It follows a learn@work approach, meaning that learning is tailored to the user's actual work context. The new Advanced Process-Oriented Self-Directed Learning Environment (APOSDLE) will provide users with practical guidance, learning content, and expert advice when and where they need it.

APOSDLE is a 6th framework R&D Integrated Project (IP) jointly coordinated by Know-Center, Austria's Competence Center for Knowledge Management, and Joanneum Research. With a budget of almost 13 million euros over the project duration of four years, APOSDLE brings together twelve innovative partners from seven European countries.

Having been ranked the number 1 proposal in Call 4 of the IST action line "Technology Enhanced Learning", APOSDLE is one of the leading-edge projects in Europe in this area.

APOSDLE's key distinction to traditional eLearning is that the project seamlessly integrates the three roles a knowledge worker fills at the workplace: worker, learner, and expert. It will provide integrated technological support for these three roles, which are represented by the three rings of the APOSDLE logo: Work, Learn, and Collaborate.

Work: APOSDLE automatically identifies the knowledge workers' needs and provides context-sensitive support tailored to their specific competencies and work situations.

Learn: APOSDLE helps knowledge workers explore, apply, and reflect on knowledge in a self-directed manner. By considering their work context, it ensures that learning and working are tightly integrated and learning is transferred to actual work tasks.

Collaborate: APOSDLE helps knowledge workers to informally convey and jointly create knowledge via their computational environment and embedded in their work context. The context of knowledge transfer and creation is captured in order to turn knowledge artifacts into valuable learning resources.

APOSDLE makes use of an innovative technological infrastructure. It accesses the available corporate IT infrastructure so that all existing knowledge resources can remain as they are. It extracts and stores semantic information from the underlying sources and makes it available for retrieval in an integrated knowledge network.

The project follows an application-driven approach by involving application partners in user-centered and requirements-driven design for innovation. Three types of application settings are considered: a public organization, a network of small businesses, and a large corporation. Introduction and evaluation of the system will be made in these real-world settings.

The expected project results include in-depth studies of workplace learning and work-integrated learning paradigms, and a context model for workplace learning. APOSDLE will develop tools for context-sensitive knowledge delivery, self-directed learning, and contextualized collaboration, thus supporting the worker, learner, and expert roles.

In addition, modeling tools for processes, ontologies, and competencies will support the introduction of APOSDLE into the application settings. The APOSDLE architecture and platform enable the context-sensitive retrieval of knowledge artifacts. They also provide the basis for three application-partner-specific implementations. Extensive evaluations will conclude the ambitious research and development program.