critical facilities for active participation in learning networks hans hummel, colin tattersall,...

Critical facilities for active participation

in learning networks

Hans Hummel, Colin Tattersall, Daniel Burgos,

Francis Brouns, Hub Kurvers & Rob Koper

Educational Technology Expertise Centre

Open University of the Netherlands

WBC 2005 (February 25th, 2005)

Context and approach

• Technology Development Program: Learning Networks (2003-2008) (extra)

• Initial experiences with pilot implementations of LN architecture, i.e. LN4LD pilot 1 (paper)

-Information ecology perspective

-OSOSS: facilities for (active) participation• Incentive mechanisme LN4LD pilot 2 (extra)

Learning Networks use technology to network learners, institutions and learning objects in such a way that the network can self-organise

Learning Networks (LNs) are two-mode networks represented as a graph with nodes, where the nodes are ‘LN members’ and ‘Activity Nodes’ (ANs)

ANs can be anything that is available to support learning, such as a course, a workshop, a conference, a lesson, an internet learning resource, et cetera

Central to the notion of a Learning Network is the idea that all participants are in a position to contribute, within the constraints of any policies that may be operating

Position, target, learning route

Platform pilots

• Base reqs: open source, java based, ‘open pedagogy’ • (out of scope for pilot) general portal with LNs• Each LN modelled, e.g. in PHP Nuke• Each AN modelled, e.g. in Moodle (including services)• LN ‘seeded’ with initial set of ANs to get things going• LN further supposed to develop / emerge through

contributions & ratings

Objectives

LN4LD pilots have three objectives:• To gain early feedback on functional, technical and

organisational aspects of creating and maintaining a learning network

• To help meet the demand for further information on IMS Learning Design from those wishing to understand the specification, or who are engaged in its application (UNFOLD project)

• To investigate incentive mechanisms which stimulate learners to move beyond mere consumption of learning materials towards active participation in the creation of learning experiences

LN-layer (Nuke)

AN layer: Moodle

EML site (eml.org):

increase in participants

0500

10001500200025003000

Q1

2001

Q2

2001

Q3

2001

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2001

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LN site (learningnetworks.org):

increase in participants

0500

100015002000250030003500

Q12003

Q22003

Q32003

Q42003

Q12004

Q22004

Q32004

Q42004

Time

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LN site: some participation data

(all forums)

Forum PostsPosts made by

originators

News 59 58

IMS LD + EML 74 57

Standardization 9 7

Valkenburg Group 8 5

Alfanet 3 3

Threads Repl Views

LD-online testing site 2 245

Environments definition 2 412

Referencing external Units of Learning 4 952

IMS LD + MD: taxonomies and vocabularies 1 469

Upcoming workshops 0 305

Help 2 558

6th Framework Coord. Action: UNFOLD 0 438

IMS-LD Editor Announcement 0 549

LN site: some participation data

(example forum)

LN4LD pilot 1 (june-sept 2004):

increase in participants

22

35

52

62

72 75 77 79 80 8390

98 99104

0

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LN4LD pilot 1: some participation data

• Participants: 104 registered, but 58 never accessed; 20 regular visitors

• Passive: 21,011 page views, 427 downloads• Active: 24 post in general forums (Nuke); 24 posts in

course forums (Moodle)

LN4LD pilot 1: Lessons learned

• Transparent Policies: e.g. lower threshold• Better Usability: e.g. Nuke out• Less Structure: e.g. less fora• Explicit Reward: e.g. mechanism for extra access

LN4LD pilot 2 (oct ’04 – jan ’05):

reward system• (Because of time and technical constraints) simple

interrupted time series design with removal consecutive treatments => flexible within the life time of the learning network

• First treatment: incentive mechanism for extra access• Quantitative + qualitative points to be earned for

contributing (posting, replying, rating)• Extra access to ‘runnable examples of UoL’ in

CopperCore beyond threshold level of points

LN4LD pilot 2 (increased contribution)

Thank you for your attention!

URL (LN4LD)

http://www.unfoldproject.net:8085/UNFOLD/designers/

email hans.hummel@ou.nl

Any questions?