Stephen Bostock 1994/95

A Learning Needs Analysis for cyberspace literacy

Stephen Bostock 1994/95

Summary

The analysis phase of the development of a new undergraduate course is described. Types of training and education are distinguished and the appropriate types of training or learning needs analysis discussed. Three components of this analysis are a discussion of the underlying concept of computer literacy, a representation of the knowledge domain as a semantic net and data dictionary, and a survey of student skills and attitudes. These are used as a basis for a course sub-net from which learning objectives are developed, as a precursor of instructional design.

Introduction

Training Needs Analysis, Learning Needs Analysis, Education and Training.

Computer literacy

The context

The target student population

Representing the knowledge domain

Discussion

References

Appendix 1 Questionnaire results

Appendix 2 Some sources of information on The Internet

Appendix 3 Data dictionary

Introduction

In this report I describe the analysis phase of the development of a new university undergraduate course in cyberspace, or 'on-line' computer literacy. I first discuss training needs analysis and learning needs analysis, distinguishing education and training of different sorts. I then discuss computer literacy as a concept fundamental to education in Information Technology (IT). This influences the knowledge domain which is represented as a semantic net. A survey of student skills and attitudes provides information on the target population. A consideration of the values of computer literacy, the knowledge domain and the target population leads to the sub-net for the course, from which learning objectives can be derived.

Training Needs Analysis, Learning Needs Analysis,
Education and Training.

In commerce and industry, Training Needs Analysis (TNA) is a long established prerequisite of the design of training. TNA 'involves all those activities and skills necessary to identify and analyse training needs accurately. This means specifying those gaps or discrepancies in performance that actually exist between what people are capable of doing now, what they should be doing, and what you want them to do in the future.' (Peterson 1992, p.14). Following the identification of a gap between actual and desired performance in a job, training needs analysis will generate training objectives. Then training design (instructional design) can be used to generate training activities to bridge this performance gap (Peterson 1992, p.16). For computer based training, TNA is thus the first stage in courseware development.

There are several established techniques which have been employed in TNA. Both general job description and more detailed job specification are obviously relevant (Reid, Barrington and Kenny 1992). Task analysis describes specific tasks and faults analysis describes errors in performing tasks. They can both be comprehensive in scope or focus on key tasks, but in any case they are prompted by a performance problem, or the likelihood of one (Harrison, 1989, p.160). The performance goals are based on existing experts or high performers.

However, much of what constitutes many jobs is generic skills, so that some training is not concerned only with specific tasks but with developing more general abilities, which may be applicable to a wide range of employment roles. Needs analysts are 'confronted not with needs specific to a particular organisation but with needs ranging across many jobs in different kinds of organisation and context' . These needs are for 'core, transferable skills', 'relevant to all learning tasks or managerial jobs' (Harrison 1989, p. 155). One classification of skills (Harrison 1989, p. 158) distinguishes three degrees of generality: specific task related skills, task management skills such as problem solving and planning, and job/role environment skills such as dealing with people or with confidential work . Whether or not this classification is accurate, to perform well in many jobs clearly needs a spectrum of skills from the specific to the generic. This implies a range of generality in the relevant training.

To describe more generic training outcomes, the term 'competence' has been used in recent training schemes such as National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) (Fletcher 1991). Competence is defined as 'being able to perform "whole" work roles to the standards expected in employment in real working environments' (Reid, Barrington and Kenny 1992, p.236). Competence recognises that good performance depends upon more than just a collection of specific skills, and therefore that competencies are generic and, at least in principle, transferable to (or re-constructable in) other jobs. (Some relevant NVQ competencies will be referred to below.)

Education, in contrast to training, is broader still and includes abilities not related to employment. Harmon and King (1985, p. 237) distinguish education from training by the purpose of the learning rather than its content: training is concerned with promoting measurable performance in a job, while education is 'for its own sake', regardless of the emphasis on general concepts versus procedures. This distinction is easy to apply but of no practical use in as it says nothing about content. Their identification of training with procedural, surface knowledge and of education with a conceptual, deep knowledge (their Figure 15.1) is an over-simplification - one can have deep understanding of specific vocational skills, for example heart surgery. Furthermore, their claim that 'there are no rigorous criteria for successful education programs' because they do not lead to performance in a job is refuted regularly by students taking examinations on credit-bearing courses!

While both education and training aim at producing useful skills, the critical difference in the nature (as opposed to the purpose) of the two is that training may or may not involve the understanding of the principles underpinning the skills exercised while education must (Schofield 1972, Chapter 3: The Concept 'Training'). It is this deeper level of principle that makes the skill outcomes of education more widely applicable than those of training. Although training itself ranges from the narrowest activity of drills to the broader development of 'intelligent capacities' it does not involve the wider cognitive perspective of education (Ryle quoted in Schofield, 1972,
p. 47).

With the terms education and training being neighbouring areas of logical geography, it is not surprising that there is a continuing confusion and tension between the two. Emphasis on training generally grows with pupil age, from compulsory through post-compulsory education, from teaching and learning for life to that for particular jobs. Higher Education is therefore caught in the tension between the economic requirement for vocationally relevant (generic and specific) skills immediately prior to joining the job market and the continuation of school education in general principles. In practice, there is a range of vocational relevance. Much learning activity is not vocational even in the sense of generic competencies. Although specific subjects are studied in detail this is not in the hope that all students will become professionals in the subject (medieval history, quantum physics, or whatever) but in the belief, firstly, that an understanding of underlying principles will be transferable to jobs in related domains and, secondly, that the (mathetic) skills of study are generic, transferable skills.

The historical trend in the UK is a weakening belief in the transferability or relevance of generic skills and an increased emphasis on vocationally relevant subject matter. So, for example, Latin is not in the National Curriculum and applications for Classics courses are reduced. Recently the British Government has taken more direct control of educational policy, stressing 'the vocational rather than the academic, the instrumental rather than the expressive, the extrinsic rather than the intrinsic' (Dale 1989). Ironically, the training community are now more concerned with generic skills, as a majority of work is now 'knowledge work' rather than manual, and as the pace of change in commercial life means that few people retain one job for life and few job descriptions remain fixed for long. Increasingly, the specific skills needed in employment change rapidly and employment is unpredictable. So despite the thrust of official policy, it is education, not training, that prepares for future work.

This, of course, assumes that students will be in work, but there have been dramatic changes in the nature and availability of work in developed countries. Handy (1989) described the fragmentation of business organisations into a core of traditional, permanent jobs surrounded by a periphery of part time and short contract workers, many of them insecure and badly paid. The core is shrinking rapidly (Handy 1994). Further outside, in the wilderness, is the proportion of society which is permanently unemployed. Estimates of the proportions of the three groups vary: Gore forecasts 25% core, 25% periphery and 50% unemployed (in Johnstone 1994). Currently, the percentage of UK workers now part time is 25% and growing fast, and most of these jobs were impermanent (Venning 1995). Increasing inequality in the labour market will be reflected in access to education: core workers and their employers understand the need for their continuous development of broad skills. For the rest, access to education or training will be harder.

Vocational relevance is thus an issue in developing any course in HE. This is particularly so for IT, as discussed below. The likelihood of unemployment and the changing nature of paid work present a complex challenge to liberal educators, in avoiding merely taking sides in a dichotomy of narrow, vocational training and liberal, critical education. Either will be a disservice to most learners. Johnstone (1994) suggests a focus of 'Education for Work', where 'work' is interpreted as paid or unpaid socially useful activity while 'education' includes generic skills and critical reflection. As a background to the analysis of learning needs, we can conclude that training for narrow skills is of no use, that training and education for general skills will have vocational value, and that critical thinking on the wider (social, ethical) impact of technology will promote empowerment despite economic exclusion. Any vocational element will only involve generic competencies so that the methods for setting performance goals of traditional Training Needs Analysis are not suitable. Instead, learning objectives will need to be derived from a representation of the knowledge domain, plus a description of the target student population.

Computer Literacy

Education, as opposed to training, has a social impact. It is interesting, historically, that Plato applied the term education to The Guardians (the ruling class) of ancient Athens but not to the artisans (whom they ruled). The first Education Act of 1870 justified education as necessary for those exercising democratic rights: 'we must educate our masters'. Education can thus been seen as a prerequisite for citizenship; this notion will be related to IT education below.

The subject domain of the course being designed is the nature and use of information technology. How vocationally relevant should an IT course be? It will almost inevitably have some practical content but that is not to say that it should be concerned with specific, job-related skills. The narrowest of IT training would have to relate to the use of bespoke software in an organisation. Even training in a particular package, for example Microsoft Word, is as widely applicable as is the package's use, and to some degree will give skills which can be transferred to other wordprocessors. So most IT training is at least providing competencies suitable to many jobs. However, education in IT is broader than that and concerns underlying principles along with example applications. This raises the question of the nature of truly generic knowledge, skills and attitudes in IT; what has been called 'computer literacy'. This includes not just the principles and practice of the technology but of its uses in, and impact on, society.

Ten years ago the adult education literature discussed computer literacy. Bostock and Seifert (1986) analysed the concept and reviewed that discussion. Definitions of computer literacy, at a content level, included: 'the skills, knowledge and attitudes necessary to survive and thrive in an information based society' (op.cit., p.2). Another was 'a practical introduction to the computer, its operation and a few of its possible application, combined with a critical view of the impact of computers on society' (van der Dungen 1985, p.12). Bostock and Seifert (1985) summarised the effects of computer literacy as : 'to be able to use computers as tools and, in fact, to demand that they are presented as tools, to facilitate and not obstruct our purposes'. A more progressive stance was taken by Winter and Riis (1985, p.66) : 'computer literacy should be defined ... in terms of helping the individual to develop an attitude of critical curiosity to technological innovation (so that) the individual has to think independently and relate his/her own needs to the possibilities and pitfalls of the information society (and) the individual can continually develop through self-renewal if the knowledge he/she acquires is open-ended and stimulative to his/her awareness'. Bostock and Seifert (1985) summarised the social connection with literacy: 'Written literacy is a requirement for a participatory democracy.... As Europe is transformed into an information society, widespread computer literacy is essential for the preservation of social and political freedom'. Liberal education in IT, for literacy, implies much more than generic vocation skills which even the broadest TNA could diagnose.

Bostock and Seifert (1986) discussed the term 'literacy' by comparing print literacy and computer literacy. Computer literacy is not merely a general familiarity with a specific subject, in parallel to such terms as 'political literacy'. The computer is not just another subject domain but a more fundamentally important medium. It is only the third general medium used by humankind, following verbal and print media (Bostock and Seifert 1986, Papert 1993), and it happens that there are historical parallels in the early attitudes to, and acquisition of, print and computer literacy. Just as print literacy is more than the narrow skills of reading and writing (deciphering phonics), so computer literacy is more than being able to use a computer; literacy is being at ease in the milieu (of print or computers), to be unconstrained by, and free from the anxieties and negative attitudes of, illiteracy (Bostock and Seifert 1984, p.22). Recently, Papert (1993, p.11) has clarified this discussion with the distinction between literacy and letteracy, which he defines as the narrow skill of reading text. Literacy is the broader understanding of 'ways of knowing' or 'reading the world', including social awareness - the difference, perhaps, between being able to read a newspaper and of believing everything in it. As IT becomes more powerful and pervasive (particularly as multimedia and telecommunications are synthesised) it is increasing possible to become literate while being illetterate in IT. To put this flippantly: the natural medium of the Nintendo Generation is video, not text, and to them telecommunications are as natural as conversation or the telephone. While Papert does not suggest that letteracy will be made redundant by the computer medium in the near future, the possibility illustrates the logical distinction.

'Computer literacy' has been degraded in some institutions to mean a passing awareness of the technology; minimum practical skills. Someone with minimum reading and writing skills would not be described as literate in the medium of text, even though letterate in manipulating text. Similarly, computer literacy involves ways of understanding the world, ways of knowing, that derives from computer culture (societal culture based on the application of IT, not the 'computerism' subculture of computer science departments) (Papert 1993, p.52). This implies that courses contributing to computer literacy must include not just technical skills, and the principles underlying them, but the broader impacts of the technology. In Higher Education, rather than training for specific jobs, learning goals are inevitably wide. In the case of IT, education for computer literacy is more than minimum technical skills; it is education for life in an information society.

As a precursor to designing educational interventions (instruction) a learning needs analysis should generate and represent learning goals, and describe the target population characteristics. But before learning goals can be defined, the knowledge domain which we wish students to acquire must be elicited and represented. What follows are descriptions of the target population and of the knowledge domain as prerequisites to designing a new course for 'on-line computer literacy'.

The context

To explain the origin of the new course, it is worth noting that at Keele University I have taught and organised computer literacy courses in some form since 1981. Until recently they have included only a cursory mention of computer networking. However, in the last few years it has become clear that networking across organisations and the globe are adding a significant new dimension to the use of computers. In the last two years the Internet has both become the de facto global standard and has surfaced into popular culture (as the Superhighway, I-way, Infobahn, and so on). Some recent symptoms of popular Internet awareness are that email addresses are now given routinely on teletext and on radio and TV programs, that two new magazines dedicated to the Internet were launched in Autumn 1994, that many magazines of all sorts have articles about it, and that one publisher recently produced a catalogue of their new books about the Internet. The only thing growing faster than the Internet (which is doubling each year) is its popularisation. In September, 1993, I advertised a first adult education course on The Internet and had eight recruits; in January 1994 there were 16; in September 1994 enrolment was stopped at 24. Commercial courses on the Internet cost around £400 per day, twice the cost of routine computer training. Undergraduates are aware of this popularisation; at Keele an Internet Society now meets weekly in the Students' Union.

Undergraduates in arts, humanities and social sciences at Keele University must do a science subsidiary course. About 350 each year opt for computer science, as a two semester course. The first semester course is an introduction to IT and standard business applications. In the second semester a course called Office Automation recruits about 200 of these students, while others choose more subject related options. For 1995/6, I am writing a new course to replace Office Automation, with a placeholder title of 'the Internet and groupware'. It is nominally four hours per week over twelve weeks, providing 20 credits. Initial thoughts on topics for inclusion are the use of the Internet for study, recreation and business; computer conferencing and groupware; teleworking and virtual organisations; a mix of technical and inter-personal skills; knowledge of network technology; and the implications for individuals, organisations and society.

The target student population

Mager (1988, chapter 7) describes the description of the intended students: target population description, as the necessary information on the starting point for training. In the case of education it can be argued that, to the extent that education is self directed, learners also have a legitimate input into defining learning goals and learning methods. Answering the following checklist of questions would provide a profile of trainees/learners.

a. what are their interests;
b. why are they doing the training;
c. do they want to be here;
d. what is the gender split;
e. what are their attitudes;
f. what is their current experience;
g. what can they do;
h. what tools can they use;
i. what physical characteristics or disabilities do they have;
j. what other activities are they also doing;
k. what variation is there amongst them?

Answers to questions 1, 5,6,7,8 and 10 could be provided at least partially by a questionnaire. Questions 1 and 5 especially would benefit from interviews. Answers to questions 4, 9 and 10 should be available from student records. Answers to 2 and 3 can be given at administrative a level but at a individual level frankness could not be assumed. Question 11 is important if instructional methods are to take into account individual differences.

________________________________________________________________

Figure 1 Questionnaire

To: Computer Science Subsid. students, about a new

Module on the Internet and communicating using computers.

I am preparing a new module for the Computer Science Subsidiary

course, to replace the existing Office Automation module in

1995/96. It would be very helpful if you would return this

message by email with answers to a few questions. In this way I

hope that the course will meet the interests of students better.

Use the Reply option in your mail reader, include a copy of this

message and then edit it by adding answers on the line below each

question. You can answer very briefly or at length. Your reply will

be treated anonymously. Thank you for your help.

Stephen Bostock.

stephen@cs.keele.ac.uk

1. What are your main courses?

2. Before you did Computer Science subsid.,

could you use remote libraries ?

use Usenet or other on-line conferences?

find resources on the Internet?

3. At the end of a course on the use of a world-wide computer

network, what would you want to know about, and know how to do?

4. Would you want skills to help in your studies, to help in

future jobs, for recreation, or what?

5. If you were doing a course about using computers to communicate

with other people, what skills would you want to have at the end

of it?

6. How do you feel about using text messages to communicate with

other people via computer systems? (as opposed to face-to-face

meetings, telephones,...)

7. Are you enthusiastic or suspicious of the changes

telecommunications will probably cause in all our lives?

8. It would be useful to be able to talk over your answers, face-

to-face. If you are prepared to do this, please indicate YES

below, and put the time and day you are in the Lovelace Lab. I will catch

you there. (If you do not put YES I will not follow up your reply.)

9. Any other comments?

______________________________________________________________________________________

A questionnaire was designed to get some answers from the current year's students . The timing of its distribution was difficult: when it was being prepared the Autumn term was in its last weeks, following which students would be harder to contact as they prepared for examinations between semesters. The questionnaire could not, therefore, be given a proper evaluation with a pilot group. It was designed according to general principles of good design, given an informal check by four colleagues teaching the course this year, modified and then mailed electronically to 350 students. Sixteen replies were returned over the last two weeks of the term; two duplicate sets of answers were discarded to leave fourteen (see appendix 1 for replies). Although the questionnaire attempts to arrange interviews, only one interview was conducted.

The answers to the ten questions below include the questionnaire results.

a. What are their interests?
Questions 3, 4 and 5 ask about interests in the proposed course. Question 3 asked what they wished to learn. Many answers refer to communicating using email, finding what information is available and downloading it. One referred to broader social issues, one displayed some technical knowledge of file types. Question 4 asked why they wanted to learn. Relevance to jobs was mentioned six times, relevance to studies, four time, and all of jobs, studies and recreation, five times. So there was no particular bias in the reasons for wanting skills. Question 5 asked about interpersonal communication via computers. Answers with specific ideas mentioned using the technology/tools with confidence five times, issues in the human element of communication twice, and consideration of advantages and disadvantages only once.

b. Why are they doing the training?
They are required to do a subsid. and from my experience over two years some have chosen computer science because they expect it to be easier than other sciences.

c. Do they want to be here?
This varies greatly. The respondents were generally enthusiastic but the response rate was only 5%. I suspect that many hope to learn useful skills but also find it progressively more difficult. A significant minority fail the end of semester exam in Office Automation, only passing on the coursework.

d. What is the gender split?
Exact figures are not available but the sexes are approximately equal in number.

e. What are their attitudes?
Question 6 concerned attitudes to using technology to communicate. Six answers were generally positive about text communication via computers. Two thought it allowed clearer messages. Three thought the asynchronous nature convenient. Two expressed some worries about communicating in this way and one thought it less formal than text on paper. One though it good in allowing one to meet a wider range of people.

Question 7 concerned attitudes to social impact of telecommunications. Seven answers were enthusiastic, three suggested a balanced attitude and only two were suspicious or wary. Question 8 asked whether they would be prepared to talk with me face-to-face about their views and nine agreed to. Question 9 offered a space for any other comments. Two answers were generally positive about such a course and two had specific problems with software.

f. What is their current experience?
g. What can they do?
h. What tools can they use?

Question 2 in the questionnaire asked them about three skills which are relevant and diagnostic of Internet skills. Only one respondent answered positively to all. Another is a self confessed 'surfer' of the Internet but did not know how to use newsgroups or remote logins to libraries. Apart from any experience students get in the first semester, the abilities with Internet tools are likely to be practically none. However, the use of the Campus Wide Information Service which is a World Wide Web home page is growing. Unfortunately the questionnaire did not refer to the Web although one respondent did want to know how to use Mosaic, the commonest Web Browser. Nonetheless, I expect within a year or two, many students will have tried to use Mosaic even though they may not realise the scope of the resources and tools to which it gives access.

i. What physical characteristics or disabilities do they have?
Based on current experience, the number of students with disabilities is very few. For one or two students with visual disabilities special hardware is available. The presence of these students will affect later decisions on instructional media. It may influence curriculum content on the applications of IT for special needs.

j What other activities are they also doing?
The main subjects of the respondents were: Mathematics, Management, European Studies, French, Psychology, Biology, Foundation year, criminology, philosophy, history, English literature, Russian studies, American studies, computer science, Geography, economics, politics, electronic music, Law and German. In short all of the Humanities and social science subjects can be expected, with some science subjects.

k. What variation is there amongst them?
What most of the students have in common is very little knowledge or skills of the Internet or on-line communication. There is some variation in their reasons for wanting new skills. There is great variation in their subject interests.

Representing the knowledge domain

Knowledge acquisition, or cognitive task analysis, is the description and analysis of knowledge and cognitive skills, and is therefore parallel with traditional task analysis of TNA but in the cognitive arena (Sime 1992). Knowledge acquisition and representation methods have been developed for knowledge engineering purposes - the construction of knowledge based systems such as expert systems. However, they may be suitable for representing learning goals while not prejudging learning or teaching methods needed to achieve those goals. Knowledge is traditionally elicited from human expert. One feature of knowledge is that it is structured; the structure is part of the knowledge, and knowledge representation methods represent this structure explicitly, in different ways.

Another feature of knowledge is that it is individual (Sime 1992) so that combining knowledge from several experts is difficult. This is expected, even inevitable, at a psychological level, and need not be a problem in knowledge engineering when, for example, building an expert system. However, it is unhelpful for the purposes of learning needs analysis prior to the design of instruction. While it is appropriate in a specific job that training goals should be based on an individual's expert performance, it is inappropriate if learning goals are general competencies or principles, skills and attitudes. While a traditional, classical education might have been based on sitting at the feet of The Master in a subject, this cannot be applied to the use of a world-wide technology with historically important implications. No one Master exists. One possibility would be to elicit expertise from myself or a colleague who uses the Internet regularly, but each of us uses it for our own purposes and ignores some of its facilities. The problem is similar to that of capturing the expertise of literacy - what books should an expert have read, or of what types of writing should an expert be capable?

What representation method is suitable? Summaries of methods of representing knowledge (Harmon and King, 1985, Forsyth, 1989, Shadbolt, 1989, Norman, 1982) include semantic networks, repertory grids, rules, object-attribute-value triplets, procedures, attribute and A-Kind-Of lists, flow charts, causal networks and frames. In a discussion of methods appropriate to different stages of the knowledge engineering process, Nwana et al. (1994) distinguish the stages of knowledge representation as Mediating Representations (between knowledge engineer and expert), Intermediate Representations generated from these by analysis, a Domain Model which is synthesised from these, and Machine Representations (code) can then be generated. They argue for the importance of using representations appropriate to a domain rather than ones determined by software tools to be later employed. In particular, concept maps or semantic nets are most often useful in early stages (Nwana et al. 1994, p.266). Current models of the psychology of learning stress connectionism (e.g. Papert 1993, chapter 7), reflecting the common assumption that "a person's knowledge is an interrelated system of multiple interlocking parts" (Forsyth 1989, p. 135). Firlej and Hellens (1991, p.142) suggest that 'rules, frames and semantic nets' are the prevalent forms of representing abstracted knowledge. For these reasons, and because a net does not constrain the wide range of types of knowledge encompassed in the idea of computer literacy, a semantic net was used. In addition, a simple data dictionary was created to record the specialist meanings of words as used in the domain (Firlej and Hellens 1991, p.128, Appendix 3).

In practice, the knowledge was represented as a semantic net, elicited from myself as the expert and supplemented by published and on-line sources, in a series of versions. The penultimate version 5 was submitted to five colleagues for comments, which were incorporated into version 6 (attached).

Semantic nets are the most general of representations, consisting of objects (physical or abstract entities and classes, generally nouns ) and arcs or links between them (relationships, generally verbs or adjectives). Common types of links are is-a , has-a, and caused-by but others are appropriate to particular domains. A semantic net of this domain was produced after several drafts (attached). Technical facts and methods are often easiest to describe, and this was the starting point: the various tools available to access people, information and services on the Internet. To this was added broader economic and ethical aspects of telecommunications at the personal, organisational and social levels (Figure 2). Such a knowledge representation 'can become very densely interconnected. Explicitly drawing out all the connections is tiresome, but it is an essential part of the encoding process' (Forsyth 1989).

The document sources used were courses (including the one I teach), books and on-line material on the Internet itself (see appendix 2). A survey of texts on the Internet shows that while all cover a core of basic subjects (email, usenet, ftp, telnet), they have different emphases and additional topics. Few say anything about human issues in communication or social determinants or impacts of the technology. Furthermore, because this technology is changing so fast, magazines and newspapers, and the Internet itself (of course) is more accurate than any textbook.

The NVQ Level Three IT Candidate Profile was consulted as a source of generic competencies (BTEC 1993). Two Statements of Competencies concern networking:

• IT/SC 3.042 - Computer Network System Investigation and Installation concerns procurement and installation of a Local Area network.

• IT/SC 3.060 - Network Computer Services Supervision concerns LAN configuration and security, and media storage.

Relevant concepts include network protocols, network resources and performance, data security and protection, legislation on computer misuse and copyright, and the context of the Health and Safety regulations. However, Wide Area Networks and the Internet are not considered, and the competencies do not require an understanding of principles wide enough to be applicable to a global network. NVQ competencies are therefore of little use.

Discussion

The framework of this analysis is that a consideration of the nature of education and computer literacy indicates the need for a broad curriculum within a domain which is represented by a semantic net. From this, a sub-net for the specific course is drawn, based on the target population and practical limitations, and from this learning objectives can be derived. This discussion will comment on each stage.

Existing courses on the Internet are generally concerned with developing personal skills, supported by underlying principles. For example, Exploring the Internet (email from agocg-mm@mailbase, 28/11/94) lists the following goals:

acquire basic networking skills,

find out about networked formation services,

learn to navigate competently the information highways of the global networks.

The use of competent is interesting here, and illustrates that it would be possible to write generic training competencies for the use of the Internet in the form of NVQs. Furthermore these could be supported by general concepts and principles making them more generic as available tools change. But any broader implications of the technology are generally absent.

The consideration of the nature of the skills needed by the target population in the light of their likely patterns of future work (paid and unpaid) led to a broad definition of computer literacy, and thus 'on-line computer literacy'. A quick test for such a curriculum was proposed by Winter and Riis (1985, p.67) who distinguish two dimensions along which computer educational courses can be designed: the level of concretisation or tangibility can be general or specific, and the scientific paradigm employed can be either humanistic or technological. They suggest that all four categories should be included in computer education and Table 1 gives examples from the semantic net described here which fall into these categories. They recommend that the four categories are used to direct planning of courses to guarantee a well-balanced content, and to avoid conflict between promoters of the two paradigms. a protection, teleworking

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The target population has been described and this influences the appropriate curriculum. The responses showed negligible current knowledge, and the enthusiasm of the responders (only 8%) to the questionnaire is probably not representative of the whole group (based on experience). These students, being more familiar with and motivated by paradigms from the humanities and social sciences, will feel estranged in a technical course. While they may not all be technophobes, the attitude of many to technical knowledge may be, at best, neutral. Papert (1993) suggests that we replace the one-dimensional concept of 'motivation' by the concept of relationships with areas of our own knowledge similar to those we have with people. A rich network of broader issues overlaid on technical skills should encourage such relationships, 'warming to' their technical skills by 'conduction' (through the semantic net) from their 'hot' domains of humanistic knowledge.

The next stage is to select a sub-net for this course which reflects the concerns discussed above (Figure 3). In drawing a course sub-net one criteria seems paramount: is it a consistent net in its own right? If not, the course would not 'hang together', not represent an integrated body of knowledge. This would make it harder to learn (by individual, active construction) and less susceptible to the motivational 'conduction' proposed above.

On another occasion, for a different target population, a somewhat different sub-net might be used. For example, for adults on an extramural course, the area concerning types of internet connection would be relevant.

From the course semantic sub-net it is possible to generate learning goals, as we move towards instructional design. Harrison (1992), for example, recommends a hierarchy of goals where each goal is decomposed into measurable learning objectives. This involves taking each major net node and, working outwards to other nodes, decomposing it into increasingly specific objectives to give a traditional hierarchy of objectives (Figure 4). The top layers of this hierarchy are taken from the main concepts in the semantic net.

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Figure 4. Learning objectives

0. Cyberspace literacy

            1. To understand the nature and use of files
                        1.1 To understand file names
                                    1.1.1 To be able to use rules for file naming
                                    1.1.2 To recognise common file types by their name extensions
                                    1.1.3 To be able to interpret a directory listing
                                    1.1.4 To be able to use a subdirectory structure

2. To understand the nature and use of Internet computers

3. To understand the use of cyberspace by, and its implications for, people

4. To understand the use of cyberspace by, and its implications for, organisations

5. To understand the use of cyberspace by, and its implications for, societies

_______________________________________________________________________

A semantic net is a more complex (graph) structure than a hierarchical (tree) structure. Part of the knowledge elicitation and representation process involves deciding which of the many possible links in the net are important and worth representing. There are nonetheless more interrelations than a tree hierarchy would allow. Therefore, translating the semantic sub-net into a hierarchy of learning objectives will somewhat simplify the network structure, but this is necessary in order to document learning objectives systematically. It is worth representing the additional links initially so that they are recognised as part of the course documentation and possibly used on another occasion.

Finally, the issue of whether a semantic net should itself be reduced to a hierarchy is related to the nature of the nodes in the net. Some nets consist largely of classes, subclasses and instances, adopting a taxonomic or object-oriented approach. These will be hierarchies. The semantic net presented for this domain (Figure 1) is just one individual view amongst many possible. For example, it would have been possible to arrange the network tools (ftp, telnet and so on) into classes, so that most relationships would be of the type isa. This hierarchy would have then been simple to transform into a hierarchy of learning objectives. However, the knowledge represented by the net would have been impoverished at the expense of moulding it to a subsequent method. The widely accepted principle of software engineering, that analysis and then design products should not be influenced by the requirements of subsequent methods in the development process (e.g. Nwana et al. 1994) also applies here. The semantic net should represent the domain as richly as possible without regard to its later uses in instructional design.

References

Bostock, S.J. and Seifert, R.V. 1984. Curriculum development in computer literacy. Studies in the education of adults 16, October, p.20-31.

Bostock, S.J and Seifert, R.V. 1985. Computer literacy and adult education. pp. 73-74 in New/Informtion technology and adult education. Newsletter of the European Bureau of Adult Education, 1985 issue 1/2.

Bostock, S.J. and Seifert, R.V. 1986. Adult computer literacy: analysis and content. pp. 1-17 in Bostock S.J. and Seifert R.V. (eds) Microcomputers in Adult Education, Croom Helm. London.

Bostock, S.J. and Seifert, R.V. 1983. Computer integration and computer literacy. pp.30-38 in Microtechnology and the education of adults. Advisory Council for adult and continuing education.

BTEC 1993. Candidate Profile, NVQs at Level 3 in Information Technology. Business & Technology Education Council, London.

Dale, R. 1989. The state and education policy. OUP, Milton Keynes.

Fletcher, S. 1991. NVQs, Standards and competence: a practical guide for employers, managers and trainers. Kogan Page, London.

Firlej, M and Hellens, D 1991. Knowledge elicitation - a practical handbook. Prentice Hall, N.Y.

Forsyth, R. 1989. From data to knowledge. pp.125-141 in Expert Systems: principle and case studies . Second edition. Ed. R. Forsyth. Chapman and Hall. London.

Handy, C. 1989. The age of unreason. Arrow.

Handy, C. 1994. The empty raincoat. Hutchinson, London.

Harmon, P. and King, D. 1985. Representing Knowledge. Wiley, New York.

Harrison, R. 1989. Training and Development, IPM, London.

Harrison, N. 1992. How to design effective text-based open learning. McGraw Hill, London.

Johnstone, R. 1994. Jobs, unemployment and education for work. Studies in Continuing Education. 16, (1) 37-51.

Norman, D.A. 1982. Learning and Memory, Chapter 9.

Nwana, H.S., Bench-Capon, T.J.M., Paton, R.C. and Shave, M.J. 1994. Domain-driven knowledge modelling for knowledge acquisition. Knowledge Acquisition vol. 6, pp. 243-270.

Mager, R.F. 1988. Making instruction work or Skillbloomers. Lake, Belmont CA.

Papert, S. 1993. The Children's Machine. Harvester - Wheatsheaf, New York.

Peterson, R. 1992. Training Needs Analysis in the workplace. Kogan Page, London.

Reid, M.A., Barrington, H. and Kenney, M. 1992. Training Interventions, third edition, IPM, London.

Schofield, H. 1972. The philosophy of education: an introduction. Unwin Education Books.

Shadbolt, N. 1989. Knowledge representations in man and machine. pp. 142-170 in Expert Systems: principle and case studies . Second edition. Ed. R. Forsyth. Chapman and Hall. London.

Venning, N. Having the time of their lives. The Guardian Careers section. January 21, p. 2.

H A Winter and U Riis, 1985. Computer education and democracy. 64-67 in New/Information technology and adult education. Newsletter of the European Bureau of Adult Education, 1985 issue 1/2.

Appendix 1

Questionnaire to current students on Subsidiary Computer Science
(and verbatim answers)

Answers from

• TLF Lawrence

• J Beavis

• C Ball

• JKM Fung

• J Parish

• M Spires

• MB Overton

• C Moorcroft

• MW Willis

• KJ Taylor

• CJ Last

• AJ Gittins

• U Lentz

• JD Danagher

To: Computer Science Subsid. students, about a new

Module on the Internet and communicating using computers.

I am preparing a new module for the Computer Science Subsidiary

course, to replace the existing Office Automation module in

1995/96. It would be very helpful if you would return this

message by email with answers to a few questions. In this way I

hope that the course will meet the interests of students better.

Use the Reply option in your mail reader, include a copy of this

message and then edit it by adding answers on the line below each

question. You can answer very briefly or at length. Your reply will

be treated anonymously. Thank you for your help.

Stephen Bostock.

stephen@cs.keele.ac.uk

1. What are your main courses?

• Mathematics and Management

• European Studies and French

• Psychology and Biology

• Foundation year , then computer science and management

• FY - criminology and philosophy

• Psychology and history

• English literature, Russian studies

• American study and comp.sci.

• Geography and economics

• History and politics

• psychology, electronic music

• politics and history

• European studies and Russian studies

• Law French german

2. Before you did Computer Science subsid.,

could you use remote libraries ?

use Usenet or other on-line conferences?

find resources on the Internet?

• no, no, no

• what?, huh?, I surf :)

• no, only Keele no no

• no no no

• yes yes yes

• no no no

• N N N

• No but I still can't N N

• N N N

3. At the end of a course on the use of a world-wide computer

network, what would you want to know about, and know how to do?

• -

• Basic computer skills in the world of work and everyday lives

• download from ftp sites, uuencode .gifs, where to look for information, just about everything really

• I would like to learn as much as I can but the thing is that it is difficult to tell what I wanted to learn because I don't know a lot about the names of the programming system.

• experience of the network and experience in using it; awareness of the scope of the network; ethical, political, legal etc. implications of the network; practical aspects of using the network in future (eg online hire facilities etc.)

• access it first, then what it can be used for

• use of email and the university newsgroups, use of Mosaic/other browsers, file transfer and download, ftp, telnet

• -

• I would want to know what was available within a particular category and I would like to know how to access all the information including menus and introduction pages

• To communicate, using the system, with users throughout the world

• how to communicate and find information using Internet

• would send and receive worldwide mail

• how it works technically and how I would use it

• Find whatever information there is on the network

• -

4. Would you want skills to help in your studies, to help in

future jobs, for recreation, or what?

• I would just like to be able to use my computer and its packages so that I could use them for anything (My job mostly!)

• I would like to gain the skills that would best help me in my studies and perhaps future jobs since I think that although it doesn't really appeal to me, I will probably find myself using computers at some stage in my career.

• all three, there is a lot of stuff out there on the net

• Yes I would like to be a manager of some source which they need the skills of to use a computer.

• YES!

• yes

• Not for studies/jobs. I find this is almost entirely connected with my own interests (sci-fi)

• -

• Mainly to help in my studies, but also to help in future office jobs

• To help with studies and a future job.

• pass

• future job as a retail manager

• getting access to additional material for my studies would be helpful

• Everything

5. If you were doing a course about using computers to communicate

with other people, what skills would you want to have at the end

of it?

• How to send and receive messages on different systems

• -

• how to flame and mailbomb:) .. nah,how the net works...where all the different sites are and stuff

• the only thing is that is hard to tell your feeling to others also I think it will be better if we could see the face of the people we are talking to through the screen.

• Understanding of software issues; experience of particular software; a little about practical do's and don'ts of effective communication - ir human element

• how to use a real time talk facility (if there is one)

• complete confidence in using elm (or whichever email package) and/ot tin (or whichever newsgroup package)

• To be able to use the computer with confidence

• Basic knowledge about how to use the system its advantages and limitations

• To use the system to communicate with people and to understand a little about how it works

• pass

• those already developed by the course

• whatever is necessary, I don't know anything about it yet

• All the necessary skills

6. How do you feel about using text messages to communicate with

other people via computer systems? (as opposed to face-to-face

meetings, telephones,...)

• In a way it is better as you cannot mis-interpret information given to you, and you do not have to be good at talking and communicating.

• It is an interesting way of communicating with people and it means that you get to 'meet' more people even if you don't know who they are. The option is always there to meet up with them if you prefer talking face to face but it is up to the individual.

• its a good laugh, I regularly use 'talkers'

• -

• they do have advantages. My experience of them in an office environment was generally fairly positive. One slight difficulty is when compared to ordinary text, ie. letters they tend to be much more informal and also pretty error ridden as they are not subject to the same checks as letters (and tend to be typed by the sender, who can rarely type and often not spell either). I like their immediacy, but find them a bit intangible. (Unless you print hem out)

• useful, as if they are unavailable to talk to or phone, gets there immediately

• Fine. Nothing special.

• I like it

• Just as easy in fact even more so as you can use it at your own convenience. However I am a little worried as toi the safety of the communications.

• I'd prefer to have a face to face meeting or, failing that, to speak on the telephone but as that cannot always be viable it is very useful to be able to communicate in other ways , using text messages.

• it makes it easier to say things people don't want to hear, so its a bit of a getout.

• Its a good idea but I do not appreciate strangers sending me silly messages

• I've got no problems with that, its just like writing letters, well, sort of

• Like the idea

7. Are you enthusiastic or suspicious of the changes

telecommunications will probably cause in all our lives?

• -

• perhaps a little wary about the change. I don't particularly favour the way in which we are gradually being taken over by computers

• I think its a good thing as long as it doesn't cost too much. I have made friends in Canada and Australia etc.

• -

• Mainly suspicious! But I'm not scared - I'm not really a technophobe.

• enthusiastic

• Neither. More ... 'interested' is the best description I can give. There will be changes , there will be big changes. Until I know fully what they are I am neither enthusiastic nor suspicious.

• enthusiastic

• Enthusiastic

• Not especially enthusiastic but not suspicious.

• enthusiastic

• Indifferent- I do not have enough information though most people agree we should be well on the superhighway.

• enthusiastic

8. It would be useful to be able to talk over your answers, face-

to-face. If you are prepared to do this, please indicate YES

below, and put the time and day you are in the Lovelace Lab. I will catch

you there. (If you do not put YES I will not follow up your reply.)

• Yes, I am in the lab at ...

• -

• Yes 11-1 Monday mornings

• Yes on Thursday at 11-1 pm

• Yes, Thursday 9-11

• -

• Eeek! I am never *in* the Lovelace Lab :) I do the computer programming module. If you want to talk to me while I am doing that, I'm in the Turing Lab on Tuesdays 5-7 and Wednesdays 9-11.

• Yes Tues 2-3

• YES Tuesday 2-4

• -

• yes I don't mind Wed 9-11

• YES Wednesday 9-11 am

9. Any other comments?

• No

• no

• yeh...help with the www! kate xxx

• no

• -

• Two favourite gripes: one, the university filters out the alt.sex.* newsgroups (I believe in the freedom of internet); two, why do we have to use a DOS/UNIX package for email and not a Windows package? My personal preference is for the acorn range of computers (much better than PCs) but at least Windows is better than DOS/Unix. The current seems to be set up so that anyone who isn't fluent in computers (which I lay claim to being close to, heh heh) has no chance of using email simply because its so hard to find.

• The more I learn about computers the more I like them. More in a practical way, than how a computer works.

• -

• no

• Its a good idea

Appendix 2 Some sources of information on The Internet

Printed:
No-office computing- road warriors. 10-20, Oct. 94, Compuserve Magazine,
Teleworker magazine, The Telecottage Association..
Articles from Computing and The Guardian Online (Thursdays)
Cyberspace and the law. 1994. E.Cavazos & G. Morin, MIT Press.
Necromancer. William Gibson. (origin of 'Cyberspace')
The Message in the medium. Harvard Law Review. March 1994.
Zen and the Art of the Internet. B.P.Kehoe. Second ed. Prentice Hall. 1993
The whole internet and catalog. E. Krol.1993
The Internet Companion, T. LaQuey, Addison Wesley. 1993.
Growth, competitiveness and employment , European Commission white paper, 1993.
Europe and the global information society, EC 1994 (Bangemann Report).
Teleworking, teletrade and open networking, DTI Command 2734, 1994
Workers privacy: monitoring and surveillance in the workplace International Labour Organisation.
Computers and Society, Colin Beardon & Diane Whitehouse, 1993. Intellect Books
Code of Conduct for Multinational telecommunication firms. Communication Workers Association
Harassment at Work. Booklet, Labour Research Department
Homeworking - negotiators guidelines. BIFU. 1993
The opportunity and challenge of telematics, Labour telematics Organisation. 1994.
Information Superhighways. and Guide to the Information superhighways. and Guide to teleworking. 3COM. 1994.
Rethinking work: new concepts of work in a knowledge society, the telework option reviewed. RACE 1994.
Telework stimulation. EC, DG XIII-B 1994
Smart Valley telecommuting guide.
Rethinking worker democracy. 1994. Centre for Alternative Industrial and Technical Systems, TUC.

Online:
Guide to Internet
Psychology and Internet, CTI Centre for Psychology
Messages Re: INTERNET TRAINING PROGRAMS in the TRDEV-L@PSUVM.PSU.EDU listserver.
Exploring the Internet workshop, message 28/11/94 from agocg-mm@mailbase.ac.uk
Ethics in cyberspace. Laverna Saunders. http://cpsr.org/dox/ethics.cyberspace.saunders
Ethics and Law on the Electronic Frontier, H Abelson & M Fischer, http://www-swiss.ai.mit.edu
EFFector ejounal
Wired ejournal
Electronic Frontier Foundation, usenet comp.org.eff.talk
Computer Professional for Social Responsibility, usenet comp.org.cpsr.talk
MITnet Rules of Use
National Information Infrastructure Advisory Council: (Draft) Privacy Principles.
Guide to network Resources. EARN, May 1994. version 3.0.
Emily-Postnews (Netiquette on potter.cs.keele.ac.uk help system).
gopher Name=Acceptable and Unnacceptable Use of Net Resources (K12) host=riceinfo.rice.edu Path=1/More/Acceptable Port=1170 Type=1
Kidzine listserv@vm1.nodak.edu
Media literacy gopher site: interact.uoregon.edu or
URL:gopher://Interact.uoregon.edu:70/1D-1%3a632%3aMedia%20Literacy
THE JARGON FILE, VERSION 3.0.0, 27 JUL 1993 (Hackers dictionary)

Courses:
Accessing the Internet, Data-Tech.
The Internet: introduction to the online world. S.J.Bostock, 1993, 1994.
The ROADMAP email internet course, Autumn 1994

Appendix 3 Data dictionary

Acceptable Use Policy - a written policy of a site/ organisation governing the purposes to which its computer facilities can be used by its registered users.

anonymous ftp - using ftp to copy files from a computer without being a user registration on it,

archie - a program for finding files available by anonymous ftp.

BBS - bulletin board system, a text messaging system on a PC available remotely by telephone using a modem on a PC, also providing files for copying.

chain letter - an email message mischeviously encouraging the recipient to forward and duplicate it, or send email to a specific username.

CMC - computer mediated communication, electronic text conferencing, usually asynchronous.

connection (internet) - some method of accessing the internet

compression - reduction of file size by coding its information

CPSR - US organisation Computer professionals for social responsibility (in use of networks)

cyberspace - the electrical and electronic (as opposed to face-to-face) medium of human activity (personal communication, property, services ). e.g. telephone, computer networks

data protection - protecting computerised information about persons from unauthorised access

data security - protecting computerised information from copying, theft or damage.

EFF - Electronic Frontier Foundation. Organisation concerned with social, legal, ethical issues of cyberspace

electronic publishing - distribution of digital information by computer disk or network

email - electronic mail. A message from one username to another on the same or different internet computer. Text, possibly with attached files.

emoticon - a short sequence of text characters used to indicate emotion in a text message, usually representing a face when viewed horizontally. e.g. :-)

encryption - coding a message before transmission to prevent unauthorised reading.

file - a named unit of information of computer backing store

filename - the name of a file

file type - the internal format, especially lext (ASCII) or binary

flaming - angry messages between people who misunderstand each other

ftp - file transfer protocol, a program for copying a file from on computer to another

FQDN - fully qualified domain name, the numerical version of the name of an internet computer

gopher - a system of access to files on internet computers (servers) appearing as menus (gopherspace); the program accessing it; 'go for' (this, that)

hacking - unauthorised entry of a computer system

Hytelnet - a program giving access to internet services through a menu system.

ILO - International Labour Organisation

internet name of a computer - its address in standard format: machine.domain
e.g. cent1.lancs.ac.uk

internet computer - a computer able to use TCP/IP to transfer information to other computers, especially large computers permanently connected. Many have the UNIX operating system.

ISDN - integrated servcies digital network. a digital connection between two computers possible over standard telephone lines. Currently providing 128Kb/sec capacity.

IRC - internet relay chat, simultaneous text messaging between several people using the internet

jughead - a program searching files on a particular gopher server

LAN - local area network. A high speed network in a building or site.

modem - modulator/demodulator, hardware ( a card inside a computer, or an external box) allowing a normal telephone line to be used to connect to another computer also with a modem. Digital data is converted into audio pulses to pass through the telephone system, then reconverted.

MUDS - multi-user dungeons, bulletin boards used for playing fantasy games.

listserv - a program maintaining lists of usernames to be sent email. Each list concerns a topic. Members of list receive all messages from other members.

mailbomb - inundating a computer with email.

NIIAC - U.S. National Information Infrastructure (Superhighway) Advisory Committee

netiquette - a set of rules/norms for behaviour of persons on the internet. net-etiquette.

OFTEL - office of telecommunications, UK official organisation

online - happening only across computer networks.

operating system - the low level software enabling hardware to function including maintenance of files. e.g UNIX, MS-DOS

password - the secret sequence of characters authorising access of a username

PC - personal computer. Often an IBM PC compatible with DOS or Windows operating system, also e.g. an Apple Mac

person - a human using one or more internet computers, with a real name e.g. Stephen Bostock

society - all persons and organisations in a country, or all countries in the global society

SLIP - a connection to an internet computer for small computers connected occasionally. For PCs to connect to an internet computer providing an access point.

subdirectory - a logical part of the file store, organised hierarchically

talk - a unix program allowing two people to exchange simulataneous text messages on UNIX computers on the internet

telnet - a program enabling a session on a remote internet computer, as if it were a local computer.

teleworking - also telecommuting, doing paid work or part of one's job by communicating through computer networks rather than physically travelling and meeting.

teletraining - training delivered over computer network, to the desktop computer.

teletrade - doing business over computer networks, marketing, buying, selling, delivering.

TCP/IP - transfer carrier protocol/internet protocol. The rules determining how packets of data are moved between internet computers.

terminal - a connection to an internet computer where the local machine (keyboard and screen) has no processing power but provides intput and output to a distant computer

trickle - a program to regularly update a copy of a file from an anonymous ftp source.

URL - Universal Resource Locator, the name of a computer, service or file on the internet, with its type.

usenet - a system of thousands of text conferences distributed globally to internet computers, normally readable and writable by all. Organised hierarchically. e.g. 'comp.org.eff.talk' is a discussion group for the organisation EFF.

username - the official code name for one person on one internet computer e.g. csa28

veronica - a program searching files in the gopher system

virus - a computer program which replicates itself and is passed between computers via discs or networks, usually also causing damage to stored information. Created for this purpose.

WAIS - wide area information server ('ways'), searches indexes of files available by anonymous ftp.

WWW- World Wide Web - a system of files on internet computers linked as hypermedia

Note on Nwana 1994

Essentially, arguing that knowledge representation should not be software tool-driven, or it shoe-horns a domain into a representation method not appropriate.

Analysis and elicitation very intertwined. Analysis done by SAAGS method, elicitation methods well established.

They should use

1. mediating represenatations (esp. concept maps) which can then be transformed (effectively by analysis) into

2. intermediate repesentations ( semantic networks) which can then be synthesised by simple union into a set of intermediate representations, which can then be turned into

3. code level represenations (conceptual graphs, calculus, prolog).

List of top level characteristics of domains:

1. structure

2. purpose

(these are the traditional ones, but they are often not sufficient to allow maintenance of knowledge model as it changes - this needs additionally some of those below)

3. Theory

4. Metaphors used in the domain * (and what aspects of the metaphors)

5. meta-theoretical constraints (time space, causality)

6. relationships with other domains

7. History or the domain

p.260, bottom.

paper models from analysis are:

vocabulary (transcript minus common words)

global metaphors

concept map of related domains (showing where metaphors come from) links with other subjects

sortal types (= concepts+examples) plus their properties and their relationships

A Learning Needs Analysis for cyberspace literacy