Of LALOs

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Of LALOs RUMLOs Rob EdwardsUniversity of
Wolverhampton Business School Enhancing
Employability Conference, UCLan, September 2007
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Of LALOs RUMLOs and things that go
towards enhancing student and student
engagement with employability
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moving forward?

• tommorrow
• David Bagley will invite us to consider whats
  (still) stopping us from implementing the
  employability agenda?
• today
• Val Butcher cited, inter alia, two familiar
  resistances students arent interested
  tutors dont know how to do it

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this contribution

• accepts that there is a problematic - gap
  between where employability agenda is in HE and
  where it could be
• reflects on how the adoption and adaptation of
  the concept of reusable learning objects (RLOs)
  by e-eVolve aims to address student interest
  and tutor know-how as impediments to
  enhancement of employability skills development
• RLOs conceptions realities
• the e-eVolve model
• utilising e-eVolve materials student tutor
  perspective

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RLOs current concepts

• learning objects
• breaking educational material down into modular
  chunks (objects)
• each object can have its own defining properties
  tagged
• combined with other objects, assembled into
  sequences
• design objectives
• re-usable, customisable, applicable, stand-alone,
  sharable, durable, interoperable
• repositories
• Biz/Ed, SOSIG, MERLOT, JORUM, CETL for Reusable
  Learning Objects

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RLOs current realities?

• contexts of use
• narrower gt wider?
• sophistication
• hi-tech gt lo-tech?
• utility
• re-using gt re-purposing?

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the e-eVolve approach

• foundation
• pedagogic model
• curriculum map
• resource dossier
• dual framework
• LALOs
• RUMLOs

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pedagogic model

• teacher is facilitator
• learner is participant
• knowledge is experienced

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Curriculum Map - Themes
Consultancy

Project Management
Professional
Development
Business Communication
Skills
Commercial Awareness

Ethical
Social
Awareness
My Portfolio

Problem
Creativity
Case Stories
Solving
Leadership

Management
Other Key Skills
Career Management
-
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resource base

• identified
• employability skills development literature
• digital educational assets
• relevant media sources
• originated
• created from bright ideas
• commissioned in response to gap analysis

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dual framework of e-eVolve RLOs

• LALOs
• sequences of learning activities to build topic
  packages within key themes
• RUMLOs
• discrete reuseable materials that can be
  repackaged to configure and create new or
  refreshed topics

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e-evolve learning objects
Learning Activity Learning Object (LALOs)
Tasks aggregated items
Powerpoint
Cartoon
Audio
PDF
Assessment
Video
etc.
Word
Items granular files
Re-useable Material Learning Objects (RUMLOs)
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Learning Activity Learning Objects

• based on themes in the curriculum map
• informed by research into employability
• learning design by academics
• learning outcomes
• sequence of tasks that use reuseable material
  learning objects
• stand alone
• independent of VLE
• shared through e-evolve website
• packaged in a word-like format Course Genie
• can be easily repackaged or amended

LALOs
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Re-Usable Material Learning Objects

• single resource
• pedagogically independent
• variety of formats
• basic files e.g. MS Office, pdf, jpeg, etc
• enhanced files e.g. Macromedia Breeze plug-in
  used to enhance Powerpoint for mini lectures
• different types
• knowledge providing
• assessment
• case stories
• readily accessible
• easily handled

RUMLOs
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a set of RUMLOs
A Introduction to Negotiation (Enhanced ppt)
B Conflict Styles (Enhanced ppt)
C Conflict Mgt. Survey (URL link)
D Negotiation Self-Test (Enhanced ppt)
E What is Conflict (Enhanced ppt)
F Conflict Quiz (Enhanced ppt)
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a pair of LALOs
A Introduction to Negotiation (Enhanced ppt)
D Negotiation Self-Test (Enhanced ppt)
Introduction to Negotiation
B Conflict Styles (Enhanced ppt)
C Conflict Mgt. Survey (URL link)
E What is Conflict Mgt (Enhanced ppt)
F Conflict Quiz (Enhanced ppt)
Managing Conflict
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utilising e-eVolve materials

• student
• I need to know more about how to generate fresh
  ideas for improving
• tutor
• I need to offer students the opportunity to
  learn about techniques that can be used to aid
  creative thinking

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feedback scenarios students

• Ah, now I know more about how to generate fresh
  ideas for improving
• That was interesting focused and effective way
  of picking-up new skills and I can rework any
  activities anytime
• I think Ill reflect on this in the blog Im
  running in my personal development portfolio

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feedback scenarios tutors 1

• Really neat minimal preparation, maximum impact
  on student skills development
• This e-eVolve material meets my needs
  off-the-peg, plug play, and the students get a
  lot from it

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feedback scenarios tutors 2

• That worked quite well, but it isnt exactly
  what I want
• I think it would be helpful to be able to make
  some changes, so that it is better suited to
  meeting the learning outcomes we have in this
  module
• Thats helpful it really isnt difficult to
  customise this e-eVolve material to fit better
  with the context in which Im working in

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like this?
Content
Change
No Change
Simply reused learning object
Constant
Context
Fully repurposed learning object
Variable
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feedback scenarios tutors 3

• Its clever stuff, but not really fit for purpose
  in my module
• Not made here, not going to be used here!

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so?

• Identify topic
• Draft LALO outline
• Scan for and develop authors resource dossier
• Develop LALO specification
• Generate Course Genie narrative
• Recast and/or create RUMLOs
• Result
• development of a new online supported
  employability skills resource
• capable of being used and/or repurposed by others

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the big questions

• will e-eVolve learning materials enhance
  students pro-activity in engaging with the
  development of their personal employability
  skills and assets?
• will access to e-eVolve learning materials
  facilitate tutors engagement with HEs side of
  the employability agenda?
• will the materials development methodology
  developed via e-eVolve prove to be a useful
  technique for future learning materials designed
  to enhance
• employability skills development?
• development of subject-based resources?
• in all subject areas, not just BMAF?
• in all e-learning environments VLEs, e_PDPs, Web
  2.0?