ELearning Application Requirements

1
E-Learning Application Requirements

• Kevin Keenoy, Birkbeck, Part I
• Don Peterson, Institute of Education, Part II

2
Part ILearning 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 SeLeNeElectronic, 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.

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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 LOs
• theoretical models which bridge learning theory
  (pedagogy) to this requirement.

9
Part IILearning Theoryand Application
Requirements
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Theories of Learning

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

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Assisted Learning I(Vygotsky)

• Learner assistant (parent, teacher etc) gt
  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

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Assisted Learning II
learner
performance
assistant
13
Assisted Learning III

• Requirements on the assistant
• Adaptive
• Personalised
• Informed by a trusted community
• Monitored by a trusted community

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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)

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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)

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Ampliative Learning III

• Requirements on support
• Representation of trails
• Storage, retrieval, editing of trails
• Assistance in expanding and refining trails

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Synthesis

• These frameworks combine to identify a particular
  need --- assisted ampliative learning.

learner
performance trail refinement
assistant
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System Requirements

• adaptive, personalised, community-based support
  for expansion and refinement of trails of
  learning objects
• user needs profile metadata gt
• filtered search through LOs gt
• support for assisted ampliative learning.

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Design Contexts

• Cognitive load --- support in an Age of
  Complexity (Reeves, Barnett)
• EU Integration --- use of LOs across national,
  curriculum and other boundaries
• Re-enchantment --- the arts (meaning,
  understanding, interpretation), and perspectival
  technologies (cf Snow).
• End.