JISC LADIE project Learning Activity Design in Education

Gráinne ConoleUniversity of Southampton

Email: g.c.conole@soton.ac.uk

UNFOLD meeting,University of Braga15th June 2005

Partners

• Main partners– University of Southampton– University of Dundee– Intrallect Ltd

• Associates– CPCET – Consortium for Post-Compulsory Education

and Training– SIESWE, Scottish Institute for Excellence in Social

Work Education– LAMS International– RELOAD– Open Universiteit Nederland– Icodeon Software– CETIS

Aim

• To consider the design, construction and execution of learning activity in a way that can be used and shared by multiple institutions and learners

• To include learning activity management, sequencing of learning content within a single activity, use of interoperable learning and content packaging from a teacher's perspective

Focus

• To develop a series of learning activity use cases from both a pedagogical and technical perspective

• Abstraction of the services needed to support these use cases

Reference model

• Will support two distinct stages– Learning Activity Authoring

• including the design and construction of learning activities and the discovery, specification, sequencing and packaging of content

– Learning Activity Realisation • including construction of the environment in

which learning activities are to take place and execution of the learning activities themselves

Sample User Agents

Library system

Marking tool

VLE / LMS

Timetabling

ePortfolio

Portal

Authoring applications

Learning flow

Enrollment portlet

Learning Domain Services

Reporting

Resource list

Competency

Activity author

Course validation

Sequencing

Tracking

Assessment

ePortfolio

Marking

Quality assurance

Activity management

Grading

Learning flow

Curriculum

Personal development

Course management Activity management

Reporting

Activity author

Sequencing

Assessment

ePortfolio Learning flow

Personal development

Common Services

Harvesting

Resolver

Logging

Workflow

Mapping

Messaging

Content management

Rating / Annotation

Chat

Person

Calendaring

Alert

AV conferencing

E-mail management

DRM

Identifier

Search

Presence

Authentication

Packaging

Terminology

Federated search

Role

Metadata management

Whiteboard

Context

Scheduling

Metadata service registry Filing

Service registry

Rules

Authorisation

Archiving

User preferences

Group

Member

Format conversion

Forum

Activities• Top-down approach

– To develop and test a method of gathering learning activity use cases from teachers and provide simple use cases

• Iteration 1: Bottom-up approach– To establish a framework for creating the reference model

and its implementations• Iteration 2: Top-down approach

– To gather and analyse a complete set of use cases to feed into the final iteration

• Iteration 3: Top-down approach– To compare the reference model and its implementation

with teachers expectations and perform a gap analysis • Iteration 4: Bottom-up approach

– To produce a reference model for the domain and a demonstrable implementation

Process

• Based on two tried approaches– Intrallect use case methodology– DialogPlus learning design taxonomy

• Series of workshops with practitioners– Development of use cases– Evaluation of approach– Mapping to the e-learning framework

What is a use case?

• A use case is a way of capturing the expected behaviour of a system when a person uses the system to achieve a specific goal– The use case is a means of

communication between people– It should be simple, readable text

Why use cases?

• Defines the behaviour of a system without considering its architecture

• Easy to understand and communicate

• Can be used to – distil requirements of a system– test that a constructed system meets the

use for which it was intended

Use Case SummaryProcedure• Consider possible primary actors (the person or

system that wishes to perform an action)• Consider an activity to model• Write one sentence overview of use case

Example• A lecturer wishes to make his/her research results

freely available but wants to be acknowledged if sections are copied and redistributed

How to write a use case• Capture a summary use case

– an overview in a sentence

• Identify actors and their goals– actors can be people, systems,

organisations– stakeholders and their interests

• Write success scenario as steps

• Define exceptions to each step

Use case template

• Authors

• Use Case Summary

• Primary Actor ( and goal)

• Other Actors (and goals)

• Stakeholders and Interests

• Main Success Scenario

• Extensions

ExampleUse Case Summary• A lecturer wishes to make his/her research results

freely available but wants to be acknowledged if sections are copied and redistributed

Primary and other Actors (and their goals)• Researcher (primary)

– To make research results widely available

• Repository– To store research results and make it possible for

them to be found

• User– To discover and use research results

Example (Continued)

Stakeholders and Interests • Researcher’s Institution

– Institution would also like to be acknowledged for material. Institution would like to take responsibility for archiving and cataloguing of publication.

• Person making use of material– Would have to acknowledge the author

in a specified way

 

Example (Continued)Main Success Scenario• Researcher “publishes” material in the institution’s e-

prints repository• Selects the rights under which the material can be

used from a set of possible licences proposed by the institution

• Includes metadata (title, description, keywords)• Metadata is quality-controlled by a library cataloguer

and the object is classified and given a unique reference identifier 

• The library system automatically archives the material…..

Example (Continued)Extensions• Researcher may publish the material by

making it available on a personal or departmental web page– Researcher could pass details of URL to librarian

who catalogues web-based resources

• Researcher may produce an updated version of the publication and not publish it through the same route

• Institution may not have an agreed set of licences from which the researcher can select what is appropriate

Learning activity toolkit

Plethora of tools and resourcesEnormous potential but underused

Wealth of knowledge about learningDidactic/behaviourists models predominate

Gap between thepotential of the technologies

(confusion over how they can be used)and

application of good pedagogical principles(confusion over which models to use)

Types of learning activities

Type Technique Interaction Roles Tools & Resources Assessment

AssimilativeReadingViewing Listening

ArtefactAssignmentBrainstormingBuzz wordsDissertationDrill & practiceEssayExerciseFishbowlIce breakerMCQMindmapsPair dialoguesPerformancePortfolioProductQ and AResource-basedRole playRoundsShort answerSnowballDebateTestVoting

1 – manyGroup basedClass based1-1 to SIndividual

Indiv learnerGroup leaderCoachParticipantMentorSupervisorRapporteurFacilitatorDelivererPair personPresenterPeer assessor Moderator

Adaptive simulationmodellingvirtual worldsCommunicativeemail disn. boardslistscommentarychatProductives/sheetd/baseNarrativetextvideoaudio Web pageimageInteractiveengineslibraries

Not assessedDiagnosticFormativeSummative

Info HandlingGatheringOrderingClassifyingSelecting AnalysingManipulating

AdaptiveModellingSimulation

CommunicativeDiscussingPresentingDebating

ProductiveCreatingProducingWritingDrawingComposingSynthesising

ExperientialPracticingMimickingExperiencing

Stakeholder benefits• Teachers

– Supports tutors through the process of design, construction and integration of online and face-to-face activities

– Reference model will provide a common language for sharing learning activities between teachers

• Educational technologists– Work with teachers to create learning environments for students– Reference model will be designed both from the pedagogical viewpoint

(the top-down approach) and from the technical viewpoint (the bottom-up approach) it will bridge the gap between teachers and “techies”

• Technology providers– Need to produce technical solutions which meet the needs of

teachers and students– Reference model will provide these requirements in a form that

will allow technology providers to abstract the services – Reference model will either confirm that existing specifications

are adequate or it will identify gaps in specifications and highlight areas for further specification work

JISC LADIE project Learning Activity Design in Education

Gráinne ConoleUniversity of Southampton

Email: g.c.conole@soton.ac.uk

UNFOLD meeting, University of Braga15th June 2005