<ML>³

<ML>³ Didactic Concept

The <ML>³ concept provides the possibility to define various didactical structures supplementing the content of a module. This enhances the educational quality of the material and facilitates the individual re-arrangement of module elements by lecturers.

Similar to existing markup languages, the module content can be recursively subdivided into paragraphs (which are the equivalents of chapters, sections and so on) and miscellaneous sub-elements, which can be classified as definition, example, remark, quotation, algorithm, theorem and proof, description, task, or tip. These content blocks can be structured into lists or tables. Further elements are, for instance, mathematical formulas in MathML, source code, external sounds, images, 3D-scenes, videos, applets, and references to practical experiments. Additionally, presentation units are defined, which encapsulate the information to appear on a single screen or slide.

The didactical structure of a module defines a number of lessons, that should be workable in a session of appr. 45 minutes. Every lesson consists of several steps, which can be classified as introduction, learning and practical parts or conclusion. These elements are referring to the presentation units as defined in the content side of a module. For each module, various didactical structures can be described. This simplifies the re-use of modules by different lecturers and for different purposes.

The process of didactical re-arrangement is done during course composition. Here, the lecturer has the choice to use original didactics, to vary them, or to define a completely new didactic structure. This enables him, for instance, to select mainly the interactive components of the online version in order to encourage self learning, or to re-order the slides following his own ideas. At this moment, some supplementing tools for the process of didactical re-structuring are under development.