Interactive Training Framework
A New Approach to eLearning
Syed Muhammad Faraz
Dept. of CS & IT, NEDUET
092-321-3879987
saiyadmfaraz@hotmail.com
Shariq Mehmood Khan
Dept. of CS & IT, NEDUET
092-21-9926-1261 ext 2399
shariq@neduet.edu.pk
ABSTRACT
The advent of ICT (Information and Communication Technology)
has brought a dramatic change in the distance learning paradigm.
Along with formal education, eLearning has played its part in
helping people expertise new tools and technologies. Software
vendors have been increasing their sales over their competitors by
providing its customers better opportunities to learn their software
products. In this paper, we present a framework which is aimed at
improving the efficiency and management of trainings. We also
mention some loopholes of current training methods that do not
allow the eLearning model to cope up with the new realities of
information age. Thus, the objective of this research is to identify
the requirements of trainers and trainee’s followed by to identify
and analyze the existing eLearning methods and finally to
proposed the framework ITF to improve the eLearning system.
Intended training types and their usage domains are also
discussed. Finally, we present, by experiment, analysis and
results, the effectiveness of our design in trainings accessibility.
Categories and Subject Descriptors
J.1 [Administrative Data Processing]: Education
K.3.1 [Computers and Education]: Computer Uses in Education
- computer-assisted instruction (CAI), distance learning
General Terms
Performance, Design.
Keywords
Programmed Simulation, Interactive Training, Framework,
eLearning ,Distance Learning, Collaborative Learning
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FIT’09, December 16–18, 2009, CIIT, Abbottabad, Pakistan.
Copyright 2009 ACM 978-1-60558-642-7/09/12....$10.
Sadaf Iqbal Behlim
Dept. of CS & IT, NEDUET
092-331-2133034
sweetdua2050@hotmail.com
Dr. Sohail Abdul Sattar
Dept. of CS & IT, NEDUET
092-21-9926-1261 ext 2233
sattar@neduet.edu.pk
1. INTRODUCTION
During the past decade, Universities and Corporate training
facilities have put in their efforts to improve education & learning
all over the world. New tools and services are brought into market
by many new IT based organizations to enable the effective design
of computer based learning solution[3]. Studies show that
Computer based instructions (CBI) have a significant effect on the
learning behavior of the students[4].
Over the last 20 years, the trend in gathering information for
learning material has changed from books to e-books, articles and
web pages to video tutorials, CBTs and virtual labs. The presence
of high speed internet lines has allowed the internet users to watch
and download video trainings, web casts, live conferences etc.
Because of its easiness in accessibility and degree of sharing,
video trainings have been the most popular format for learning
tools and technologies. Numerous sites on the internet provide a
platform for every user to become a teacher and a student at the
same time. Vendors like Microsoft have combined easiness in
user interface with free learning resources to outdo their
freeware/open source counterparts.
Users find it extremely useful to watch somebody demonstrate to
them from configuration of any small option in OS to complex
programming language tutorials. Besides being very effective and
practical, these video trainings have a few areas that can be
tweaked to produce trainings with long lasting effects.
Generally there have been three areas for making eLearning model
more effective[1][2].
1. Learner-Content Interaction
2. Learner-Instructor Interaction
3. Learner-Learner Interaction
Our focus in this paper is a new training paradigm aimed at the
Learner-Content Interaction. The basic idea is to record the trainer
activity. The trainer activity will be stored in the form of
instructions which will drastically reduce the size of the training
achieving an output very similar to video trainings. ITF will offer
a service that will allow the corporate users to provide a training
and learning environment to their employees, and universities to
their students. In the text that follows we refer to the trainings Trainer Trainee
based on our framework as Smart Trainings. Design new training
Use Training

In following section, we describe the problems with current Pre Training

Authenticate
training methodologies that we would like to eliminate in our Configurations
framework. In sections 2, we describe the work similar to our
intended design. Sections 3, 4 and 5 are dedicated to the details of
our framework. Section 6 explains the challenges we face to Record Session Training Type

Next Session
develop this framework. We have conducted some experiments to Selection

estimate the potential of the trainings. We present the experiments

and the results in Sections 7 and 8 respectively. Post Session
Tweaks
Consume Session

Next Session
2. EXISTING WORK IN PROGRAMMED
SIMULATIONS
There have been a few software vendors that have opted for Evaluate Session
programmed simulation training. When triggered, these (Optional)

trainings/demos take control of the input devices and demonstrate Training

the environment and certain concepts about their software. One of Finished

the examples of such programmed simulation is SimpleOCR [5]. Evaluation Result

These trainings/demos are very effective but there is more that one
can do with programmed instructions. These do not allow the user
interaction during the execution. The trainings are developed in-
house and demonstrate only their tool.
3. INTERACTIVE TRAINING
FRAMEWORK
Keeping in view earlier methods of training and their inabilities,
we present a design that primarily overcomes those inabilities.
Interactive Training Framework (ITF) is a Training Designing
Solution that provides a platform for organizations and
individuals to create and provide Interactive training content to
target audiences, and to track the effectiveness of such trainings.
ITF utilizes latest technology advancements to address the
challenges of Learning, and to enable the next step in the march
towards flexible and continual learning.
3.1 Overview
The idea is to design a framework which facilitates the tracking of
trainer activity as a background process instead of capturing the
screen as video. The information is gathered by following the
trainer input in the training environment. For an initial start up,
the framework is capable of tracking through mouse and keyboard
among the input devices. It does this by keeping information
about the controls as they are accessed by the trainer. A general
flow of the proceedings is given in Figure 1. Prior to any
recordings, the trainer will setup his environment for any pre-
requisites e.g. opening of a particular tool etc. The training is
divided into multiple sessions. The trainer will go on to perform
the desired training activity for that session which is recorded by
the ITF. It is possible that during the session, the trainer performs
some undesired activity e.g. Antivirus Updates or scans etc. This
may cause some unneeded activity being stored in the Smart
training. Therefore before exporting the training to the disk, ITF
will provide an interface to perform any tweaks required or even
add some new one. If all the demonstration of the current session
is over the trainer may add another session or end training
activity. Finally, the trainer can optionally add authentication.
(Optional)
Figure 1: ITF Training Design & Usage
The training begins by authenticating the trainee if needed. The
trainee selects the type of training according to his/her
requirement. The trainer will take on the training session by
session. If there is any quiz or resources associated with the
session, the trainee can stop and go through them. At the end of
the training, the trainee will be informed of his understanding
based on his performance in the quizzes.
3.2 Intended Training Types
The most standout feature of Smart Trainings is its ability to be
used as per requirement. The trainee can use a training without
changes as any of the following types:
3.2.1 Activity Simulation
The trainee begins to execute the training. The training
application takes over the trainee’s desktop. The training
application performs the desired activity on trainee’s behalf.
3.2.2 Activity Description
The trainer starts by making the training. The framework converts
the performed activity into description (text/speech).The trainee
uses the description.
3.2.3 Prompt Based Training/Testing
The trainee begins to execute the training. The application
minimizes to icon tray. The trainee then starts the target activity
within his environment. If the trainee goes wrong with respect to
the prescribed training, Prompt (text / audio based) will be raised
that tell the trainee that he is no performing the desired action.
4. COMMON FEATURES
Some common features introduced by ITF are listed below:
4.1 Multiple Sessions
It is now possible to divide the training into multiple sessions.
Each of which can be managed differently.
4.2 Searching Trainer
A list of keywords can be attached to each session. This allows the Activities

trainee to know whether and what session of training deals with

Recording
his interest. Engine

Training object
4.3 Embedded Evaluation Mechanism (Trainer)

Quizzes can be associated by combining one or more sessions. Training

This will help the trainee to evaluate himself. FIle

4.4 External Resource Integration

If the explanation regarding the training exists in any external
Compiler
resource (any office document, media files or even any another
training) it can be integrated with the training.
Training object
(Trainer)
5. ARCHITECTURE
Interactive Training framework is tiered, modular and hierarchical.
ITF has a two-tiered architecture. Each tier of the ITF is a layer of Modified
Simulation Translation
abstraction. The architectural layout of the ITF is illustrated in Engine Engine
Recording Engine

Figure 2. Comparator
Simulation Description
The framework consists of two major components.
Recording
5.1 ITF Class Library Engine

The ITF Class Library is a collection of classes that encapsulate Perform activities
on trainee’s
the logic for training objects. system
Prompts
Text,/Audio

5.2 ITF Runtime Description

The ITF runtime is the bottom tier, the least abstracted, and
closest to the native environment. This is important since the
runtime works closely with the tracking of trainer activities,
manage them into sessions, simulate them in trainee environment
& testing of trainee activity with respect to the training. The ITF
runtime is composed of four different engines, each with its own
distinct responsibility. The Recording Engine is used to generate
the input file/object while the remaining three take the same
object as input but have different outputs helpful for training.
To guide trainee
and identify
mistakes.
Figure 3: ITF at work
6. IMPLEMENTATION AND
CHALLENGES
We have developed a tool using latest Microsoft User Experience
Technology Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF). Interactive
Training Studio (ITS) is designed with two major targets. The first
is to bring the life of Smart Trainings in to conventional Video
Tutorials and the second is to design Smart Trainings themselves.
The first has been achieved completely while the work for
achieving second target is in progress. Keeping in view the areas
that we plan to target there are few issues/ challenges that we need
to look into.

6.1 Chasing user input

While recording the trainer activity, the first thing to track is the
input. Our intension is to make the simulation at training time as
close as possible to the training development time. We need to
Figure 2 : ITF Stack Architecture closely follow the user input. We need to use hooks on the Mouse
and the Keyboard.
Figure 3 explains the technical flow of training. The output of RE
is a training object that can be stored in a file. Later for using the
6.2 Accessing Control Information
training the file is passed through a Compiler to give back the
Each control/UI element accessed by the trainer needs to be
training object as generated by the trainer. The dotted arrows
recorded during the training. This requires us to have access to the
show the dynamism of the Smart Trainings. A single training
information about these controls for instance control type, text
object without any modification can be used as 3 different types
and etc. We need to store such kind of information that allows us
of trainings. This is possible because Smart Trainings store
to simulate the training activities back in the training
information/instructions rather than being programmed for one
environment. For instance, if a button is clicked, we need to store
type of sequential execution.
what is its clickable area.
7. EXPERIMENTS The purpose of our experiment was to highlight the potential
To estimate the power of Smart trainings, we conducted an reduction in the size of trainings. Referring to the Size Reduction
experiment. We created three very basic scenarios of different Ratio in Table 1, we can clearly see the benefit of Smart Trainings
types and recorded the activity in screen video format. We then over the Video Based Trainings.
created three corresponding ITF training output files (without the Table 2 gives a comparison of Smart Trainings with existing
usage of the recording engine) based on the following major Training Methods. Although CBTs are generally a combination of
assumptions: Text and Videos but we have split them into categories because of
The RE is able to listen to the events caused by user input. the differences with the pure Text and Videos on the basis of
following measures.
The RE can query the information of controls/UI elements
involved in the event. Table 2 : Smart Trainings vs Conventional Training Methods
The controls can be uniquely identified using some Text Video Smart
Measures CBTs
property for example control text. Based Tutorial Training
The target environment for training has the same structure Interaction Absent Absent Some times Always
at both the trainer and trainee ends.
Generally
The three scenarios are: Design Time Huge Small Huge
Small
7.1 System Shutdown Searching Efficient Absent Absent Possible
The scenario is to use keys to shut the computer down. The Reusability/
sequence of keys is the ‘Windows Key’ (‘w’ used here for More Less Absent High
Scalability
simplicity), ‘u’, and then ‘u’. Given in is the code for constructing
Storage Space Small Large Large Small
a hardcoded ITF training object for this scenario.
Training Use Difficult Easy Easy Easy
Training training = new Training
{ Design Ease Normal Easy Difficult Easy
Sessions = new List<Session>
{
Effective Less Less More More
new Session
{ 9. CONCLUSION
Activities = new List<Activity>
{ In this paper we have presented a new training paradigm. We
new KeyPress { Key='w'}, introduced a framework for developing and consuming trainings
new KeyPress { Key='u'},
new KeyPress { Key='u'} that are light weighted, interactive, searchable. These trainings
} can be consumed in different ways, as per trainee’s requirements.
}
} Looking at Table 1 & Table 2, it is clear that Smart Trainings
}; promise to be an efficient and effective prospect in the world of
eLearning.
Code Snippet 1 : Sample ITF Training
7.2 Changing Desktop Background 10. REFERENCES
This scenario tracks the trainer while he is changing the [1] Mehrotra, C., Hollister, C. and McGahey. Distance Learning:
background of the desktop. Principles for Effective Design, Delivery, and Evaluation,
Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks: CA, 2001.
7.3 Using Notepad
This scenario is a little complex as it utilizes the variety of [2] Ranjit Bose. Information Technologies for Education &
activities. We open Notepad from the Start Menu, type some text, Training in E-Government, 2004 IEEE Publications,
toggle the Word Wrap, save the file and exit Notepad. Proceedings of the International Conference on Information
Technology: Coding and Computing (ITCC’04)
8. RESULTS [3] Maryam Alavi • Dorothy E. Leidner, Technology-Mediated
These result have been generated using the assumptions in Section Learning—A Call for Greater Depth and Breadth of
7, and are subjected to change once the framework takes its shape. Research, Information Systems Research, 2001 INFORMS
Vol. 12, No. 1, March 2001, pp. 1–10
Table 1 : Comparing with Video Training
[4] Chen-Lin C. Kulik and James A. Kulik, Effectiveness of
Video Smart Computer-Based Instruction: An Updated Analysis,
Scenario Time Size Ratio
Size Training Size Computers in Human Behavior, Vol. 7, pp. 75-94, 1991
7.1 670 KB 1188 B 7 sec 577.51 Printed in the U.S.A. 1991 Pergamon Press
7.2 488 KB 2017 B 15 sec 247 [5] http://www.simpleocr.com/
7.3 1.5 MB 2983 B 40 sec 523.76