Title: Powerful LAMS vs Simple LAMS: The challenge of pleasing everyone James Dalziel Professor of Learning Technology, and Director, Macquarie E-Learning Centre Of Excellence (MELCOE) Macquarie University
1Powerful LAMS vs Simple LAMS The challenge of
pleasing everyoneJames DalzielProfessor of
Learning Technology, and Director, Macquarie
E-Learning Centre Of Excellence
(MELCOE)Macquarie University james_at_melcoe.mq.edu
.auwww.melcoe.mq.edu.auKeynote presentation
for the Second International LAMS Conference,
Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia, November
26th, 2007
2Overview
- Not just another educational technology
- Why Learning Design is of fundamental importance
- Why Authoring and Monitoring are separate
- Sharing pedagogical know-how
- Introducing LAMS V2.1 via Role Plays
- Branching, conditionality, tool outputs
- Balancing simplicity and complexity
3Not just another educational technology
- The goal of Learning Design is the systematic
description of teaching and learning processes - So they can be run with students using a
prepared design - So that good practice ideas can be shared among
educators - While there are many innovative technologies in
education today, none are so fundamental in their
goals - Almost any innovative tool could be incorporated
into a Learning Design (ie, Learning Design
provides a foundation) - and Learning Design is not limited to
educational technology, it can apply to all
teaching and learning processes
4Not just another educational technology
- Learning Design is sometimes misunderstood as an
educational approach like constructivism, PBL,
etc - Rather, Learning Design is something new it is
a way of describing (and running) flows of
educational activities, independent of particular
educational theories - It describes the what and how of education, not
the why - Of central importance to Learning Design is
capturing the detail of how teaching and learning
activities are conducted, so another educator
could replicate this
5Authoring and Monitoring?
- Learning Design separates the creation of
activity sequences from their instantiation with
particular groups - This allows for sharing, re-use, adaptation, etc
- This is unlike a typical LMS, where there is no
separation you edit your live course directly - This distinction is still not well understood by
LMS addicts - This separation is powerful for sharing/re-using
good ideas but makes running a course more
complex - Eg, create an abstract group in author then
later specify who
6Sharing pedagogical know-how
- A Learning Design need not describe every
possible detail of a teaching and learning
process - But it needs enough for another educator to
understand/replicate - For me, a Learning Design authoring system needs
to balance two goals - (1) Be easy enough for a typical educator to use
and understand - (2) Be powerful enough to capture important
process details
7Sharing pedagogical know-how
- Example Role Plays
- Role plays are a great for helping students think
through complex issues from different
perspectives - Typically involve three main stages
- Pre-role play exploration of designated role
- Role play proper (playing your role in response
to a scenario while interacting with others
playing their roles) - Post-role play reflection on lessons
learned/debriefing - Important Process elements include the timing
of stages, private vs public discussion areas,
and the nature of role groups - Role plays have helped drive the concept of
Learning Design
8From CETIS Pedagogy meeting July 2003 Modelling
of Versailles Role Play
9Reload Learning Design editor/authoring Supports
complex designs, but requires deep knowledge of
the IMS Learning Design specification
10Example of IMS LD XML output from Reload to be
processed by Coppercore
11The problem
- It may be possible to describe complex process
elements in IMS LD/Reload, but not in a way that
is easily understood by typical educators - On the other hand, a visual sequence in LAMS
authoring might show the key activities, but lack
the ability to implement complex process
elements like private areas - Can we find a way to implement complex process
elements while retaining a simple and visual
experience? - (No, but well try)
12Interactive whiteboard adoption role play
- Available in LAMS Community - developed as an
adaptation of an earlier role play (on LAMS
adoption) - Considers the adoption of interactive whiteboards
in a typical secondary school from the
perspective of 4 roles - Pro teachers who are very keen on IBs
- Con teachers those concerned about wider
adoption of IBs - School management see both benefits and issues
- Students like IBs when well used, dislike tech
for tech sake - Three main stages Pre-role play role
preparation, role play proper, then post-role
play reflection
13LAMS V1 Adopting Interactive Whiteboards in
schools Role play (from LC)
14Interactive whiteboard adoption role play
- LAMS V1 problems
- No control on access to activities in optional
box anyone could go into the wrong private role
area (by mistake or deliberately) - Reason LAMS needed all students to do the same
task couldnt allow different groups to do
different tasks to the exclusion of others - Also, grouping only had random allocation option
- Too grey
15LAMS V2 Adopting Interactive Whiteboards in
schools Role play
16LAMS V2 Interactive Whiteboards Role play
Sub-group generic text problem
17LAMS V2 Interactive Whiteboards Role play
Group naming problem
18Interactive whiteboard adoption role play
- LAMS V2.0 problems
- Each role had own private area, but instruction
text had be written in a generic format, as
each role group had the same text and had to
infer the application to their specific role - Groups could be hand-allocated, but were named
sequentially (Group 1/2/3/4), not in a meaningful
way (Pro/Con/etc) - Both of these factors meant that although the
sequence could work, it wasnt always clear to
students what to do
19Interactive whiteboard adoption role play
- Introducing LAMS V2.1 alpha (still fixing bugs)
- 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 students perspective)
optional sequences allows for student choice
branching
20Key concept before we start Properties bar in
Authoring (click on it to open)
21So this is the LAMS V2 (not 2.1) approach ie,
no branching
22LAMS 2.1 Interactive Whiteboards Role play
Role tasks replaced by Branching
23LAMS 2.1 Interactive Whiteboards Role play
Inside branching for role tasks
24LAMS 2.1 Interactive Whiteboards Role play
Naming of branches
25LAMS 2.1 Interactive Whiteboards Role play
Setting up role groups
26LAMS 2.1 Interactive Whiteboards Role play
Naming role groups
27LAMS 2.1 Interactive Whiteboards Role play
Branching type groups
28LAMS 2.1 Interactive Whiteboards Role play
Warning on save incomplete
29LAMS 2.1 Interactive Whiteboards Role play
Mapping groups to branches
30So after launching the Role Play sequence in
Monitor, a Learner can now access it
31Interactive Whiteboards Role play Student view
of Forum (private for Pro Teacher role)
32LAMS 2.1 Alternative branching approach Teacher
choice instead of group-based
33LAMS 2.1 Alternative branching approach Launch
in monitor, then allocate to branches
34LAMS 2.1 Teacher allocating students to branches
by hand in Monitor
35LAMS 2.1 Alternative branching approach Student
view of Branch 2 (con teacher)
36LAMS 2.1 Alternative branching Tool-output
based branching based on Vote (using MCQ)
37Imagine using Vote to create new yes and no
subgroups for extra resources forum
38LAMS 2.1 Tool-output branching Creating
conditions from tool outputs
39LAMS 2.1 Tool-output branching then mapping
conditions to Branches
40Branching 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 dodgy use of MCQ (for now)
41LAMS 2.1 New Optional Sequences feature (under
optional properties for settings)
42LAMS 2.1 New Optional Sequences - allows
students to choose 1 or more sequences
43Pedagogical 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 lt 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
44Future features (?)
- More advanced branching, grouping, tool outputs
- Tool outputs more current tools, new types of
output, new tools - More complex conditions (multiple conditions,
algorithms) - Actionable roles within tools
- Different functionality by role (eg chat
moderate/participate/view only) - Map sequence level roles to actionable tool
roles - Link actionable roles to branching, grouping,
tool outputs - Looping
- Complex issues yet to solve (what constitutes
task completion?) - In the meantime, new Live Edit feature in 2.1
allows ongoing edit of some tasks even after
students enter (Noticeboard, Chat, Notebook,
Submit Files, Share Resources) therefore Stop
point set of editable tasks could provide some
elements of looping
45From animation of new Live Edit features for LAMS
2.1 (see resources)
46Simplicity and Complexity
- LAMS has tried hard to make Learning Design
simple, within the constraints of the concept
(eg, separation of author monitor) - Drag and drop authoring remains a very expensive
part of our development, and LAMS could exist
without it, but we keep developing it because of
the simplicity that comes from visualisation - Branching is a powerful new feature, but also
adds complexity, some of which is unavoidable - But we welcome any feedback on how to make
things clear and simple particular now as we
start to finalise branching - Weve provided comprehensive technical and user
wikis to help - Also, the power for branching adds to the case
for simpler authoring templates like the Activity
Planner - No funding during 2007 hope to make progress in
2008
47LAMS V2 Technical Wiki
48LAMS V2 User Documentation (Teacher) Wiki
49LAMS Activity Planner Selecting a template
50LAMS Activity Planner Filling out the key
content for a selected template
51One last contribution to simplicity New
Preview function in LAMS Community
52Thanks Ernie our best wishes for your wedding
in Argentina!
53Thank You
- Department of Education Science and Training
(DEST) for SII funding of RAMS under Backing
Australias ability - The LAMS development team, especially Ernie and
Fiona, for a truly extraordinary effort - The 61 LAMS translators, who have created and
freely shared 25 translations of LAMS to date - The many educators (and students!) who have
shared sequences through the LAMS Community - The early adopters of LAMS, who have often had to
fight for fair consideration of this new approach - Leanne Cameron for keeping the educator flame
burning inside the LAMS team, and for
co-ordinating both 2007 conferences - Renee Vance for admin for this conference
helping me survive 2007 - My wife Bronwen and daughter Zoe, who give up
much for LAMS
54Resources
- Adoption of Interactive Whiteboards in schools
Role Play download sequence from
http//lamscommunity.org/lamscentral/sequence?seq_
id376440 - CETIS Pedagogy meeting LAMS Presentation (July
2003) - Versailles - http//www.lamsfoundation.org/CD/html/resources/p
resentations/LAMS.Pedagogy.ppt - Live Edit new features 2.1http//saturn.melcoe.mq
.edu.au/lams2/docs/winks/newLiveEdit.htm - Branching/grouping/tool outputs new features
2.1http//wiki.lamsfoundation.org/display/lamsdoc
s/BranchingDemonstration - Sign up to test LAMS V2.1 alpha (NB Dev server
no promises!)http//stinger.melcoe.mq.edu.au/