Implementing a constructionist approach to collaboration through a ‘learning design support environment’: Balancing users’ requirements with researchers’ theory-informed aspirations
Diana Laurillard
London Knowledge Lab, UK
Liz Masterman
Oxford University, UK
The idea in this joint presentation is to address the conference theme of support for collaboration and sharing in the practice of learning design. Both speakers are currently involved in a design research project to develop a ‘learning design support environment’ for lecturers to expand their design skills and knowledge. The project builds on our previous work on pedagogy planner tools and is intended to provide the means for lecturers to take a constructionist approach to learning design in collaboration with their peers.
Taking lecturers beyond their current practice includes helping them to engage productively with theories of learning, both explicitly (through drawing their attention to appropriate theories) and implicitly (by embedding theory in the software infrastructure). In developing the LDSE, therefore, we must balance users’ stated needs and preferences rooted in what they do now (the “demand” side) with our own theory-informed aspirations for what they might do (the “supply” side). In this keynote we will illustrate how we are striving to achieve this balance.
Biographical notes
Diana Laurillard is Professor of Learning with Digital Technologies at the London Knowledge Lab, Institute of Education, leading an externally-funded research project on developing a learning design support environment for teachers. She was previously Head of the e-Learning Strategy Unit at the Department for Education and Skills, and served as Pro-Vice-Chancellor for learning technologies and teaching at The Open University. Current roles include membership of Boards for the e-Learning Foundation, Supervisory Council for Fern Universität in Germany, Governing Board of the UNESCO Institute for IT in Education. Her book Rethinking university teaching: A conversational framework for the effective use of learning technologies concerns the theories underpinning learning design.
Liz Masterman is a senior researcher with the Learning Technologies Group at Oxford University Computing Services and has an interest in sociocultural approaches to the design and evaluation of learning technologies. Her main field of research is learning design, and she is currently a co-investigator in the ESRC/EPSRC-funded Learning Design Support Environment project, part of the TLRP-TEL programme. Liz led an investigation into the experiences of Master's students at Oxford University (2007-9), as part of the JISC Learner Experiences of E-learning programme, and also was active in a number of projects in the JISC Design for Learning programme (2006-8).
Contact
Professor Diana Laurillard
Email: d.laurillard@ioe.ac.uk
Dr Liz Masterman
Email: liz.masterman@oucs.ox.ac.uk
A differential model of effective advice for implementing learning designs
Professor James Dalziel
Macquarie University, Australia
While Learning Designs can instantiate effective pedagogical approaches, there are many kinds of advice (for educators) that can accompany a Learning Design. At a micro-level, advice can be given about the framing of individual elements of a specific activity within a design (such as how to phrase an open question for students). At another level, advice can be given about a whole design, and this advice may come in many forms such as: background education theory, existing experience from using the design, practical details on implementation and advice on how to adapt/edit the design. At a higher level, advice can be provided on different types of designs and why one pedagogical approach might be chosen over another. These examples illustrate different levels of advice that can be provided to accompany designs, and much research remains to be done on the effectiveness of different types (and amounts) of advice. From another perspective, certain types of advice may be more useful at different stages in planning for teaching - different advice may be relevant to a whole of course redevelopment project as compared to a teacher who has very limited time to finalise their lesson plan for an impending class. This presentation will consider different types of advice to educators that can accompany Learning Designs and develop a model of their relationships at different levels and over time within planning processes.
Biographical notes
James is the Director of the Macquarie E-Learning Centre Of Excellence (MELCOE) in Sydney, Australia, and also a Director of the LAMS Foundation and LAMS international Pty Ltd. He is known nationally and internationally for his research into and development of innovations in e-learning, and technical standards. James has directed and contributed significantly to e-learning projects such as the Meta-Access Management System project (MAMS), The Collaborative Online Learning and Information Services project (COLIS), and the Learning Activity Management System (LAMS) project.
Contact
Professor James Dalziel
Macquarie E-Learning Centre Of Excellence (MELCOE)
Macquarie University, Australia
Email: james.dalziel@mq.edu.au
Implementing e-learning at the University of Nicosia: Making it possible
Chris Alexander
The University of Nicosia, Cyprus
This practical paper reports on significant Learning Activity Management System (LAMS) work currently being undertaken at The University of Nicosia in Cyprus; a growing number of full e-courses have been, and are being, created using LAMS and a suite of specialized programs in order to provide an alternate and more convenient educational service for students. Critical administrative, organizational, personnel, pedagogical and technological issues have had to be addressed to support this important project. Some implications of the way students work online will be discussed, sample e-lecture materials will be presented, and suggestions for future technical development will be made. The paper concludes with the assertion that LAMS can be used to deliver local and international full e-learning courses effectively and inexpensively within a supportive and dynamic administrative and organizational super-structure.
Biographical notes
Dr Chris Alexander is the Language Lab Coordinator and LAMS Trainer/Administrator at The University of Nicosia. He is an Assistant Professor in Applied Linguistics and TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages). His Doctorate in Applied Linguistics and TESOL is from Bristol University. He has researched how to develop effective Internet pedagogies for TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) and is currently researching LAMS use in TESOL. He is a member of the Editorial Board for a number of international CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learning) and TESOL journals and has many paperback and online publications.
Contact
Dr Christopher Alexander
Assistant Professor in Applied Linguistics and TESOL
The University of Nicosia, Cyprus
Email: alexander.c@unic.ac.cy
Putting the SOLE into Higher Education
Simon Atkinson
London School of Economics and Political Sciences, UK
Contexts in which academic staff can problematise, deconstruct and reconstruct their learning designs and associated practices present rare opportunities to revitalise programmes and refine institutional missions. This presentation focuses on one current institutional academic revitalisation programme promoting, and therefore partially contingent upon, adoption of new blended learning designs. The relationship between effective learning design models, associated tools and strategic institutional and personal processes is highlighted. The inter-relationship of learning materials reuse, open educational resources, staff and student workload planning and assessment strategies within a given institutional context will be illustrated.
The Student-Owned Learning-Engagement (SOLE) model (publication pending) represents a negotiated, contested and realised model of ‘blended learning’ developed by the author, building on work derived from a 2006 JISC funded digitisation initiative and presented at LAMS & Learning Design Conference 2008. The basis of the SOLE model in early DIAL-e Framework designs (www.dial-e.net) and its relationship to existing pedagogical planners and learning design tools is described. Implementation challenges with writing teams are shared, feedback provided on early impact assessments, and academic responses reported. Early indications of strategic change are suggested.
Biographical Notes
Simon is Educational Developer with the London School of Economics and Political Science (from August 2010) and strategist with specialist interests in educational technologies. His research interests focus on tertiary educations strategic response to the impact of technology-enabled communication and transformative learning. Current work is focused on development of a learning design model and toolkit (SOLE) to embody and embed effective pedagogy, and continuing work developing reusable learning designs to maximize engagement with digitally rich resources (DiAL-e Framework), both projects accessible at www.sijen.com. Simon has held a number of senior roles in higher education in New Zealand, as Director of Teaching & Learning at the College of Education, Massey University (2008-2010) and the United Kingdom, in e-learning and academic development, with the University of Hull (2003-2008) and the Open University (2001-2003). Simon was a European TEMPUS visiting expert for the Croatian National e-Learning Project - EQIBELT from 2005-2008, has run capacity development workshops internationally, and delivered invited keynotes in Croatia and Estonia on technology enabled learning.
Contact
Simon Atkinson
Email: s.p.atkinson@lse.ac.uk
Chris Campbell
The University of Notre Dame Australia
Leanne Cameron
Macquarie University, Australia
Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for teaching and learning are continually changing and being replaced by the newest “must have” technologies, so how valuable are skills-based technology courses in the long-term to pre-service teachers? While pre-service teachers need to be competent and confident users of technology (Cowie & Jones 2005), the universities also need to provide them with knowledge about attitudes, values and pedagogical understanding in respect to ICTs. These pre-service teachers need to develop a fundamental understanding about the nature of technological change and their own abilities to confront this change. It has also been determined that ICT-based courses will hold more long-term value for the pre-service teachers if ICT courses promote generic technology skills involve authentic, reflective activities that assist them in their continued learning throughout their careers (Herrington, Oliver & Herrington 1999). Therefore, rather than simply provide and deliver specific skills-based information, the lecturer’s principal function has shifted to create a collaborative, challenging and supportive learning environment within which students were introduced to a broad range of philosophical and pedagogical issues that arise from the integration of a variety of technologies in today’s.
Biographical Notes
Chris has been a lecturer in ICT Education at The University of Notre Dame Australia in Sydney since the beginning of 2009 and prior to that she worked at La Trobe University, Australia for four years. She has researched middle year students’ capacity for self regulation previously and how students use the Internet. Current research projects include use of iPods in middle year settings and using online tools in educational settings, including LAMS, more specifically with undergraduate teacher education students.
Contact
Chris Campbell
Email: ccampbell1@nd.edu.au
Designing personalisation in LAMS
Muesser Cemal Nat & Liz Bacon
School of Computing & Mathematical Sciences, University of Greenwich, UK
Simon Walker
School of Education and Training, University of Greenwich, UK
Mohammad Dastbaz
School of Computing & Technology, University of East London, UK
Recent advances in technology have facilitated the use of e-learning in education and made personalization possible in various ways. These developments have been supported by the widespread availability of learning management systems (LMS). In educational establishments an LMS is often only used to support the enhancement of classroom or lecture-based teaching, however it is increasingly being used to provide e-learning only courses. Most learning management systems place considerable emphasis on delivering and managing learning content but generally add little or no value to the learning process and its personalisation.
In this presentation, the authors will describe how personalisation is supported through a process of profiling individual learning styles using the Felder-Silverman framework and implemented through the Learning Activity Management System (LAMS).Whilst results are still to be analysed, the authors discuss the design of the subsequent learning system which will generate data and enable a comparison of students who followed a pathway based on the free-choice of learning materials with students who followed a pathway that incorporating structured ‘personalised’ learning materials based on the learners’ predetermined learning style.
Biographical Notes
Muesser is a Senior Lecturer and PhD candidate for a degree in Computer Science at the University of Greenwich. Her area of research is personalized e-learning and interest is in Web development and Web technologies. She was holding senior lecturer position in Cyprus International University for three years. In this position, she supervised a student team for IBM's Software Academy 2008 Competition and the team placed 9th out of 175 teams, and administered the university’s Online Course Management System. After deciding to improve her academic career, she has started her Ph.D in 2007. She attended several conferences and presented her study in E-Learn 2008 conference. In addition, she published her chapter about the use of internet technologies for the benefits of education in Handbook of Research on Information Communication Technology Policy. Previously, she also worked as a web developer and then took up project manager position in a web development company. She is passionate in teaching, and enjoys sharing and collaborating with others.
Contact
Muesser Cemal Nat
School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences
University of Greenwich, Old Royal Naval College, Park Row, Greenwich, London
E-mail: muesser.nat@gmail.com
LAMS to go
Debbie Evans
Macquarie ICT Innovation Centre
Leanne Cameron
Macquarie University, Australia
The Local Ecostudy Project (LEP) supports schools investigating their local ecosystem to identify and build environmental awareness about the factors affecting the biodiversity in the natural environment.
This middle-years project involves high school students mentoring their primary school partners in the shared responsibility of caring for their local ecosystem.
Students utilise a variety of innovative technologies including the mobile phone, digital camera, the NOVA 5000 hand-held touch screen computer and data loggers to collect and analyse data in the field. The design of this fieldwork relies heavily on delivering the relevant learning to teams of students through the use of LAMS sequences that are linked to geo-spatial applications. Location-aware delivery of LAMS sequences allows students to roam around their outdoor learning environment exploring the relevant concepts as their location changes.
LAMS can scaffold the learning for students so that mentors are able to support their buddies in the field to use the technologies and teachers are able to support all students by facilitating discourse and developing students’ deep understanding about biodiversity. Students use higher-order thinking skills in analysing the data in the field.
LAMS and a team wiki provide a collaborative digital portfolio for sharing and further analysis to support sustained student learning.
Biographical Notes
Debbie is currently Centre Director, Macquarie ICT Innovations Centre (MacICT), Macquarie University. This facility is a collaborative agreement between Macquarie University and the NSW Department of Education. She has worked in NSW DET for 30 years as a primary school classroom teacher, computer coordinator, Assistant Principal and now Centre Director. Her experience in the integration of information and communications technologies began in the mid 80s with the NSW DET Computers in Schools program. In 2003 Deborah was introduced to the earliest version of LAMS and has worked with students and teachers ever since to design, implement and evaluate innovative ways of enhancing teaching and learning using dynamic and emerging technologies such as LAMS.
Contact
Deborah Evans
Macquarie ICT Innovations Centre
Building C5B Macquarie University NSW 2109
Email: Deborah.Evans2@det.nsw.edu.au
www.macict.edu.au
A user-oriented approach to encouraging the adoption of technology amongst academics
Jill Fresen
Learning Technologies Group, Oxford University, UK
As learning technologists, we face the challenge of encouraging academic staff members to consider the adoption of various technology tools. The challenges faced by academics are not insignificant – lack of time, lack of conviction about the benefits of technology tools, dealing with new versions of software which they may have just mastered, and the proliferation of new and emerging technologies.
Some of the particular challenges faced by our Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) support team are that the previous VLE was used largely as a document repository, and academics at Oxford University have regular and close contact with their small numbers of students, hence they see little need for electronic learning environments.
We will share ideas on various initiatives we have implemented including case studies (written, video and exemplar VLE sites); re-energising the User Group focusing on sharing ideas and best practice; and workshops including “Interactive Teaching” (use of low-threshold technologies such as audio commentaries and feedback on student essays, and easy-to-use content creation software), and “Learning and Teaching using Technology Tools” (using JISC and local case studies).
This presentation summarises experience gained and lessons learnt in encouraging academics to explore technology tools and resources to enrich learning and teaching.
Biographical Notes
Jill’s background is in Mathematics teaching and computer programming. She has experience as a Mathematics teacher and lecturer, a computer programmer, both in higher education and the corporate world, and an e-learning project manager. Her postgraduate qualifications are in Computer-Integrated Education, focusing on technology-enhanced teaching and learning in higher education. Until 2009 Jill was an e-learning project manager at the University of Pretoria, South Africa, where she was involved in the co-ordination and implementation of a quality management system for e-learning. Since 2009 Jill has been employed as a Senior Learning Technologist with the Virtual Learning Team at Oxford University, UK. Her primary function is consulting with and supporting academic staff in the use of technology, where appropriate, given Oxford’s immersive face-to-face learning environment. Her research interests include client satisfaction, evaluation of e-learning, and staff development.
Contact
Jill Fresen
Email: jill.fresen@oucs.ox.ac.uk
Cloudworks as a ‘pedagogical wrapper’ for LAMS sequences: supporting the sharing of ideas across professional boundaries and facilitating collaborative design, evaluation and critical reflection
Rebecca Galley & Gráinne Conole
The Open University, UK
James Dalziel & Ernie Ghiglione
Macquarie University, Australia /LAMS International
Cloudworks is a specialised social networking site for sharing, debating and co-creating ideas as well as designs and resources for teaching, learning and scholarship in education. The site has been co-funded by JISC and The Open University, and has ca.2500 registered users and visitors from 165 countries (May 2010). Fundamental to the development of the site has been the belief that one of the key challenges in encouraging more innovative learning design is getting teachers to share designs and ideas. Despite the fact that there are numerous repositories of good practice, case studies, learning objects and Open Educational Resources (OER), their impact on practice has been limited (McAndrew and Santos, 2008). Yet in interviews and workshops, when asked what would they find most helpful to enable them to make better use of technologies in their design practices, teachers consistently say that they want examples of good practice and access to others to share and discuss ideas with (Beetham and Sharpe, 2007). This presentation will explore how Cloudworks might be used as a ‘pedagogical wrapper’ for LAMS sequences, supporting the sharing of ideas across professional boundaries and facilitating collaborative design, evaluation and critical reflection.
Biographical Notes
Rebecca is a Curriculum Design project officer in the Institute for Educational Technology at the Open University, UK. She works on the JISC-funded Curriculum Design OU Learning Design Initiative project and has previously lectured in professional development and worked as an independent training consultant in a variety of public funded organisations. She has extensive experience of running events and workshops and facilitating both online and face-to-face interactions. A major part of her current role is to provide a facilitation and evaluation role around the use of the social networking site for learning and teaching, Cloudworks. She has led on the development of the evaluation framework for the site, and has identified a rich methodology for identifying and analysing user behaviour. She has also created a set of strategies for promoting community engagement and working with users to understand how such new social media spaces can be used to promote innovative approaches and lead to changes in practice.
Contact
Rebecca Galley
Email: r.galley@open.ac.uk
Students as designers
Concetta Gotlieb
Macquarie ICT Innovations Centre, Australia
The Students as Learning Designers project developed by the Macquarie ICT Innovations Centre uses innovative technology and collaborative teaching strategies to provide an authentic context for exploring students’ perception of learning and teaching while developing higher order thinking skills.
The Centre supported 120 students and 15 teachers from 3 schools: Manly Selective, Chatswood and Camden Haven High schools. These students and their teachers explored concepts of Sustainability using an Enquiry Based Learning model. Students were highly engaged and motivated for sustained periods of time and the general opinion expressed by students was that ‘teaching is hard but fun’.
Students were trained as authors in LAMS and were supported to develop online learning sequences for their peers. Students created and peer-reviewed these sequences, refining and sharing them across their learning design community. Students used critical thinking skills and deep knowledge, substantial communication and social support are some of the elements of the Quality Teaching Framework addressed by this project. Students and teachers reflected on their understandings in a variety of collaborative ways.
During this session I will share artifacts and explore how the structure of the learning allows for diversity and inclusion in the achievement of learning outcomes.
Biographical Notes
Concetta is a teacher and project leader at the Macquarie ICT Innovations Centre. The Centre’s mission is to develop, implement and evaluate innovative ways of enhancing learning through the application of dynamic and emerging information and communication technologies.
Concetta has experience as both a primary school teacher and corporate learning and development consultant and has also worked supporting social networking tools for teachers. The application of collaborative tools for learning is a core area of interest and she is currently leading the Learning Design project which uses collaborative tools and teaching strategies to allow students to design learning.
Contact
Concetta Gotleib
Macquarie ICT Innovations Centre, Building C5B Macquarie University
Balaclava Rd North Ryde NSW 2109
Email: concetta.gotleib@det.nsw.edu.au
Davinia Hernánez-Leo, Miguel A. Carralero, Jonathan Chacón, Mar Pérez-Sanagustín & Josep Blat
Department of Information and Communication Technologies, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain
Mar Carrió
Department of Experimental and Health Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain
Sharing educational design ideas and cooperation between teachers and learning designers in the creation of new solutions (Hernández-Leo et al., 2007) is a challenge currently being tackled by several projects from different perspectives. Glow (2010) and Agrega (Sarasa, 2009) are two important large-scale digital repositories devoted to sharing educational resources. Besides, there are approaches focused on supporting the sharing of learning designs, which go beyond educational content and include the definition of activities flows. The AUTC project (2003) established a portal gathering the learning designs resulting from the project. LAMS (2010) has also made available a central repository that facilitates the sharing of LAMS sequences. Elferink et al. (2007) developed a distributed repository specifically dedicated to activities compliant with the IMS Learning Design specification. Moreover, there are tools that exploit the potential of the Web2.0 to support social networking in the sharing of learning designs (Conole et al., 2008). While all these approaches provide relevant products that support sharing of resources, they do not present facilities for the collaborative creation of learning designs. In this abstract we introduce LdShake, a web 2.0 tool for the social sharing and co-edition of learning design solutions. Designers (LdShakers) can create and share learning designs with other LdShakers using different access rights so that they can read, comment or co-edit the designs. Therefore, each design solution has associated a group of LdShakers able of working in its definition, and a group of LdShakers that can only see the design. The designs can be also directly shared with all the members of the LdShake community, or published so that they can be publicly accessed through a URL. LdShake has been used in the context of the Biology and Medicine studies at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra (see Figure 1) where teams of teachers are required to work together in the design of problem-based learning solutions. The resulting designs are used in a course where students are expected to integrate the knowledge and skills developed in previous courses (Carrió et al., 2010).
Figure 1. Screenshot of LdShake applied to a PBL scenario
Biographical notes
Davinia received an M.S. (2003) and a PhD (Honours and European mention) degrees in Telecommunications Engineering (2007) from University of Valladolid, where she was member of the GSIC/EMIC group and Assistant Teacher at the Department of Signal Theory, Communications and Telematics Engineering. She is currently a lecturer at the Department of Information and Communications Technologies of Pompeu Fabra University, a member of the Interactive Technologies Group (where she coordinates the Educational Technology research line), and the director of the Teaching Quality and Innovation Unit of the Polytechnic School. She was also a visiting Research Fellow (2006) at the Educational Technology Expertise Centre of the Open University of the Netherlands. Her main research interests are Educational Telematics, Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning, techniques for the design of educational situations, pattern-based approaches, and learning technology standards.
Contact
Davinia Hernánez-Leo
Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain
Email: davinia.hernandez@upf.edu
Open Oxford: How open source, open content and open design support learning technology strategies in a research institution
Melissa Highton
Oxford University Computing Services
University of Oxford, UK
In this presentation Melissa will discuss how open source, open content, open data and open design support the learning technology strategies at University of Oxford. Oxford is a large and complex organisation where one size never fits all, so flexibility, re-use, customisation and open standards are key. The challenge to learning technology managers and leaders working at an organisational level is in matching not just the right technology to the right learning situation, but in matching the best approach to the needs of the institution. Melissa will cover several of the conference themes from a unique institutional perspective looking at how a range of technologies have been as part of a strategic approach. She will include examples and case studies of where technologies have worked well to enhance the academic activity of the University and highlight lessons learned. She will reflect on how the choices of tools and the services provided are shaped by the character of the institution, the physical environment, the virtual environment and a long history of research- lead, small group teaching. The methods and approaches used will be explained and issues of risk, reputation and challenge explored.
Biographical notes.
Melissa is Head of the Learning Technologies Group, OUCS at University of Oxford. She is a Fellow of Kellogg College and works closely with the E-learning Research Group in the Department of Education. Before coming to Oxford Melissa worked at University of Leeds, Royal Holloway University of London and Edinburgh Napier University. She has been a Fellow of Institute of Learning and Teaching, now the Higher Education Academy, since 2002 and is a certified member of the UK Association of Learning Technologists. She has co-authored a book ‘Designing Learning’ for Routledge key guides. As an enthusiastic champion of technology in learning and teaching Melissa contributes to the strategic development of e-learning across Oxford University.
Contact
Melissa Highton
Email: melissa.highton@oucs.ox.ac.uk
Analysing cultural diversity in teaching based on LAMS sequence libraries
Stefan Iske
Universität Magdeburg, Germany
This presentation proposes an innovative methodological approach to analyse teaching sequences as they are expressed in LAMS libraries of sequences in the context of cultural diversity. In contrast to focussing pure results of teaching the teaching process itself is brought into focus. First the proposed method will be outlined: Based on the quantitative approach of Optimal Matching teaching sequences can be analysed in a heuristic or confirmatory way. On the one hand all sequences of a library can be heuristically compared and then classified to groups of similar sequences. On the other hand all sequences of the library can be compared confirmatorily in terms of similarity to a reference sequence (i.e. patterns like "problem based learning"). The proposed methodology will be illustrated by the results of an analysis of learning sequences in an online learning environment.
Second the potential for empirical educational research will be discussed using the example of LAMS sequences. Generally it is assumed that didactical diversity as an index of cultural diversity is expressed in these LAMS sequences (and which point to different didactical traditions in different countries). References to the German-speaking discussion of teaching sequences as “articulations of teaching“ (Herbart) are outlined.
Bibliographical notes
Stefan is a scientific assistant at the faculty of General Education at the Otto-von-Guerricke Universität of Magdeburg in Germany. His focus of research lies in the field of Education and digital media, quality assurance in elearning and especially in the field of internet as a cultural and as a learning space from the perspective of structural media education (Strukturale Medienbildung). Stefan received his PhD from the University of Duisburg-Essen (Germany) with a thesis about the methodology of analysing learning sequences in hypertextual learning environments.
Contact
Stefan Iske
Universität Magdeburg, Lehrstuhl Allgemeine Pädagogik
Zschokkestraße 32, G40D-186/187, 39104 Magdeburg, Germany
Email: stefan.iske@ovgu.de
Encouraging thinking processes as a foundation of learning design within LAMS: Context free design patterns and e-communication support
Maria Kordaki
Department of Computer Engineering and Informatics
University of Patras, Greece
This paper focuses on the encouragement of students’ thinking processes as a main aim of learning design within LAMS. To this end, specific design patterns in the form of sequences of learning activities within LAMS are proposed, together with a brief description of their theoretical background. These basic design patterns could be linked with specific tools of LAMS to help teachers use them towards the development of their students thinking processes, namely: concept formation, decision making, problem solving, inquiry based learning, composition, comprehension of learning materials, and communication. To this end, a Critical Thinking Communication Wizard (CTC-Wizard) is also proposed to be integrated within chat and forum of LAMS in order to encourage core critical thinking skills during synchronous and asynchronous communication that usually takes place in chat-rooms and forums.
Biographical notes
Maria’s work spans the fields of design and evaluation of constructivist educational software and e-learning environments as well as Computer Science Education, Mathematics Education and Technology Based Learning. After several years of high school Mathematics teaching, she returned university to complete her Master of Education and a PhD in Educational Technology. Maria served for 12 years as an advisor of Mathematics teachers and has also 27 years teaching experience in secondary and in tertiary education. She is now an assistant Professor of Educational Technology in the Department of Cultural Technology and Communications, University of the Aegean, Mytilene, Lesvos, Greece.
Contact
Maria Kordaki
Assistant Professor, Department of Cultural Technology and Communications, University of the Aegean, Mytilene, Lesvos, Greece.
Adj. Ass. Professor, Department of Computer Engineering and Informatics, University of Patras, Greece.
Email: kordaki@cti.gr
The role of context free collaboration design patterns in learning design within LAMS: Lessons learned from an empirical study
Maria Kordaki
Department of Computer Engineering and Informatics
University of Patras, Greece
This study presents an experiment aiming the design of short learning courses in the context of LAMS, using a number of specific context-free collaboration design patterns implemented within LAMS. In fact, 25 Prospective Computer Engineers (PCEs) participated in this experiment. The analysis of the data shows that PCEs fully used these context free collaboration patterns - mostly realized in combination - and designed interesting sequences of learning activities. PCEs also used most of the tools provided within LAMS. However, PCEs were presented with difficulties in integrating collaboration strategies with thinking dimensions in terms of communication, decision making, concept formation, problem solving and inquiry based learning.
Biographical notes
Maria’s work spans the fields of design and evaluation of constructivist educational software and e-learning environments as well as Computer Science Education, Mathematics Education and Technology Based Learning. After several years of high school Mathematics teaching, she returned university to complete her Master of Education and a PhD in Educational Technology. Maria served for 12 years as an advisor of Mathematics teachers and has also 27 years teaching experience in secondary and in tertiary education. She is now an assistant Professor of Educational Technology in the Department of Cultural Technology and Communications, University of the Aegean, Mytilene, Lesvos, Greece.
Contact
Maria Kordaki
Assistant Professor, Department of Cultural Technology and Communications, University of the Aegean, Mytilene, Lesvos, Greece.
Adj. Ass. Professor, Department of Computer Engineering and Informatics, University of Patras, Greece.
Email: kordaki@cti.gr
A theoretical approach to distillation of pedagogical patterns from practice to enable transfer and reuse of good teaching
Dejan Ljubojevic & Diana Laurillard
London Knowledge Lab, Institute of Education, UK
The promise of the learning design pattern approach to resolve the problem of adequate support to practitioners has not materialised. Our contention is that this is due in part to the lack of a pedagogically grounded model. We have made use of the Conversational Framework (Laurillard, 2002) to guide us in an analytical scoping of the problem space and to ensure a strong focus on the pedagogical properties of a learning design. Our assumption is that successful support for the learning design process can only be based on a model that gives prominence to the critical pedagogical properties of a Learning Design.
To this end, the work we are engaged with aims at understanding the critical factors in what makes good Teaching and Learning Activity design, and how they can be fore-grounded in a formal representation.
Our approach is introduced by positioning it in relation to similar work so far, most notably the work on learning design patterns. The paper begins with a critique of the current approach to the design pattern paradigm in the field of learning technology. Building on this earlier work, our methodological approach is explained and a prototype pedagogical pattern representation based on the Conversational Framework is presented, to illustrate how this might work in practice.
Contact
Dr Dejan Ljubojevic
London Knowledge Lab, Institute of Education, UK
Email: d.ljubojevic@ioe.ac.uk
What’s going on? A summary of the tools and technologies being used in the JISC Curriculum Design and Delivery programmes
Sheila MacNeill
JISC CETIS
University of Strathclyde, Scotland
JISC are currently funding two complementary programmes, institutional approaches to curriculum design[1], and transforming curriculum delivery through technology[2]. As a partner of the programme support project, CETIS have been investigating the technical choices made by individual projects through a series of technical review conversations. Summary details of these conversations are recorded in our publicly available project database PROD[3]. Through this mechanism we are able to obtain an overview of the approaches and technologies being implemented, identify areas for further investigation and support.
A wide diversity of processes and approaches to the use of technology throughout the curriculum delivery lifecycle is emerging across the programmes. This presentation will give an overview of the technologies and standards being used across both programmes, and a summary of the approaches projects are taking to creating, sharing and implementing learning designs.
Biographical Notes
Sheila is an Assistant Director with JISC CETIS based at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK. CETIS (Centre for Educational Technology and Interoperability Standards) provides advice to the UK Higher and Post-16 Education sectors on educational technology and standards. Sheila's interests are based around the use of innovative uses of technology in education, particularly relating to learning design. Currently she is involved in supporting a number of nationally funded projects around new approaches curriculum design and delivery and developments around distributed learning environments and the use of widgets and OERs.
Contact
Sheila MacNeill
Email: s.macneill@strath.ac.uk
twitter: sheilmcn
Comparing instructors’ approaches to course design across Europe
Susanne Neumann & Petra Oberhuemer
Center for Teaching and Learning
University of Vienna, Austria
Michael Derntl
Computer Science Didactics & Learning Research Center
University of Vienna, Austria
According to the conference theme “Sharing great ideas”, we were interested in the way instructors across Europe set up their courses and how and why they engage in sharing ideas on teaching. We have captured the course design procedure of more than 50 instructors from the Austria, Estonia, France, Germany, Lithuania, Norway, Spain, and the UK. Representatives from Austria, Lithuania and Spain built the majority of instructors. The presentation will focus on similarities and differences identified in instructors’ course design procedures. The six typical steps that we identified (as named most often in the free text answers) were performing needs analysis along with learning outcome definition, defining the content-oriented structure of the course, designing and/or selecting learning materials, designing learning activities and tasks, designing teaching method/approach, and designing assessment resources. Furthermore, the presentation will highlight how the common processes employed across Europe for course design translate to the processes that typical learning design tools would require. Of the interviewed instructors, we also asked 23 instructors for situations, in which they shared learning and teaching approaches with colleagues. In the second part of the presentation, we will outline the occasions that cause instructors to engage in sharing ideas on teaching.
Biographical Notes
Susanne is a researcher with the Center for Teaching and Learning at the University of Vienna. Within the EU projects PROLIX and ICOPER, she focuses on the IMS Learning Design specification and teaching methods. Regarding IMS Learning Design, her research interests lie with the translation of specification concepts into practitioner language as well as its applicability in corporate training and higher education. Regarding teaching methods, her research focuses on their generic description and transfer as well as the methods’ use and adoption. Her dissertation work, which is mentored by Rob Koper, focuses on the classification of teaching methods.
Contact
Susanne Neumann
Email: susanne.neumann-heyer@univie.ac.at
OpenSpires: Sharing Oxford’s open content
Lisa Mansell and Ylva Berglund Prytz
OpenSpires Project, Oxford University Computing Services
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford launched its podcast site on iTunes U in October 2008; within the first year there were 2 million downloads from across the globe, illustrating the considerable interest and use this kind of material enjoys. However, iTunes U material is made available exclusively for personal use, restricting how it can be (re)used within learning and teaching contexts. The OpenSpires project has made it possible for educators to make use of the Oxford podcasts when creating new resources. The JISC- and HEA-funded project had two main aims:
to release audio and video content from Oxford as Open Educational Resources (OER), making it available for reuse and redistribution by third parties globally, provided that it is used in a non-commercial way and is attributed to its creator;
to test and establish processes for making open release part of a sustainable institution-wide digital content creation cycle.
This presentation describes the work of the OpenSpires project and presents the successful outcome. An overview will be given of the material that is available as a result of the project, and outlines our plans for further developments.
Biographical Notes
Lisa works in the Learning Technologies Group within Oxford University Computing Services. She is currently the Project Manager for the OpenSpires project. Lisa’s previous experience includes many years within the educational publishing sector, publishing science and medical textbooks for undergraduates and psychometric testing training materials.
Contact
Lisa Mansell
Project Coordinator OpenSpires, Learning Technologies Group
Oxford University Computing Services
13 Banbury Road, Oxford OX2 6NN
http://openspires.oucs.ox.ac.uk/
Pilot evaluation of LAMS Q&A CS-Wizard for the improvement of lesson plans and learning design: A case study
Spyros Papadakis
School of Sciences and Technology
Hellenic Open University, Greece
Maria Kordaki
Dept of Computer Engineering and Informatics
University of Patras, Greece
Ernie Ghiglione
Macquarie E-Learning Centre of Excellence (MELCOE)
Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia
This study presents a comparative research study, aiming to a pilot evaluation of a learning tool (entitled the Q&A CS-Wizard), dedicated to the improvement of lesson plans, constructed by teachers through the creation of questions that encourage the development of students' cognitive skills. This tool is integrated within LAMS, an open source ‘learning design’ inspired system. This study is part of a wider work towards the investigation of the effect of tools included within LAMS on the improvement of lesson plans designed by Computer Science teachers. Seventeen Computer Science teachers participated in a learning design experiment for the design of lesson plans dedicated for the encouragement of the development of students’ various cognitive skills. The analysis of the data that emerged shows that those teachers’ lesson plans were improved -through the use of the Q&ACS-Wizard within LAMS- when compared with their lesson plans designed without the use of this tool, in terms of: (a) encouragement of the development of diverse cognitive skills and the cultivation of learners’ critical thinking and (b) an increase in questions encouraging higher order cognitive skills, with a decrease in questions encouraging lower order cognitive skills.
Biographical Notes
Spyros is the Greek LAMS Community Coordinator and LAMS Trainer/Administrator at the Hellenic Open University (HOU), Greece. He holds a PhD in Computer Science from the School of Science and Technology (HOU), a Master in Adult Education (HOU), a Postgraduate Certificate in Open and Distance Education (HOU) and a Bachelor in Mathematics from the University of Patras, Greece. His PHD thesis was titled “Online educational resource development: supporting the educator”. He has extensive teaching experience in the schools sector from secondary to professional development. He is member of a research team in the Training Sector at Research Academic Computer Technology Institute (RA-CTI), Greece. His current research interests include learning design, adult education and teachers training, teaching and learning in virtual and blended learning environments. He has authored or co-authored seven books and 2 chapters in Greek (among them is the book “Basic skills in ICT” for all 134,000 Teacher’s Training in Greece and over 37 research papers in international journals and conferences.. He has participated in over 15 research and development projects in the area of software engineering and educational technologies. He serves as a reviewer for journals and conferences.
Contact
Dr Spyros Papadakis
Hellenic Open Univeristy (HOU), GR 262 22 Patras, Greece
Εmail: papadakis@eap.gr
Using learning designs for strategic change for educational transformation in secondary schools in Trinidad and Tobago
Steve Warner
Mathematics and Computer Science Department
Waterloo Secondary School, West Indies
The Ministry of Education of Trinidad and Tobago has been grappling with the institutionalization of School Developing Plans (SDP) in all secondary and now primary schools for over ten years. It is hoped that this will stimulate a culture of collaborative and developmental planning in these schools and promote school improvement and effectiveness through teamwork and involvement of all stakeholders. The major goals of the plan are to increase student learning and participation in the process of building innovative and creative environments in schools where graduates would possess the twenty- first century skills of proficiency in using technology, collaboration and communication, problem solving, teamwork, inventive thinking, curiosity, creativity and risk-taking and cultural literacy and global awareness. To accomplish this, learning design approaches must be traversed and strategic transformation made in order for this target to be realized. This paper presents a look into such learning designs, which will embody Learning Management Systems such as Learning Activity Management Systems (LAMS), with a view of constructing ideas which can be harnessed in this dynamic epoch of this nations’ educational revolution and realization of the target of vision 2020 – a programme for the economic, political, educational and social development of Trinidad and Tobago in their quest to obtain “develop country” status by the year 2020.
Biographical Notes
Steve has been a Computer Science and Mathematics teacher for over 23 years in Trinidad and Tobago and a Head of Department for over 2 years. He received a BSc. Degree in Computer Science, with a minor in Mathematics from Central State University, Wilberforce, Ohio in 1985. He is currently pursing a Masters degree in Instruction Design and Technology with the Open University of Malaysia. His goals stream along the line of Educational Technology and Open and Distance Learning (ODL) with particular interest in integration of ICT in primary and secondary teaching and learning. Over the past couple of years he has written and submitted abstracts and papers to international educational conferences and attended the 4th LAMS Conference in Sydney, Australia, 2009. His main objective is to use his ICT and Instructional Designing knowledge and skills to enhance and transform the delivery of the general curriculum in primary and secondary school.
Contact
Steve Warner
Chickland Village, Freeport, Trinidad and Tobago, West Indies
Email: stewenchic@yahoo.com
Learning to teach online – Developing a free, flexible resource to help educators plan, teach and evaluate online and blended learning initiatives
Karin Watson, Simon McIntyre
COFA Online, College of Fine Arts (COFA),
University of New South Wales, Australia
It can often be easy to get swept up in the technological side of online learning at the expense of sound pedagogy, good planning and effective online teaching skills. COFA Online at the College of Fine Arts, The University of New South Wales, Sydney Australia, has been researching, developing and evaluating award winning professional development programs since 2003 for academics wishing to plan, develop and teach effective and sustainable online and blended initiatives. It has become apparent that as online learning applications diversify in education, there is a need for a much more flexible system of online specific pedagogical training for academics wishing to use technology supported teaching practices. This presentation outlines COFA Online’s current development of a diverse, adaptable, pedagogy focused online professional development resource called ‘Learning to Teach Online’. This project uses mainstream and broad-reaching online distribution channels to freely disseminate practical, easy to apply and pedagogy-focused digital training resources, which include contributions from teachers in many disciplines and institutions. In addition, a global online community of practice is being established, where academics can connect and share ideas with other teachers around the world with similar interests in online pedagogy.
Biographical Notes
Karin is an architect that has studied, lived and worked in South Africa, London and Sydney. Since 2003 Karin has been teaching at the University of New South Wales across a number of faculties and has experience teaching in face-to-face, fully online and blended learning environments. Karin co-coordinates the COFA Online Course Author Fellowship Programs and the COFA Blended Learning Pilot Study. In 2008 she received a team Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC) citation for ‘outstanding contributions to student learning’ and is currently co-developing a free global online resource called Learning to Teach Online’.
Simon’s research investigates the impact of advanced online pedagogical training upon tertiary teaching practice. Simon has drawn together educators and creative professionals in the development and design of sustainable and effective online art and design learning strategies, through the COFA Online Course Author Fellowship Programs, and the development and supervision of a fully online international postgraduate Master of Cross-Disciplinary Art & Design degree. Taking this professional development global, Simon is continuing to co-develop a free global online resource called ‘Learning to Teach Online’.
Contact
Karin Watson
Online Projects Coordinator & Co-Project Manager, “Learning to Teach Online” ALTC Project
Email: karin@unsw.edu.au
Simon McIntyre
Lecturer, Online Postgraduate Director & Project Leader,
“Learning to Teach Online” Project
Email: s.mcintyre@unsw.edu.au
[1] http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/elearning/curriculumdelivery.aspx
[2] http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/elearning/curriculumdelivery.aspx
[3] http://prod.cetis.ac.uk
Adding Intelligence to LAMS: The I-AGENT Project
Timothy Read
Department of Computer Languages and Systems, UNED, Spain
Lourdes Pomposo
English Section, Faculty of Economics, UCM, Spain
Covadonga Rodrigo
Department of Computer Languages and Systems, UNED, Spain
I-AGENT (Intelligent Adaptive Generic ENglish Tutor) is a project of the ATLAS (Artificial inTelligence applications for Linguistic ApplicationS) research group and is funded by the Spanish Ministry of Education (grant number FFI2008-06030). The objective of this work is to investigate the way in which face-to-face English language classes can be optimally complemented by innovative ICALL software based upon the Systemic Functional Linguistics approach, integrated with the notional-functional syllabus model in the CEFR and a cognitive and social constructivist pedagogic framework, which enables a combination of individual and collaborative learning. In previous projects undertaken by the research group, all the software has been developed by the team, including the online learning environment. In this project, it was decided that LAMS should be used as the e-Learning platform (due to the many advantages it offers for this purpose), and the intelligent diagnostic mechanism (that makes up the core of I-AGENT) would work with LAMS. That is to say, as students finish a learning sequence, the results are passed to the diagnostic mechanism (using domain, user and group models) in I-AGENT which, following analysis, adaptively selects further learning sequences depending upon previous results, and returns a sequence identifier to LAMS.