Dai Griffiths Institute for Educational Cybernetics D4L, 20 th May 2008, Manchester A new generation of Learning Design tools

The TENCompetence project 4-year EU Integrated IST-TEL project Led by Rob Koper of OUNL, one of the main architects of IMS LD Developing “ technical and organisational infrastructure for lifelong competence development” Open source, standards and interoperability specifications compliant

The “C” word In the TENCompetence project competence: –is not a thing in the head –is related to a niche –can’t be observed directly –is a disposition of an actor (individual, team, organisation) –is identified and defined in a community of practice See Cheetham & Chivers (2005) Professions, Competence and Informal Learning

So… learning is someone saying something about someone TENCompetence is a framework for those conversations, and relates them together Including “How do I learn to…?” The conversations need to bridge social and organisational contexts (HE, KM, HRM…) The structure should constrain learning or teaching processes as little as possible

What spaces will be used for conversations about learning? Threads which could converge? Social applications on the web PLE ideas Mash-ups eFramework Competence frameworks

In the context of Institutional pedagogic & demographic change Infrastructure should not be tied to the current structures of institutions Degrees from a single institution? Accreditation organisations? Private universities and tutors? Libraries and classrooms? An open infrastructure should at least allow us to experiment with alternatives

This context suggests that… We need shared models and specifications for learning activities IMS LD is not an act of faith, but also should not be dismissed It is hard to sort out the limitations of implementations from limitations of the specification Our development is seeing how far we can push the spec

Often we just want access to information and suggestions Simple sequences of learning resources and activity descriptions In the context of a community and a competence development objective No cohorts, no teacher intervention So no need for a separate runtime phase TENCompetence provides this

If we need something more… –Find, choose and adapt learning activities –With an explicit model which we can share –Infrastructure to mediate and coordinate sophisticated learning activities for learners & teacher –Open Source applications to edit them Then TENCompetence uses Learning Design

Simple web based editor / runtime for teachers. Will export to IMS LD (under development)

Wookie widget layer provides services. Allocates groups to tools in learning context; & provides flexible channel. Not exclusively LD.

ReCourse LD Editor v1.5 Successor to Reload LD editor (level A editing, B & C file support)

Plug-ins for ReCourse provided integrated workflow OpenDocument.net repository –Browse and upload UOLs, parses manifest UOL Publisher –Replaces CLICC Widget services authoring Editor for subset of QTI –(under development, available soon)

Linking UOLs with the wider context Work in TENComptetence underway Aligning objectives in PDP with learning objectives in UOL Advertising available runs of UOLs Returning results of runs to the Personal Competence Manager Many identity and privacy issues, but we think that this can be handled

Useful links All TENCompetence downloads Info (and friendly links to downloads) –ReCourse LD Editor –Wookie Widget server Web editor videos Demos –Web editor: –Wookie widget server: coming soon, watch Support forums:

Your participation is welcome! The TENCompetence foundation has been established –A vehicle which maintain the code and coordinating its use More informally we would like to share –pilots, developing software, working on specifications, future projects… –talk to me or Chris Kew, or visit

The Web editor The ideas will be familiar to some of you –Wollongong verbs –8 Learning Events Model

Demos of ReCourse and Widgets