About ELENA ...

ELENA started as a European research initiative funded under the IST programme of the European Commission from September 2002 to May 2005. The interdisciplinary research team followed the vision of creating Smart Spaces for Learning^TM. These are open environments that support learners in optimising their learning management. Various research challenges had to be addressed in order to create Smart Spaces for Learning^TM covering technical, organisational and pedagogical issues. This website offers you access to the main results of the research project (publications, software, best practice guidelines) and will continue to inform you about the latest developments with regard to these results.

What are the outstanding properties of Smart Spaces for Learning^TM? 

Intelligent
Smart Spaces for Learning^TM offer intelligent services for the users. Personalisation techniques support learners in their searching for learning resources. The 'intelligence' of their tool is based on sophisticated learner profiles, and ranking patterns according to preferences, interests, learning goals and learning history.  Read more…

Open
Smart Spaces for Learning^TM offer access to a wide variety of educational systems and repositories. These from seminars to e-learning courses and academic lectures nodes to books from online bookshops. The Simple Query Interface – SQI – allows an easy integration of systems. Read more…

Effective
Smart Spaces for Learning^TM offer a special innovation for companies. They contribute to a more effective and efficient training management by offering tools that support the optimisation of the planning, control and implementation of human capital development. The HCD Suite  is an innovative system especially designed to support goal-driven human capital development processes. It provides a full-fledged service for identifying and satisfying knowledge gaps and matches them with offers from different service providers according to the needs of the company and the individual learner.

The HCD Suite implements a workflow that engages potential learners, managers, and HR developers in a collaborative decision process on when to invest in what type of training taking into consideration organisational goals as well as individual development goals. In addition, the workflow also triggers the evaluation of learning resources and supports the HR manager in providing better evidence for training ROI. Read more…

A short summary of the project is available here (PDF) ...