This document discusses the need for lifelong learning and discontinuous learning pathways in Europe. It notes declining numbers of full-time postgraduate students and only slight increases in part-time students. It proposes simplifying the learning process and recognition of learning by making it learner-centric through a personal learning environment using "widget bundles" or groups of small applications. The ROLE project is described which involves several European universities and companies developing these applications. Some early research findings are presented on learners' tool preferences and challenges of full interoperability across devices and institutions.

1. Supporting new pathways in
discontinuous learning
gillian@elemente.co.uk
UNISO 2012 - Sighisoara

2. Need for learning
• European goal to have 15% of adults involved in
lifelong learning by 2020
• In the UK, approximately 47% of adults aged 20-54
engage in some form of learning (UniversitiesUK 2010)
• existing researchers are approaching retirement
• younger scientists are drawn to opportunities
elsewhere, particularly in the United States of America
(Vught, 2008)
• number of full-time postgraduate students has
remained fairly flat at about 6% of the population
• only a 0.2% rise in part-time post graduate students
between 2006/2007 and 2009/10 (bis.gov.uk)

4. Need to
• Simplify the learning process
• Simplify the way we gain recognition for
learning
• Be learner-centric

6. • Trustee and Director
• www.thebild.org

7. • The learner builds their own
ROLE Vision
responsive learning environment
• Awareness and reflection of own
Responsiveness
learning process
• Individually adapted composition
User-centred
of personal learning environment

9. Who is ROLE?
1. Fraunhofer FIT DE
2. RWTH Aachen University DE
3. Technical University of Graz AT
4. Katholieke Universiteit Leuven BE
5. University of Koblenz DE
6. Uppsala University SE
7. École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne CH
8. University of Leicester UK
9. Open University UK
10. Vienna University of Economics & Business Administration AT
11. Festo Lernzentrum Saar GmbH DE
12. imc AG DE
13. British Institute for Learning and Development UK
14. Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China
15. Zentrum für Soziale Innovation AT
16. U&I Learning BE

10. Widget bundles
• Widget = small program = ‘app’
• Widget bundles = groups of widgets that work
together to meet a specific need

11. 3 Sample bundles

14. www.role-project.eu/WidgetCompetition

16. Other options
• Apple iPad – over 200,000 apps
• Apple iPhone – over 500,000 apps
• Blackberry – over 18,000 apps
• Android – over 25,000 apps
• Over 300,000 mobile apps have been developed over
the last three years
• 29 billion apps downloaded in 2011
• 9 billion in 2010
• Revenue in 2011 – $7.3 billion
• Predicted revenue 2015 – $36.7 billion
(Source: mobiThinking)

17. Problems
• Where use the apps?
• iGoogle? – not after November!
• Work, university, hotel, home – major vested
interests in keeping things separate
– E.g. All work ‘must’ be done in BB and employer
has firewalls…..
• Do learners have the vision and skills?

19. Early research statistics
Personalising Your Learning Environment, PLE1, n=136
• ALL individuals used more than 1 computer in a week
– 85.6% using 4 or more.
• Of 7 proposed apps, the most popular was
– “Single-app synchroniser for all devices (work, academic
and personal)” which scored 6 or 7 on a seven-point scale
from a combined total of 103 respondents.
– “Key text finder” had an average rating of 1
– “subject expert finder” an average of 3
– “social media groups adviser” a rating of 5.
• These results are consistent with expectations given
other existing tools (FB, GoogleSearch, LI)

20. UNISO
• University IN society
• Learner-centric
– Widget/app bundles per course
– Full interoperability for students (difficulties in
ROLE)
– Sustainability
– Privacy and sharing
– Universities think about need to store assessed
material (and method of that)

21. Thank you!
gillian@elemente.co.uk