News Story

D3E University Wide Discussion Forum

Marc Eisenstadt, Wednesday 18 Jun 1997

KMi’s experimental “Digital Document Discourse Environment” (D3E) is now being used by the OU’s Office of Technology Development to foster University-wide discussion about the Course Appraisal Model. D3E is a web-based discussion/debate enviroment in which the documents being discussed are embedded in the same environment as the discussion, to ensure a tight coupling between the two. The D3E “engine”, developed by a team led Simon Buckingham Shum and Tammy Sumner, now supports several new-media publications, including the KMi-hosted Journal of Interactive Media in Education and The London Mathematical Society’s forthcoming Journal of Computation and Mathematics.

The Course Appraisal Model was developed by Prof. Diana Lauriallard, PVC (Technology Development) to help OU course teams approach uses of new technology in a principled manner. As her paper explains, “as Course Teams consider using new technology methods they will begin with an outline of the content and objectives of the course, some of which will lend themselves to the new methods. It is important for authors to plan student workload carefully when introducing new technology, so that there is a genuine shift from old to new methods, rather than a simple accretion.”

Relevant Links (will open in fresh window)

Course Apprasal Model and discussion (internal staff only: please contact OU Office for Technology Development)
Overview of D³E
The Journal of Interactive Media in Education is the first application of D³E. Its award-winning design is showing the way forward in the emerging world of scholarly e-journals.
The London Mathematical Society is now tailoring the D³E toolkit for their new electronic journal appearing later this year, the Journal of Computation and Mathematics.
A special issue of the International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, published by Academic Press, is also currently being designed using D³E.