A New Linkage for the Assessment of Prior Learning

Technology can help to develop new approaches for today’s assessment practice. This contribution presents a project that concentrates on the use of electronic portfolios and Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA) to assess prior learning experiences of learners. After an introduction the assessment triangle is presented as a reference framework. The role of the electronic portfolio for prior learning assessment is identified. Latent Semantic Analysis is introduced as an innovative assessment technology. A report about a recently conducted cased study at the Open University of the Netherlands follows. A problem discussion and research outlook rounds up the article

Effects of the ISIS Recommender System for navigation support in self-organised Learning Networks

Drachsler, H., Hummel, H. G. K., Van den Berg, B., Eshuis, J., Berlanga, A., Nadolski, R., Waterink, W., Boers, N., & Koper, R. (2008). Effects of the ISIS Recommender System for navigation support in self-organized Learning Networks. Presentation at the 4th conference Edumedia Conference 2008 Self-organized learning in the interactive Web – Changing learning culture? 1st Workshop on Technology Support for Self-Organized Learners (TSSOL08). June, 3, 2008, Salzburg, Austria.Presentation of the experimental effects of the ISIS recommender system for self-organized Learning Networks. In this study we applied a recommender system that was based on stereotype filtering algorithm and a domain ontology in an experimental Moodle environment. For the stereotype filtering part we took into account successful completed learning activities by other learners as implicit ratings. The ontology was mainly used to cover the ‘cold-start’ problem. Therefore, we took advantage of the explicit association of domain experts in order to recommend learning activities. The recommendation was based on quantitative information about successful completions of activities by learners with similar preferences.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

MijnOU.nl (proef met een sociale netwerkdienst binnen de Open Universiteit)

Doel van het project Mijnou.nl Het ideaal van een volledig gepersonaliseerd startportaal, waarin studenten via een Single Sign On (SSO) toegang vinden tot al het leermateriaal waarop zij rechten hebben verworven, relevante informatie vinden over activiteiten op studiecentra, contacten kunnen aanknopen met studiegenoten en docenten, kortom een omgeving waarin zij alles kunnen doen en vinden wat voor hun studie nodig is, is in de loop van het project leidend geweest, maar niet doelstellend. Binnen dat kader is in dit project geconcenstreerd op social netwerkvoorzieningen, waarmee de student zich kan profileren en contacten kan leggen en kan communiceren met medestudente

Mini Games for Professional Awareness in Introductory Psychology

Main problems with the current course Introduction to Psychology in our university is that students consider the content as too theoretical and insufficient in providing professional practice. Potential solutions are expected to come from mini-games that have proven to enable more active and contextualized learning. In the context of course revision, the developmental research project that feeds this paper entails the design, development and evaluation of such mini-games. In this short paper on work in progress we argue why and describe how these mini-games provide students with practical, rich and safe learning environments as well as active engagement with study specialisations and career profiles (section 1). Of core importance to our design approach is to develop an overarching pedagogical scenario that connects authentic cases from practice to learning activities in education which can be represented through mini-games. At the basis of our game play lies a multi-facetted problem family that is to be analysed and treated from the four main psychological perspectives that are offered as specialisations in our Master program Psychology. Competences practiced through practical assignments within the game (planned are about 16 mini-games that will each take 1-2 hours) are how to communicate with patients, how to conduct tests and therapies in actual practice, how to build and analyse client files, how to deal with practical dilemmas, useless information and unexpected events, amongst others. Besides describing the game design (section 2), this paper presents the experimental research design (section 3). For both effectiveness and cost-efficiency reasons, we intend to answer two research questions that appear to be relevant for advancing our knowledge about serious gaming in education by comparing experimental variants of mini-games on their learning effect: Does the inclusion of more active learning foster improved professional awareness?; and Does the inclusion of more situated knowledge foster improved professional awareness? At the time of the ECGBL2016 conference first prototypes of the mini-games will be available for demonstration and discussion