Design Guidelines for Collaboration and Participation with Examples from the LN4LD:Learning Network for Learning Design

This chapter presents some design guidelines to foster (active) participation in learning networks. ‘Lessons learned’ over a period of about five years are phrased as recommendations for future learning network implementations. We describe three generations of facilities designed to promote learning on the topic of educational modelling languages and IMS-Learning Design, going from a conventional website through a community site offering facilities for collaboration towards a blended learning network for the effective exchange of information. Having described some more general guidelines, the chapter focuses on the positive influence of introducing incentive mechanisms and face-to-face meetings on participation in the LN4LD (Learning Network for Learning Design). These successful interventions in real world experimentation are explained from theories about self-organization, social exchange and social affordances. Repeated measurements show the levels of both passive (accessing and reading information) and active participation (posting, replying and rating) to significantly increase as a result of both interventions. Both the use of incentive mechanisms and face-to-face meetings can therefore be considered as valuable ‘add-ons’ in the learning design of learning networks (LD4LN)

Combining concept maps and interviews to produce representations of personal professional theories in higher vocational education: effects of order and vocational domain

This article is about the use of personal professional theories (PPTs) in Dutch higher vocational education. PPTs are internalised bodies of formal and practical knowledge and convictions, professionals use to direct their behaviour. With the aid of high-quality representations of students’ PPTs teachers can access, monitor, and support the professional development of students. Two qualitatively equivalent techniques for representing PPTs are (computer-supported) concept mapping and interviewing. This article reports on a study of the effects of combining these techniques to determine whether (1) this results in higher quality representations and (2), if so, whether technique order will make a difference. The study was conducted in two very different vocational domains: accountancy with 29 participants and teacher education with 20 participants. The results of a counterbalanced quasi-experiment with two factors (i.e. domain and order) show in both domains that combining the techniques improves quality but order does not matter. This order independence has practical importance as the computer-supported analysis of a student generated concept map and subsequently discussing the results with the student, fosters learning and fits in educational practice well

Simulating Light-Weight Personalised Recommender Systems in Learning Networks: A Case for Pedagogy-Oriented and Rating-Based Hybrid Recommendation Strategies

Recommender systems for e-learning demand specific pedagogy-oriented and hybrid recommendation strategies. Current systems are often based on time-consuming, top down information provisioning combined with intensive data-mining collaborative filtering approaches. However, such systems do not seem appropriate for Learning Networks where distributed information can often not be identified beforehand. Providing sound way-finding support for lifelong learners in Learning Networks requires dedicated personalised recommender systems (PRS), that offer the learners customised advise on which learning actions or programs to study next. Such systems should also be practically feasible and be developed with minimized effort. Currently, such so called light-weight PRS systems are scarcely available. This study shows that simulation studies can support the analysis and optimisation of PRS requirements prior to starting the costly process of their development, and practical implementation (including testing and revision) during field experiments in real-life learning situations. This simulation study confirms that providing recommendations leads towards more effective, more satisfied, and faster goal achievement. Furthermore, this study reveals that a light-weight hybrid PRS-system based on ratings is a good alternative for an ontology-based system, in particular for low-level goal achievement. Finally, it is found that rating-based light-weight hybrid PRS-systems enable more effective, more satisfied, and faster goal attainment than peer-based light-weight hybrid PRS-systems (incorporating collaborative techniques without rating).Recommendation Strategy; Simulation Study; Way-Finding; Collaborative Filtering; Rating

Cueing for transfer in multimedia programmes: Process worksheets vs. worked-out examples

We investigate the effects of cueing, in a multimedia programme for the individualized training of the 'whole task' to prepare a plea, on the learning outcomes of 43 sophomore law students. The cueing formats of worked-out examples (WOEs), process worksheets (PWs), and both WOE and PW are compared to a no-cueing control condition. Our hypotheses that WOE enhance near transfer, by stimulating imitation processes to similar tasks, and that PW foster far transfer, by stimulating mindful abstraction processes to different tasks were partly confirmed by learning outcomes on the training task and two transfer tasks

Distance education in soil science: Reaching the nontraditional student

The Open University of the Netherlands provides academic programs for open distance education. The courses that make up the programs are developed for adult students who are not able to attend courses at regular universities. A description is given of a soil science course offered by the Department of Natural Sciences. The course consists of printed material, allowing study to take place at home, and makes use of interactive learning materials. The central theme of the course is the variety of function of soils, within the perspective of environmental issues in the Netherlands. To enable the students to develop, in a distance-learning mode, the problem-solving skills needed in environmental soil research, an interactive video program forms an integral part of the course. It provides opportunities to the students to acquire and to analyze information from a number of sources, including soil-process models and Geographical Information Systems (GIS)

Distance education in soil science:Reaching the nontraditional student

The Open University of the Netherlands provides academic programs for open distance education. The courses that make up the programs are developed for adult students who are not able to attend courses at regular universities. A description is given of a soil science course offered by the Department of Natural Sciences. The course consists of printed material, allowing study to take place at home, and makes use of interactive learning materials. The central theme of the course is the variety of function of soils, within the perspective of environmental issues in the Netherlands. To enable the students to develop, in a distance-learning mode, the problem-solving skills needed in environmental soil research, an interactive video program forms an integral part of the course. It provides opportunities to the students to acquire and to analyze information from a number of sources, including soil-process models and Geographical Information Systems (GIS)

A computer-supported method to reveal and assess Personal Professional Theories in vocational education

This article introduces a dedicated, computer-supported method to construct and formatively assess open, annotated concept maps of Personal Professional Theories (PPTs). These theories are internalised, personal bodies of formal and practical knowledge, values, norms and convictions that professionals use as a reference to interpret and acquire knowledge, and to direct their behaviour, and which vocational students are expected to develop. Monitoring the development of PPTs and assessing their quality are difficult as they are, essentially, mental schemes. Traditional methods, such as semi-structured interviews and concept mapping, are either too labour-intensive to be used in an educational setting or are not able to reveal their full quality. The study presents a new method which is valid, reliable and easy to use in education and which reveals the quality in a way that is comparable to or better than interviews

Design Guidelines for Collaboration and Participation with Examples from the LN4LD: Learning Network for Learning Design

This chapter presents some design guidelines to foster (active) participation in learning networks. ‘Lessons learned’ over a period of about five years are phrased as recommendations for future learning network implementations. We describe three generations of facilities designed to promote learning on the topic of educational modelling languages and IMS-Learning Design, going from a conventional website through a community site offering facilities for collaboration towards a blended learning network for the effective exchange of information. Having described some more general guidelines, the chapter focuses on the positive influence of introducing incentive mechanisms and face-to-face meetings on participation in the LN4LD (Learning Network for Learning Design). These successful interventions in real world experimentation are explained from theories about self-organization, social exchange and social affordances. Repeated measurements show the levels of both passive (accessing and reading information) and active participation (posting, replying and rating) to significantly increase as a result of both interventions. Both the use of incentive mechanisms and face-to-face meetings can therefore be considered as valuable ‘add-ons’ in the learning design of learning networks (LD4LN)