1. Modelling a team-based astronomy task using LAMS James Dalziel Professor of Learning Technology, and Director, Macquarie E-Learning Centre Of Excellence (MELCOE) Macquarie University james@melcoe.mq.edu.au www.melcoe.mq.edu.au Presentation for ICALT 2006, Kerkrade, Netherlands, 5 th July, 2006

2. Overview About LAMS Scenario: Astronomy Task Demonstration Issues Observation, traces and adaptation Extra –LAMS Community –LAMS V2 architecture and “Tools Contract” –LAMS V2 new features

3. About LAMS LAMS is an integrated Learning Design system –Provides authoring, learner and monitor environments –Not yet an IMS LD system (planned for V2), but mapping done In use in schools/Higher Education since mid 2003 (trials), full release in early 2005 Freely available as open source software (GPL) Complemented by LAMS Community (1300 members, 80 countries, 600 discussion posts, 100 sequences) Integrations: Moodle, Sakai, Blackboard, WebCT,.LRN V2 Beta launched yesterday!

4. About LAMS Fundamental LAMS Philosophy: Any teacher/lecturer can easily author and run Learning Designs LAMS progress to date: –LAMS trials with 50+ universities and 120+ K-12 schools Real users, not just e-learning researchers/PhDs! –Positive independent evaluations such as UK JISC (Higher and Further education) and BECTA (K-12 schools)

5. Scenario: Astronomy Task The sequence to be modelled involves a game where students work in two teams to determine the names and order of planets from the sun. One team can determine the order of planets together with some other properties from an expert interview. The second team can determine the names of the planets together with some other properties from a different expert interview. The teams then need to interact to share information to determine the combined names and order of planets. Each student finishes the sequence by completing a questionnaire/quiz to test his/her knowledge of the combined names and order for the planets. Authoring this sequence in LAMS (assuming you already have the resources) takes about 5-15 minutes

6. LAMS Authoring example – Astronomy Task

7. LAMS Authoring example – Astronomy Task – Chat Tool Editing

8. LAMS Learner example – Astronomy Task – Chat session

9. LAMS Monitor summary – Astronomy Task

10. LAMS Monitor detailed – Astronomy Task

11. LAMS Monitor detailed – Astronomy Task – Chat Record

12. Issues with LAMS V1 1.Random allocation of students to groups only But V2 allows teacher selection 2.Text instructions on which areas are to be used by which groups (but not machine enforced) But V2 allows machine enforced via teacher selected groups 3.Teacher can only join student activities via student account (need two, given the two groups) But V2 allows teachers access to any activity via Monitor

13. Observation, traces and adaptation Observation –LAMS Monitor provides two views of real-time student progress: the Sequence tab (class level) and the Learner tab (individual) Traces –LAMS Monitoring (in the Learner tab) allows the teacher to click on any activity for any student to see their activities (and peers) –V2 allows both students and teachers to export activity record Adaptation –LAMS Authoring provides simple tools to change either the structure or the content (or both) –Changing the example to “Is Pluto really a planet?” debate takes about five minutes (if you already have resources)

14. LAMS Community – View of various communities & forums

15. LAMS Community – Repository Summary

16. LAMS Community – Detailed view of individual sequence

17. LAMS V2 LAMS V2 provides a modular architecture for building different kinds of people-based workflow systems Separation of workflow core engine from “activity tools” –Agreement between core and tools via “LAMS Tools Contract” Core requirements –Admin –Author –Monitor –Learner

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19. LAMS V2 Wiki (www.lamsfoundation.org/wiki) – Tools Contract

20. LAMS V2 Tools Contract Teacher led Student led Stand aloneSequenced Offline Online

21. LAMS V2 – New Features General: LAMS V1 plus… –Internationalisation (17 languages underway to date) –HTML editor for all activities (supports rich media) –All activities can be run online or “offline” –New Welcome page for courses and course groups (eg, tutes) –New grouping options (teacher chosen, specify group size/no.) –New workflow gates (schedule, synchronise, permission) –Instructions/advice/worksheets option for all activities –Sequence launching using flexible groups; scheduling –Teacher participation in any activity; edit/hide/filter options –All activities provide statistics on student use –“Portfolio export” – downloadable record of student activities –Many more: See http://wiki.lamsfoundation.org/display/lams/LAMS+2.0+Feature+List

22. LAMS V2 – New Features Technical –Completely rewritten backend (all the lessons from V1!) –Modular tools architecture + LAMS Tools Contract Supports tools developers and external tools (via wrappers) Tools contract as a foundation for future educational tools? –Server clustering for high scalability –Flexible identity/roles management Including identity via external LDAP or spreadsheet –New “workspaces” provides file system for managing sequences –Monitor greatly enhanced, eg, all tools can be “Define Later” –Support for multiple databases –Flexible open source Flash components –Customisable look and feel (skins, etc)