Using Information Technologies for Learning and Training in Industry
by Monique Grandbastien and Cyrille Desmoulins
The 'Computers and Education' research team of the LORIA in Nancy
(a joint INRIA-CNRS-Universities of Nancy Laboratory) is working on methods,
models and tools that allow the design computer-based learning environments.
For professional training, the focus is currently on capturing and modelling
corporate practices and experience and on using this specific know-how
together with the available electronic documentation to design training
environments. Training being a key factor for the competitiveness of industry,
many changes in the working places lead to evolving needs in the training
practices. The research aims at providing 'on the job environments' allowing
on the job training using training materials that are directly derived
from technical manuals enriched with corporate experience.
The LORIA 'Computers and Education' research team benefits from more
than ten years of various partnerships with professionals from education
and training departments. It was involved in the development of several
products or prototypes. Main actors include one professor, two assistant-professors
and several PhD and post-doc students. A first part of the research was
completed from 1994 to 1997, in partnership with steel industry. Main results
are described in the PhD thesis of Gaele Simon, including DOLMEN, a running
prototype for corporate knowledge. A second phase should start in 1998
for a duration of 30 months, including both the use of electronic manuals
and the capture of corporate experience for the design and implementation
of training materials.
Methods and Techniques
As far as corporate knowledge is concerned, we propose a knowledge-based
approach, and within available knowledge models and representations, we
have built DOLMEN on a case-based representation. Cases are structures
which are well suited to capture a past experience, case models can be
as different as needed to allow a wide variety of descriptions. In our
prototype, cases were defect descriptions that occurred during steel production.
The retrieval phase of the case-based reasoning cycle is then easily used
to retrieve the cases that could be useful for training. Our experience
shows that it is necessary to keep in mind the training applications from
the very beginning of the design of any corporate memory.
For electronic documents reuse, the idea is that no tool exists that
allows to convert manuals into training material keeping information consistent
and up to date. New versions of technical documentation are edited every
month or even every week in companies, and they cannot be included at the
same pace in the training materials. The aim of the research is to establish
a set of methods and tools to allow a smooth shift from technical documents
and corporate experience to on the job available training materials. The
experimentation will be conducted with car repairing industry in France
and possibly with other industrial and academic partners at the European
level. More information including references can be found at http://www.loria.fr/
CRIN/equipe/info-form/AN-index.html
Please contact:
Monique Grandbastien or Cyrille Desmoulins - LORIA/INRIA
Tel: +33 3 83 59 20 56/58
E-mail: {Monique.Grandbastien,
Cyrille.Desmoulins}@loria.fr
