Data-Information-KnowledgeCognition hierarchy), Data leads to information by
means of clustering and classification of data through
identifying the various types of relationships such as
context, application, behaviour, etc among data elements.
Information leads to Knowledge through understanding
and analyzing the characteristics of patterns and their
interrelations through classifying and comparing. In
the process of learning cognitive skill development is an
active approach in which learner tries to subsume their
current interpretations with past knowledge.
Figure 1.
hierarchy.
The Data-Information-Knowledge- Cognition
2.1 Cognitive Relevance of Prior Knowledge
Cognitive thinking involves divergent thinking with the
convergence of known information, Knowledge, Ideas
and fundamental principles. Table 2 briefly introduces
various types of knowledge on learning concepts in
educational domain, which initiates the learner towards
cognitive thinking.
Table 1. Differences between knowledge and cognition
Knowledge
Can be Represented explicitly
Knowledge is Domain dependent
it can be acquired through understanding
It is transferable from person to person
It is Specific for Problem, Application and Context
knowledge acquisition depends on learning process
and environment
Cognition
Cannot be Represented
Generic
Through Experience
Self Initiated
Problem, Application and Context Independent
Acquisition of cognitive skills depends on
learner’s thinking ability
Table 2. The Required Background Knowledge for Cognitive Thinking
Type of prior knowledge
Declarative knowledge
(what)
Procedural knowledge
(how)
Contextual knowledge
(When)
Conditional knowledge
(Why)
2
Cognitive relevance of prior knowledge
Improves understanding abilities, effective thinking and information organization capability.
Activate Interest to absorb new information.
Improves Problem-solving, organizational and planning capabilities.
The Sequential info Processing and self-regulated Capabilities can be improved.
The ability to apply a rule or procedure to a situation that involves analysis and synthesis of
two or more concepts.
The knowledge of rules and their application.
Know precisely when and when not to perform the procedure?
Understanding environment/ Existing problem/ Target/ Goal/ Situation/ etc to do the things.
Understanding domain specific conditions, constraints and strategies
Strategic and conditional thinking capabilities
Vol 10 (14) | April 2017 | www.indjst.org
Indian Journal of Science and Technology
Kalla Madhusudhana
3. Scope of using an Ontology
In the field of computer science, Geroimenko has given
the definition of ontology as “An explicit representation
of the MEANING of terms in a VOCABULARY and
their inter relationships.7 In an ontology definition
language (such as OWL or RDF), an ontology is
the collection of STATEMENTS or other semantic
definitions for a DOMAIN”. In educational domain, the
pool of course concepts is connected to form hierarchy.8
The domain ontology contains information about the
domain knowledge of learning content and describes
the content structure. The application of Semantic Web
technology facilitates the students to have self-organized
or personalized learning approach.9
The ontology based representation of learning
material metadata will make learning repositories
to allow advanced search options through capturing
characteristics of the learning resources and to record
detailed information about the domain. Ontology based
content organization and presentation of course material,
increases learners understanding capability, critical
thinking and problem solving skills.
Usually in a course based learning environment, a
single learning concept will not be practicable for the
learner to understand and meet his goal. The process of
course composition needs to understand the dependencies
between the learning objects.10 So that the course content
modelling can be tailored as per the thinking skills of
learner that influences the cognitive behaviour of learner
while performing a distance web based learning.
4. Proposed Framework
Cognitive skill development is the recursive refinement
and integrating units of knowledge through exploring,
identifying and investigating the characteristics,
attributes, relationships, patterns and applicability
of learning concept. Following these ideas, here we
proposed an ontology-based approach to play central
role as a learning content structure and it supports
flexible cognitive strategies. Ontology’s have been used in
E-Learning in different ways; our objective is to contribute
to the building of ontological model for the description
of learning resources.11 That encourages Learner
Cognitive Behaviour and provides enhanced knowledge
management assistance to courseware designers. The
proposed ontology as in Figure 2 depicts whole layout of
the course contents that acts as a self-tuition framework
and complements the classroom activities.
The traditional electronic courses present the course
contents from a specific viewpoint. The ontology described
here provides standardized vocabularies that reflect all
topics considered as relevant to captures the cognitive and
instructional semantics of learning resource. The proposed
approach integrates learning designs that strengthen the
Figure 2. Layout of the Course Ontology.
Vol 10 (14) | April 2017 | www.indjst.org
Indian Journal of Science and Technology
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Improving Learner’s Cognitive Learning Skills in Course based Learning Environment
content presentation and navigation facilitates. It relies
on semantic based presentation of the course contents
in order to improve the understand ability of e-learner.
Learner can refer to a wide range of different concepts that
are concerned to learning topic. This approach facilitates
the acquisition of new knowledge by the students through
studying the related concepts even though they are not
directly related to course content.
The root class of proposed ontology is the Course
class, which represents various concepts being covered in
the course. The Course Class contains various properties
such as Name, Objective, description, etc. The core
subclasses of concept class are Explanation, Evaluation,
Interactivity, History and Applicability that are explained
as below:
• Explanation:
The
Explanatory
elements
(introduction, summary, examples, etc) deal with
the complementary information for explaining a
topic and user can freely explore aspects of a concept
without a specified goal, or with a goal.12,
• Evaluation: The elements such as Demonstration,
Evidence, etc. provide observations or proofs on the
practical usage and experimental details of learning
concept.
• Interactivity: The Interactive elements (problems,
Exercises, Issues, etc) indicate the documents where
the student can interact and designed to develop
or train a skill or ability related to application of a
concept.13
• History: The topics such as Prior Concept, Related
Concept, and Similar Concept indicate the resources
that must be known to understand a given concept.14
• Applicability: Learner should be able to apply the
knowledge in real world situations and problems
through understanding application context,
properties and facts of learning concept.
4.1 Example Scenario
To make the learner to understand everything related to
particular learning concept, the ontology based course
content can be formally denoted as O (T, P, R), where
T = Set of topics of specific course or subject
P = Property set such as ID, Name, Description, etc.
R = Relation set indicating the semantic relationships
between the pair of concepts as shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3. Semantic Relationships in Course Ontology.
Let us consider the “Course class” is the “Data
Structures” subject then the conceptual relations with
various related concepts are shown in Table 3.
5. Conclusion
The online learning environment is empowering students
to become self-directed and engaged-learners.15 In order
to promote active learning and critical thinking in higher
education, there is a need to initiate students to learn offcampus by taking the advantage of online educational
resources.
We proposed the semantic based framework to
describe the educational material for the course based
learning environment. It can help as enhanced knowledge
management assistance to courseware designers. The
proposed course content model helps in influencing the
thinking skills and cognitive behaviour of learner. It also
helps to overcome the deficiency of existing metadata
standards.
Table 3. Conceptual relations of “Data Structures” subject
Concept
(Concept classes)
Trees
Stacks
Queues
Graphs
4
Related Concept
(hasRelatedConcept)
Graphs, Traversal, Algorithms
Queues, List, Arrays
List, Arrays
Trees, Network, Maps
Vol 10 (14) | April 2017 | www.indjst.org
Sub Concept
(hasSubConcept)
Binary trees, AVL Trees, Traversal
PUSH, POP
D-Queue, P-Queue
Traversal, BFS, DFS
Applications
(hasApplication)
Heap Sort, Directory Structure
Recursion, Buffer Storage, DFS
Multi-tasking, BFS
Multi Processor Scheduling, PERT-Network
Indian Journal of Science and Technology
Kalla Madhusudhana
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