Learning Design: The Birth of Open Source Teaching? James Dalziel Professor of Learning Technology Macquarie E-Learning Centre Of Excellence (MELCOE) Macquarie University Keynote presentation for ED-MEDIA, June 28 th, 2006, Orlando, Florida

Overview Lessons from digital natives Learning Design –Background –Concepts –System examples –Community examples Open source teaching Prospects for the future

Learning Design: Background Children’s books can include: –Text –Graphics –Self-test questions –*Sequence –(Pedagogy) How is e-learning fundamentally different to this?

Present content Do quiz Present content Do quiz Present content Do quiz

LMS Course Page (WebCT 4) – Note Discussion area

Learning Design: Background In addition to “children’s book” content a Learning Management System (LMS) can include collaborative activities: –Discussion forum –Chat What about sequencing of collaborative activities? –Eg, present article in favour of a topic, then discuss the article, then present another article against the topic, then discuss this article, then discuss comparisons between both articles, then do an assessment

Present content A Discuss forum thread A Present content B Discuss forum thread B Discuss forum thread C Do quiz

Learning Design: Background How do you sequence collaborative activities (and content) in a LMS today? (1) You don’t (2) You try to provide instructions pointing students where to go at each step (and hope they follow) (3) You try to use timed release of each tool But, even with (2) and (3): –There is nothing managing the flow of student activities –You can’t share the sequence as a re-usable object

Example: Qualities of an effective teacher Consider a course where you wanted to teach students about the qualities of an effective teacher –You could give them a lecture about the literature –You could let them discuss it in a tutorial Pedagogically, you’d probably like to achieve: –Exposure to, and understanding of, relevant literature –Active engagement, applied to own life, self-reflection –Students demonstrating good communication skills –Modelling of good practice as an effective teacher

Qualities of an effective teacher You could create a sequence of activities, eg: –Step 1: Each student answers “What are the qualities of an effective teacher?”, then considers collated responses –Step 2: Each student votes on the top 2 qualities from a list, then reflects on collated votes –Step 3: Group debate about the most important qualities of an effective teacher, based on outcomes of (1) and (2) –Step 4: Review of literature on effective teachers –Step 5: Group discussion of how the debate in (3) relates to literature in (4) –Step 6: Reflective report on the original question, based on own ideas and those of the group, including any changes in own views The following diagrams illustrate “authoring” of this sequence –(Based on 2002 pre-LAMS mock-ups)

Question Tool Self-reflect Tool Voting Tool Discussion Tool Content Tool Chat Tool Report Tool Marking Tool Other Tool Other Tool Learning Tool Editor Learning Activity Sequence Builder

Question Tool Editor Edit Question What are the qualities of an effective teacher? Choose type of response True/False Multiple Choice Questions Open Text Response

Question Tool Self-reflect Tool Voting Tool Discussion Tool Content Tool Chat Tool Report Tool Marking Tool Other Tool Other Tool Learning Tool Editor Learning Activity Sequence Builder Question Tool

Question Tool Self-reflect Tool Voting Tool Discussion Tool Content Tool Chat Tool Report Tool Marking Tool Other Tool Other Tool Learning Tool Editor Learning Activity Sequence Builder Question Tool Voting Tool

Question Tool Self-reflect Tool Voting Tool Discussion Tool Content Tool Chat Tool Report Tool Marking Tool Other Tool Other Tool Learning Tool Editor Learning Activity Sequence Builder Question Tool Voting Tool Discussion Tool

Question Tool Self-reflect Tool Voting Tool Discussion Tool Content Tool Chat Tool Report Tool Marking Tool Other Tool Other Tool Learning Tool Editor Learning Activity Sequence Builder Question Tool Voting Tool Discussion Tool Content Tool

Question Tool Self-reflect Tool Voting Tool Discussion Tool Content Tool Chat Tool Report Tool Marking Tool Other Tool Other Tool Learning Tool Editor Learning Activity Sequence Builder Question Tool Voting Tool Discussion Tool Content Tool Discussion Tool

Question Tool Self-reflect Tool Voting Tool Discussion Tool Content Tool Chat Tool Report Tool Marking Tool Other Tool Other Tool Learning Tool Editor Learning Activity Sequence Builder Question Tool Voting Tool Discussion Tool Content Tool Discussion Tool Report Tool

Options for student delivery Face to face (no computers) –Step by step teacher instruction guide –Student worksheets E-learning –Software that manages the sequence of student activities –Configuration of each tool as required –(Teacher monitoring)

Re-using an existing sequence Changes required for a different topic are underlined: –Step 1: Each student answers “What are the qualities of an effective teacher?”, then considers collated responses –Step 2: Each student votes on the top 2 qualities from a list, then reflects on collated responses –Step 3: Group debate about the most important qualities of an effective teacher, based on outcomes of (1) and (2) –Step 4: Review of literature on effective teachers –Step 5: Group discussion of how the debate in (3) relates to literature in (4) –Step 6: Reflective report on original question, based on own ideas and those of group, and any changes in views

Re-using an existing sequence Modified example: “Choosing an effective LMS” –Step 1: Each student answers “What are the qualities of an effective LMS?”, then considers collated responses –Step 2: Each student votes on the top 10 qualities from a list, then reflects on collated responses –Step 3: Group debate about the most important qualities of an effective LMS, based on outcomes of (1) and (2) –Step 4: Review of literature on effective LMSs –Step 5: Group discussion of how the debate in (3) relates to literature in (4) –Step 6: Reflective report on original question, based on own ideas and those of group, and any changes in views

Learning Design: Concepts The pre-history of Learning Design exists in decades of work on systematic lesson planning, and more recently in the technical work of Educational Modelling Language (EML) –EML formed the basis for the IMS Learning Design specification Definitions vary, but some typical examples include: –Koper (2001): “modelling units of study” –Sloep (2002): “people doing activities with resources/environments” –IMS Learning Design specification (2003): “a description of a method enabling learners to attain certain learning objectives by performing certain learning activities in a certain order in the context of a certain learning environment”

Learning Design: Concepts For me, the key to Learning Design is: Re-usable sequences of collaborative learning activities Re-usable: Can easily be captured, stored, shared and adapted Sequences: Managed flow of tasks (not a list on a course page) –(But not necessarily a linear flow of individual tasks) Collaborative learning activities: “Multi-learner” tasks –(….as well as “single-learner” tasks like content and quizzes) Alternatively, a Learning Design is a “digital lesson plan” –But not simply a narrative description – rather, it can “do” something

Learning Design: Concepts Each activity in a Learning Design requires details about: –Who: People/roles –What: Content/Instructions (“Activities” in IMS LD) –How: Tool setup (“Environment/Services” in IMS LD) Plus The Learning Design includes a description of the flow of tasks/sequence structure (“method” in IMS LD) – “when” It can also include educational objectives – “why” For example – Activity 1: –Who: All students –What: Answer “What are the qualities of an effective teacher?” –How: Using the Q&A tool

Learning Design: Concepts The details of who, what and how for each task (and the sequence structure) are encoded in a machine-readable format –Eg, EML file, IMS LD XML, LAMS sequence.las file So a LD authoring environment creates a Learning Design file, which is then “played” by a LD run-time environment –Activity tools may be hand-configured or automatically configured Two distinguishing features: –You can share a Learning Design so that others can “run” it (or adapt it) –Learning Designs rely on a detailed shared vocabulary for describing the education process

Learning Design: Systems There are a range of systems evolving to demonstrate the concept of Learning Design –Some are explicitly “IMS Learning Design” based (eg, Coppercore) –Some are more generally based on Learning Design (or “learning design”) concepts (eg, LAMS) Example 1: Reload/Coppercore/SLeD – focus on IMS LD –Authoring: Reload –Run-time engine: Coppercore/SLeD –Activity tools: SLeD Example 2: LAMS – focus on activity tools –Authoring: LAMS Authoring –Run-time engine: LAMS “core” –Activity tools: LAMS Learner/Monitor

Reload Learning Design editor/authoring

Example of XML output from Reload to be processed by Coppercore

SLeD: Learner View – Read Content Activity

SLeD: Learner View – Forum Activity

LAMS: Author View – Sequence level

LAMS: Author View – Tool level

LAMS: Learner View – Forum Activity

LAMS: Teacher Monitor View – All Learners

LAMS: Teacher Monitor View – Individual activity

Learning Design: Systems LAMS Demonstration: Effective teacher example –Step 1: Each student answers “What are the qualities of an effective teacher?”, then considers collated responses –Step 2: Each student votes on the top 2 qualities from a list, then reflects on collated votes –Step 3: Group debate about the most important qualities of an effective teacher, based on outcomes of (1) and (2) –Step 4: Review of literature on effective teachers –Step 5: Group discussion of how the debate in (3) relates to literature in (4) –Step 6: Reflective report on the original question, based on own ideas and those of the group, including any changes in own views

Learning Design: Communities Because Learning Designs can be captured, they can be stored, searched for, shared, re-used and adapted –Repositories of Learning Designs Learning Design communities also support discussion and sharing of ideas about implementing Learning Design Example 1: Unfold – –Community built on Plone, Repository built on DSpace Example 2: LAMS Community – –Community and repository built on.LRN

Unfold Project – Learning Design Community of Practice

Unfold Project – DSpace Repository of Learning Designs

LAMS Community – View of various communities & forums

LAMS Community – Repository Summary

LAMS Community – Detailed view of individual sequence

The birth of open source teaching? A Learning Design describes the fundamental elements of the educational process –By analogy – the “source code” of teaching If a Learning Design is shared under an open content license, then we could call it “open source teaching” NB: Feedback from the open source software community indicates that using the phrase “open source” here requires an OSI compatible license –Eg, Creative Commons BY or BY-SA (not BY-SA-NC)

Prospects for the future - LAMS LAMS trial accounts: Student authoring: examples from teacher training at MQ Pedagogic planners –Diana Laurillard’s recent work on providing assistance to lecturers about pedagogy and context, leading to a LAMS template LAMS V2 –Beta release comes out next week, production in October Freely available as open source software –Integration with ePortfolios/PLEs – “portfolio export” from LAMS –V2.1 to include conditionality, branching, advanced grouping –V2 has a new architecture for pluggable activity tools See “Tools Contract” outlines a vision for building activity tools

LAMS V2 Tools Contract Teacher led Student led Stand aloneSequenced Offline Online

Prospects for the future - general Learning Design provides a new approach to enhancing pedagogy in learning platforms Learning Designs can be stored, shared, adapted –Potential to develop and share “good practice” Learning Design provides a precise new vocabulary for describing the educational process Student activities in Learning Designs provide a rich record for educational research The birth of open source teaching?