Models for Learning (Mod4L) Final Report: Representing Learning Designs

The Mod4L Models of Practice project is part of the JISC-funded Design for Learning Programme. It ran from 1 May – 31 December 2006. The philosophy underlying the project was that a general split is evident in the e-learning community between development of e-learning tools, services and standards, and research into how teachers can use these most effectively, and is impeding uptake of new tools and methods by teachers. To help overcome this barrier and bridge the gap, a need is felt for practitioner-focused resources which describe a range of learning designs and offer guidance on how these may be chosen and applied, how they can support effective practice in design for learning, and how they can support the development of effective tools, standards and systems with a learning design capability (see, for example, Griffiths and Blat 2005, JISC 2006). Practice models, it was suggested, were such a resource. The aim of the project was to: develop a range of practice models that could be used by practitioners in real life contexts and have a high impact on improving teaching and learning practice. We worked with two definitions of practice models. Practice models are: 1. generic approaches to the structuring and orchestration of learning activities. They express elements of pedagogic principle and allow practitioners to make informed choices (JISC 2006) However, however effective a learning design may be, it can only be shared with others through a representation. The issue of representation of learning designs is, then, central to the concept of sharing and reuse at the heart of JISC’s Design for Learning programme. Thus practice models should be both representations of effective practice, and effective representations of practice. Hence we arrived at the project working definition of practice models as: 2. Common, but decontextualised, learning designs that are represented in a way that is usable by practitioners (teachers, managers, etc).(Mod4L working definition, Falconer & Littlejohn 2006). A learning design is defined as the outcome of the process of designing, planning and orchestrating learning activities as part of a learning session or programme (JISC 2006). Practice models have many potential uses: they describe a range of learning designs that are found to be effective, and offer guidance on their use; they support sharing, reuse and adaptation of learning designs by teachers, and also the development of tools, standards and systems for planning, editing and running the designs. The project took a practitioner-centred approach, working in close collaboration with a focus group of 12 teachers recruited across a range of disciplines and from both FE and HE. Focus group members are listed in Appendix 1. Information was gathered from the focus group through two face to face workshops, and through their contributions to discussions on the project wiki. This was supplemented by an activity at a JISC pedagogy experts meeting in October 2006, and a part workshop at ALT-C in September 2006. The project interim report of August 2006 contained the outcomes of the first workshop (Falconer and Littlejohn, 2006). The current report refines the discussion of issues of representing learning designs for sharing and reuse evidenced in the interim report and highlights problems with the concept of practice models (section 2), characterises the requirements teachers have of effective representations (section 3), evaluates a number of types of representation against these requirements (section 4), explores the more technically focused role of sequencing representations and controlled vocabularies (sections 5 & 6), documents some generic learning designs (section 8.2) and suggests ways forward for bridging the gap between teachers and developers (section 2.6). All quotations are taken from the Mod4L wiki unless otherwise stated

Career Handbook

The job search, no matter what step you are on, can be a daunting and intimidating process. We want you to know that you are not alone in this journey. Since the day you arrived on campus, you have been surrounded by the support of family, friends, professors, staff, and peers. As you move into the next stage of your professional journey, we want you to know that you have the support of Career Services, the Alumni Association, and all of the employers who are part of the Hire a Rebel family to mentor, guide, and walk with you through the jobbing process. We are invested in the community of Las Vegas, the network of UNLV, and in each of you to help you to grow and transition from student to professional. The road to career success is not as easy as we might hope for. You may encounter setbacks and struggles throughout the next few years, but keep in mind that each situation you encounter and every decision you make is shaping you into a Rebel professional. By taking advantage of the resources that come along with being a UNLV Rebel, you will network with amazing and successful professionals already thriving in the field, build your own career toolkit, and navigate through the professional world with the skill set that you learned while you were a student at UNLV. Whether you are working in an office, stage, gallery, restaurant, school, or even your own home, you are equipped with the knowledge, drive, and determination to find success. You have the spirit of a Rebel within you. When roadblocks get in your way, use your network and your talents to navigate around, over, or through them. When you are met with overwhelming success, share those victories with your Rebel family. Remember that you are now and will always be connected through UNLV. We all have your back and are all excited for you on this journey. You are a Rebel today and you will be a Rebel forever. Welcome to the Hire a Rebel family!https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/career_handbook/1000/thumbnail.jp

On Partially Controlled Multi-Agent Systems

Motivated by the control theoretic distinction between controllable and uncontrollable events, we distinguish between two types of agents within a multi-agent system: controllable agents, which are directly controlled by the system's designer, and uncontrollable agents, which are not under the designer's direct control. We refer to such systems as partially controlled multi-agent systems, and we investigate how one might influence the behavior of the uncontrolled agents through appropriate design of the controlled agents. In particular, we wish to understand which problems are naturally described in these terms, what methods can be applied to influence the uncontrollable agents, the effectiveness of such methods, and whether similar methods work across different domains. Using a game-theoretic framework, this paper studies the design of partially controlled multi-agent systems in two contexts: in one context, the uncontrollable agents are expected utility maximizers, while in the other they are reinforcement learners. We suggest different techniques for controlling agents' behavior in each domain, assess their success, and examine their relationship.Comment: See http://www.jair.org/ for any accompanying file

Creating Quality Integrated and Interdisciplinary Arts Programs

The report offers some reflection on arts integration while examining a diverse group of partnerships and a set of new important tools to aid efforts in improving arts teaching and learning across the classroom

Validation of an observational instrument for measuring role behavior in social work groups as one aspect of maturity

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston Universit

Agents for educational games and simulations

This book consists mainly of revised papers that were presented at the Agents for Educational Games and Simulation (AEGS) workshop held on May 2, 2011, as part of the Autonomous Agents and MultiAgent Systems (AAMAS) conference in Taipei, Taiwan. The 12 full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from various submissions. The papers are organized topical sections on middleware applications, dialogues and learning, adaption and convergence, and agent applications

Reducing behaviour problems in young people through social competence programmes

There is a relatively strong relationship between the concepts of behavioural problems and social competence, in that social competence is regarded as one of the most important protective factors in the prevention of behavioural problems. This paper argues that the concept of social competence should include social skills, social practice and empathic understanding. It identifies the components that form part of an effective social competence programme, including enhancing an understanding of social situations, increasing the generation of adequate social skills, improving the management of provocations which may lead to uncontrolled anger, and developing empathic understanding. The evidence also suggests that effective social competence programmes for children and young people should be multi modal and consist of mixed groups of pupils with and without difficulties. The paper concludes with a brief description of Aggression Replacement Training as an example of a programme which follows the recommended guidelines.peer-reviewe