1. Sharing Learning Design with LAMS: The Learning Activity Management System James Dalziel Professor of Learning Technology and Director, Macquarie E-Learning Centre Of Excellence (MELCOE) Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia & Director, LAMS Foundation james@melcoe.mq.edu.au www.melcoe.mq.edu.au Presentation at MIT, March 12 th, 2008, Cambridge, USA

2. Overview Learning Design LAMS LAMS V2.1 - Branching Open Education A Vision for Educators of the Future

3. What is Learning Design? Learning Design is a new approach to describing the teaching and learning process in a structured way Typically describes sequences of student activities (scaffolding of content + collaboration) –A sequence applies to a class/week/topic (not whole unit) Focus on sharing and re-using good sequences Often implemented online with technology –But becoming a general framework for face to face and online

4. What is Learning Design? Learning Design is particularly useful for pedagogical approaches that have a structured process, eg: –Problem Based Learning, Role Plays, Inquiry Based Learning Learning Design focuses on how educators structure activities to foster student learning –Equal adoption in both K-12 schools and universities Learning Design systems can integrate with CMSs –For students, link(s) from course area to the relevant sequence –Lecturer single-sign-on and easy authoring and launching

5. Learning Design Example: LAMS LAMS is the world’s leading software for Learning Design –1000s of educators, 80+ countries, translated into 25 languages –Demo accounts available at http://demo.lamscommunity.org/ Visual “drag and drop” approach to designing activities –Helps educators to visualise teaching and learning processes LAMS Sequences can be shared, re-used and adapted –LAMS Community (www.lamscommunity.org) –Approximately 2900 members, 86 countries, 220 shared sequences downloaded 6900 times, 3500 discussion postings Freely available as open source software –Integrated with CMSs: Sakai, Blackboard, WebCT, Moodle, etc

6. LAMS Demonstration “What are the qualities of an effective teacher?” Step 1: Answer question, then reflect on answers from other students Step 2: Vote on a list of qualities, consider collated votes Step 3: Discuss responses to Steps 1 & 2 Step 4: Read an expert’s view on the topic Step 5: Discuss expert’s view compare to class view Step 6: Personal reflection (or essay if assessment) on initial question, based on initial views, class discussion & expert view Can be run face to face with no technology, or fully online, or a mix Demonstration: Authoring this sequence, then Preview Learner view Example 2: Role play “Adopting Interactive Whiteboards in schools”

7. LAMS V2: Authoring view of “Qualities of an Effective Teacher”

8. LAMS V2: Adopting Interactive Whiteboards in schools – Role play

9. LAMS Community – View of various communities & forums

10. LAMS Community – Repository Summary

11. LAMS Community – Detailed view of individual sequence

12. New LAMS Features Introducing LAMS V2.1: –Branching Teacher allocated Group-based Tool-output based (MCQ & Forum so far, more to come) –Sequences in optional Student choice of one or more sequences “Branching” is always teacher or system driven (ie, automatic from the student’s perspective); optional sequences allows for student choice in “branching”

13. Key concept before we start: Properties bar in Authoring (click on it to open)

14. So… this is the LAMS V2 (not 2.1) approach – ie, no branching

15. LAMS 2.1: Interactive Whiteboards – Role play: Role tasks replaced by Branching

16. LAMS 2.1: Interactive Whiteboards – Role play: Inside branching for role tasks

17. LAMS 2.1: Interactive Whiteboards – Role play: Naming of branches

18. LAMS 2.1: Interactive Whiteboards – Role play: Setting up role groups

19. LAMS 2.1: Interactive Whiteboards – Role play: Naming role groups

20. LAMS 2.1: Interactive Whiteboards – Role play: Branching type = groups

21. LAMS 2.1: Interactive Whiteboards – Role play: Mapping groups to branches

22. So… after launching the Role Play sequence in Monitor, a Learner can now access it…

23. Interactive Whiteboards – Role play: Student view of Forum (private for Pro Teacher role)

24. LAMS 2.1: Alternative branching approach: Teacher choice instead of group-based

25. LAMS 2.1: Alternative branching approach: Launch in monitor, then allocate to branches

26. LAMS 2.1: Teacher allocating students to branches by hand in Monitor

27. LAMS 2.1: Alternative branching approach: Student view of Branch 2 (“con” teacher)

28. LAMS 2.1: Alternative branching: Tool-output based branching based on Vote (using MCQ)

29. Imagine using Vote to create new “yes” and “no” subgroups for extra resources & forum

30. LAMS 2.1: Tool-output branching: Creating conditions from tool outputs

31. LAMS 2.1: Tool-output branching: … then mapping conditions to Branches

32. Branching summary Three types of branching –Group-based –Teacher choice –Tool output (& conditions) Can have multiple groups, multiple branching activities, multiple sub-groups applied to one branch, “skip” option for branching (no task for some learners) –Tool outputs can be Boolean (either/or) or Scores –Current tools are MCQ and Forum; more to come “Vote” example was (mis) use of MCQ (for now)

33. LAMS 2.1: New Optional *Sequences* feature (under optional; properties for settings)

34. LAMS 2.1: New Optional Sequences - allows students to choose 1 or more sequences

35. Pedagogical uses of new features Can assign different students to different topics –Each group investigates a different aspect of a phenomenon, then reports findings back to the whole class Can use Branching with Tool Output (and Skip) to provide remediation tasks for only some students (eg, quiz score < X, then do branch remediation activities; otherwise skip branch) Can allow students to choose from different optional sequences (according to topic, skill, thoroughness, etc) Can seek student opinion (eg, Role Play Vote), then create group tasks that respond to different opinions

36. Open Education Open Education is about sharing education content and systems without restrictions (eg, Cape Town Declaration – www.capetowndeclaration.org) –Free of cost, but more importantly… –Freedom to share, adapt and improve LAMS exhibits the principles of open education at several levels: –LAMS software freely available as Open Source Software –LAMS sequences freely shared under Creative Commons –Is LAMS the “Open Teaching” part of “Open Education”?

37. First page of the manuscript of Bach's lute suite in G Minor. Wikipedia.org Date of manuscript unknown. Held in Florence, Italy. Photo by Asiir 17:00, 13 February 2007, Wikipedia.orgAsiir

38. Discussion

39. Further LAMS Information Introduction to LAMS – walkthroughs, videos, case studies http://cd.lamsfoundation.org/ http://cd.lamsfoundation.org/ General demonstration accounts for LAMS http://demo.lamscommunity.org/ http://demo.lamscommunity.org/ General information about LAMS http://www.lamsfoundation.org/ http://www.lamsfoundation.org/ LAMS Community http://www.lamscommunity.org/ http://www.lamscommunity.org/ Qualities of an Effective Teacher – download sequence from http://www.lamscommunity.org/dotlrn/clubs/educationalcommunity/lam sresearchdevelopment/lams-seq//sequence?seq%5fid=256078 http://www.lamscommunity.org/dotlrn/clubs/educationalcommunity/lam sresearchdevelopment/lams-seq//sequence?seq%5fid=256078 Adoption of Interactive Whiteboards in schools Role Play – download sequence from http://lamscommunity.org/lamscentral/sequence?seq_id=376440 http://lamscommunity.org/lamscentral/sequence?seq_id=376440 Animated “mock-ups” for Pedagogic Planner concept http://saturn.melcoe.mq.edu.au/jly/Ped_planner.htm http://saturn.melcoe.mq.edu.au/jly/Ped_plannerv2.htm http://saturn.melcoe.mq.edu.au/jly/Ped_planner.htm http://saturn.melcoe.mq.edu.au/jly/Ped_plannerv2.htm