Meta-knowledge acquisition strategies in asynchronous learning frameworks

The prospect of customised learning "shells", tailored dynamically to the requirements of individual students, has stimulated contemporary research into knowledge mediation, and the associated meta-knowledge acquisition strategies, of actual learning contexts within asynchronous learning frameworks. Recent elaboration (McKay and Garner, 1999) of the complexities of visual learning, through the study of cognitive skill performance in both text and graphics environments, demonstrated an interactive effect between cognitive style and instructional format. The inclusion of multiple instruction paradigms in any computerised learning/course authoring process, however, inevitably requires the dynamic evaluation of task knowledge-level requirements to respond to individual cognitive styles and to deduce the student's knowledge acquisition requirements. Meta-knowledge acquisition strategies are thus essential to provide the mechanisms for dynamic knowledge analysis and for knowledge-mediated instruction processes.