The document discusses managing learning flows and exchanging semantic data between blog-based personal learning environments. It presents the LePress plugin for WordPress, which allows teachers to: 1) create and manage courses in their blogs, 2) invite and track student enrollment, and 3) assign, collect, and provide feedback on student assignments while maintaining typical blog publishing workflows. LePress also enhances blog semantic data using microformats to represent courses, participants, and assignments in a structured format that can be exported.

1. Learning Flow Management and
Semantic Data Exchange between
Blog-based Personal Learning
Environments
Vladimir Tomberg, Mart Laanpere,
David Lamas
Tallinn University, Estonia

2. Background
Learning is continuously shifting to the to web

3. WEB1.0: associated with LMS
(Learning Management Systems)

4. WEB2.0: associated with PLE
(Personal Learning Environment)

5. The Gap
• PLE is free, weakly organized environment
• We use it, but we still need some features that
can organize the learning flow, especially for
formal learning in a university

6. Challenge
• How to organize in informal environment:
– Formal learning course
– Formal assignments
– Formal assessment
– Tracking of results?

7. Initial Position
• There are already thousands of teachers’ blogs
who uses them for conducting courses
• There are much more of students’ blogs, who
used them as learning portfolios
• We choose WordPress as PLE blog platform
and tried to organize simple learning scenario
• Our goal is an implementing of a learning flow
with smallest or possible no an interference in
usual blog’s publishing process

8. Typical Scenario for Course Flow
1. Teacher organizes a new course in own blog
2. The teacher invites students to the course
3. The teacher assigns an assignment for the
students
4. Students implement the assignment and
submit results
5. Teacher assess the submissions of the
students

9. Question 1. How to identify course?
• Each blog category can be marked (or not) as a
course
• Each post in the course can be marked (or not)
as an assignment for students
• Students can subscribe to the course by RSS
like they can subscribe to blog category (we
introduce also much more secure scenario)

10. Mapping of blog’s and learning
concepts

11. Workflow of Assignment

12. Problems with Assessment Workflow
in Blogs
• It can be organized conventionally, but seems
it should be hard to control
• Teacher has no tools for tracking of results of
students

13. Our Solution: LePress
• LePress is experimental plug-in for WordPress
that help to organize assessment workflow
between blogs

14. LePress in Layered Architecture

15. LePress Teacher: Create Course

16. LePress Teacher: Managing Courses

17. LePress Teacher: Inviting Students

18. LePress Teacher: Confirming Registration

19. LePress Teacher Widget: List of Students

20. LePress Teacher: Writing Assignment

21. LePress Teacher Widget: Assignments list

22. LePress Student: List of assignments

23. LePress Student Widget

24. LePress Student: Submitting assignment

25. LePress Teacher: Managing Assignments

26. LePress Teacher: Writing Feedback

27. Enhancing of Blog’s Semantic
• Currently only two semantic tools available in
blogs by default: tags and categories
• For getting something better we need to
adopt other tools like microformats, RDFa or
microdata
• Our previous research (MUPPLE09) shows that
microformats are most successful solutions

28. Exporting Microformats
• Microformats can be exported right from
LePress Widget
• hCalendar microformat for course data
• hCard for course participants (teacher and
students)

29. Visual Exporting Microformats’ Data by Google Chrome
Michromeformats Extension

30. Conclusion
• Development of LePress demonstrates:
– How learning flow can be automated using the
typical features of blog engines: trackback,
categories and sidebar widgets
– How course- and assignment-related semantic
data could be distributed in real environment
using Microformats