Andrew Brasher

Visualising learning design to foster and support good practice and creativity

Technologies offer tantalising possibilities for new forms of educational innovation, but we have argued that there is a gap between the potential of technologies to support learning and the reality of how they are actually used, and that this is due to a lack of understanding about how technologies can be used to afford specific learning advantages and to a lack of appropriate guidance at the design stage. This paper describes a project that has developed an approach to using learning design as a methodology to guide design and foster creativity in concert with good practice in the creation of learning activities. The paper will provide an overview of the work being undertaken by the Open University, UK Learning Design project; concentrating on the work we have done to represent and visualise design. Se représenter la conception de l’apprentissage pour développer et soutenir les bonnes pratiques et la créativité Les technologies offrent des possibilités séduisantes pour créer de nouvelles formes d’innovation éducative, mais nous avons souligné qu’il y a un fossé entre l’appui que ces technologies sont susceptibles d’apporter à l’apprentissage et la réalité des pratiques effectives, ce qui est dû à un manque de compréhension de la façon dont les technologies peuvent être employées pour offrir des gains d’apprentissage substantiels ainsi qu’à un manque d’orientation appropriée lors de la phase de conception. Cet article décrit un projet dans lequel on a mis au point une approche visant à utiliser la conception de l’apprentissage comme méthodologie pour guider la conception et développer la créativité, de concert avec une bonne pratique de la création d’activités d’apprentissage. Cet article présente une vue d’ensemble du travail entrepris dans le cadre du projet britannique de Conception de l’Apprentissage de l’Open University, en se concentrant sur le travail que nous avons effectué pour représenter et rendre visible la conception. Veranschaulichung von Lernentwürfen zur Unterstützung von „good practice” und Kreativität Technologie bietet vielversprechende Möglichkeiten neuer Formen pädagogischer Innovation. Wir müssen jedoch feststellen, dass zwischen dem Potential von diesen Möglichkeiten Gebrauch beim Lernen zu machen und der tatsächlichen Nutzung in der Praxis ein Graben herrscht. Dies liegt sowohl am mangelnden Verständnis, wie Technologie erfolgreich eingesetzt werden kann um Lernfortschritte zu ermöglichen, als auch an der nicht stattfindenden Anleitung während der Entwurfsphase. In diesem Artikel wird ein Projekt vorgestellt, in dem ein Verfahren entwickelt wurde, das Lernentwürfe zur Anleitung und zur Pflege von Kreativität zusammen mit „good practice” und der Entwicklung von Lernaktivitäten einsetzt. Der Artikel berichtet im Überblick über den Stand der Arbeit, die an der Open University UK Learning Design Projekt ausgeführt wird, unter besonderer Berücksichtigung von Entwurfsvisualisierung und ‐veranschaulichung. Visualizar el diseño del aprendizaje para fomentar y sostener buenas prácticas y la creatividad. Las TICs ofrecen posibilidades tentadoras conduciendo a nuevas formas de inovación educativa pero hemos argumentado que hay una brecha entre el potencial de las tecnologías para sostener el aprendizaje y la realidad de los usos reales, esto siendo el resultado de una falta de comprensión de los modos en que se puede utilizar esas tecnologías para proporcionar ventajas específicas en el aprendizaje y también de una falta de orientación adecuada en la fase de diseño. Este artículo describe un proyecto en el cual se ha desarrollado un enfoque para utilizar el diseño del aprendizaje como metodología para dirigir el diseño y fomentar la creatividad en consonancia con buenas prácticas en la creación de actividades de aprendizaje. Este artículo ofrece una visión de conjunto del trabajo que está siendo llevado a cabo dentro del proyecto Diseño para el Aprendizaje de la Open University del Reino Unido, haciendo hincapié en el trabajo que hemos hecho para representar y visualizar el diseño.

Research Evidence on the Use of Learning Analytics: Implications for Education Policy

Learning analytics is an emergent field of research that is growing fast. It takes advantage of the last decade of e-learning implementations in education and training as well as of research and development work in areas such as educational data mining, web analytics and statistics. In recent years, increasing numbers of digital tools for the education and training sectors have included learning analytics to some extent, and these tools are now in the early stages of adoption. This report reviews early uptake in the field, presenting five case studies and an inventory of tools, policies and practices. It also provides an Action List for policymakers, practitioners, researchers and industry members to guide work in Europe.

CONCERTO, An Environment for the 'Intelligent' Indexing, Querying and Retrieval of Digital Documents

We give a general overview of the European Esprit project CONCERTO. The central idea of CONCERTO is to represent the ‘meaning’ of digital documents making use of their associated ‘conceptual annotations’: a conceptual annotation is intended to supply a computer-usable description of the main information elements of the whole document or of a part of it. We evoke first the general context (‘metadata’) of CONCERTO; we describe then its architecture, and we give a concrete example, of conceptual annotation.

Human-Generated Learning Object Metadata

The paper examines how to address the need for a production process for e-learning resources to include human generated metadata, and considers how users will exploit this metadata. It identifies situations in which human production of metadata is unavoidable, and examines fundamental problems concerned with human metadata generation such as motivation and shared understanding. It proposes and discusses some methods to exploit endemic motivational factors within communities in an attempt to ensure good quality human generated metadata, and identifies how ontological constructs can support the exploitation of such metadata. The relevance of these methods to the semantic web in general is discussed.

Reflections on Developing a Tool for Creating Visual Representations of Learning Designs

CompendiumLD is a software tool for designing learning activities using a flexible visual interface. It has been developed as a tool to support lecturers, teachers and others involved in education to help them articulate their ideas and map out a design or learning sequence. This development has spanned 4 years, and the development process we have engaged in has served as a vehicle through which we have been able to better understand how educators relate to and use visual representations of learning designs.

Automatic generation of audio content for open learning resources

This paper describes how digital talking books ( DTBs ) with embedded functionality for learners can be generated from content structured according to the OU OpenLearn schema. It includes examples showing how a software transformation developed from open source components can be used to remix OpenLearn content, and discusses issues concerning the generation of synthesised speech for educational purposes. Factors which may affect the quality of a learners experience with open educational audio resources are identified, and in conclusion plans for testing the effect of these factors are outlined. Editors: Doug Clow and Alexandra Okada (Open University, UK). Reviewers: Mike Sharples (University of Nottingham, UK) and Alexandra Okada (Open University, UK).

Supporting immigrant language learning on smartphones: A field trial

Abstract The challenge of supporting immigrant language-learning and social integration has increased recently, leading to initiatives and projects that aim to provide assistance, including using smartphones in the course of daily activities. However, most of the Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL) literature focuses on classroom based learning thereby leaving a gap in understanding the learning in informal settings. This paper discusses a UK field trial of the European funded MASELTOV project, which developed a suite of smartphone tools and services (the ‘MApp’) to help immigrants’ language learning and social inclusion in four European cities. MApp tools and services include language lessons designed to assist informal learning in everyday life, focusing on situational language needs and a social forum for peer support, cultural information, comments and practice. The paper reports on interview data and social forum use. Our findings suggest that the MApp helps immigrants with their confidence; with relevant, practical language learning and practice of different language skills, and also supports social learning. Studying and practising language skills in the locations, and at times, of learner’s choice, along with access to a social forum for socio-emotional support and feedback, it is a powerful combination of informal mobile language learning.

A Model For The Creation Of Human-Generated Metadata Within Communities

This paper considers situations for which detailed metadata descriptions of learning resources are necessary, and focuses on human generation of such metadata. It describes a model which facilitates human production of good quality metadata by the development and use of structured vocabularies. Using examples, this model is applied to single and multiple communities of metadata creators. The approach for transferring vocabularies across communities is related to similar work on the use of ontologies to support the development of the semantic web. Notable conclusions from this work are the need to encourage collaboration between the metadata specialists, content authors and system designers, and the scope for using accurate and consistent metadata created for one context in another context by producing descriptions of the relationships between those contexts.