Bridging the Gap: Incorporating Work and Learning Using Cooperative Learning Environments

Summary Although lifelong learning is a well accepted concept, it is still not a prominent part of everyday business. A common problem is the lack of knowledge transfer from learning to work. Learning and working are falsely considered as separate activities within different contexts. In addition, while most work in today’s dynamic business world is done by teams, learning often focuses, in theory as well as in practise, on the individual learner, thus neither exploiting the potential benefit of cooperation nor helping learners to acquire the necessary cooperation skills. In the CLear (Cooperative Learning) project at GMD-IPSI, cooperative environments are developed which support such learning processes in the form of a seamless transition between work and learning. Our interdisciplinary approach focuses on task-oriented learning of small teams of adult learners and takes into consideration different learning dimensions such as synchronous and asynchronous learning, distributed and co-located learning, and individual and group learning This paper addresses bridging the current gap between working and learning based upon the CLear project. The potential inadequacies of traditional learning techniques in meeting the demands of today’s learning needs are examined. In addition, we explain in more detail the cooperative learning prototype developed for the CLear project in terms of its technical aspects and innovativeness.