Slide 1

Winterschool, Innsbruck 2009Dai GriffithsInstitute for Educational Cybernetics, University of Bolton

Schedule for this session

Presentation and discussion of what (IMS) Learning Design is (60 mins)

Break

Practical session working with TENCompetence Learning Design toolkit (180 mins)

Discussion (60 mins)

Start downloading now

http://www.tencompetence.org/ldauthor/

http://www.tencompetence.org/ldruntime/

Some ancient history

In 1992 the last release was made of Apple's HyperCard authoring system (v2.2)

Using HyperCard (and similar Multimedia authoring tools) you could build sophisticated simulations, like this simulation of the water cycle.

Cyan's Osmo puffs his pipe and turns the pages of his book randomly. If you poke him, he responds. Write your own books, burn them in the fireplace. Record the instruments on a virtual tape deck.

Also in 1992

Berners-Lee published classic paper describing the World-Wide Web initiative (Berners-Lee, Cailliau, Groff, & Pollermann, 1992).

Why did the Web transform the world?

I see this in terms of four factors

Functionality was minimal

Authoring was hard

But communication and interoperability were compelling features

We can see the years since then as a series of adjustments in the balance between these three factors

Characterising some systems

Features

Ease of authoring

Connectivity

Interoperability

Try to characterise a few systems on ten point scales

Wikipedia

WordPress,

Mash-ups

Moodle / Fronter / .LRN / Elgg ...

WebCT / Blackboard / First Class ...

Igoogle / Netvibes / LifeRay / ...

Flash

SCORM based systems & repositories

...any other that you have used

OUNL EML / LD: A new way of thinking about functionality

A formal notation for learning activities

Create runnable models of learning activities

Implied hypothesis: Regardless of the pedagogy involved, in practice every learning design comes down to: a Method prescribing various Activities for learner and staff Roles in a certain order. IMS-LD can describe these aspects in sufficient detail to provide an effective representation of any learning design (adapted from IMS-LD specification)

The intervention made by
IMS-LD

IMS-LD builds on OUNL-EML

It ties that functionality to interoperability, by being published as an IMS Specification

It is an attempt to

Increase interoperability

Increase functionality

Maintain connectivity (it is on the Web)

What happens to authoring?

The sphere of IMS-LD

IMS-LD sees pedagogy as the being the organisation and flow of pedagogic activities

It does not model the detail (e.g. how to speak to learners, what clothes to wear...)

It does not model or specify the cognitive or affective states of the actors (although the results of the organisational will impact on these)

It does not talk directly about perspectives on learning (constructivism, inquiry based...)

IMS-LD creates general plans

Sometimes we plan for individuals

Karen needs to practice that

This group will be able to go fast

Sometimes we plan a general structure

Its important to teach atomic structure before I teach valence

If theyre going to understand this, theyll need to get into groups to discuss it

ReCourse creates general, reusable plans, which are instantiated for particular cohorts

Some metaphors in IMS-LD which may help (or not)

Play:

A complete piece of learning that defines the flow of learning activities. A UOL can have more than one UOL

Act:

A play has one or more acts. A coordination point where all activities are completed

A lesson within a course, or a session or phase within a lesson.

another metaphor...

Role:

As in a drama, a person may take on different roles in a single play. A learner may be a participant in a discussion at one point, and a facilitator at another

and another.

Environment:

The context for a learning activity

You can think of an environment as resource pack containing documents and links to services which you make available to learners to help them carry out one or more learning activities.

For example

Play: Course: Introduction to Renaissance painting

Act 1: Unit 1: Learning from Vasaris Lives of the Artists

Act 2: Unit 2: The significance of Giotto

Roles: Lecturer, learner, discussion facilitator

Environment: Online text of Vasari, links to pictures, forum

Levels of the specification

IMS LD has three levels

Level A: Defines the flow of learning activities. What we are doing today

Level B: Properties and conditions, generic XHTML authoring

Level C: Notification

Now write down

A scenario

Roles

Activities

Services

Resources

Phases (with distinctions between the activities, resources and services for the roles)

Working with the LD toolkit...

Did ReCourse represent what you planned?

Is IMS-LD needed in 2009?

As a notation for learning activities

As a an interoperability spec for learning activities

As an infrastructure for running learning activities

What aspect of IMS-LD is most useful to the world?

Could you imagine using it yourself? How / why not?

IMS-LD is a meta-model of education, so do the results tell us anything about the relationship between our four aspects?

Have we / can we improve their joint performance?

Do we need more specifications (or less) to achieve a better balance of the four aspects