Dai Griffiths, CETIS, The University of Bolton Designing Learning in Context

TENCompetence –4-year EU Integrated IST-TEL project –Led by Rob Koper of OUNL – Technical & organisational infrastructure for lifelong competence development Open source, standards and interoperability specifications compliant

I’ll be talking about Why Life Long competences? –A personal view, but strongly informed by the work being done in TENCompetence What problem does TENCompetence resolve? What solutions is the project providing? What does this imply for the design of learning?

Why Life Long Competences?

Some slippery words… Even in English, there are multiple meanings of –Knowledge, Learning / training, Skill –Competence and/or competency What are they? Where are they located? How do we recognise them?

Life Long Learning and EU convergence makes this harder Life Long Learning –Forces us to work outside individual institutions –Long Life Learning? –Life Long unlearning and relearning? –Life wide learning? Bologna process and EU convergence –Meanings in different languages do not map onto each other.

Why is “competence” such a key word? Next two slides have two caricatures … (but they may be recognisable) How can we build a system which can encompass them both?

1. Competencies are objective, learning is an opinion? Competency based LLL is scientifically validated? –Expert analysis of a professional field to identify required competences? –Objectively certify knowledge and skills? –Providing a service that ensures the best match of job opportunities and job seekers? Does this presuppose knowledge transfer and knowledge management?

2. Learning is more than acquisition of competency? Competency based approaches lead to –Long forms full of check boxes? –Learners jumping through hoops? –Superficial learning? Learning (in contrast) is real because –It is constructed by the individual and integrated into their life and work? –It strikes a blow for the individual against the system?

What are competences in TENCompetence? Necessary ability of actor to cope with problems, events or tasks in a situation (niche) e.g. job, hobby, market, sport, etc. Of individuals, teams and organisations Highly situational Latent attribute (not directly observable and applied to future activities) Identified and defined in a community

“Competences” Some see competency as a verifiable cognitive state, and competency management as simply a matter of measurement and certification We use the terms Competence and Competences. This goes some way to distinguishing our approach –Close to approach of Cheetham & Chivers (2005) Professions, Competence and Informal Learning

but where did the learning go…? In my view –Learning is happening all the time… in education, in conversation, in actions... –Neural changes certainly occur in the brain, and behavioural changes follow –But to work with this we need higher level descriptions to identify which changes count as “learning”

but where did the learning go…? In my view –We try to make this process objective with curricula and examinations, but they are approximations, inconsistent, and on-going –This is why no single qualification system is ever likely to meet the needs of all employers in a domain, present and future –Or to put it another way, when you select employees the qualifications aren’t enough, you need references, other experience…

but where did the learning go…? In my view (yes, I have lots of views!) We should accept that learning is always someone saying something about someone (at different levels of formality and authority) What has been learned, how, when, why… The competence approach provides a framework for those conversations, and provides contextualised opportunities for learning The conversations need to bridge social and organisational contexts (HE, KM, HRM…) The structure should not constrain learning or teaching processes

What problem does TENCompetence resolve? Within the set of ideas which I have just described, TENCompetence supports people in –Planning their Life Long Competence development –Developing their competences –Engaging with others who might have a use for the competences they can offer

More specifically… Individuals, groups and organisations create and share –Structures through which competence definitions & profiles are defined and shared –Learning opportunities and activities through which competences can be developed –Competence development paths –Competence development networks to navigate the maze of competence paths

So you want to be a brain surgeon? Many competences and professions need to be regulated to differing degrees –At the level of the organisation –At the level of the state –At the European or global level Need to support their creation, availability, development, and integration with each other and local needs

What solutions is the project providing?

What can we do for the individual in developing competences? What are people expected to do in competence development? Coordinate and track –A wide range competence development activities –In a wide range of contexts –Varying schedules and patterns of commitment

But… Profiles, descriptions and development opportunities presented in different ways Many identities and applications required Separation of contexts (work/leisure, formal/informal, learning/teaching…) Competence acquisition requires physical and virtual treks to a series of locations But competences can do the coordination be a coordinating framework

The Personal Competence Manager is designed to help Uses service based architecture to create a system which –Gathers competence related information from sources at multiple levels –Presents and edits the information in a context, structure and format which is determined by the user –Facilitates the creation of a range of interoperable tools

Personal? “Personal” as in “personalised” or Personal Computer, not just to manage the individuals own competences A personal “Competence Manager” not A “Personal Competence” manager

PCM Client-server All TENCompetence end user software is –Open Source, Java (Eclipse), Standards compliant –Uses interoperability specifications The PCM is a rich client application Communicates with –a server developed by the project –publicly available services (Fickr, Delicious, FOAF…)

Other software is also being developed Tools are provided for specialised tasks –Not necessarily for everybody, may be only for expert users –Some will be integrated into the PCM in future releases Some additional services will be developed and integrated

What does this imply for the design of learning?

One of things you do in the PCM is design learning The decisions made about Competence Development Plans and Activities are stored on the server These can be –individual, group or institution. – shared or private They are updated continuously No designtime – runtime distinction

Learning Design in the TENCompetence PCM IMS LD??? Competences are equivalent to IMS LD objectives The people who support competence development are teachers in IMS LD A Competence Development Plan is equivalent to a Unit of Learning in IMS LD

Learning Design in the PcM In future PCM will output IMS LD (Competences, Competence Development Plans…) A new approach to IMS LD authoring: –a shared, contextualised, real-time system

But sometimes you need additional tools For complex formal competence development actions more sophisticated environments are needed New LD Authoring Tool is being developed to support this Integrated with a QTI based assessment editor

Pre-authoring for Competence Development Activities For people who find this level too technical, a pre-authoring system is being developed (see Yongwu Miao’s paper) Integrated with the authoring tool Gathers information and requirements Generates QTI and IMS LD Can be edited further in the editor

Runtime Provision CopperCore from the PCM A new protocol for linking runtime services to IMS LD has been developed It is currently being implemented, and the first delivery is scheduled for December 2007 See our paper

Designing learning in TENCompetence… Designing learning in the deeper and wider context of Life Long Learning IMS Learning Design in a richer context More flexibility in the design process More (and more flexible) services Extends interoperability to the context

It’s going to be an exciting next year or so! Official launch of PCM at ePortfolio th – 19th October (no LD export or provisioning in this version) Version 1 of the LD Authoring tool scheduled for October 2007 Version 1 of the enhanced LD services server scheduled for December 2007