The NGDLE @ …

The NGDLE @ ELI

In April 2015 the Educause Learning Initiative published a research report that indicated that the LMS did not fail. Instead it indicated the existence of a new digital teaching and learning environment.

The focus of teaching and learning practice shifted from the traditional role of the instructor (management of learning) to an approach that is learning and learner centered focussed.

No single solution can address this approach effectively but that an ecosystem of supporting technologies/ technology enabled T L approaches/ practices/ systems must be considered.

LMS is identified as a platform that provide access to a learning interface that integrate technology tools with the practice of online facilitation.

Next Generation Digital Learning Environment (NGDLE) and described it as follows: “The term pulls together several key themes. What comes next must be informed by the new learning centered model that increasingly characterizes higher education practice (hence next generation). It must of course be digital, given that digital technology has become a component of virtually all teaching and learning practice. It must be about learning, since learning ties together learner and instructor. Finally, it must be an environment or ecosystem—a dynamic, interconnected, ever-evolving community of learners, instructors, tools, and content.”

What is it? The next generation digital learning environment (NGDLE) is conceived as an ecosystem— a learning environment consisting of learning tools and components that adhere to common standards.

How does it work? The target of the NGDLE would be to enable the digital environment to support learning directly. To do this, next-generation environments must address five dimensions: Interoperability and integration Personalization Analytics, advising, and learning assessment Collaboration Accessibility and universal design

Who is doing it? The NGDLE will require coordinated efforts among vendors, universities, standards organisations and government institutions  

Why is it significant? By espousing a component-based architecture based on standards and best practices, the NGDLE encourages exploration of new approaches and the development of new tools.

What are the downside? Building the NGDLE that have to include addressing the diverse needs of all stakeholders presents a formidable challenge

Where is it going? For the NGDLE to succeed, everyone involved in higher education teaching and learning will need to break with longstanding models and adopt “NGDLE thinking,”

What are the implications for teaching and learning “The NGDLE is conceived as both an ecosystem and a mind-set that will allow students and instructors to benefit from the full range of developments in higher education. The NGDLE concept seeks a balance between the openness of learning and the need for coherence in the environment. The concept emphasizes personalization, collaboration, and accessibility/universal design —all essential to learning. Because the NGDLE conceives of learning as happening in an ecosystem and not within a platform, it focuses not on IT but on learning enablement.”

NGDLE @.....

Focus Institution wide projects that aim to provide guidelines to transform teaching and learning at …. An outcome of this project must be the identification and mapping of the digital teaching and learning environment needed to support and enable online and blended learning.

The enabling Digital Teaching and Learning Environment (DTLE) at….

Explore a key strategic driver with strategic planning that explains the Enabling Digital Teaching and Learning Environment that must be developed and maintained. Identify supporting technologies/ approaches/ practices/ systems must be identified that exist or should be explored/ developed/ adopted to contribute towards the enabling of a digital teaching and learning environment.

The focus should therefore not be on one single technology/ approach/ practice/ system as the solution, but the enabling ability that contribute towards an ecosystem of technologies/ approaches/ practices/ systems that constitutes a digital teaching and learning environment. The strategic driver should be formulated in such a way that the achievement of the strategy goals presuppose the existence, creation, adoption, development and maintenance of an enabling digital teaching and learning environment to support teaching and learning.

The DTLE lifecycle

The Discipline Determining and maintaining standards and procedures that ensure interoperability with sourcing, adoption, development, production, maintenance and use of technology and associated technology focussed systems Establishing and determining technology enhanced teaching and learning best practice and related blended and online learning quality criteria. Establishing a culture of collaboration with supporting partnerships in the determination, development and maintenance of the DTLE

The Process Facilitation of and participation in research to develop and review an enabling DTLE. This aforementioned includes technology that add value to and enhance T L as well capacity development of staff and students to participate in T L facilitated in and through the DTLE. Collaboration with partners and collaborators (national, international, in-house or external) to define, benchmark and share concerning an enabling DTLE, technology enhanced T L best practice and blended and online learning quality criteria

Engagement with stakeholders to co-own and manage the enabling DTLE on behalf of the institution, thus initiating and coordinating the process through which technology is sourced, developed, maintained, implemented, reviewed and researched and technology enhanced T L best practice and blended and online learning quality criteria are determined. Contracting and coordinating project teams to source, develop, produce and maintain technology that enhance T L and contributes to the determination of technology enhanced T L best practice and blended and online learning quality criteria. Coordinating the implementation of technology that enhance T L and as well as technology enhanced T L best practice and blended and online learning

DTLE domains, strategic foci and core functionalities

Interoperability and Integration

Online and blended teaching and learning facilitation Blended learning provides the opportunity to differentiate and personalize instruction. The focus with facilitation change from time-based models of achievement to competency based teaching and learning. Online and blended teaching and learning facilitation enables personalization of the learning opportunity/ event, one of the most important factors that shape the user (both staff and students) experience. Personalization encompasses two aspects. One: The design and development of the teaching and learning environment to build pathways for students to accomplish learning outcomes Two: Adaptive learning in which automated systems with clearly defined quality criteria and best practice provides students with coaching and learning facilitation specific to each student’s needs. In this way the DTLE enables all users (staff and students) to customize the teaching and learning environment to support individual student’s needs.

Analytics, Advising, and Learning Assessment A key consideration for enabling DTLE is how to support the development of the complete spectrum of knowledge and skills that students need to optimally participate in the learning process. In the context of the enabling DTLE, analytics has two primary functions: Learning analytics, defined as “the measurement, collection, analysis, and reporting of data about learners and their contexts, for purposes of understanding and optimising learning and the environments in which it occurs. Integrated planning and advising, defined as “an institutional capability to create shared ownership for educational progress by providing students, faculties, and staff with holistic information and services that contribute to quality and successful teaching and learning.

Accessibility and Universal Design Instead of just altering certain components of the DTLE accessibility and universal design provide the opportunity to reimagine the core principles and foundation of the whole teaching and learning process. This include sourcing and development of solutions/ tools/ and determination of best practice to support staff and students with disabilities. In this way the enabling DTLE not only assist to address the needs of people with disabilities, but also provide the opportunity through a holistic, ground-up approach to address accessibility within the larger framework of universal design in support of the curriculum envisaged.

Openness agenda Open source/ community source: The practice that gives free access to the source code of the software produced. Open access: Free access to cultural and scientific/scholarly outputs, in particular making these available free of charge online, on the understanding that no changes can be made to them (something particularly important in the case of scientific publications and underlying material, open data). Open content: Open content is a collective name for creative work – for example texts, illustrations, audio, and video – which is published under a licence explicitly permitting the work to be copied and often also to be adapted and distributed Open educational resources (OER): The creation, reuse, revision, remixing, redistribution and retention of teaching and learning material within the Creative commons licensing framework

Collaboration The definition of collaboration states the following: “The action of working with someone to produce something”. Collaboration creates the opportunity for staff and students to participate in teamwork to accomplish a set goal. The focus is not creating a silo but to act, think and to work together in such a way that the community or ecosystem as a whole benefit from the result of collaboration. Collaboration is fundamental to many forms of learning and provides staff and students with the opportunity to innovate, design and develop teaching and learning interfaces and spaces to accomplish learning goals and reach learning outcomes

DTLE Quality criteria The DTLE adopts and use the quality criteria researched, developed and continuously normed to ensure T L best practice, of the Online Learning Consortium (OLC). The OLC quality criteria address the following categories: Institutional support Technology support Course development and instructional design Course structure Teaching and learning Social and student engagement Faculty support Student support Evaluation and assessment

Resource coordination and helpdesk support Establishing centrally coordinated DTLE resource facilities on campuses to provide equal access to all staff and students to explore and innovate with the adoption and use of technology and experience and teach/ learn in blended and online learning environments . Managing and coordinating projects that allow staff and students the opportunity to participate in and practice technology enabled teaching and learning Recording, researching and investigating best practice to determine guiding principles and standards for technology adoption and technology enhanced teaching and learning. Establishing technology resource facilities in all faculties that provide access to those technology resources of which implementation standards have been established and technology enhanced teaching and learning best practice has been determined. Establish and support centralized virtualization of blended and online teaching and learning environments and technology resources to ensure sustainable use/ adoption and provide access to staff and students not independent of time or location