Hylos

hylOs - the hypermedia learning Object system is a Content Management System for elearning material. hylOs allows the authoring, instructional composition and dynamic presentation of eLearning content based on standard objects, i.e., IEEE LOM eLearning Objects. hylOs is an outcome of the cooperation of HAW Hamburg, FHTW Berlin and [http://www.link-lab.net link-lab] .

History

The prototype of the hylOs system was presented at the international workshop for blended learning in Villach in 2002. hylOs is based on the development of the Media Information Repository (MIR) in 1999, which allows the strict separation of content, structure, logic and appearance based on XML technology. The company spin-off started 2006.

Background

Since hypermedia systems have been introduced to teaching and learning environments, the authoring and use of learning material has undergone a shift in paradigm. Linear instructional designs such as those found in books or scripts are now complemented by interconnected knowledge networks. Content access no longer follows a single predefined path, but multiple, associative rules driven by individual inquiries.

In the field of "educational content management" the concept of atomic, self-consistent content units became standardised 2002 as IEEE LOM eLearning objects (eLOs). A basis for reusable learning objects was established, however there is no literature demonstrating that reuse actually happens with learning objects. hylOs is one of the first systems, which implements this approach and allows the graphical creation and composition of elearning objects.

Authoring eLearning objects (eLOs) needs the aggregated, self-consistent presentation of a self-contained subject matter in multiple types (slides, long text, animation, etc.) if applicable as well as their decoration with metadata and structures. To relax this comparatively complex process hylOs was developed. hylOs has "one" editor, which is used to create different kinds of content and metadata. The core component for content creation is an MS-Word-like WYSIWYG XML editor. The hylOs presentation layer operates under an extensive understanding of the eLO semantic: Following the LOM attributes the learner can adapt individually the frontend to complexity levels, contexts, semantic density and other specifications. Various access paths admit the usage of suitable didactic models. In addition presented hyperlinks can be chosen according to freely definable semantic decorated 'link contexts'.

Additional features of hylOs

* Management of bibliography and glossary
* Bibtex import and export
* Mathematical formulas with Mathml
* multi-user system
* Classification of paragraphs
* Embedding of arbitrary multimedia objects

Bibliography

* G.P. Landow: "The rhetoric of hypermedia: some rules for authors". In: "Journ. of Comp. in Higher Education". Bd. 1, Nr. 1, 1989, S. 39-64.
* M. Engelhardt, A. Hildebrand, D. Lange, T. C. Schmidt: [http://image.ntua.gr/swamm2006/resources/paper06.pdf "Reasoning about eLearning Multimedia Objects"] . In: J. Van Ossenbruggen, G. Stamou, R. Troncy, V. Tzouvaras (Hrsg.): "Proc. of WWW 2006, Intern. Workshop on Semantic Web Annotations for Multimedia (SWAMM)". 2006.

See also

* IMS Content Packaging
* SCORM
* Learning object metadata
* Reusable Learning Object

External links

* [http://www.link-lab.net link-lab Homepage]
* [http://www.hylos.org hylOs project web page]