CSCL and Standards for Learning Technologies

Ola Berge

Netværket IKT og Læring, e-Learning Lab at Aalborg University, 26.10.2006

Outline• Learning technology “standards”

– Learning objects

– SCORM

– IMS Learning Design

• Reuse of digital learning resources

• Current status of CSCL research and standards

• Why standards will become important for CSCL research

Motivation for standardization

• Improve cost efficiency in learning resource development

• Improve quality of learning experiences

• Obtained by reuse of learning resources

Learning objects

• Learning objects facilitate reuse

• Modular units, assembled to create larger constructs (e.g. lessons)

• Two components:

– Metadata & content

LO example

<lom xmlns="http://ltsc.ieee.org/xsd/LOM">

<general>

<identifier>

<catalog>URI</catalog>

<entry>http://www.uio.no/~olaberge/LO/CS_110</entry>

</identifier>

<title>

<string language=”en”>Heap Sort Visualization</string>

</title>

<language>en</language>

<description>

<string language=”en”>

The applet reveals the inner workings of the Heap Sort sorting

algorithm at an abstract level.

</string>

<keyword>

<string language=”en”>Heap sort</string>

</keyword>

<keyword>

<string language=”en”>Java loop structure</string>

</keyword>

[...]

SCORM

• Predominant approach to standardization by early adopters

• Originates in requirements from training in the US military and aviation industry

• Many LMS vendors claim conformance

SCORM• The goal is to “provide access to the

highest quality education and training, tailored to individual needs, delivered cost-effectively anytime and anywhere” (ADL, 2004)

• “aims to foster creation of reusable learning content as ‘instructional objects’ within a common technical framework for computer-based and Web-based learning” (ADL, 2004)

SCORM content organization

Concern with SCORM

• “SCORM is essentially about a single-learner, self-paced and self-directed. It has a limited pedagogical model unsuited for some environments.” (Kraan & Wilson, 2002)

IMS Learning Design• Reuse of teaching strategies and

educational goals

• Support pedagogical diversity and innovation

• A learning design describes, in a formal meta-language, the way “people in specific groups and roles engage in activities using an environment with appropriate resources and services” (Oliver & Tattersall, 2005, p. 21)

Learning design as a script

• Metaphor: Learning Design as a script for a theatrical play

– Persons in roles

– Performs activities within environments

– Methods: Plays, acts, and role-parts

Concern with IMS LD

• IMS LD is a complex specification

• It requires a supporting framework of components and services

• Such support still under development

Reuse• Generally understood to involve materials

that are created once and used numerous times in various contexts, in the form of learning objects (Downes, 2004; Duval & Hodgins, 2004; Littlejohn, 2003a; Wiley, 2000)

• Forms of reuse:– Reuse as is

– Repurposing (reuse in a different context)

– Customization (reuse with adaptations made)

(Doorten, Giesbers, Janssen, Daniels, & Koper, 2003)

Taxonomy of Reuse

Quaternary Pedagogical approach

Tertiary Course design

Secondary Course design components

PrimaryOwn

materialExternal material

Repurposed external material

Reification of practice

Standards and the Taxonomy

• How do the standards address the four levels of reuse?

– Primary: SCORM – learning objects described with IEEE LOM metadata

– Secondary: Not explicitly addressed. Can be part of an IMS LD learning unit

– Tertiary: IMS LD, (SCORM)

– Quaternary: None

Computer Supported Collaborative Learning• CSCL is “concerned with meaning and the

practices of meaning-making in the context of joint activity and the ways in which these practices are mediated through designed artifacts.” (Koschmann, 2002)

• Meaning-making as social practices of joint meaning-making (Stahl, 2002)

• Artifact mediation can be seen more generally than just transmission of personal opinions through a technological artifact. (Stahl, 2003)

CSCL and standards

• Modest, but growing interest in learning technology standards and specifications

• Little interest in SCORM

• More attention on IMS LD

• Collaboration scripts

Current focus of CSCL

• Experimental systems

• Sustainable deployment currently in the background

• But not for long?

An opportunity for CSCL

• Insights reified within CSCL systems

• Learning technology standards facilitate a looser binding

• Standards represent an opportunity for sustainable deployment of CSCL systems

A challenge

• Providing support for students’ learning processes by structuring activities

• Allowing sufficient flexibility for productive collaborative learning processes to develop

Thank You!

http://folk.uio.no/olaberg/