RIDE 2010 Keynote: Open Educational Resources and Learning Spaces: research questions

Open Educational Resources and Learning Spaces Josie Taylor, Professor of Learning Technology, Director, Institute of Educational Technology The Open University

The Open University, UK
Higher education needs to prepare itself to exist in a more open future by embracing openness and the implications for change that it entails
These changes are likely to be profound
However, we don’t yet fully understand what they are, or what the impact on organisations or students is likely to be

OpenLearn at The Open University
2006 – William and Flora Hewlett foundation provided us with funds to investigate sharing educational resources and more open approaches
Our definition of OER:
“ The open provision of educational resources, enabled by information and communication technologies, for consultation, use and adaptation by a community of users for non-commercial purposes.”
http://openlearn.open.ac.uk

OpenLearn
Designed on a model analogous to the open source software movement
>11million unique visitors have used OpenLearn since 2006
Gradual build of user base

Studies by OLNet
Patrick McAndrew and the OLNet team at the OU
Analysis of user behaviour, targeting those who used the site more heavily, supported by follow-up interviews and monitoring of activities taking place with the open content
The results from one of these studies ( n = 2,011) highlighted two distinct clusters of learners: "volunteer" students and "social" learners.

Volunteer students
The volunteer students sought the content they wanted to learn from, and they expected to work through it. These learners were most interested in:
more content
tools for self-assessment
ways to reflect on their individual learning.

Social Learners
The social learners were less motivated to work through the content. Rather, they seem to see learning as a way to meet people with shared interests. This cluster of learners ranked communication tools more highly and were more interested in advanced features on the website.

What are these learners trying to do?
How might they frame those tasks?
How will they know when they have succeeded? i.e. what ‘counts’ as success?
What will be the quality of the experience?
How can we best support them?

Massive challenge for new learners on a trajectory Lots of other stops along the way...

What is this process?
It is not just a process of skill acquisition
These are profound developmental stages for the individual
There are equally profound issues for the academy – what is a university for?
In a completely open world, who determines what is (or should be) of value?
Who holds the power to say ‘this is worthy’? Will that be determined by the employment market?

Digital Literacies (Mary Lea & Sylvia Jones 2011)
Learners bring a wealth of experience to bear – some appropriate, some not
Learners are engaged in meaning-making
Recognition of the central role of texts in construction of knowledge and practice of learning
Potential shifts of power between learners, communities and institutions
Role of the institution is critically important
Boundaries of ‘texts’ are more fluid and unstable than in previous times

Improving our understanding of student behaviour?
‘ Rich accounts in the literature of students’ use of technology’
‘ No detailed or in depth examination of what students actually do in contexts when using different applications, or how meanings are being made from, and through, engagement with digital technology’
‘ Recognition of the central nature of texts both in the construction of knowledge and the practice of learning’
Lea and Jones (2011)

Building on 25 years of previous studies
Learning programming:
Taylor, J., PROLOG project 1983-88
Learning from multimedia:
Laurillard, D., Plowman, L., Taylor, J., Stratfold, M., The MENO project: Multimedia, Education and Narrative Organisation (1996 – 2000)
Mobile Learning:
Sharples, M., Taylor, J., McAndrew, P., Vavoula, G., MOBIlearn (2004 – 2008) Mobile Learning

Also building on ...
Dewey, J. (1916). Democracy and Education .New York: Free Press.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: the development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Engeström, Y. (1987). Learning by expanding: An activity-theoretical approach to developmental research .Helsinki: Orienta-Konsultit.
Engeström, Y. (1996). Perspectives on activity theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Bruner, J. (1996). The Culture of Education . Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA

Multimedia, Education and Narrative Organisation (MENO) 1996 - 1997
ESRC funded - Diana Laurillard, Lydia Plowman, Rose Luckin, Matthew Stratfold
Close observational study of learners using multimedia to learn about Darwinian theory (Galapagos)
Examining the impact of different interfaces on the same material
Young students (A-level/first year undergrad)

Bruner’s use of narrative (1996)
a connected sequence of events
the representation of those events
a mode of thought (‘a primary act of mind transferred to art from life’)

Bruner
'I have found it impossible to distinguish sharply what is a narrative mode of thought and what is a narrative 'text' or discourse.'
Bruner, Culture of Education, 1996

Definition of narrative in MENO
‘ Narrative is a process of both discerning and imposing structured meanings which can be shared and articulated’
Lydia Plowman, Diana Laurillard, Matthew Stratfold, Rose Luckin, Josie Taylor (1998/99)

Narrative guidance and construction
Guidance (explicit/implicit)
Offered by the teacher
Offered by the multimedia system
Offered by other materials
Offered by the interface
Construction (explicit/implicit)
A process brought to task by learner
Needs to be carefully scaffolded

3 versions of the Galapagos application
Linear:
students led through each sub-task in sequence. Close to traditional narrative in film/TV
Resource Based:
offers no guidance, closest equivalent being an encyclopaedia
Guided Discovery:
offers guidance in breaking down the task, but narrative line not as strong as Linear version

Narrative Guidance: Navigating Galapagos Linear RBL GDL

Summary of studies learning from digital resources
Less experienced learners benefit from explicit narrative support to assist in process of narrative construction, which can be effected through interface design
Leaving (even quite experienced) learners to drive their own learning resulted in incomplete coverage of all the necessary material
Need to explicitly support the development of this literacy

Support ‘Volunteer’ students
Structure interfaces to optimise narrative construction by learners
Have experts providing services, offering narrative guidance
Provide some explicit pathways through materials, with options to branch and return
Provide implicit support embedded in the interface that influence learners implicitly

Pask: Conversation Theory (1975)
Conversation is the converse of control.
Concepts are exchanged in a conversation and often some public concept is shared …
‘ But may just as well lead to enrichment by divergence (of our personal concepts) as to convergence...' (1987)
Cybernetic view of conversation: participant might be a computer or a person (or anything else)

Space in which learning happens Members feel some connection – they care Contribute when you want

Ecological approach (Jenkins 2004)
interrelationship among all the different communication technologies and
the cultural communities that grow up around them
the activities they support.
Interactivity is a property of the technology, while participation is a property of culture.

Affinity Spaces: James Paul Gee (2009)

Gee’s distinctions
Formal education system
Conservative
Static
Structures to sustain are institutional
Remain little changed over long periods of time
Communities are bureaucratic and often national
Does not allow for easy movement in and out
Informal affinity space
Experimental
Innovative
Structures to sustain are provisional
Can respond to short-term needs and temporary interests
Communities are ad hoc and localised
Allows for easy moves in and out of informal learning communities

Support Social Learners
Provide ‘affinity space’ for learning
Ensure it is populated with a rich mix of people (look at the ecology of the community to make it sustainable)
Optimise conversations between peers
Optimise conversations between learners and experts
Allow people to come and go easily

What is the role of pedagogy?

… . … to guide media use, development and integration 1970's 1980's 1990's 2000's Broadcast course related Television Interactive Print media Broadcast course related Radio Tutors f2f /phone/ post Broadcast course related Television Interactive Videocassette Broadcast course related Radio Interactive Audiocassette Interactive Print media Interactive Videocassette Interactive Audiocassette Interactive integrated Multimedia Print media Outreach TV A/V digital media social media Web 2.0 Support media conferencing/ email Tutors f2f /phone/ post Tutors f2f /phone/ post Support media conferencing/ email Non course related TV (outreach) Internet/ Web 1.0 On-line and postal delivery Interactive integrated Multimedia Disk-based media and postal delivery Support media conferencing/ email Broadcast and postal delivery Broadcast and postal delivery Print media Tutors f2f /phone/ post Web 3.0 and beyond Virtual Worlds Mobile technology

SocialLearn
This work is at the heart of our SocialLearn project, an affinity space optimised for learning
Pilot running from November 10 – Mar 11 with staff in the area of professional development (~ 11k staff potentially)

Research questions
What is required to establish a successful distributed community of learners?
What is required to ensure sustainability of learning communities, and to support their growth?
How can the community determine and agree ‘what counts’ as learning and how it should be ‘counted’ and ‘accounted’ for?
How are leaders identified, and supported in these communities?

Control
Who is in control?
Does it matter?
Who decides what is of value?
Who decides what counts?

RIDE 2010 Keynote: Open Educational Resources and Learning Spaces: research questions

by Centre for Distance Education on Oct 29, 2010

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