JISC-CNI July 2004 eLearning and libraries – a “learning” view Prof Mark Stiles – Head of Learning Development & Innovation Staffordshire University

JISC-CNI July 2004 What will we get from eLearning? Change? Innovative pedagogy? New ways of widening participation? New modes of course structure and delivery? Learning centred on the Learner? We could, but worryingly, an equally likely outcome is:

JISC-CNI July 2004 Attack of the Clones?

JISC-CNI July 2004 National Context JISC MLE “Landscape Study” of UK HE and FE Vast majority using a VLE and that 73% involved in MLE development Drivers for development: –Enhancing the quality of teaching and learning –Improving access to learning for students off campus –Widening participation/inclusiveness –Student expectations –Improving access for part-time students –Using technology to deliver “eLearning” Perceived disadvantages: –Cost and time involved –Resistance to culture change –Need for large scale staff development

JISC-CNI July 2004 National Context JISC MLE “Landscape Study” of UK HE and FE positive reaction from students little evidence of enhancement of learning and teaching pedagogic issues have not in general been addressed: “It could be said that HE has never addressed pedagogy; its priority has always been, and broadly continues to be, research and the subject discipline. Until now, pedagogy has traditionally barely figured in planning or professional development. In FE, where learning and teaching have been the prime concerns, staffing and resource deficiencies have prevented, and continue to impede, a sustained focus on pedagogy.” MLEs not embedded in the institutions strategic and operational frameworks. MLE activities rarely an integral part of the philosophy, policies and practice of the institution

JISC-CNI July 2004 Quote ONE: “It is as absurd to try and solve the problems of education by giving people access to information as it would be to solve the housing problem by giving people access to bricks." (Laurillard, 1996)

JISC-CNI July 2004 Quote TWO: “Pedagogical issues need to be incorporated, to ensure the academic validity of teaching and using information online. These issues have a history of being ignored by librarians in particular, but for academics to accept the close library input necessary, this must change.” - Inspiral Report, 2001

JISC-CNI July 2004 The Content Trap eLearning QA focuses on Content Do Libraries reinforce a “fork lift truck” view? Is our work on incorporating the “library” into the MLE going the same way? Staff development focuses on “getting your stuff in”

JISC-CNI July 2004 VLE and “Library” Link (1) Staff want to: –Locate resources for learners –Build references and/or externally held resources into course content –At “reading list” and “activity” level –Retain their intellectual property

JISC-CNI July 2004 VLE and “Library” Link (2) Learners want to: –Locate resources for themselves –Access references and/or externally held resources in course content –At “reading list” and “activity” level –Build their own resource collections –At “course” and “activity” level

JISC-CNI July 2004 VLE and “Library” Link (3) Resources can be found: –In the VLE(s) –In learning content repositories –In eLibraries –In Library Catalogues –In national and other collections –In eAggregators –On the Web We need to REUSE and REPURPOSE these

JISC-CNI July 2004 The JISC DiVLE Programme Linking Digital Libraries and Virtual Learning Environments programme Projects in HE to explore the technical, cultural and organisational issues of joining digital library resources within institutions to VLEs Tools developed, (also in Exchange for Learning)

JISC-CNI July 2004 The JISC DiVLE Programme Exam Papers LMS Digital Repository Resource Heron e-Reserve Digital Library Resources (Content Rich) Virtual Learning Environment (Content Free) Course and Activities List Search (Thanks to Paul Bailey) Basic Model

JISC-CNI July 2004 The “Olive Model” Thanks to Howard Noble

JISC-CNI July 2004 Standards… Two communities of standards eLearning: IMS, IEEE LOM, SCORM… Libraries: DC, z39.50, SRW, UDDI… And stuff in the middle: XML, WSDL… IMS now “overlaps” with Reading List, Digital Repositories and VDEX

JISC-CNI July 2004 My view of DiVLE Technical outcomes a valuable contribution to developments Work on standards significant Conclusions of the technical work need pulling together - technical review near completion Projects generally “library” focussed Relevance to FE needs consideration Little on the pedagogic appropriateness of the work done Issues between metadata for learning resources and that for information resources Much of the work on reading lists orientated towards traditional HE pedagogy - resources provided at “course” or “module” level The outputs on cultural and organisational issues both interesting and relevant

JISC-CNI July 2004 Staffordshire ICE Linking a VLE to eAggregators Internal project with JISC sub component Focus on educational contextualisation of resources The external resource as “just another asset”

JISC-CNI July 2004 ICE Approach Use VLE search tool to search VLE content & external sources Display search results in VLE Turn chosen items into Reusable Reference Objects (RROs) Web links can also be made into RROs RRO metadata is primary & provides educational context – information object metadata is retained as secondary metadata RRO metadata an AP of UK LOM Core RROs can be reused along with other (but local) content Content can be packaged (IMS CP) & exported Hub & plug model should allow others’ outputs (eg JAFER and DiVLE work on Open URL) to be used in future

JISC-CNI July 2004 ICE Approach

JISC-CNI July 2004 Development for product Planning & Management of Development Preparation for Approval/Validation Staff Development Pedagogy & Course Design Building the VLE Course Structure Identifying and Clearing Resources Content Creation Populating the VLE Course Planning Induction & Delivery Supporting Delivery Supporting Monitoring and Evaluation In partnership with the academic group

JISC-CNI July 2004 Implications for learners (JISC view) Heightened requirements for information skills Need to manage both their learning AND resources Need TOOLS to help this

JISC-CNI July 2004 Implications for libraries Increasing responsibilities for digital assets Exposing services in novel ways Be responsive to needs - “outwards facing” New roles e.g. electronic copyright clearance Issue of “content plagiarism” Converge towards sector standards in handling meta-data WWW vs national vs regional vs local resources

JISC-CNI July 2004 Implications for academics Staff development –identifying a structured and balanced range of resources for a course –Making resources available in a way that supports innovative pedagogies –using VLEs in cohort with digital repositories –relationship with support services Ownership' of resources (IPR) Willingness to SHARE

JISC-CNI July 2004 Implications for support staff/librarians Collaboration between librarians, IT staff, learning development and support staff and academics Asset management –Copyright/plagiarism –Archiving of electronically provided courses –promotion of the electronic repositories

JISC-CNI July 2004 Where now? JISC Frameworks initiatives using web service technology JISC programmes involving “e-pedagogy” New “middleware projects” at Oxford and Edinburgh working together on Search and Discover toolkits – these will be Open Source

JISC-CNI July 2004 Thanks My stuff including ICE WS-I (WSDL etc) IMS DiVLE E-Learning Frameworks and Tools