Critical facilities for active participation in learning networks Hans Hummel, Colin Tattersall, Daniel Burgos, Francis Brouns, Hub Kurvers & Rob Koper Educational Technology Expertise Centre Open University of the Netherlands WBC 2005 (February 25th, 2005)

Context and approach Technology Development Program: Learning Networks ( ) (extra) Initial experiences with pilot implementations of LN architecture, i.e. LN4LD pilot 1 (paper) -Information ecology perspective -OSOSS: facilities for (active) participation Incentive mechanisme LN4LD pilot 2 (extra)

Learning Networks use technology to network learners, institutions and learning objects in such a way that the network can self-organise Learning Networks (LNs) are two-mode networks represented as a graph with nodes, where the nodes are ‘LN members’ and ‘Activity Nodes’ (ANs) ANs can be anything that is available to support learning, such as a course, a workshop, a conference, a lesson, an internet learning resource, et cetera Central to the notion of a Learning Network is the idea that all participants are in a position to contribute, within the constraints of any policies that may be operating

Position, target, learning route

Platform pilots Base reqs: open source, java based, ‘open pedagogy’ (out of scope for pilot) general portal with LNs Each LN modelled, e.g. in PHP Nuke Each AN modelled, e.g. in Moodle (including services) LN ‘seeded’ with initial set of ANs to get things going LN further supposed to develop / emerge through contributions & ratings

Objectives LN4LD pilots have three objectives: To gain early feedback on functional, technical and organisational aspects of creating and maintaining a learning network To help meet the demand for further information on IMS Learning Design from those wishing to understand the specification, or who are engaged in its application (UNFOLD project) To investigate incentive mechanisms which stimulate learners to move beyond mere consumption of learning materials towards active participation in the creation of learning experiences

LN-layer (Nuke)

AN layer: Moodle

EML site (eml.org): increase in participants

LN site (learningnetworks.org): increase in participants

LN site: some participation data (all forums) Forum Posts Posts made by originators News 5958 IMS LD + EML 7457 Standardization 97 Valkenburg Group 85 Alfanet 33

ThreadsReplViews LD-online testing site 2245 Environments definition 2412 Referencing external Units of Learning 4952 IMS LD + MD: taxonomies and vocabularies 1469 Upcoming workshops 0305 Help th Framework Coord. Action: UNFOLD 0438 IMS-LD Editor Announcement 0549 LN site: some participation data (example forum)

LN4LD pilot 1 (june-sept 2004): increase in participants

LN4LD pilot 1: some participation data Participants: 104 registered, but 58 never accessed; 20 regular visitors Passive: 21,011 page views, 427 downloads Active: 24 post in general forums (Nuke); 24 posts in course forums (Moodle)

LN4LD pilot 1: Lessons learned Transparent Policies: e.g. lower threshold Better Usability: e.g. Nuke out Less Structure: e.g. less fora Explicit Reward: e.g. mechanism for extra access

LN4LD pilot 2 (oct ’04 – jan ’05): reward system (Because of time and technical constraints) simple interrupted time series design with removal consecutive treatments => flexible within the life time of the learning network First treatment: incentive mechanism for extra access Quantitative + qualitative points to be earned for contributing (posting, replying, rating) Extra access to ‘runnable examples of UoL’ in CopperCore beyond threshold level of points

LN4LD pilot 2 (increased contribution)

Thank you for your attention! URL (LN4LD)   Any questions?