ADISA™ - Distributed Workshop for Engineering Learning Systems

ADISA ™ (formerly AGD) is a distributed system on the Internet intended for the designers of learning systems particularly for teams developing distance learning environments on the Internet or making a large use of computer based components. It groups productivity tools allowing to reduce efforts and costs of instructional engineering, while maintaining consistency and quality control of the different components of a learning system. ADISA is based on the version 4.0 of the MISA method. Graphic models built using MOT and MISA orms in dynamic HTML are both recorded in an XML data base which allows the propagation of data from one task product towards other tasks or towards other training systems. To arrange a demonstration : michel.leonard@licef.ca

Description
ADISA is a computerized workshop developed to enhance the performance of instruction designers, specifically teams who create Internet-based distance courses or who widely use multimedia technology. This system includes productivity enhancement tools that reduce effort and cost of instructional engineering while maintaining quality consistency and control throughout the various components of a learning system.

ADISA is based on the MISA method that allows the user to produce four design specifications: learning content and competence to acquired; structure of learning events’, activities and resources; medium and learning materials; and finally, description of the technological and organisational infrastructures required to deliver learning events. MOT, an object-oriented knowledge model editor, is a key component of ADISA.

Main Functionalities

• The interface is 100% compatible with Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 2000 and Windows NT, as well as IMS and XML standards, making ADISA part of the technology mainstream.
• The Workshop is accessible through an Internet browser both in online and offline mode. The user can work online with the server copy or offline with a local copy on his workstation. Both can be synchronised making it possible for a design team to collaborate on a project.
• With ADISA, the MISA forms become DHTML forms, accessible with a Web browser.
• or each documentation item in the MISA method, there are data entry forms and report documents; data transfer between items is made possible via XML. For example, the list of target audiences established in 104 is automatically propagated into form 214 where the audience’s current and projected competence is established.
• The MOT models are integrated into the forms and are edited through a gateway that converts the MOT models into XML specifications.
• In the newest version of MOT, several areas integrated into the same instruction project can be processed, making it possible to model target audiences, knowledge and competence, learning events and scenarios, teaching materials, and learning system delivery services.
• Model objects can be marked with specific symbols and filtered according to these symbols. This functionality can serve to identify the different instructional objet to be precisely defined, later on, in property sheets.

Comparative Advantages

1. ADISA is the first instructional engineering support system that focuses on tele-learning, an area requiring more planing than traditional instruction and often adopting alternate delivery modes in terms of teaching means and support media.
2. ADISA is also the first Internet-based instructional engineering system that is accessible any time, anywhere using a Web browser. Work can be done online with specifications stored on a server or offline with locally stored specifications.
3. The data produced by both modes is synchronised to support design team members working together via remote access. It can also be interfaced with the major DBMS and instruction management systems.
4. The workshop’s high quality graphics set it apart from most existing systems by giving an overview of teaching objects and simplifying its operation and, thereby, making designing easier too. A new version of MOT, an object-oriented knowledge model editor, is seamlessly integrated to ADISA. Thus graphical data can be reused in the browser forms. These represent the course’s plans and specifications.
5. Tools integration makes data transfer from one tool to the other unnecessary, saving time and preventing transcription errors and inconsistencies in decisions to be made.
6. ADISA has access to a great deal of MISA’s pedagogical information, i.e. the 17 types of thoroughly researched instructional objects. These objects are described in the property forms that the workshop provides to teaching design experts, thus helping them consider a wide variety of choices.
7. As opposed to commercial authoring systems that are limited to producing educational software, ADISA helps to construct large-scale multimedia learning systems that integrate several methods and courses each including many activities documents and resources.
8. Based on modular rather than linear principles, ADISA produces reusable learning system components. Without these, course maintenance becomes sometimes so difficult the company is faced with the choice of either starting over at very a high cost or using obsolete teaching materials.

History and Current Status
Télé-université’s LICEF Research Centre began developing this instructional design workshop in December 1992 in response to a call of proposals issued by the DMR Group Inc. A first operational stand alone version (AGD - Atelier de génie didactique) was produced by the end of 1994 and tested in 1995 by seven organisations: Bank of Montreal, DMR Group, Télé-université, Sidoci, Ericcson, Eduplus and Novasys. On that basis, an autonomous version of AGD’s knowledge editor (MOT) was developed and the underlying method, MISA, was revised in 1996. Both of these software products became marketable in 1998. The ADISA Workshop is actually in beta stage after two successive constracts by the Department of National Defence.