Learning and problem solving as an iterative process: Learner's living repository: LEAR

Current learning challenges for competently employing information technology in the working environment is not sufficiently supported by training courses during the introduction phase of new systems, improved on-line help, and user support by local or central consultants. Each of these approaches has deficiencies and even taken as an integrated concept they are insufficient because they do not consider learning as a process. With the system LEAR (Learners’ Living Repository), we propose a solution to support users in exploiting learning and consultation episodes in later situations: Users can identify portions of an animated interaction sequence describing problems they encountered or solutions they found when using the tool, comment on them, and store them as episodes. Users can send episodes that describe questions, problems with the tool, or breakdowns when using the tool as a request for off-line help to a consultant. Episodes that describe learned tool knowledge can be stored in a database called “demotheque” for later use. Representative demos can be made available to a group of users in a “purse for demos”. This paper deals with today’s shortcomings of learning in the working environment, discusses the state of the art in the literature, and introduces our ideas of supporting the learning on demand process by creating and using learning episodes and exchanging them within a group of domain workers. We are currently developing a conceptual framework for LEAR; later on, we will evaluate a prototype of LEAR in a realistic work setting.