E-Learning Application Requirements Kevin Keenoy, Birkbeck, Part I Don Peterson, Institute of Education, Part II

E-Learning Application Requirements

Kevin Keenoy, Birkbeck, Part I

Don Peterson, Institute of Education, Part II

SeLeNe Startup Meeting, Crete, November 2002

2

Part I:

Learning Objects and Metadata Standards


3

What is a Learning Object?

• The most general definition is very broad - “anything that can be referenced during technology supported learning”

• This includes everything that has ever existed in the history of the world!

• An important subset for SeLeNe is re-usable components of courses.


4

Working Definition of Learning Objects

• May be useful to define a more specific usage of the term for within SeLeNe:Electronic, sharable ‘chunks’ of re-usable learning content, available on the Web.

• These are the kind of thing that the metadata we plan to deal with will generally describe.


5

Existing Metadata Standards• The Dublin Core (more general)

– Metadata standards for a wide range of domains.– Good basis of ‘core’ elements applicable to any

internet-based object.• IEEE LOM (more educational)

– Builds on Dublin Core– Basis of many other Learning Object Metadata

specifications.– Basis of SeLeNe metadata?


6

User Profiles

• Some existing standards for user profiles:– vCard (electronic business card information)– IEEE PAPI (Personal And Private Information)– IMS LIP (Learner Information Package)– Universal Learning Format


7

Some Current Metadata Activities

• ARIADNE & IMS– These recommendations formed the basis of IEEE

LOM specifications.– Now promote their own metadata specifications, based

on LOM.

• CEN/ISSS LT– European Committee for Standardisation– Interested in multi-lingual IEEE LOM, and setting up

an e-Learning Technology Standards Observatory.


8

E-Learning: User Expectations and Requirements

• Very little requirements analysis for e-learning systems is available.

• Advice tends to be anecdotal and focused on web-design principles (ergonomics)

• We need: – personalised search over LO’s – theoretical models which bridge learning theory

(pedagogy) to this requirement.


9

Part II:

Learning Theoryand

Application Requirements


10

Theories of Learning

• Anamnesis (Plato)• Behaviourism (Skinner)• Cognitivism (Piaget)• Constructivism (Pappert)• Assisted (Vygotsky)• Experiential (Kolb)• Trail based (Bush)• Ampliative (Levene & Peterson)


11

Assisted Learning I(Vygotsky)

• Learner + assistant (parent, teacher etc) => performance

• The assistant is a guide to action (not a source of knowledge)

• Gradually the learner internalises the contribution of the assistant

• This is the ‘zone of proximal development’


12

Assisted Learning II

learner

assistant

performance


13

Assisted Learning III

Requirements on the assistant:

• Adaptive

• Personalised

• Informed by a trusted community

• Monitored by a trusted community


14

Ampliative Learning I(Levene and Peterson 2002)

• We learn not isolated facts but trails of learning objects (cf Bush)

• E.g. in museums, libraries, or any space of learning objects

• A trail has 2 aspects: – a navigation history– a cognitive structure (cf schemas in Piaget,

Bartlett)


15

Ampliative Learning II

• In phase 1, we acquire a trail

• In phase 2, we expand, refine and personalise it (ampliative learning)

• In phase 3, we return again to the original experiences (cf Kolb)


16

Ampliative Learning III

Requirements on support:

• Representation of trails

• Storage, retrieval, editing of trails

• Assistance in expanding and refining trails


17

SynthesisThese frameworks combine to identify a

particular need --- assisted ampliative learning.

learner

assistant

performance = trail refinement


18

System Requirements

adaptive, personalised, community-based support for expansion and refinement

of trails of learning objects

user needs + profile + metadata => filtered search through LO’s =>

support for assisted ampliative learning.


19

Design Contexts

• Cognitive load --- support in an Age of Complexity (Reeves, Barnett)

• EU Integration --- use of LO’s across national, curriculum and other boundaries

• Re-enchantment --- the arts (meaning, understanding, interpretation), and perspectival technologies (cf Snow).

End.

Documents

E-Learning Application Requirements Kevin Keenoy, Birkbeck, Part I Don Peterson, Institute of Education, Part II