Modeling the Communities of Practice of E-Learning

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• Modeling the Communities of Practice of
  E-Learning CoPEs

Presented by Akila Sarirete
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Objectives

• Extend the application of the (CoPs) Communities
  of Practice to the E-learning field
• The proposed category called CoPE
• The CoPE concepts have been illustrated through a
  case study within the European project of
  distance education CoseLearn

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Presentation Overview

• Introduction to Community of Practice?
• Concept of Community of Practice of
  E-learning CoPE
• Case Study
• Conclusion and Perspectives

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Managing New Functions

• Educational institutions are moving towards the
  use of the Internet for delivery, both on campus
  and at a distance
• Current technology hyper-change faces
  significant challenges
• How to create a work environment that enable
  people to Learn, Adapt, Share, Respond
  effectively to innovative systems
• How to manage new functions structures

CoP/CoPE
A New Field is emerging
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What is a CoP?

• Community of Practice CoP (Lave Wenger, 1998)
  is a tool by which knowledge is owned in practice
  and whose main goal is learning
• It is about a group of professionals who gather
  and organize themselves, face to face or
  virtually, in order to
• Share information and experience, related to
  their area of expertise,
• Exchange and cooperate in order to solve problems
  encountered in their activities,
• Learn from each other and develop their
  professional competencies
• Build knowledge and formulate best practices to
  be followed in the realization of their daily
  activities.

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Characteristics of CoPs

• CoPs are characterized by three fundamental
  features

How it functions?
A Mutual Engagement
What it is about?
A Joint Enterprise
What it has Produced?
A Shared Repository
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Community of E-learning (CoPE)
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What is CoPE?

• A CoPE is a group of professionals in
  e-learning who gather, collaborate, and organize
  themselves face to face and mostly virtually in
  order to
• Share information techno-pedagogic experiences
  related to the development use of Online
  Learning System (OLS)
• Exchange and cooperate in order to solve problems
• Build (improve and/or create) together
  techno-pedagogic knowledge and model the best
  practices to be followed in the realization of
  the OLS

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What is a CoPE? (conted)

• Develop competencies in engineering pedagogy
• Promote the application of e-learning standards
  such as IMS-LD for learning scenarios IMS-LIP
  for learners description IMS-LOM for pedagogical
  resources qualification and SCORM for inter
  platforms exchanges
• Define terminology, glossary, or ontology,
  conciliating the various views and articulating
  them around the above mentioned standards.

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CoPE Online Learning System

• A CoPE is a virtual space of exchange,
  sharing, and resolution of problems encountered
  by actors of e-learning during all phases of an
  online learning system life cycle

Acquisition Phase
Utilization Phase
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Learning Situations

• characterized by the collaborative aspect
• Problem Situation find solutions to common
  problems encountered during the two phases of
  acquisition and utilization in LMS.
• Example how to incorporate a Java Applet for a
  given exercise in Moodle LMS in order to make it
  interactive.
• Decision Situation deciding on choosing between
  several alternatives during the acquisition phase
  or the validation of some results of the design.
• Example What type of learning situation do we
  select in a specific course? Or what role do we
  choose to ensure a moderation activity in a given
  group (tutor/moderator-learner)?
• Project Situation concerns the final build up
  and realization of the online learning system
  according to the acquisition cycle. Confrontation
  of individual practices allows the best practices
  to surface.
• Example Development of an online learning system
  related to a course on system engineering for
  master students in computer science field

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Components of a learning situation

• Actors with their roles
• Activities
• Learning environment

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Roles in CoPE
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CoPE Activities

• CoPE members carry out joint activities to
  exchange techno-pedagogical information
• Activities correspond to the stages of learning
  life cycle

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CoPE Environment View

• Use of a specific environment intended to CoPEs
• Use of a generic environment intended to CoPs
• Use of an LMS environment type

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CoPE vs. LMS

• CoPE is considered as a thinking space about
  e-learning activities.
• Find solutions to encountered problems and to
  favor practices of reuse and exchange between
  actors in terms of techno pedagogic knowledge and
  know-how.
• Strong relationship between CoPE and LMS
• LMS?CoPE exchange support discussions inside
  CoPEs with real problem situations encountered
  in LMS, making the CoPEs space more active
• CoPE?LMS exchange consists to experiment the
  solutions, obtained in the COPEs space, directly
  in LMS before reifying them in the CoPE memory.

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Case Study

• CoPE developed and realized within the framework
  of the project of distance education CoseLearn
  Switzerland Cooperation
• Promote e-learning in a number of French-speaking
  countries in Africa
• CoseLearn program leads to the professional
  diploma (MIEL) of International Master in
  E-learning 
• Principal actors of the project Professors
  Tutors Administrators and Master candidates

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Case Study (cont.)

• The problem situations
• finding answers to the various questions
  encountered by the candidates during all their
  training and instruction, namely during the
  duties stated in various subjects as well as
  during the final project.
• The decisional situations
• identifying the possible alternatives of design
  and development, and the criteria and/or the
  arguments necessary to the selection.
• The project situations
• exchanging the practices, which appear by a
  viable know-how in terms of construction of the
  online education courses (best practices).

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Conclusion Perspectives

• Extend the application of the Communities of
  Practice (CoPs) to the e-learning field.
• The proposed category called CoPE is considered
  the center of reflection of techno-pedagogic
  practices and promotes collaborative and
  cooperative learning.
• The concepts related to CoPE have been
  illustrated through a case study developed and
  realized within the project of distance education
  program CoseLearn that leads to International
  Master in e-Learning.

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Conclusion Perspectives

• We plan to provide a specification language of
  the learning scenarios in CoPEs. This language
  will be based on IMS-LD
• The feasibility of exchanges (LMS?CoPE) is
  conditioned by a formal modeling of learning
  situations in their both sides. The IMS-LD
  language permits to model only the learning
  situations for LMS. Accordingly, a language of
  specification of learning situations within CoPEs
  is more than necessary

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Problem Based Learning
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Introduction

• Advancement in E-Learning...
• Currently expanding and becoming widely used in
  Education and Business of all scales
• Educational institutions are moving towards the
  use of the Internet for delivery, both on campus
  and at a distance. E-learning is the main
  delivery method for employees training
• Knowing, tacitly or explicitly, the principles of
  learning becomes imperative

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