Building communities for the exchange of learning objects: theoretical foundations and requirements

In order to reduce overall costs of developing high-quality digital courses (including both the content, and the learning and teaching activities), the exchange of learning objects has been recognized as a promising solution. This article makes an inventory of the issues involved in the exchange of learning objects within a community. It explores some basic theories, models and specifications and provides a theoretical framework containing the functional and non-functional requirements to establish an exchange system in the educational field. Three levels of requirements are discussed. First, the non-functional requirements that deal with the technical conditions to make learning objects interoperable. Second, some basic use cases (activities) are identified that must be facilitated to enable the technical exchange of learning objects, e.g. searching and adapting the objects. Third, some basic use cases are identified that are required to establish the exchange of learning objects in a community, e.g. policy management, information and training. The implications of this framework are then discussed, including recommendations concerning the identification of reward systems, role changes and evaluation instruments

PROFIL: a method for the development of multimedia courseware

Refer to: Koper, E.J.R. (1995). PROFIL: a method for the development of multimedia courseware. British Journal of Educational Technology, 26 (2), 94-108This article from 1995 describes a dedicated method for the design of multimedia courseware, called PROFIL. The method integrates instructional design methods and techniques with software engineering methods and techniques. Furthermore it integrates media selection methods in the design methodology and it takes account of the design of courses of which courseware is a only a part. In six phases (preliminary investigation, definition, script, technical realisation, implementation and exploitation) a program is designed and produced. The essence of the method is that a distinction is made between functional objects and the implementation of the functional objects in the available media and that the same design process is repeated a few times at different aggregation levels

Shoctool

For descriptive article see: <a href="http://hdl.handle.net/1820/117">http://hdl.handle.net/1820/117</a>A tool that supports the learning design of educational software. The tool stimulates the re-use of existing design and code segments. Resulting designs can be accessed for completeness, allow for comparisons among designs and are relatively easy to read for others than the designer himself. The idea is that the use of such a tool can make the development process more efficient and can lead to a more professional approach of the didactic design of educational software in general

Lifelong learning in a network

Paper accepted for ODLAA conference (Open and Distance Learning Association of Australia), titled 'breaking down barriers', Adelaide, 9-11 November, Australia. Will be published as a chapter in the book: 'Breaking Down Boundaries: The International Experience in Open, Distance and Flexible Education'In our knowledge-based society learning will no longer exclusively be tied to the traditional educational institutions, but becomes lifelong. E-learning has enabled the establishment of networks of distributed collaborating learners, teachers and institutions. Lifelong learning in a network is quite different, because the student doesn’t belong to one institute and the roles of persons are no longer fixed. At the OUNL we are developing a set of models (a 'learning network'), technologies and open specifications in order to support networked learning. It will be related to the MSc-programme we are developing in collaboration with Sydney University and Florida State University

Elektronische leeromgevingen: gewaarwordingen en perspectief

Gepubliceerd als: Koper, E.J.R. (2001). Elektronische leeromgevingen: gewaarwordingen en perspectief, Opleiding & Ontwikkeling,3, 7-11.Er wordt veel gesproken over elektronische leeromgevingen, allerhande software verschijnt op de markt. Instellingen en bedrijven experimenteren ermee en vragen zich af hoe ze dit moeten integreren in de opleidingsorganisatie. In dit Persoonlijk staat de auteur stil bij de vraag wat elektronische leeromgevingen nu precies zijn, met name omdat er nogal wat verwarring is in de conceptualisatie van dit fenomeen. Eerst komen enkele van deze verwarrende beelden aan de orde. Na een omschrijving van leeromgevingen wordt nagegaan welke toegevoegde waarde ICT heeft voor leeromgevingen. Enkele topics, zoals standaarden voor elektronische leeromgevingen, gedistribueerde organisatie en rijke leeromgevingen worden aangestipt

XML-documentschema’s en e-learning

Versie gepubliceerd als: Koper, E.J.R. (2001). XML documentschema’s en e-learning. Informatie, 43, 30-34.XML kan gebruikt worden om ieder type document op een eigen, uniforme wijze te beschrijven, passend bij de aard van het document. Het document kan daartoe geassocieerd worden met een zogenoemd ‘documentschema’ waarin is vastgelegd welke elementen, attributen en notaties geldig zijn in het document en in welke volgorde ze moeten of mogen voorkomen. Dit artikel beschrijft de waarde van XML in een eLearning context

Stimulating competence development of individuals and organisations in Europe

Summary of the keynote speech for the Book of Abstracts of the Online Educa Berlin, Nov.30-Dec.2-2005. See: http://www.online-educa.com/en/The emerging knowledge society places new demands on both individual workers, groups, and organisations. Central to these demands is the need to continuously develop and manage the competencies which provide a competitive advantage to individuals, groups and organisations. To achieve lifelong competence development there is a need for better integration of learning and knowledge dissemination facilities offered by the different knowledge support organisations in society, e.g. educational institutes, training departments, HRM support organisations, government, libraries, research institutes and others. To build this technical and organisational infrastructure, the EU is funding a new 4 year integrated project called TENCompetence1 (IST-TEL/FP6). There are 13 partners in this project from 9 European countries. In this keynote this new project will be introduced

Rethinking Learning and Employment at a Time of Economic Uncertainty, Proceedings of the 6th TENCompetence Open Workshop

Griffiths, D., & Koper, R. (2010). Rethinking Learning and Employment at a Time of Economic Uncertainty. Proceedings of the 6th TENCompetence Open Workshop. Bolton, UK: Institute for Educational Cybernetics, The University of Bolton.These proceedings consist of the peer reviewed papers presented at the Sixth TENCompetence Open Workshop. This was the final event of TENCompetence, which was an Integrated Project funded by the EU 6th Framework Programme with the goal of developing a European, open-source infrastructure to support the lifelong development of competences. The workshop took place at the Edwardian Hotel, Manchester, UK, on the 19th and 20th November 2009. The theme chosen was “Rethinking Learning and Employment at a Time of Economic Uncertainty”, reflecting the environment in which results of the project were to be deployed. The eight papers are grouped into three thematic sections: (1) strategic issues related to the provision competence development activities; (2) aspects of the technical infrastructure required to provide flexible support for competence development; (3) the results of pilots which make use of TENCompetence tools to provide competence development opportunities in four contrasting contexts of lifelong learning, outside the traditional context of formal education.The work on this publication has been sponsored by the TENCompetence Integrated Project that is funded by the European Commission's 6th Framework Programme, priority IST/Technology Enhanced Learning. Contract 027087 [http://www.tencompetence.org

Specifying the Didactic Design of Educational Multimedia and Telematics Applications

Koper, E.J.R. (1998). Specifying the Didactic Design of Educational Multimedia and Telematics Applications. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 14, 19-30.This article deals with the problem of the didactic (or 'pedagogical') design of educational software. An object-oriented design method and a supporting tool (called 'Shoctool') are presented. The method and the tool both stimulate the re-use of existing design and code segments. Resulting designs can be accessed for completeness, allow for comparisons among designs and are relatively easy to read for others than the designer himself. The idea is that the use of such a method and tool can make the development process more efficient and can lead to a more professional approach of the didactic design of educational software in general. Shoctool is described along with several examples from real practice. The article concludes with a discussion of the experience we had with the introduction and use

Virtual communities, research groups and projects on IMS Learning Design. State of the art, key factors and forthcoming challenges

We carry out a report showing the state of the art about virtual communities, research groups and projects focused on the e-learning specification IMS Learning Design or directly related to it. This specification is currently becoming the most flexible and supported de facto standard for modelling full learning processes, as a complement for any structure of educational contents. Afterwards, as a consequence of the previous study, we develop a reading and a further analysis of the current panorama, and describe the key factors that show the relevance and impact of IMS Learning Design and also the main forthcoming challenges