1. Panning for Gold (Designing Pedagogically- inspired Learning Nuggets) Chris Bailey, Mohd T Zalfan & Hugh Davis Learning Technologies Group Karen Fill & Gráinne ConoleSchool of Education

2. Structure of Presentation Background Nugget Model Comparison with IMS-LD Demo Conclusions

3. The DialogPLUS Project 3 year JISC/NSF Digital Libraries in the Classroom project Concerned with creating, sharing & repurposing online learning activities that draw on a wide range of available resources pulled from digital libraries Geography partners: Southampton, Leeds,UCSB,Penn State

4. Nuggets Due to confusing terminology definitions within e-learning, a pedagogically neutral term was invented for the geographers - the nugget A nugget would represent an atomic, self- contained set of resources centred around specific learning objectives. Nugget aka ‘learning activity’ Several nuggets could be used in a lecture, as assignments or practicals. Nuggets can range from written notes, word/pdf documents web pages, small website, flash animation

5. Examples of Nuggets

6. Why model nuggets? Our intention was to provide a nugget repository/digital library (e.g. JORUM) where geographers could upload their own nuggets, attaching pedagogically- orientated metadata and search/view other people’s nuggets using these same terms This lead to the development of the toolkit

7. Aware of the development of IMS-LD, however.. Previous experiences in similar situations highlighted negative aspects of enforcing existing standards onto practitioners We decided to create our own model Although developed independently, there are a lot of similarities between our nugget model and IMS-LD IMS-LD

8. Learning Activity A learning activity (nugget) has these main elements:  Required:  learning outcomes  a set of attributes  tasks  roles  Optional:  tools  resources  outputs

9. Learning Activity Learning outcomes Tools  Discussion board  Web browser  Excel ..... Resources LO1 webpage LO2 online journal LO3 database LO4...... Outcomes  Contribution to discussion  Text  Answers ....... Attributes Tasks 1. Brainstorm a concept 2. Read a paper 3. Write short critique 4. Analyse data 5...... Pedagogy SubjectSkills mini activity Roles  individual learner  facilitator  group participant ......

10. Final (ish) nugget model Iterative development over several years from close discussions with project partners

11. Final (ish) nugget model Iterative development over several years from close discussions with project partners

12. Comparison with IMS-LD With a stable version of the nugget model, we have returned to IMS-LD and analysed our model in light of IMS-LD  Different aims of the two approaches  Lots of similarities

13. Comparison with IMS-LD

14. Now for a Demo…

15. Experiences What have we learnt?  It is possible to provide a mapping from our nugget model to that of IMS-LD  But does not always provide a complete mapping  We can produce LD ‘templates’  Mapping onto the lower levels of LD  To be more extensive/flexible, another level of object composition would be useful

16. Reflections for IMS-LD Areas where metadata would be useful but not supported in IMS-LD.  E.g. pre-requisite & learning objective metadata on intermediate objects such as Activity-Structures Experiences in the DialogPLUS project have shown that pedagogical metadata (such as our approach to learning and teaching) and general design are often the most reusable aspects of a learning design Tools such as our nugget toolkit can (we hope) greatly improve the impact of IMS-LD by providing a more user- friendly environment for authoring units of learning

17. Thanks for listening Links:  Toolkit: http://www.nettle.soton.ac.uk/toolkithttp://www.nettle.soton.ac.uk/toolkit  Nugget model Nugget model Approach to Learning & Teaching Outcomes Assessment Tools & Techniques  Chris Bailey: cpb@ecs.soton.ac.ukcpb@ecs.soton.ac.uk  Karen Fill: kef@soton.ac.ukkef@soton.ac.uk