College of Internet Distance Education, Assumption University
Bangkok, Thailand e-mail: charm@ksc.au.edu
Abstract—According to Wikipedia, Aristotle proposed that “knowledge acquisition” is a method of learning.
Learning may be in the form of classroom learning, eLearning, mLearning, uLearning, and gooLearning.
With the definition from Sloan Consortium, eLearning is learning in which the Internet is used 80 – 100% of the learning activities. According to mobilearn.org, mLearning is learning with mobile devices. Ubiquitous learning or uLearning, which implies learning thru all of the ways and means of learning, took the word
“ubiquitous” from “ubiquitous computing” coined by
Marc Weiser from Xerox PARC. Ubiquitous learning includes eLearning, mLearning, and all other forms of learning. As almost any knowledge could be found in
Google, the author has used Google in every lesson in one of his classes and so called it gooLearning. This paper discusses examples of the author’s experiences with knowledge acquisition at the College of Internet
In the year 2002, the author also convinced the Board of
Trustees of Assumption University of Thailand to establish the College of Internet Distance Education (CIDE) with the author as the Chairman of the Executive Board and the
Chief Executive Officer. The College is a semiautonomous organization in the university and run by the executives with the titles similar to those in business. The positions are the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) similar to the President of a university, the Chief Academic Officer
(CAO) similar to the Vice President for Academic Affairs, the Chief Operating Officer (COO) similar to the Vice
President for Administration, and the Chief Technology
Officer (CTO) similar to the Vice President for
Information Technology. The College is housed at Srisakdi
Charmonman IT Center with 12 floors of 1,000 square meters per floor. The building and equipment valued at about 15 US$ million is shown in Figure 2.
Distance Education of Assumption University of
Thailand. The first example is the Ph.D. in eLearning
Methodology Program which is the first and only such program in the world, and it has applicants from 30 countries including US, Canada, UK, Australia, New
Zealand, and etc. The second example is the Master of Science programs. The third example is mLearning to teach English. The fourth example is eSMEs
University with the number of students as of
Octomber 2009 at more than 51,000 and growing every day. The fifth example is the course on
Management Information Systems in which Google is used to acquire knowledge in all the lessons.
Keywords-knowledge acquisition; eLearning; mLearning; uLearning; gooLearning; Assumption University
Figure 1. Searching Google for “Knowledge Acquisition”
I.
I NTRODUCTION
Searching Google for “knowledge acquisition”, over
4.5 million entries were found as shown in Figure 1. From one entry, the paper entitled “Knowledge management in university R&D in Thailand” [1], it was stated that, similar to other developing countries, universities in Thailand are the main organizations to conduct research and explore new knowledge and that knowledge acquisition through collaboration help fill in-house knowledge gaps. A good example of knowledge acquisition thru collaboration is in the area of teaching and learning.
As a matter of fact, Aristotle proposed that “knowledge acquisition” is a method of learning [2]. A relatively new form of learning in Thailand is “eLearning” which may be said to started in the year 2002 when the author drafted the first eLearning law in Thailand to allow all universities to offer complete degree program in the eLearning mode [3].
Figure 2. Srisakdi Charmonman IT Center
Keynote Address. The 2 nd International Symposium on Knowledge Acquisition and Modeling. Organized by IEEE Computational
Intelligence Society at HuaZhong Normal University, Wuhan, China. December 1, 2009.
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After 3 years (2002 to 2005) of lobbying 5 Ministers of the Cabinet, sending many letters to the Prime Minister and, in his capacity of Chairman of the eASEAN Business
Cuncil, convinced 10 Ministers of ASEAN to endorse eLearning, the author was successful in getting the decree published in the Royal Garzette in October 2005. Then, in
January 2006, Assumption University became the first university in Thailand to offer a complete eLearning degree program. That program was Master of Science in
Management, with the author as the Program Director [4].
With the popularity of mobile phones, eLearning has been extended to mLearning by replacing the computers with the mobile phones and modifications of courseware.
Then, eLearning and mLearning are combined with learning by all other ways and means and the combination is called uLearning.
There are many definitions of eLearning such as learning thru electronic means with the Internet as the most popular choice. However, the author prefers the definition from the Sloan Consortium [5] which states that eLearning is learning in which 80 – 100% of the learning activities are carried out thru the Internet. In eLearning, there are two types of instructors, namely, the Subject Expert and the Facilitating Instructor. The Subject Expert is in charge of proposing the courseware and learning activities to be submitted to the committee which includes the subject expert, the instructional designer, the web designer, the web programmer, the graphic designer, the graphic programmer, the video editor, the audio editor, and the project coordinator.
At the opening of the discovery learning library at
Lumpini Park, as shown in Figure 3, HRH Princess Maha
Chakri Sirindhorn has said that if you would like to have any knowledge, you can ask Professor Goo or Google. So, the author modified one of his classes to be based on acquiring knowledge from Google and called it
“gooLearning”.
II.
LEARNING AND CONTENT MANAGEMENT
SYSTEM
Similar to the case of Knowledge-based System where knowledge acquisition is used to obtain knowledge to be stored in the system, knowledge acquisition has to be used to obtain knowledge to be stored in the Learning and
Content Management System (LCMS). Students, then, acquire knowledge from the LCMS. Hundreds of LCMSs are available, either for fees such as Blackboard, or for free from the Internet such as Moodle [6]. CIDE decided to modify Moodle using PHP and MySQL database which are also open source. The modified result is called
“SCITplus” to indicate that it was done at Srisakdi
Charmonman IT (SCIT) Center.
The first version of SCITplus was released in the year
2005. It worked under Windows using Window Media
Player. The second version became available in 2007, working under all Operating Systems that support Adobe
Flash Player, i.e. Windows, Macintosh, and Linux. The third version was released in 2007 after the second version.
It used the new version of Adobe Flash features to produce better quality video, and enhancement with user control of video. The fourth version came into production in the year
2009. The mean feature of SCITplus version IV, based on
Moodle version 1.9.5, is that the videos are divided into small units (module) so that modifying a portion of the lecture does not affect the other parts of the video lecture.
This version IV could also support video and audio lectures.
III.
KNOWLEDGE ACQUISITION IN PH.D.
IN
ELEARNING METHODOLOGY
Searching Google for “Ph. D. eLearning Methodology”, there are 6 entries about CIDE on the first page as shown in Figure 4.
Figure 3. HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn
Graciously Opened the Discovery Learning
Library at Lumpini Park
Discussed in this paper are learning and content management system called “SCITplus” to indicate that it has been modified from Moodle at Srisakdi Charmonman
IT Center (SCIT), knowledge acquisition in the Ph. D. in
Elearning Methodology program, knowledge acquisition in the Master’s programs, knowledge acquisition in mLearning program to teach English, SME program, and gooLearning.
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Figure 4. Searching “Ph.D. in eLearning
Methodology”.

The first entry is the home page of the College stating that there is no entrance examination but the applicant would be interviewed online; no course work but the student would have to find the knowledge from the web; publication before graduation is required; and the cost is less than 15,000 US$. The second entry is a group picture of the first batch of the Ph.D. students. As of the year
2009, there are 42 students admitted from applicants from
30 countries such as US, Canada, UK, Australia, New
Zealand, China, etc. The third entry is the online application form. The fourth entry is web page of the
School of eLearning Science of CIDE. The fifth entry is the paper entitled “AU CIDE eLearning as a Success Story for University Mobility in Asia and the Pacific” by the author presented to the conference organized by the
University Mobility in Asia and the Pacific in the year
2007. The Sixth entry is a page from the proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on eLearning for
Knowledge-Based Society with information on the programs offered by CIDE.
In the Ph.D. eLearning Methodology at CIDE [7], a potential student usually learns about the program from the
Internet via Google, applies thru the Internet, interviewed thru the Internet using skype [8], notified of admission thru the Internet, pays the fees thru the Internet, acquires additional knowledge thru the Internet, consults with the advisor thru the Internet, makes presentation and takes various exams thru the Internet including literature review presentation, qualifying exam, dissertation topic exam, and final dissertation defense exam. Research papers can also be submitted to the publishers thru the Internet. The
Internet is then used for suggested modifications and final notification of acceptance. The minimum number of paper is only one but more are preferred and they should appear in publications from the ACM or IEEE.
The Ph.D. program does not require any coursework but a student usually needs additional knowledge and could acquire it thru the Internet either from
OpenCourseware [9] and several other sources. He could, of course, get advices and consultation from the advisor.
In January 2009, after the minimum period of two and a half years, an Iranian became the first graduate of the
Ph.D. program. Students from the US, Canada, and
Thailand will probably graduate in the year 2010.
IV. KNOWLEDGE ACQUISITION IN THE MASTER
OF SCIENCE PROGRAMS
As of the year 2009, CIDE offers three MS programs, namely, MS in Management, MS in ICT, and MS in eLearning Methodology. An MS program requires 36 credits or 12 courses each with 3 credits. To provide elective courses, about 23 coursewares were developed for each program.
Courseware development in the MS in Management program will be given as an example [10]. Knowledge acquisition for the courseware is mainly from the Subject
Expert who was selected from very well qualified professors in the field. A subject expert was paid about
5,300 US$ and the copyright of the courseware belongs to
CIDE to use for 3 years or 9 trimesters or the average of
5,300 / 9 = 589 US$ per trimester per courseware. There is also a facilitating instructor who was paid about 650
US$ for each eLearning course each trimester. Suppose a student takes 3 courses per trimester and there are 10 courses offered per trimester. The expenses for the subject experts would be 9 trimesters x 10 courses x 589 = 53,010
US$. The expenses for the facilitating instructors for 9 trimesters would be about 9 trimesters x 10 courses x 650
= 58,500 US$. The total instructor expenses for 9 trimesters are thus about 53,010 + 58,500 = 111,510 US$.
The income from the students is about 120 US$ per credit.
If a student take 3 courses or 9 credits per trimester, the income per student would be 9 x 120 = 1,080 US$ per trimester. If there are 30 students in a class on the average, the income from students would be 30 students x 1.080 per student per trimester x 9 trimesters = 291,600 US$ which is more than 111,510 US$ for the subject expert and the facilitating instructors
In the classroom mode, an instructor can use any textbook to present to the class but in the eLearning mode, a subject expert would be sued in court if he uses any textbook in his courseware. Therefore, a subject expert, in effect, has to write a new textbook. Of course, he could study a dozen textbooks, papers from journals, project reports, etc. to acquire knowledge to be rewritten in his own words. For example, the author spent a few weeks to acquire knowledge from more than 10 textbooks to write a new textbook on knowledge about the computers and sold a few hundred thousand copies in Thailand.
The subject expert has to create the course syllabus with course description, course objectives, list of textbooks, list of reference books, list of journal articles, list of reports, additional reading materials, criteria for assessments, etc. He has to prepare the powerpoint presentation for the 45 hours of the 3-credit course. He has to give the lectures to be videotaped and placed on the courseware. He has to create the handouts for students to download. He has to set up online activities with details descriptions such as exercises, assignments, reports, student presentations, quizzes, examinations, list of glossary, etc. He is required to set up enough final examination questions to be used at least 9 times. An exam bank would be preferred.
V. KNOWLEDGE ACQUISITION IN MOBILE
LEARNING
It may be said that the idea for using mobile device for mobile learning started in 1968 when Alan Kay proposed the concept of a small portable computer called
“Dynabook” [11]. Then in July 2002, an mLearning project called MOBilearn [12] was started with funding from the European Commission, US National Science
Foundation, and Australian Department of Education. The
MOBILearn project involved 24 partners from European
Community, Israel, Switzerland, USA and Australia.
Sample universities and organizations in the project are
British Open University, Deutche Telecom, Telecom Italia,
University of Zurich, Stanford University, MIT, University of Southern Queensland, and Nokia Corporation.
Mobile learning systems have been developed for several areas such as just-in-time mLearning, locationbased mLearning, social-networked mLearning, gamebased mLearning, podcast mLearning and vodcast mLearning.
Similar to the case of eLearning, knowledge acquisition for mLearning could be carried out from the
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subject experts, textbooks, research articles, manuals, practitioners, and etc. The subject experts in the case of teaching English were members of the English Language
Center at Assumption University.
The main difference between eLearning and mLearning is that instead of 15 or 17 inches on the computer screen, only 2 to 3,5 inches are available on the mobile phones. The large amount of contents which used to be easily shown on the computer screen has to be broken into small chunks, each with a file size of about one megabyte so that an older mobile phone could handle it. Each chunk could then be displayed on the small screen of the mobile device, 240 x 320 pixels.
In his Ph.D dissertation, the first graduate of Ph.D. in eLearning Methodology at the College of Internet Distance
Education did his research on mobile learning [13].
VI. KNOWLEDGE ACQUISITION IN SME PROGRAM
In January 2007, executives from the Office of Small and Medium Enterprise Promotion (OSMEP) visited the author at the College of Internet Distance Education to see a presentation of the big picture of eLearning, a demonstration of the SCITplus and courseware for various programs [14]. They were impressed and started negotiation for CIDE to implement “eSMEs University” to offer 12 eLearning courses for SMEs in Thailand which has about 9 million people. OSMEP paid CIDE about
147,000 US$. The coursewares were completed and offered to anyone interested free of charge. About 20,000 students enrolled the first year. Then in the year 2008,
OSMEP paid CIDE about 73,500 US$ to develop another
6 coursewares. As of October 2009, there have been over
52,000 students in the eSMEs University and number grows every month.
The subjects covered are how to start SME business, marketing for SMEs, financial management for SMEs, IT and eCommerce for SMEs, production and services for
SMEs, business opportunities and strategies for SMEs, advanced marketing for SMEs, SMEs accounting, risk management for SMEs, business planning for SMEs, brand management for SMEs, knowledge management for
SMEs, cost accounting for SMEs, import and export for
SMEs, supply chain management and logistics for SMEs.
Knowledge acquisition for the SME courses were obtained from subjects experts drawn from successful
SME practitioners and university professors as well as from books, reports, case studies, etc.
VII. KNOWLEDGE ACQUISITION IN
GOOLEARNING
The author has been teaching the course “Management
Information Systems” for more than 40 years. Earlier, he lectured from textbook but in the last few years he has changed from using textbook to using Google. The course covers 15 weeks, each week with 3 hours on Sunday 1.00
– 4.00 pm. In the first hour, the author hands out the course description, the course activities, guidelines for knowledge acquisition from Google, and related materials.
In each weekly period, students are given topics to be covered. Each and all students are instructed to search
Google for information about the topic. For example, the first topic is “Management Information System”.
Searching “define: management information systems” from Google yields 3 entries as shown in Figure 5. Three students are assigned to scan and explain each of the three entries. If there are terms not clear in the explanation,
Google is again used to acquire information about them.
Figure 5. “define: management information systems”
Figure 6. Searching “management information systems”
The next step would be to remove the word “define:”, i.e. searching only for “management information systems” which yields over 200,000 entries as shown in Figure 6.
Assigning students to read all of those 200,000 entries would be a big waste of time. So, students may be asked to vote for 4-5 entries to be investigated. The first example may be a PDF file on handbook on management information systems from the US government at www.occ.treas.gov
. It may be assigned to a student to quickly scan and summarize it to the class. The second example may be “Management information systems explained” from the UK, www.bestpricecomputers.co.uk to be assigned to the second student. The third example may be the journal of management information systems at www.jmis-web.org to be assigned to the third student. The instructor has to acquire knowledge before meeting with the class in order to make sure that the class would not wander around without covering what should be covered in that period according to the schedule of classes.
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In addition to topics to be covered in the 15 periods of the 3-credit course, knowledge acquisition for the term project could and should be done by use of Google. The instructor may ask student to propose a topic. Then, demonstrate to the students how to search Google for all the knowledge or most of the knowledge to be supplemented from other sources.
VIII. CONCLUDING REMARKS
According to Aristotle, “knowledge acquisition” is a method of learning. In this paper, the author discussed knowledge acquisition with eLearning which will eventually the main stream of learning, followed by mLearning which is getting more and more popular. Even with eLearning and mLearning, all the other methods of learning should not be disregarded. So, the concept of uLearning is gaining momentum. However, with the popularity of Google and its vast amount of knowledge, it could and should be used for learning and therefore, the author has been using Google in his class and called it gooLearning. All parties concerned should study the concept as well as experiment with them and improve them for the benefits of themselves, their organizations and their countries.
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