Sicilia-Aera08

Slide 1: Reuse, instructional design and learning objects Miguel-Angel Sicilia Information Engineering Research Unit University of Alcalá msicilia@uah.es

Slide 2: We live the age of open sharing ●Fact: a clear trend towards sharing educational resources openly – But what is a resource?

Slide 3: A definition for “ learning object” ●To avoid endless discussions, we will consider a LO to be a piece of (content + metadata) created with an educational purpose and living in a permanent URL. – This includes OCW elements: courses, individual notes, etc. – This includes also resources packed according to standards as ADL SCORM or IMS LD.

Slide 4: Learning designs (IMS LD) ●Shared language for recording activity- based instructional design ●Specifies the basic elements: – Objectives – Arrangement of activities (sequencing) – Resources (objects, services) used per activity/role ●Allows the automated distribution of activities through the Web ●Allows for recording of activity execution

Slide 5: Where is the (instructional) design? ●It is of course embedded in the resources themselves. ●But little information is shared regarding the rationale of the design of learning objects, e.g.: – which instructional theories were used, – why the design of the activities fit a concrete instructional approach

Slide 6: Where is the design? ● Why the project was considered important? 1. “It is traditional or common in database courses”. 2. “Project-based learning is good for practical subjects – everybody says that” 3. A general method: “We follow Jonassen (1997) method” 4. A specific method: “We follow Grisham, Krasner and Perry (2006) guidelines” Grisham, P. S., Krasner, H., and Perry, D. E. 2006. Data Engineering education with real-world projects. SIGCSE Bull. 38, 2 (Jun. 2006), 64-68.

Slide 7: What is being shared? learning instructional activity use in learning needs design structure situations resources resources activity structure + metadata reference to LO and services IMS LD Unit of Learning Open LMSs and open repositories (e.g. .LRN and Paloma respectively)

Slide 8: Is it possible to represent ID methods? ●Instructional models (Reigeluth) – practice-oriented theories offering explicit guidance on how to help people learn that offer situation-specific methods, that in turn are described in terms of components, and that are know to be effective for learning under some conditions (to some extent).

Slide 9: Ontologies and rules ●“TheoryOne” – “give abundant examples of the concepts treated” – We assume a IMS LD ontology in OWL. lr:LearningObject(?lo)  lr:hasPart(?lo, ?lo2)  lr:hasPart(?lo, ?lo3)  lr:ExerciseLO(?lo2)  lr:ExerciseLO(?lo3)  hasAbundantExamples(?lo, true) lr:LearningObject(?lo1)  lr:hasPart(?lo1, ?lo2)  lr:hasPart(?lo2, ?lo3)  lr:hasPart(?lo1, ?lo3)

Slide 10: Usage Method checking generating “give Check that the For each of the concepts abundant “appropriate” number identified in the objectives, examples” of resources of type generate in the IMS LD exercise are included method an activity to as part of the teach the concept, which Environment of the contains an activity that is activities. specific for exercising, and Contrast that those examples has in its Environment a illustrate the same KnowledgeObject of type concept expressed in the exercise. objective of each activity. … and search: “give me LD that complies with inst. theory X”.

Slide 11: Elaboration theory ●“Teach broader, more inclusive concepts before narrower, more detailed concepts that elaborate upon them” ld:Learning-Activity(?a1)  ld:Learning-Activity(?a2)  ld:Activity-Structure(?as1)  ld:execution-order(?a1, ?o1)  ld:execution-order(?a2, ?o2)  ld:execution-entity-ref(?as1, ?a1)  ld:execution-entity-ref(?as1, ?a2)  swrlb:lessThan(?o1, ?o2) ? COMP_showsBefore(?a1, ?a2) COMP_showsBefore(?a1, ?a2)  ConceptLearningActivity(?a1)  ConceptLearningActivity(?a2)  ld:Activity-Structure(?as)  ld:execution-entity-ref(?as, ?a1)  ld:execution-entity- ref(?as, ?a2)  concept-learning-objective(?a1, ?c1)  concept-learning-objective(?a2, ?c2)  KnowledgeItem(?c1)  KnowledgeItem(?c2)  concept-includes(?c2, ?c1) ? COMP_Reigeluth_ElaborationTheory(?as, false)

Slide 12: Other models… ●Think on a ontology for project-based learning. Some constraints might be: – There is a Learning Object of type “project” and its duration spans a large part of the course. – The project is done in groups of learners. – The project accounts for an “important” part of the grading. – There is a provision of Web tools for collaboration. – …etc. ●… these could be controversial, but it is always possible to represent multiple types of PBL that address the differences.

Slide 13: What if everything was stored? semester 1’ 05 semester 2’ 05 semester 1’ 06 … semester 2’ 08 ID A ID A ID B … ID B learning learning learning learning … outcomes outcomes outcomes outcomes ●Example questions/queries: – Did the outcomes changed (significantly) with the variation from ID A to ID B? [no change in the resources or syllabus assumed] – Find database courses that provide a project-based learning (PBL) approach – How do the outcomes compare between PBL and non-PBL courses worldwide? – Find the ID methods used in courses with good outcomes.

Slide 14: Why recording the design is important? ● Enables the linking of theoretical hypotheses to practical learning designs – they somewhat trace to the source of the decision-making in the process of crafting learning programs or activities. ● Useful resources for education or training of learning designers. ● Explicit assumptions may eventually lead to finding patterns in design situations, – useful to inform new designs, contrast hypotheses or even to build decision-aid tools. ● Detailed comparisons between the effectiveness and adequacy of learning designs are facilitated by the more precise descriptions of the design methods used.

Slide 15: Outlook ●We are in the age of sharing learning resources. – Is now time for sharing design artifacts? ●Would it be possible that educators move to the practice of digital design data collection? – (as it is done for example in molecular biology and genetics) ●Which tools and languages do we need? – ID models, ontologies, databases, metadata editors…