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The proposed Center for excellence in e-Learning Sciences (CeeLS): i4 future learning environment is an integrated Center housed in the NTNU Science Education Center and Information Technology Center. This CeeLS will be conducting five sub-projects, including the main project (coordinating project for operations), sub-project 1 (Classroom), sub-project 2 (Mobile), and sub-project 3 (Testing) including two sub-projects. It is noted however, throughout the entire proposal; we often refer to only three main sub-projects because the main project is deemed as the coordinating project and those two sub-projects under Testing 2.0 are working towards one unified research direction (Testing 2.0) and therefore are treated as one major sub-project. The objectives are to develop an innovative science learning environment which integrates modern technologies (image processing, speech processing, video processing, speech recognition, mobile technologies, machine translation, natural language processing, data mining, machine learning, etc) with the aims to create an intelligent classroom embedded with individualized and interactive learning materials and assessment tools. To realize the aforementioned goals, the CeeLS endeavors to bring together a group of experts in the area of science education, cognitive science, computer science, and computer engineering and proposes three closely interrelated research directions: (1) Classroom 2.0 to establish this envisioned future classroom; (2) Mobile 2.0 to enhance the interactions among teacher, students, and student peers, and (3) Testing 2.0 (including two sub-projects) to pioneer new technologies on assessment and assist the CeeLS (main project) to carry out program evaluations for the main project. The main project will make the best efforts in coordination of three main sub-projects and in collaboration with leading foreign institutes*. Four major changes will be investigated and evaluated under the innovative learning environment among three main sub-projects: teachers' teaching approaches (TTA), students' learning strategies (SLS), student-teacher interactions (STI), and student science learning outcomes (SLO) in both cognitive and affective domains including students’ domain knowledge, higher-order thinking ability and attitudes and motivation in the subject matters (Earth sciences and computer science). In summary, the main project generally will play the role to synergize the other three main sub-projects for pursuing a common goal, to create/establish an innovative learning environment (especially an experimental site/lab in the Building of Science Education Center, to coordinate the development, pilot testing, and field testing of TTA, SLS, STI and SLO instruments, and to design and conduct an integrated experiment among three main sub-projects. In particular, the main project will focus on the coordination of the other three main sub-projects, the alignment of experimental design among three main sub-projects, and the program evaluation for the whole project. Besides, the major operations of the CeeLS including infrastructure and organization of the center, regular research group meetings and seminars, setup of the classroom labs, visits of distinguished scholars, hosting workshops and conferences,...etc., will also be the main responsibilities of the main project. The relationships among the other three main sub-projects are best illustrated in Figure 1 to show the degree of integrations. The classroom 2.0 will try to create a future classroom environment with modern technologies (ex., video processing and speech recognition) profoundly embedded during the process of teaching and learning. The Mobile 2.0 will attempt to leverage on the new wireless platform to enhance Student-Teacher Interactions not only used in the outdoor situation but also being applied in the classroom (Classroom 2.0) with new assessment tools (Testing 2.0 to pioneer new technologies such as machine learning and translation and natural language processing to improve test content, formats, scoring and analysis methods) completely infiltrated within both Classroom 2.0 and Mobile 2.0. For example, the Mobile 2.0 project will work closely with the Testing 2.0 project to provide a working mobile learning environment for the evaluation of modern testing applications in the foreseeable future. Finally, the main project will be synergizing the efforts made by three main sub-projects (C&M&T), designing a cross-project instructional experiment, and conducting the program evaluation for the whole project. It is noticed that each sub-project can freely pursue its own research interest and is also responsible for conducting its own research investigations in terms of technical and educational issues. However, they definitely need to cooperate very closely to help with each other and assist the completions of the main project.

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Figure 1. The degree of integrations among three main sub-projects

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*Received letter of support/collaboration from Carnegie Mellon University, Georgia Institute of Technology, University of Oxford, The University of Texas at Austin, Purdue University, University of California, Los Angeles, Universidad etropolitana (UMET) (please see Appendix A in form C012-2)