On supporting e-learning in the field of resilience management with an open source authoring tool

Abstract

Among all the pedagogical and technological features that could be used with the aim of improving and making more effective online education, we have identified virtual and augmented reality-based technologies and the creation and sharing of digital open resources as interesting issues not yet adequately covered. Both of them can be exploited in the current and trendy Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) scenario, so as to make their content and activities more interactive and effective. Furthermore, a key role is played by all the online tools (authoring tools / pedagogical planners) that support, on one side, authors in creating contents and, on the other, learners in exploiting them while they are acquiring skills and competencies. We have designed, developed and customized an e-learning authoring tool, called BEAT (Bologna E-learning Authoring Tool). This paper focuses on main design issues and on the customization of BEAT devoted to meet the needs of the RESINT project, with the aim of supporting authors in creating (designing and editing) and managing interactive and Open Educational Resources. One of the expected results of this project is to create an open source authoring tool to support authors during the creation of open learning objects, accessible (and reusable) through Learning Content Management Systems. A use case in the context of resilience management-related topics is also illustrated in the paper.