francuski

Quality vs. Quantity : Instructional Design for Distributed Computing = Qualité et quantité : conception pédagogique pour l’informatique repartee

One of the biggest challenges currently facing grid computing community is development of efficient ways to disseminate grid knowledge and skills to wide range of users who are not interested in grid computing for its own sake, but in the contexts of their applications. Using jargon of education, grid community needs a comprehensive educational service scalable to large numbers of participants from wide range of backgrounds and different organisational units, cities, countries and continents. Distributed computing usually refers to “a method of computer processing in which different parts of a programme are run simultaneously on two or more computers that are communicating with each other over a network” [1]. It allows individual resources connected to the Internet to become a single, much more powerful resource shared by everyone. Distributed computing currently stands at the cutting edge of information and communication technologies. Its current position in Rogers’s innovation/adoption curve [2] requires broad, comprehensive education accessible to all distributed computing users throughout the network. Epistemologically, distributed education delivered in fully online mode addresses such demands. Shift towards e-learning, however, implies much more than simple transfer of materials from classroom to the screen – it requires a completely new approach to education, especially in the field of quality management. The International Collaboration to Extend and Advance Grid Education (ICEAGE) project aims to foster education in grid computing in the Higher Education sector. The project aims at developing policy recommendations in relevant international bodies, and applies this through organising grid computing summer schools and maintaining a Digital Library to share teaching and learning resources. The series of International Summer Schools on Grid Computing (ISSGC) has run annually since 2003. The ICEAGE project has organised the ISSGC since 2006. In order to provide wider access to lectures and tutorials run by some of the world’s most recognised grid experts, the ICEAGE project decided to deliver some ISSGC material online. ISSGC materials have been developed into various audiovisual and textual formats and stored in the ICEAGE Digital Library. The representative selection of those materials, carefully hand-picked by leading authorities in the field, forms the basis of the International Winter School on Grid Computing. Building on previous works on delivery mode shifts from face-to-face to online education [3], this paper exposes quality issues connected with transfer of successful series of ISSGC into online International Winter School in Grid Computing ’08 (IWSGC’08). Considering the importance of reaching participants unable to attend traditional summer schools and the increasing trend towards extending grid usage by non-expert audiences, this paper is focused to achieving a successful compromise between quality and quantity when shifting from face-to-face to online learning mode. The existing ICEAGE face-to-face grid education is of highest quality, but reaches a very limited number of users. The main issue addressed in this paper is sustaining the important quality elements while multiplying the number of School participants by shifting to an online learning environment. This paper is based on the case of instructional design of IWSGC’08. The School curriculum consists of four main grid technologies: Condor, OGSA-DAI, Globus and gLite. Each technology is allocated a period of one week as its prime delivery period with a tutor dedicated to a technology.

e-learning quality; instructional design; delivery mode shift

nije evidentirano

engleski

Quality vs. Quantity : Instructional Design for Distributed Computing

One of the biggest challenges currently facing grid computing community is development of efficient ways to disseminate grid knowledge and skills to wide range of users who are not interested in grid computing for its own sake, but in the contexts of their applications. Using jargon of education, grid community needs a comprehensive educational service scalable to large numbers of participants from wide range of backgrounds and different organisational units, cities, countries and continents. Distributed computing usually refers to “a method of computer processing in which different parts of a programme are run simultaneously on two or more computers that are communicating with each other over a network” [1]. It allows individual resources connected to the Internet to become a single, much more powerful resource shared by everyone. Distributed computing currently stands at the cutting edge of information and communication technologies. Its current position in Rogers’s innovation/adoption curve [2] requires broad, comprehensive education accessible to all distributed computing users throughout the network. Epistemologically, distributed education delivered in fully online mode addresses such demands. Shift towards e-learning, however, implies much more than simple transfer of materials from classroom to the screen – it requires a completely new approach to education, especially in the field of quality management. The International Collaboration to Extend and Advance Grid Education (ICEAGE) project aims to foster education in grid computing in the Higher Education sector. The project aims at developing policy recommendations in relevant international bodies, and applies this through organising grid computing summer schools and maintaining a Digital Library to share teaching and learning resources. The series of International Summer Schools on Grid Computing (ISSGC) has run annually since 2003. The ICEAGE project has organised the ISSGC since 2006. In order to provide wider access to lectures and tutorials run by some of the world’s most recognised grid experts, the ICEAGE project decided to deliver some ISSGC material online. ISSGC materials have been developed into various audiovisual and textual formats and stored in the ICEAGE Digital Library. The representative selection of those materials, carefully hand-picked by leading authorities in the field, forms the basis of the International Winter School on Grid Computing. Building on previous works on delivery mode shifts from face-to-face to online education [3], this paper exposes quality issues connected with transfer of successful series of ISSGC into online International Winter School in Grid Computing ’08 (IWSGC’08). Considering the importance of reaching participants unable to attend traditional summer schools and the increasing trend towards extending grid usage by non-expert audiences, this paper is focused to achieving a successful compromise between quality and quantity when shifting from face-to-face to online learning mode. The existing ICEAGE face-to-face grid education is of highest quality, but reaches a very limited number of users. The main issue addressed in this paper is sustaining the important quality elements while multiplying the number of School participants by shifting to an online learning environment. This paper is based on the case of instructional design of IWSGC’08. The School curriculum consists of four main grid technologies: Condor, OGSA-DAI, Globus and gLite. Each technology is allocated a period of one week as its prime delivery period with a tutor dedicated to a technology.

e-learning quality; instructional design; delivery mode shift

nije evidentirano