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 - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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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

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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


1
Powerful 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
2
Overview
  • 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

3
Not 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

4
Not 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

5
Authoring 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

6
Sharing 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

7
Sharing 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

8
From CETIS Pedagogy meeting July 2003 Modelling
of Versailles Role Play
9
Reload Learning Design editor/authoring Supports
complex designs, but requires deep knowledge of
the IMS Learning Design specification
10
Example of IMS LD XML output from Reload to be
processed by Coppercore
11
The 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)

12
Interactive 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

13
LAMS V1 Adopting Interactive Whiteboards in
schools Role play (from LC)
14
Interactive 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

15
LAMS V2 Adopting Interactive Whiteboards in
schools Role play
16
LAMS V2 Interactive Whiteboards Role play
Sub-group generic text problem
17
LAMS V2 Interactive Whiteboards Role play
Group naming problem
18
Interactive 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

19
Interactive 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

20
Key concept before we start Properties bar in
Authoring (click on it to open)
21
So this is the LAMS V2 (not 2.1) approach ie,
no branching
22
LAMS 2.1 Interactive Whiteboards Role play
Role tasks replaced by Branching
23
LAMS 2.1 Interactive Whiteboards Role play
Inside branching for role tasks
24
LAMS 2.1 Interactive Whiteboards Role play
Naming of branches
25
LAMS 2.1 Interactive Whiteboards Role play
Setting up role groups
26
LAMS 2.1 Interactive Whiteboards Role play
Naming role groups
27
LAMS 2.1 Interactive Whiteboards Role play
Branching type groups
28
LAMS 2.1 Interactive Whiteboards Role play
Warning on save incomplete
29
LAMS 2.1 Interactive Whiteboards Role play
Mapping groups to branches
30
So after launching the Role Play sequence in
Monitor, a Learner can now access it
31
Interactive Whiteboards Role play Student view
of Forum (private for Pro Teacher role)
32
LAMS 2.1 Alternative branching approach Teacher
choice instead of group-based
33
LAMS 2.1 Alternative branching approach Launch
in monitor, then allocate to branches
34
LAMS 2.1 Teacher allocating students to branches
by hand in Monitor
35
LAMS 2.1 Alternative branching approach Student
view of Branch 2 (con teacher)
36
LAMS 2.1 Alternative branching Tool-output
based branching based on Vote (using MCQ)
37
Imagine using Vote to create new yes and no
subgroups for extra resources forum
38
LAMS 2.1 Tool-output branching Creating
conditions from tool outputs
39
LAMS 2.1 Tool-output branching then mapping
conditions to Branches
40
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 dodgy use of MCQ (for now)

41
LAMS 2.1 New Optional Sequences feature (under
optional properties for settings)
42
LAMS 2.1 New Optional Sequences - allows
students to choose 1 or more sequences
43
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 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

44
Future 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

45
From animation of new Live Edit features for LAMS
2.1 (see resources)
46
Simplicity 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

47
LAMS V2 Technical Wiki
48
LAMS V2 User Documentation (Teacher) Wiki
49
LAMS Activity Planner Selecting a template
50
LAMS Activity Planner Filling out the key
content for a selected template
51
One last contribution to simplicity New
Preview function in LAMS Community
52
Thanks Ernie our best wishes for your wedding
in Argentina!
53
Thank 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

54
Resources
  • 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/
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