The ADEPT concept-based digital learning environment

Abstract

We describe the design and application of a Digital Learning Environment (DLE) that is integrated with the collections and services of the Alexandria Digital Library (ADL). This DLE is in operational use in undergraduate teaching environments. Its design and development incorporate the assumption that deep understanding of both scientific phenomena and scientific methods is facilitated when learning materials are explicitly organized, accessed and presented at the level of granularity of appropriate sets of scientific concepts and their interrelationships. The DLE supports services for the creating, searching, and displaying: (1) knowledge bases (KBs) of strongly structured models of scientific concepts; (2) DL collections of information objects organized and accessible by the concepts of the KBs; and (3) collections of presentation materials, such as lectures and laboratory materials, that are organized as trajectories through the KB of concepts. © Springer-Verlag 2003.