Competence Center E-learning (CCeL)
at the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence GmbH,
Saarbrücken, Germany
Director of the DFKI: Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Wahlster
D-66123 Saarbruecken (Germany)
Phone: +49 681 302 5252
e-mail: [email protected]
Contact:
Co-leader of the CCeL: Dr. Josef Burgard
Im Stadtwald, Building 43.8
D-66123 Saarbruecken (Germany)
Phone: +49 681 9375 110
e-mail: [email protected]
Contribution of the CCeL: Innovative cooperative e-learning Platform for
intercultural networks.
The concept of life-long-learning is becoming increasingly important in our innovative
information age. Cost and time effectiveness is a strong demand for just-in-time further
education on E-learning plattforms. The advantages of self learning material based on CBT or
WBT are obvious to train so called “hard facts” of e.g. new computer software programms.
Especially the so called soft skills need additional interactive communication functionallites to
manage learning process. An strong impulse in innovation is particularly expected by pooling
all participating members involved in the learning process in the form of a network. For this
reason, the German BMBF called the program Regions of Learning into life in cooperation
with the European Union. The project SaarLernNetz with the coordination of the Transfer
Center Global Working in DFKI represents one of the 70 regions belonging to the Regions of
Learning program. The main goal of SaarLernNetz is to make life-long-learning attractive by
developing, testing and establishing educational offers on a long-term basis by way of a
cooperation between various educational institutions. In doing this, we hope to especially
attract the “educationally remote” using information and communication techniques. A
demand-oriented education-marketplace, consisting of mixed consulting and educational
offers, is to be developed within the scope of SaarLernNetz – a combination of presence and
e-learning offers specifically tailored to target groups. A continuous observation-system is
planned, with which to ascertain the needs of those addressed by the project. An advanced
training-databank is planned, in cooperation with the government of the Saarland.
Our main interest in this project is the building of a common educational market place, which
is not only able to inform and to present CBT or WBT, but as well to support the
communication process within a learning team. The World Wide Web is moving towards
“collaborative” business processes especially in the relationship between enterprises (B2B)
and the Costumer- Relationship Management (CRM). This process is influencing learning
activities as well, as working and learning esp. “learning at work” is a combined task during
the future human lifecycle.
This kind of using evokes new challenges for the future server applications, esp. on the web.
Typically Web applications may be personalized, but they are mostly not able to be aware of
the other users within the same application, they cannot contact them or even not interact.
Surfing on the information highway of the web or on e-learning platforms is nowadays a lonely
process.
The development of cooperative technologies for Web applications is one of the main
objective within the Transfer Center Global Working. The basis is the cooperative Portal
called „Coral Bay“ that allows different views of an application, e.g. a user and a group
context. On this conceptual basis individual tools may be integrated and be used in these
different context situation. Coral Bay uses the J2EE standard is therfore independant from the
used computer and software platform.
One important tool for cooperative work is the so called Co-Browsing, realised in the product
MeetAlive. MeetAlive allows to synchronize the browser of several users, so all users can
see the same Web site and each of them can guide through the information of e.g. the elearning offer or through the WBT program.
The research group has experience in transcultural projects
The TGW is working on research activites to support cooperative work within teams. The
intercultural aspect, which is up to now not regarded within cooperative support tools of e.g.
e-learning platforms, is a new conceptual challenge for our cooperative platform „Coral Bay“.
DFKI
DFKI GmbH, the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence, with sites in
Kaiserslautern and Saarbrücken is the leading German research institute in the field of
innovative AI software technology. Within the international scientific community, the DFKI was
evaluated and rated among the five important centers of excellence worldwide. The DFKI
GmbH was founded by seven leading companies and two large research organisations. Goal
of the DFKI GmbH is to promote the commercial breakthrough of Artificial Intelligence and to
significantly develop the research in Artificial Intelligence. Thereby the integration of different
technologies of Artificial Intelligence, computer science and especially of different application
areas is aspired. In order to increase the competitiveness of its customers, DFKI GmbH
concentrates on transfer of mature AI technologies into everyday business and industrial
applications. Currently the DFKI GmbH has 170 employees, 150 of which are researchers
conducting work in the following areas: natural language processing, multimedia user
interfaces and dialogue processing, intelligent software agents, development of secure and
reliable software systems, configuration, document analysis, information management, data
mining and data warehousing, distributed AI applications (eg. workflow management, and
transport telematics). DFKI GmbH has also successful conducted a number of projects for
the European Commission under the programmes ESPRIT, INTERREG II, TELEMATICS,
TRANSPORT etc.
DFKI has also acquired experience and special expertise in the area of Networks of
Excellence (NoEs). It is the coordinating and managing node of the Computational Logic NoE,
Compulog Net, as well as a founding node of I-cubed (Intelligent Information Interfaces) and
of AgentLink (Agent-Based Computing). In addition, the Compulog Net managing node acts
as vice-president of the net of all NoEs. Its duties here currently include coordinating joint
actvities between networks, representing NoEs in discussions with the European Commission
and other organisations, participating in discussions on the 5th Framework Programme, as
well as building an all-NoE web site with a searchable database covering nodes of all
networks. As a result it enjoys ready access to current R&TD policy and activities in more
than 20 IT fields.
PROJECTS
Malibu
The main objective of the project is to assess the cost-efficiency and pedagogical
effectiveness of new distance and flexible learning delivery systems.The emphasis is on
training for banking institutes. The entire project covers the development of three prototype
systems and especially the adaption of these systems to banking requirements.
The German pilot of the MALIBU project, the RTM system, offers a multimedia self-learning or
working environment combined with a tutor - hotline via ISDN for ”joint viewingÓ and ”joint
workingÓ. It has been pilot tested in Siemens Nixdorf Trainings Center (SNI TC) and
Bayerische Vereinsbank (BV). Siemens built the RTM system and Ludwig Maximilian
UniversitŠt (LMU) designed and performed evaluation.
ECOLE (European Collaborative Open Learning Environment)
Traditional methods like classroom training or selfstudy activities are not sufficient to fullfil the
gradually growing needs for further education. Internal as well as external courses are very
expensive, but selfstudies using Computer Based Training (CBT) programs or similar material
are very complicated and disappointing, if you have to look for further information when
problems arise.
One solution of this problem is the Multimedia cooperative ECOLE - system which allows to
learn undependently of time and place, within groups or individually, cooperatively supported
by a tutor, different subjects, within virtual classrooms
The ECOLE prototype based on Euro ISDN network allows asynchroneous (e-mail, Bulletin
board,) as well as sysnchroneous teamwork (Audio, Video and data conferencing). That
means for example that being in a selfstudy activity you can contact a tutor - using the ISDN
network. The tutor can understand your problem using Multimedia Presentation tools and help
you very fast. Big groups can be established in a virtual classroom, it is not necessary to
organize travels, meeting rooms and so on.
TeleLTC
TeleLTC is a european project in the ADAPT- programm.
TeleLeofil
TeleLeofil is aproject funded from the European Union within the Programm LEONARDO DA
VINCI II. On the one hand, knowledge-based activities today require high qualifications and
flexibility. On the other hand, the new developments in information and communication
technology open up new possibilities of overcoming material and psychological barriers..
Based on this situation, in the participating European countries the project Tele-Leofil aims at
making fit disadvantaged and disabled people for their introduction into the employment world
and at improving their vocational perspectives. This can be done primarily by using a TeleLearning-/ Cooperation-Scenario which is optimised for the respective target group and
employs the use of a desktop video-conference system with a whole range of
telecommunication tools, in particular application sharing.
Tele-Leofil’s innovative approach consists in providing disadvantaged and disabled youths
and adults with
 Professional
 Target-group oriented
 Multimedia
Tele-Learning-/ Cooperation tools, scenarios and contents.
Independent of their respective place of learning, living or working, with Tele-Leofil’s
assistance they receive admission to
 Subject matter and facilities for vocational training
 Subject matter and facilities for advanced training
 Teachers, trainers and tutors
 Tutorial firms
 A growing and professional network of firms
Using these measures, the target group can not only compensate for their handicap and in
this manner achieve equal opportunities with the non-disadvantaged and non-disabled, but
more importantly, they can ensure themselves through ideal qualification-criteria advantages
in the job world and occupational advancement.
SaarLernNetz
The project SaarLernNetz represents one of the 70 regions belonging to the Regions of
Learning program initiated by the BMBF in cooperation with the European Commission. The
main goal of SaarLernNetz is to make life-long-learning attractive by developing, testing and
establishing educational offers on a long-term basis by way of a cooperation between various
educational institutions. In doing this, we hope to especially attract the “educationally remote”
using information and communication techniques. A demand-oriented education-marketplace,
consisting of hybrid consulting and educational offers, is to be developed within the scope of
SaarLernNetz – a combination of presence and e-learning offers specifically tailored to target
groups. A continuous observation-system is planned, with which to ascertain the needs of
those addressed by the project. An advanced training-databank is planned, in cooperation
with the government of the Saarland.
Main results expected are:
 An education-marketplace with hybrid educational offers (presence and e-learning).
 Motivation of the educationally remote using a playful approach to the educational offers.
 A continuous observation-system with which to ascertain the needs of those addressed
by the project.
 Cooperative educational offers.
CV of Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Wahlster
Dr. Wolfgang Wahlster is the Director and CEO of the German Research Center for Artificial
Intelligence (DFKI GmbH) and a Professor of Computer Science at the Universität des
Saarlandes, Saarbrücken. In 2000, he was coopted as a Professor of Computational
Linguistics at the same university. In addition, he is the Head of the Intelligent User Interfaces
Lab at DFKI.
He received his diploma and doctoral degree (1981) in Computer Science from the University
of Hamburg, Germany. Since 1975 he has been working in the field as a principal investigator
in intelligent user interface projects.
He was the Scientific Director of the VERBMOBIL consortium on spontaneous speech
translation (1993-2000) and currently serves as the Scientific Director of the SmartKom
consortium on multimodal dialog systems (1999-2003).
He has published more than 150 technical papers on language technology and intelligent
user interfaces. His current research includes intelligent multimodal interfaces, user modeling,
natural language scene description, intelligent help systems, speech translation, and internet
agents. He is the editor of the book "Verbmobil: Foundations of Speech-to-Speech
Translation" and the Co-Editor of the Readings in Intelligent User Interfaces.
He is a AAAI Fellow (elected in 1993), a ECCAI Fellow (since 1999), and a recipient of the
Fritz Winter Award (1991), and an ITEA Prize (1995; Information Technology European
Award) for his research on cooperative user interfaces.
In 1998, he has been awarded the degree of Doctor Honoris Causa by the Institute of
Technology at Linkoeping University, Sweden. In 2001, he received a second Honorary
Doctorate from Darmstadt University of Technology in Germany.
He serves as a member of the Executive Board of the AI section of the German Informatics
Association (GI) and the Collaborative Research Center 'Resource-adaptive Cognitive
Processes' ( SFB 378).
Prof. Wahlster was the Conference Chair for IJCAI-93 in Chambery, the Chair of the Board of
Trustees of IJCAII from 1991-1993, a Trustee of IJCAII from 1989-1999, the ECAI-96
Programme Chair and the Programme Co-Chair of ACL/EACL-97.
He is the Chair of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the OFFIS Institute (Oldenburg,
Germany), a member of the Scientific Board of IRST (Trento, Italy), the International Advisory
Board of the Nijmegen Institute for Cognition and Information (NICI, Nijmegen, the
Netherlands), the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Swedish Information Technology
Institute (SITI, Stockholm, Sweden), the Japanese Cyber Assist Research Center (CARC,
Tokyo, Japan), the French National Institute for Research in Computer Science and
Control (INRIA, Paris, France), and the Board of Trustees of the International Computer
Science Institute (ICSI, Berkeley, USA).
He has served as the Chair of ECCAI, the European Coordinating Committee for Artificial
Intelligence, from 1996-2000. In 2000, he was the President of the Association for
Computational Linguistics (ACL).
In 2000, he was the first AI researcher to receive the Beckurts Award, one of Germany's most
prestigious awards for scientific and technological innovations.
In 2001, the President of the Federal Republic of Germany, Dr. Johannes Rau, presented the
German Future Prize to Prof. Wahlster for his work on language technology and intelligent
user interfaces. Prof. Wahlster was the the first computer scientist to receive Germany's
highest scientific prize that is awarded each year for outstanding innovations in technology,
engineering, or the natural sciences.
Prof. Wahlster is a member of the Editorial Board or Advisory Board of the following journals:
 Annals of Mathematics and Artificial Intelligence
 Applied Artificial Intelligence
 Artificial Intelligence
 Cognitive Science Quarterly
 Gehirn & Geist
 Kognitionswissenschaft
 Informatik - Forschung und Entwicklung
 User Modeling and User-Adapted Interaction
In addition, he is a member of the editorial board of the following book series:
 Artificial Intelligence, Springer
 DISKI, Dissertationen zur Künstlichen Intelligenz, infix