The "learning path" looks like a Table of Contents and can be used as one, but can offer you much more.

Learning path

The Learning Path tool has two functions:

• Create a learning Path
• Upload a Scorm or IMS format Learning path

What is a Learning Path ?

A Learning Path is a sequence of learning steps included in modules. It can be content-based (looking like a table of contents) or activity-based, looking like an agenda or a programme of what you need to do in order to understand and practice certain knowledge or know-how.

In addition to being structured, a learning path can also be sequenced. This means that some steps will constitute pre-requisites for others ('you cannot go to step 2 before step1'). Your sequence can be suggestive (you show steps one after the other) or imperative (you add pre-requisites so that
people are forced to follow the sequence).

How to create our own Learning Path ?

The first step is to arrive to Learning Path Builder section. In the Learning Path screen, there is a link. There you can create many paths by clicking on to "Add a new learning path". If you make a path visible, it will appear as a new tool on the homepage of the course. This will make your access easier.

What are the steps for these paths? (What are the items that can be added?)

All e-gnosis tools, activities and content that you consider to be useful and connected to your path can be added:

• Agenda items
• Separate documents (texts, pictures, Office docs, ...)
• Announcement items
• Forums as a whole
• Topics
• Individual topic messages
• Links
• e-gnosis Tests (you have to make the tests visible in the Tests tool before you can present them for students in paths)
• Assignments page
• Dropbox page
• External links, which point out of e-gnosis system

Uploading a SCORM zip file

• Click on "Browse".
• Select the scorm object you wish to upload (must already be as a zip folder).
• Ensure that the name of the zip folder consists of english characters or digits (e.g. 1.1). ZIP does not recognize Greek characters and the name of the folder will appear garbled in the learning path (e.g. XXXXX).
• Once you upload the zip folder, you can rename the folder. However, note that the original zip name will appear in the navigation path and not the renamed folder.

Other features of a Learning Path

Students can be asked to follow (read) your path in a given order, as you can set prerequisites in the path. This means that for example students cannot go to Quiz 2 until they have read the document.
1. All items have a status : completed or incomplete, so the progress of students is clearly available.
If you alter the original title of a step, the new title will appear in the path, but the original title will not be deleted. So if you want for example test8.doc to appear as 'Final Exam' in the path, you do not have to rename the file, you can give it a new title in the path tool. It is also useful to give new titles to links as they are too long.
When finished, do not forget to check the student view. The table of contents appears on the left and the path steps usually appear on the right, one by one.

What is a Scorm or IMS format Learning path and how to upload (import) it?

The learning path tool allows you to upload SCORM and IMS compliant course contents. SCORM (Sharable Content Object Reference Model) is a public standard followed by major e-Learning organisations like NETg, Macromedia, Microsoft, Skillsoft, etc. and acting at three levels:

• Economy: TScorm allows whole courses or small content units to be reusable on different Learning Management Systems (LMS) through the separation of content and context,

• Pedagogy: Scorm integrates the notion of pre-requisite or sequencing (e.g. "You cannot go to chapter 2 before passing Quiz 1"),

• Technology: Scorm generates a table of contents as an abstract layer situated outside content and outside the LMS. It helps content and LMS communicate with each other. What is communicated is mainly bookmarks ("Where is John in the course?"), scoring ("How did John pass the test?") and time ("How much time did John spent in chapter 1?").

How to create a SCORM compliant learning path?

The most natural way is to use the e-gnosis Learning Path Builder. However, you may want to create complete Scorm compliant web sites locally on your own computer before uploading it onto your e-gnosis platform. In this case, we recommend the use of a sophisticated tool like Lectora® or Reload®.

Useful links

• Adlnet: authority responsible for Scorm normalization, http://www.adlnet.org
• Reload: Open Source free Scorm player and editor, http://www.reload.ac.uk
• Lectora: Scorm publisher authoring software, http://www.trivantis.com

Note:

The Learning Path section lists all the self-built Learning Paths and all uploaded Scorm format Learning Paths, as well. It is wise to put every uploaded Scorm path into separate directories.

Add a learning path

e-gnosis gives feedback after the creation of the learning path. Next step is to add a module.

It is easy to add a module to a learning path.

Once the module is added it is possible to add steps to the module.

To add a step, click on the cross; to add new title/description, click on the pencil; to add prerequisites click on the icon with two documents. You can check what the students will see by clicking on Student View on top.

Navigation through SCORM learning path

All the steps will appear in a list on the left hand side of your screen (blue text). As you select each step, its content will be shown in the display area. As you browse through each step, a progress bar will be updated showing your progress within the learning path.

Below the learning path steps (blue text) and the progress bar, is a list of icons. These icons provide further navigation options within the learning path. These are as follows:

•    The Stage we are at: Click this icon to show your learning path statistics.

•    Previous: Click this icon to take you to the previous step of the learning path from your current step.

•    Next: Click this icon to take you to the next step of the learning path from your current step.

•    Restart: Click this icon to take you to the first step of the learning path and to restart the progress bar from the beginning.

•    Full screen: Click this icon in the menu section to make the left hand side with the learning steps disappear and leave you with a larger viewable area.

•    Return to normal viewing: If you are in full screen mode click this icon to return to normal viewing mode.

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