A web-based training system for business letter writing

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Abstract

As with the growing degree of office automation and diffuse use of electronic media, such as e-mails, written business communication is becoming a key element to promote synergies, relationships and disseminating information about products and services. Task recognition and the definition of strategies and suitable vocabularies are some of the activities that office workers deal with each time a communicative intent has to be effectively transferred and understood by a given addressee. This paper introduces a web-based intelligent training system based on the constructivism theory and self-directed learning paradigms for assisting company workers in the drafting business letters-writing task. A case-based engine suggests ad hoc rhetorical letters that users have the chance to adapt to their particular contexts and save them into user-defined case libraries.

Introduction

In the business world, knowledge is a fundamental key of success. As with individuals, knowledge is what enables the business to grow and succeed in a global market. Knowledge management systems may employ various computational techniques for analyzing, representing and storing textual information, including: natural language analysis, data mining and information filtering and retrieval [6]. Nevertheless, knowledge embedded in and carried through multiple entities including routines and policies is usually more difficult to recognize and capitalize for different tasks or activities.

One possible definition of knowledge focuses on the process of applying expertise or, in other words, the awareness that enables people to possess the ability and the skill required to accomplish particular tasks [2]. In this process, knowledge acquisition in terms of cognitive processes, such as perception, learning, communication, association and reasoning, is essential to build concrete know-how, crafts, and skills to apply to specific contexts, allowing them to make each time the most appropriate decisions.

Computer-based learning provides technologies and associated methodologies in order to develop educational environments. In broad terms, e-learning guides learners through information, transferring knowledge in terms of skills and expertise, helping them perform specific tasks. The principal advantages are to be seen in the opportunity to overcome several restrictions such as a scarcity of human teaching resources or the time spent for organizing complex and tailored courses for single learners and evaluating the acquired knowledge levels.

In spite of that, advanced learning technologies are rarely integrated in KM systems. Existing knowledge is identified, distributed and utilized by users to make better decisions but there is a lack of teaching practices that support tools and paradigms for effectively transferring and acquiring that knowledge.

Current e-learning technologies are mostly based on traditional teaching practices and focused on content creation and distribution, sometimes enhanced with collaborative features. They basically fail to model the current user activities and recognize knowledge gaps that motivate the acquisition of new information and skills [8].

In this paper, we introduce a case-based training system for letter writing in the business domain, based on constructivism theories.

Current state-of-the-art in this domain shows a lack of methodologies and tools for assisting users in this particular task, which involves human resources in almost any company and organization. An innovative knowledge-based task model together with a self-direct learning approach [12] guide users, in a non-directive way, in choosing resource materials, that can be pieced together to fit the information needs related to the current activities.

The paper is organized as follows. First, we will identify the underlying theories and paradigms that have inspired the development of the proposed system (Section 2). Before dealing with the structure of the internal knowledge base in Section 2.2, we will summarize the work of linguistic experts to identify important characteristics and elements of the business letter domain in Section 2.1. The case-based reasoner that proposes moves and letters related to the current user activities will be introduced in Section 2.3, along a simple scenario of interaction with the web-based system. The final sections will provide an evaluation of the effectiveness of the proposed letter writing system in a real scenario (Section 3), and related works (Section 4).

Section snippets

The business letter writing system

The proposed system is based on constructivism [14]. Traditional e-learning environments are often driven by prescriptive interactions that allow learners to input information, but the responses to that input are often prescribed and deterministic. In contrast to this paradigm, open learning systems allow students participating more directly in shaping learning goals and choosing activities [9].

Our business letter writing system uses a holistic, self-directed, constructivist learning paradigm

Evaluation

In our context, the Kirkpatrick four-level model [10] has been employed since it does not employ hard-to-assess measures, e.g., return of investment, while it focuses on important learning variables. Essentially, our experiment investigates the effectiveness of two functionally different types of learning to write business letters: learning-by-BLITS and learning-by-hand (LBH). The term BLITS denotes the proposed web-based system. Learning-by-BLITS is further distinguished in an intelligent

Related work

The current business solutions usually propose an environment for the management of structured letter templates, such as those used in the systems Business-in-a-Box1 and Business-Pro2 and in several business letter books [4], [13]. These tools do not help the user to draft a letter step by step, but they simply suggest a structured text, i.e., a template, with the relevant data to be input.

In different contexts, Writer’s Aid [3], a system

Conclusions

The proposed web-based system, inspired by the educational approaches constructivism and self-directed learning, In spite of traditional approaches, leaves it up to users evaluating and making judgments of what effective writing means in a given situation, according to a number of suggested alternatives and the outcomes obtained in previous correspondence. A case-based reasoner suggests a number of ad hoc templates that the user has the chance to adapt to particular contexts and saves them into

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