The purpose of this chapter is to study the problem of the design and development of e-learning systems intended for adult education and lifelong learning. The authors describe the theoretical framework underlying adult learning, going through the different models evoked by the specialized literature. The objective is to gather all the relevant data for the development of a predictive model of the learning management system. The authors place themselves in the context of engineering and instructional design to describe their methodological approach concerning the modeling and implementation of adult learner profiles, learning situations, recommendation processes, and situation problem-solving processes.
Top1. Introduction
The issue of developing online training devices and e-Learning solutions at university level is currently in full swing for several reasons:
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The evolution and strengthening of work situations within companies, which now require new skills, while avoiding mobility in terms of training;
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The strong demand for personalized training in search of a job;
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The impact of ICT (Information and Communication Technologies), whose power we are far from having measured on teaching methods, is increasing day by day;
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The emergence of new actors or new roles for former actors is on the agenda: managers, tutors, coaches, trainers, distance trainers,...
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The strong explosion of knowledge and knowledge and the rapid evolution of societies towards the industrialization of knowledge, information and computer technologies;
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new behaviors appear on the side of the individuals themselves, in particular because of the porosity of the different places, times and forms of learning.
Questions of adult education or training are not new. The interest shown by societies in adults and their education goes back to the times of Confucius in China (De ketele, 2018) and then to the time of the Greek philosophers, Aristotle, Plato (Bourgeois & Nizet, 2005). Now, adulthood is more associated with continuing vocational training (Monville & Léonard, 2008) or recently with lifelong learning (Depover & Marchand, 2002).
The university, as a training operator and center of excellence in training, has taken on its shoulders this complex task, which is to set up adult training systems, whether in a formal, informal or non-formal. The World Conference on Higher Education held in Paris in 1998 defined new missions for higher education (World declaration on higher education, 1998). From now on, the university of the 21st century must offer an open space for continuous training and lifelong learning, by setting up flexible and open-access training systems, making reference to the different configurations of the online training: distance learning, e-learning or Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), distance learning environment and blended-learning
However, the design and development of training devices for online adults is now a great challenge. The adult in a working situation or looking for a job differs from the pre-adult student in a situation of formal training. Adult learners already have prior knowledge and life experiences. They are people who are often busy, sometimes stressed, who hate wasting time, and who often don't like long presentations or boring listening sessions. They prefer learning experiences that help them meet their needs and achieve their goals.
When an institutional organization, such as a university, needs to set up online training offers, formal (master's training, continuing education), informal (training in a work situation), the educational designer must understand the needs, individual and collective of the target audience, which underpin the training initiative. This requires doing a careful analysis of learning needs, learner characteristics, constraints….Once the designer has taken this critical first step, instructional design models and learning theories come into play to provide a systematic approach (or a methodological approach) to develop effective and efficient training solutions that meet organizational and individual needs. These plans are called Instructional Systems Design models. Learning theories and strategies (i.e. lesson design) derived from Instructional Systems Design models can help practitioners develop instructional design that are optimal for learning - design that support learners as they go, that they acquire the knowledge, skills, experience and motivation to deliver results for themselves and their organizations. The design phase of Instructional Systems Design models is where learning theories and resulting strategies mainly come into play.