At the core of the ARIADNE II Project (which continued and expanded on the ARIADNE I Project, OFES No 95-0130.1 ), are the concepts and tools needed for computer-based and telematics supported education and training. According to us, share and reuse of pedagogical documents by authors and trainers is, in the long term, key to success, provided that a coherent methodology and simple enough technology are really made available to that end.
ARIADNE developed, deployed, tested and further refined a complete series of tools for E-Learning covering the various aspects of Authoring, Indexation, Management and Access to ODL. (These tools continue to be used by many Institutions). The Project also created a network of interconnected knowledge pools (the KPS) which serves as a distributed repository of learning objects (LOs)- and is still growing. From this KPS, LOs can be retrieved and inserted in structured curricula, which are designed by authors and distributed to learners with the corresponding Ariadne tools.
ARIADNE II 's efforts were focused on: (i) a number of verification/demonstration experiments relying on the developed system, (ii) further development of selected Tools (third generation prototypes) and (iii) expansion of the KPS and refinement of the pedagogical indexation system -which has now evolved into an internationally accepted standard: the IEEE Learning Object Metadata (LOM) standard.
Globally, these objectives were all successfully met within the Project's lifetime, although the administrative closure is still pending, mid-2001. The results of ARIADNE have been transfered, for non- commercial exploitation, to the ARIADNE Foundation, a non-profit international association supported by the EUC and OFES in the 5th EU FWRP (see
http://www.ariadl1e-t~u.oI:g).LEAO-EPFL, which acted as both the Project Coordinator and an RTD Partner of ARIADNE II, now hosts the Headquarters of the ARIADNE Foundation.
RTD GOALS for LEAO-EPFL :
LEAO-EPFL was in charge of :
.refine the ARIADNE metadata and the tool (Pedagogic Header Generator, TMS) used to index the documents, input them in the KP and perform queries on this database (in cooperation with KUL);
.develop the Curriculum Generator (TM/6), a tool used to build distributable curricula, and
.develop the ARIADNE Learner Interface (ALl), a Web-based tool used by Learners to follow their courses and by pedagogic engineers to install the courses, manage and run them.
.In addition, two verification experiments were scheduled for 1999/2000 and, as the project Coordinator, LEAO-EPFL was responsible for dissemination and concertation activities.
RTD RESUL TS :
The ARIADNE metadata system has been accepted as the basis of the IEEE/LOM international standards; a second generation, web-based prototype of the TMS Indexation Tool was developed by KUL, in close cooperation with us; the second generation, fully-functionnal prototype of the ARIADNE Learner/Management Interface have been developed and put to use; a new, stand-alone, java-based pre-version of the TM6 tool has been produced, with added functions. The EPFL-based pedagogical experiment has proceeded normally, with a number of new documents being created, indexed and stored in the EPFL knowledge pool. One of the KUL-EPFL pedagogical experiment could not be deployed. One of the EPFL-industrial partner experiment was modified and proceeded with a new partner. Over the Project's duration, four Users Group and four Project Meetings have been successfully organized.
The overall Project scheduling was respected.
