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Within this chapter we first outline the important role learning plays within knowledge work and its impact on productivity. As a theoretical background we introduce the paradigm of Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) which conceptualizes informal learning at the workplace and takes place tightly intertwined with the execution of work tasks. Based on a variety of in-depth knowledge work studies we identify key requirements for the design of work-integrated learning support. Our focus is on providing learning support during the execution of work tasks (instead of beforehand), within the work environment of the user (instead of within a separate learning system), and by repurposing content for learning which was not originally intended for learning (instead of relying on the expensive manual creation of learning material). In order to satisfy these requirements we developed a number of context-aware knowledge services. These services integrate semantic technologies with statistical approaches which perform well in the face of uncertainty. These hybrid knowledge services include the automatic detection of a user’s work task, the ‘inference’ of the user’s competencies based on her past activities, context-aware recommendation of content and colleagues, learning opportunities, etc. A summary of a 3 month in-depth summative workplace evaluation at three testbed sites concludes the chapter.

. Supporting learning activities during work has gained momentum fororganizations since work-integrated learning (WIL) has been shown to increaseproductivity of knowledge workers. WIL aims at fostering learning at the workplace,during work, for enhancing task performance. A key challenge for enablingtask-specific, contextualized, personalized learning and work support is to automaticallydetect the user’s task. In this paper we utilize our ontology-based usertask detection approach for studying the factors influencing task detection performance.We describe three laboratory experiments we have performed in twodomains including over 40 users and more than 500 recorded task executions.The insights gained from our evaluation are: (i) the J48 decision tree and Na¨ıveBayes classifiers perform best, (ii) six features can be isolated, which providegood classification accuracy, (iii) knowledge-intensive tasks can be classified aswell as routine tasks and (iv) a classifier trained by experts on standardized taskscan be used to classify users’ personal tasks.

In this first STELLAR trend report we survey the more distant future of TEL, as reflected in the roadmaps; we compare the visions with trends in TEL research and TEL practice. This generic overview is complemented by a number of small-scale studies, which focus on a specific technology, approach or pedagogical model.

‘Understanding context is vital’ [1] and ‘context is key’ [2]signal the key interest in the context detection field. Oneimportant challenge in this area is automatically detectingthe user’s task because once it is known it is possible tosupport her better. In this paper we propose an ontologybaseduser interaction context model (UICO) that enhancesthe performance of task detection on the user’s computerdesktop. Starting from low-level contextual attention metadatacaptured from the user’s desktop, we utilize rule-based,information extraction and machine learning approaches toautomatically populate this user interaction context model.Furthermore we automatically derive relations between themodel’s entities and automatically detect the user’s task.We present evaluation results of a large-scale user study wecarried out in a knowledge-intensive business environment,which support our approach.

Increasing the productivity of a knowledgeworker via intelligent applications requires the identification ofa user’s current work task, i.e. the current work context a userresides in. In this work we present and evaluate machine learningbased work task detection methods. By viewing a work taskas sequence of digital interaction patterns of mouse clicks andkey strokes, we present (i) a methodology for recording thoseuser interactions and (ii) an in-depth analysis of supervised classificationmodels for classifying work tasks in two different scenarios:a task centric scenario and a user centric scenario. Weanalyze different supervised classification models, feature typesand feature selection methods on a laboratory as well as a realworld data set. Results show satisfiable accuracy and high useracceptance by using relatively simple types of features.

’Context is key’ conveys the importance of capturing thedigital environment of a knowledge worker. Knowing theuser’s context offers various possibilities for support, likefor example enhancing information delivery or providingwork guidance. Hence, user interactions have to be aggregatedand mapped to predefined task categories. Withoutmachine learning tools, such an assignment has to be donemanually. The identification of suitable machine learningalgorithms is necessary in order to ensure accurate andtimely classification of the user’s context without inducingadditional workload.This paper provides a methodology for recording user interactionsand an analysis of supervised classification models,feature types and feature selection for automatically detectingthe current task and context of a user. Our analysisis based on a real world data set and shows the applicabilityof machine learning techniques.

It is a well known fact that a wealth of knowledge lies in thehead of employees making them one of the most or even the most valuableasset of organisations. But often this knowledge is not documented andorganised in knowledge systems as required by the organisation, butinformally shared. Of course this is against the organisation’s aim forkeeping knowledge reusable as well as easily and permanently availableindependent of individual knowledge workers.In this contribution we suggest a solution which captures the collectiveknowledge to the benefit of the organisation and the knowledge worker.By automatically identifying activity patterns and aggregating them totasks as well as by assigning resources to these tasks, our proposed solutionfulfils the organisation’s need for documentation and structuring ofknowledge work. On the other hand it fulfils the the knowledge worker’sneed for relevant, currently needed knowledge, by automatically miningthe entire corporate knowledge base and providing relevant, contextdependent information based on his/her current task.

In a knowledge-intensive business environment, knowledgeworkers perform their tasks in highly creative ways. This essential freedomrequired by knowledge workers often conflicts with their organization’sneed for standardization, control, and transparency. Within thiscontext, the research project DYONIPOS aims to mitigate this contradictionby supporting the process engineer with insights into the processexecuter’s working behavior. These insights constitute the basis for balancedprocess modeling. DYONIPOS provides a process engineer supportenvironment with advanced process modeling services, such as processvisualization, standard process validation, and ad-hoc process analysisand optimization services.