eLearning 2.0 in Universities: a software architecture approach

eLearning 2.0 in Universities: a software architecture approach

Oskar Casquero (*), Javier Portillo, Ramon Ovelar, Jesus Romo and Manuel Benito

(*) [email protected]

CcITA 2009

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eLearning 2.0: many researchers think Web 2.0 apps could be beneficial to the way we teach and learn- digital natives demand the use of these new technologies. - educational Institutions should be aware of the benefits they can obtain by

embracing Web 2.0 and Social Networks.

European Higher Education Area (EHEA)- Technology plays an important role: mobility, non-formal and informal learning,

life-long learning, making learning attractive and strengthening links with society.

Timing may be perfect if EHEA is accompanied by a technological move towards the adoption of eLearning 2.0.

eLearning 2.0 & European Higher Education Area (EHEA)


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eLearning 2.0 and EHEA agree in the introduction of a new model where learning is understood as a "learner-centered proactive process".

- process: it can take place during a whole life (life-long learning) in geographically distributed locations (mobility), in organizations with a mixture of formal and informally structured contents, and from very diverse people.

- proactive: develop new competences 'by doing'.

- learner-centered: not only educational institutions, but social, co-workers, familiars and friends spheres (social networks) are also important.

Learner-centered Proactive Process


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A PLE is an attempt to build a suitable learner-centered environment- It embeds every service, content, evidence and person involved in the digital part

of the learning process.

Some authors describe PLEs as strictly self-built environments that must be seen as a result of the learning process.- Risk of building two separate and sparsely connected spheres: the institutional

and the personal one.

Institutionally powered PLE (iPLE) is the name of the approach that tries to merge personal and institutional interests.- It is a pre-configured PLE that offers a minimum base which learners could start

working with and from which they could build and customize their own learning environment.

From PLE to iPLE


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• iWidgets: small hooks created by the institution and used by learners from their (i)PLEs in order to pull relevant information or services that university hosts.

• iPLE is loosely coupled with the institutional services, but highly customizable by adding uWidgets that connect to external services.

• Advanced users may prefer using iWidgets from own-configured PLE (a web site, a starting page, a widget-enabled email account -like Gmail-, ...).

• iPLE Network: grid of learning units cooperating to share learning resources across multiple administrative and learning contexts collective intelligence


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Content and social networks are intertwined.

Content• CMS: VLEs with Blogs and Wikis.• Institutional accounts in the most suitable repository services. • rgCMS makes simple repository invocation from any CMS

Social Networks• Sit on top of CMS and repositories, providing interfaces that allow people to interact.• Learn-Streaming: publishing and sharing within your social networks daily learning activities that constitute life-long learning

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Personal Learning Environments constitute the single interface to interact with institutional and external web services.

iPLE: institutional Personal Learning Environment- Allows the institution to guide the learning process of the student- It can be provided: it is delivered by the institution in the same way as a VLE- It can be construted: it is customizable and flexible to host every widget students need - out of the box: gives access to information and services coming from the institution that

are relevant for the learning process

Conceptual architecture of a iPLE- CMS: traditional VLE are enforced by wikis and blogs; - Web 2.0 resource repositories are seamlessly integrated in CMS- Learn-Streaming is a new concept that gives the control of the learning evidences to the

learner.

Conclusions
