GPlacencia.com

The European Union-funded Enhanced Learning Unlimited (ELU) project aims to create tools for interactive TV education courses, known as t-learning, that can complement electronic learning on the personal computer. ELU wants to extend the advantages of interactive learning to a wider audience, particularly in areas where Internet penetration is relatively low. "Television was targeted as the means to transmit life-long knowledge to potential learners in a highly relaxed and comprehensible mode," says ELU project coordinator Alex Shani. "Learning while watching TV and enjoying oneself is the main driver of ELU's work." ELU researchers developed configuration parameters and content to help define interactive, multimedia presentations, as well as templates for multimedia pages and presentations, interactive quizzes, a virtual teacher, and support for ancillary devices. Template models can be adapted for particular programs depending on appearance, content, and the level of difficulty. The project also developed ELU Script, which describes every course, and an authoring tool to help educators create complex interactive courses using a visual interface. ELU's software was developed using the open interactive TV standard Multimedia Home Platform (MHP), which will allow ELU technology to be used with MHP-enabled TV set-top boxes and Java-enabled devices capable of running MHP or its related middleware.