The Project Argumentum

Argumentum is a project on Argumentation Theory, which provides customized autonomous blended eLearning Courses (Cs) for different educational purposes and targets (Swiss universities, postgraduate education and continuing education).

Each Course within the project is focused on an application of Argumentation Theory in a specific Communication context (argumentation for financial communication, argumentation in the media, pedagogical communication, intercultural communication, business argumentation, argumentation in the institutions, etc.). Each CM is developed on a WebCT Vista module, and is designed selecting materials from a Learning Objects Repository, conceived as a resources warehouse containing objects of different dimensions and formats available to Course Authors, and adding some specific contents required by the particular application concerned.

Pedagogical objectives

Students will enhance their capacity of managing manifold argumentative contexts and situations. They will in particular:

As argumentative skills can be better achieved through a process of learning by doing, tools for argumentation visualization, collaborative tools for promoting peer interactions and argumentative discussions, examples and case studies are provided to enhance students' active learning experience through problem-solving.

Pedagogical Methods

The contents of each Course are structured through the use of multilayer content maps, which each student can explore according to her/his learning style. The quality of such a flexible and learners-tailored learning environment is also enforced by the translation of contents into four languages (English, French, German and Italian).

Skills in argumentative practice must be obtained through a process of learning by doing. Students will focus on real communicative situations, analyze case studies, engage in argumentative debates, etc. Argumentum provides technical tools (such as tools for argumentation visualization) which promote students' active learning and practicing argumentation with real argumentative tasks and situations.

Multilingual support

Argumentum provides a four languages support to the study of argumentation, which facilitates the process of students' gaining knowledge and allows a flexible work organization. The general contents (Introduction and Theoretical kernels of Argumentation theory) are available in English , Italian , French and German.

eLearning environment overview