Introducing LAMS 2.1: Branching and Beyond James Dalziel Professor of Learning Technology, and Director, Macquarie E-Learning Centre Of Excellence (MELCOE) Macquarie University james@melcoe.mq.edu.au www.melcoe.mq.edu.au Seminar at London Knowledge Lab, University of London, UK, June 30th, 2008

Overview Background to LAMS LAMS 2.1 Branching Case Study Interactive Whiteboard adoption Role Play Other LAMS 2.1 Features Upcoming: Activity Planner Discussion

Background to LAMS LAMS is the world’s leading software for Learning Design 1000s of educators across 80+ countries Translated into 25 languages Visual “drag and drop” approach to designing activities Helps educators to visualise teaching and learning processes LAMS Sequences can be shared, re-used and adapted LAMS Community (www.lamscommunity.org) Approximately 3300 members, 86 countries, 290 shared sequences downloaded 7500 times, 3700 discussion postings Freely available as open source software (Fee-based hosting and tech support from LAMS International)

Background to LAMS LAMS can be used stand-alone, or integrated with Virtual Learning Environments (Single-Sign-On) Learners: URL to LAMS sequence from course page Educators: Author, select, launch and monitor sequences Current integrations include: Sakai Moodle Blackboard (Blackboard & WebCT versions) .LRN Microsoft Sharepoint

Interactive whiteboard adoption role play Available in LAMS Community - developed as an adaptation of an earlier role play (on LAMS adoption) Considers the adoption of interactive whiteboards in a typical secondary school from the perspective of 4 roles “Pro” teachers – who are very keen on IBs “Con” teachers – those concerned about wider adoption of IBs School management – see both benefits and issues Students – like IBs when well used, dislike tech for tech sake Three main stages: Pre-role play role preparation, role play proper, then post-role play reflection

LAMS V1: Adopting Interactive Whiteboards in schools – Role play (from LC)

Interactive whiteboard adoption role play LAMS V1 problems: No control on access to activities in optional box – anyone could go into the wrong private role area (by mistake or deliberately) Reason: LAMS needed all students to do the same task; couldn’t allow different groups to do different tasks to the exclusion of others Also, grouping only had random allocation option Too grey

LAMS V2: Adopting Interactive Whiteboards in schools – Role play

LAMS V2: Interactive Whiteboards – Role play: Sub-group generic text problem

LAMS V2: Interactive Whiteboards – Role play: Group naming problem

Interactive whiteboard adoption role play LAMS V2.0 problems: Each role had own private area, but instruction text had be written in a “generic” format, as each role group had the same text and had to infer the application to their specific role Groups could be hand-allocated, but were named sequentially (Group 1/2/3/4), not in a meaningful way (Pro/Con/etc) Both of these factors meant that although the sequence could work, it wasn’t always clear to students what to do

Interactive whiteboard adoption role play Introducing LAMS V2.1 Branching Teacher allocated Group-based Tool-output based (MCQ, Forum, Vote, Task List) Sequences in optional Student choice of one or more sequences “Branching” is always teacher or system driven (ie, automatic from the student’s perspective); optional sequences allows for student choice “branching”

Key concept before we start: Properties bar in Authoring (click on it to open)

LAMS 2.1: Interactive Whiteboards – Role play: Role tasks with Branching

LAMS 2.1: Interactive Whiteboards – Role play: Inside branching for role tasks

LAMS 2.1: Interactive Whiteboards – Role play: Naming of branches

LAMS 2.1: Interactive Whiteboards – Role play: Setting up role groups

LAMS 2.1: Interactive Whiteboards – Role play: Naming role groups

LAMS 2.1: Interactive Whiteboards – Role play: Branching type = groups

LAMS 2.1: Interactive Whiteboards – Role play: Warning on save – incomplete

LAMS 2.1: Interactive Whiteboards – Role play: Mapping groups to branches

So… after launching the Role Play sequence in Monitor, a Learner can now access it…

Interactive Whiteboards – Role play: Student view of Forum (private for Pro Teacher role)

LAMS 2.1: Alternative branching approach: Teacher choice instead of group-based

LAMS 2.1: Alternative branching approach: Launch in monitor, then allocate to branches

LAMS 2.1: Teacher allocating students to branches by hand in Monitor

LAMS 2.1: Alternative branching approach: Student view of Branch 2 (“con” teacher)

LAMS 2.1: Alternative branching: Tool-output based branching based on Vote (using MCQ)

Imagine using Vote to create new “yes” and “no” subgroups for extra resources & forum

LAMS 2.1: Tool-output branching: Creating conditions from tool outputs

LAMS 2.1: Tool-output branching: … then mapping conditions to Branches

Branching summary Three types of branching Group-based Teacher choice Tool output (& conditions) Can have multiple groups, multiple branching activities, multiple sub-groups applied to one branch, “skip” option for branching (no task for some learners) Tool outputs can be Boolean (either/or) or Scores Current tools are MCQ, Forum, Vote, Task List Task List is first example of “Conditions” approach

LAMS 2. 1: New Optional. Sequences LAMS 2.1: New Optional *Sequences* feature (under optional; properties for settings)

LAMS 2.1: New Optional Sequences - allows students to choose 1 or more sequences

Pedagogical uses of new features Can assign different students to different topics Each group investigates a different aspect of a phenomenon, then reports findings back to the whole class Can use Branching with Tool Output (and Skip) to provide remediation tasks for only some students (eg, quiz score < X, then do branch remediation activities; otherwise skip branch) Can allow students to choose from different optional sequences (according to topic, skill, thoroughness, etc) Can seek student opinion (eg, Role Play Vote), then create group tasks that respond to different opinions

Other LAMS/RAMS 2.1 Features Live Edit of running sequences New Tool: Task List Flash Audio/Video player can be used in all tools Merge/Insert sequences in Author Optional Non-Flash Learner Interface (mobile LAMS) Sequence completion status Re-arrange lesson order on main page For full feature list, see http://wiki.lamsfoundation.org/display/lams/LAMS+2.1+Feature+List

Application to Research Activities The concept of re-usable sequences of learning activities can also be applied to research activities Research team management Research workflows Modeling of research processes ahead of time (eg, biosecurity) RAMS (Research Activity Management System) Shares a common workflow core with LAMS Many new LAMS features (Branching, Live Edit, Conditions, etc) have arisen from RAMS requirements

New Feature (from RAMS): Live Edit (starting with running sequence in Monitor)

New Feature: Open live sequence in special author mode (some locked)

New Feature: Can change sequence structure/tools for those not locked

New Feature: Live sequence is immediately updated for current users

New LAMS 2.1 Task List Tool: Author View

Student View of Task List Tool

New “Conditions” Feature: Creating Conditions for Branching using tool data

Flash Movie/Audio Player can be used in all tools

Example of Non-Flash Learner Interface: Useful for mobile devices (eg, iPhone)

Upcoming: Activity Planner (aka Pedagogic Planner) A new layer over the top of LAMS that provides good practice templates, advice on choosing and editing, and simplified authoring (NB: under development) Good practice templates + Limited authoring “Full” Authoring Flexible Learning Design Platform: Capable of many pedagogic approaches

LAMS Activity Planner: Selecting a template

LAMS Activity Planner: Filling out the key content for a selected template

Further LAMS Information Introduction to LAMS – walkthroughs, videos, case studies http://cd.lamsfoundation.org/ General demonstration accounts for LAMS http://demo.lamscommunity.org/ General information about LAMS http://www.lamsfoundation.org/ LAMS Community http://www.lamscommunity.org/ Live Edit new features 2.1 http://saturn.melcoe.mq.edu.au/lams2/docs/winks/newLiveEdit.htm Adoption of Interactive Whiteboards in schools Role Play – download V1 version of sequence from http://lamscommunity.org/lamscentral/sequence?seq_id=376440 Animated “mock-ups” for Pedagogic Planner concept http://saturn.melcoe.mq.edu.au/jly/Ped_planner.htm http://saturn.melcoe.mq.edu.au/jly/Ped_plannerv2.htm

Discussion