View
1.185
Download
2
Category
Tags:
Preview:
Citation preview
Moving from content to people centred e-learning services
- challenges and opportunities
Alan Masson, University of Ulster
• e-learning – the story so far
• Physical campus developments
• Emerging learning support tools
• Issues around virtualising the LRC?
Timeline of e-learning @ UU
Establishing phase• Staff Development • User orientation / support• Remote resource access
Scaling Phase• Meeting increasing demand
Impact phase• Changing practice (impact)
Next Phase?
Key initial milestones
• VLE / SRS integration– Enrolment addressed
• VLE / Athens authentication– Athens related resource access addressed
• VLE / Library integration– Resource lists and related library services embedded
Scaling (2004 - 06)
• Exponential growth in usage• Need to respond to technical challenges of
supporting rapidly scaling service– Performance– Resilience (risk)
• Response - migration to WebCT Vista 4.x on a tiered architecture 2006
VLE usage (2006-07)
Metrics:1. >15k unique users2. circa 5k unique users / typical teaching day3. >9k user sessions / typical teaching day4. Typical peak loads c.650 users / 30Mbits/sec
Benchmarks:1. 75% of UU student FTE2. equiv to Coleraine campus student enrolment3. equiv to combined daily LRC access @ Magee and Jordanstown
campuses
Recent e-learning developments
• “Enterprising” of VLE• Integration of additional tools and services
with VLE• Enhancing “teacher moderated” virtual
classrooms
• Teaching focus
Recent campus developments
• Learning Resource Centres (LRCs)• Wireless connectivity• Development of “social spaces”
• Informal learning focus
Learning - independent of space and place
Learning - independent of space and place
Learning - independent of space and place
Informal learning online
• Explosion of Web 2.0 tools• Students use these in their own lives• Functionality transfers to learning• Learners own tools – more advanced than
HEI offerings
Learning Centre
• Brings together people and resources
• Supports range of “learning” styles– Individual or group– Formal or informal– Resource supported or shared space
• Use defined by learner!
People and resources together
Web 2.0 tools for learners
• Information / resources
Learners doing stuff together
Web 2.0 tools for learners
• Communication / community
Web 2.0 tools for learners
• Collaboration / creation
Web2.0 tool challenges
• Support and guidance• Inclusivity• Loss of added value information /
engagement opportunities• Perceived (lack of) value by fee-paying
learners• Do we / should we provide a “semi formal”
virtual LEARNING centre?
Building blocks for Virtual Learning Centre
• Elgg (social network – walled garden?)• Confluence (wiki with defined templates),
collaborative document tools• Wimba Pronto, e-mail and SMS• Missing – tagging service to complement Talislist &
catalogue• Common toolset to (and integrated) with VLE and
outside services• Learner managed
Benefits of Virtual Learning Centre
• Learner led• Bridge between formal and personal
environments• Access to people / resources / tools are
facilitated and supported• Learners - participants in resource workflows
(tagging, resource lists….)• “spaces” can have defined lifecycles
Community consideration
• “A relationship, I think, is like a shark. You know? It has to constantly move forward or it dies. And I think what we got on our hands is a dead shark.”
• Woody Allen (Annie Hall)
Cultural challenge
Leadership for this “service”?• Teaching and Learning• IT department• Library• E-learning• Estates
Possible context?
• “It seems to me that it now makes more sense to associate the library with emerging support for e-learning and e-research, creating a set of capacities aligned around academic systems and services, and the management of research and learning data.”
Lorcan Dempsey blog posting, 15/06/08http://orweblog.oclc.org/archives/001656.html
Recommended