1. EDEN 2007 Naples, Italy LIFELONG LEARNING TEACHERS’ NEEDS IN VIRTUAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS Josep Maria Boneu 1, Maria Galofré 2, Julià Minguillón 2 1 Centre d’Estudis Politècnics 2 Universitat Oberta de Catalunya Barcelona, España

2. EDEN 2007 Naples, Italy Table of Contents Motivation: An experience on how to virtually train the virtual trainers in the design and use of learning objects Our context: Universitat Oberta de Catalunya Main reasons and objectives Training experience Conclusions

3. EDEN 2007 Naples, Italy Our context: UOC (I) Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC): –An online university, a completely Virtual Campus –12 years of existence –20 certified (officially approved) degrees + 3 official masters + Ph.D. degree + postgraduate courses –40.000 students + 2.500 people among educational, academic and technical personnel –Pedagogical model focused on the student –Each subject is taught in a virtual classroom which contains all the necessary elements and resources for the learning process

4. EDEN 2007 Naples, Italy Our context: UOC (II) Coordination and supervision → teaching staff of the UOC Interaction with the students → external consultants External consultants are asked to take initial and updating training courses on the areas of technological, linguistic, educational and institutional competences These courses pursue several goals: –Providing external consultants with updated training –Gaining experience of the UOC educational model from the point of view of students –Reinforcing the existing links between the university and its team of external educational consultants –Using the university as a test-bed in which technological and innovation projects can be shared by all the teaching community

5. EDEN 2007 Naples, Italy Our context: UOC (III) Great quantity of learning resources → there is a need of: –Organization and maintenance –Making easier to find them –Promoting their reusability in other contexts Virtual trainers without enough knowledge on standards (LOM, SCORM, or IMS-LD) using their own rules and policies

6. EDEN 2007 Naples, Italy Our context: UOC (IV) Several research projects on learning objects will eventually change the Virtual Campus: PERSONAL(ONTO): Personalizing the Learning Process in Virtual Environments by means of Adaptive Formative Itineraries based on Reusable Learning Objects and Ontologies RUBICON: Creation of a Repository of Reusable Learning Objects (within the framework of the UOC Contents Management Team) Multimedia and specific repositories (formulas)

7. EDEN 2007 Naples, Italy Main reasons and objectives Training the virtual trainers in standards for the description of learning objects Testing the UOC LOM Application Profile, included within the RUBICON project Detecting limitations of this application profile and the particular needs of our virtual trainers for their everyday activities

8. EDEN 2007 Naples, Italy Training experience (I) The course “Description of Learning Objects with E-learning Standards” includes: Standards for the description of learning objects Focused on the LOM standard, its categories and elements, and its use in practical scenarios Creation of Application Profiles The use of tools specialized in the generation of XML files for creating metadata Facilitating the reflection on the practical use in educational situations

9. EDEN 2007 Naples, Italy Training experience (II) Addressed to virtual trainers of different knowledge areas: 118 participants in total Two courses were imparted: May 06 and November 06, currently now May 07 under development. Each course divided in two classrooms: one in Catalan and one in Spanish (about 30 participants per virtual classroom) Only computer literacy as a user of Internet and desktop packages was a requirement to register for the course (all our virtual trainers satisfy this)

10. EDEN 2007 Naples, Italy Training experience (III) Two activities and three debates were proposed, focused on: Classification system of learning resources used by each participant, previously to attending the course Identification of the necessary attributes to describe the learning resources and determining the necessity to use an Application Profile in our working environment, and a debate on UOC LOM Application Profile (as provided) To identify and understand the necessity to define the smallest learning object to facilitate its reusability, as well as the advantages and disadvantages involved in this process

11. EDEN 2007 Naples, Italy Training experience (IV) The activities and debates made the participants aware of: The necessity to have basic tools for content management that allow a simple organization of contents beyond the possibilities that the operating system offers through the use of folders and files The difficulty to find a suitable file name annotation policy sufficiently descriptive and easy to use (and share) The necessity to use additional files that allow formal descriptions of the resources with the necessary attributes

12. EDEN 2007 Naples, Italy Training experience (V) Debate on UOC LOM Application Profile: The Application Profile do not cover all the participants’ needs, as they are more basic (organization) It is necessary that experts in resource cataloguing and description conduct a survey of the necessities of the institution and the resource kinds that will be stored There is a need to establish the rules and policies for the description of the resources, respecting the established standards to facilitate the interoperability between systems

13. EDEN 2007 Naples, Italy Conclusions (I) 80% considered the course satisfactory; 60% considered it useful for their everyday teaching practice It is necessary to develop a more developed UOC LOM Application Profile and the Classification category taxonomies. The UOC LOM Application Profile should guarantee: –To fulfill and satisfy all the description necessities of the group of users to whom it goes directed (teachers but also students) –To maintain the compatibility and interoperability with other profiles (i.e. the Digital Library) –The granularity of the learning objects will vary depending on the domain of application and on the objectives raised in its educative program

14. EDEN 2007 Naples, Italy Conclusions (II) Nowadays the use of a repository of learning objects is a main goal at UOC, but not a reality To fulfill this goal we need: –CMS and web 2.0 tools (DSpace, OpenCMS) –Institutional policies for metadata and taxonomies –More training for all the teaching staff Both research and management staff at UOC aim towards accomplishing this objective