Mart Laanpere, Kai Pata, and Vladimir TombergTallinn University, Estonia

Pedagogy-driven design of virtual learning environments

IVA LMS Empirical study Results Conclusions The next steps

Questioning “don’t-make-me-think” principle while designing LMS

Questioning pedagogical neutrality of LMS Moodle – a constructivist LMS? PowerPoint syndrome What constitutes a pedagogy-driven design?

Learning-related affordances through:◦ Pedagogical vocabulary◦ Pedagogically motivated structure of UI◦ Built-in activity templates

Open source, free software, developed in TLU in 2002 as a derivate of Finnish VLE called FLE3

Supports SCORM 2004, IMS QTI 1.2 More than 20 000 users in 23 educational

institutions in Estonia Pedagogically non-neutral (social constructivist)

foundation, based on Jonassen’s 3C model◦ meaningful and authentic Context for learning◦ tools, support, time and space for personal knowledge

Construction◦ support for Collaboration and group reflection and

production

Context

Collaboration

ConstructionKNOWLEDGE

Modeling process

Authentictasks

Apprenticeship

Situated learningCase-based problems

Multiple perspectives

Indexed meanings

Coaching Social negotiation of meaning

Articulation Reflection

Mental modelsIntentions,

expectations

Internal negotiation

Domain-specific reasoning

Invention,exploration

IVA

WebTop BookShelf WorkShops Management

Portfolio

Learning resources

Cource info

Knowledge Building

Jamming

Subgroups

User management

Subgroup management

Quiz management

Cource management Journal

CalendEvents

Event management

Stats

For teachers

only

CollaborationContext

Construction

Assignments, grading

Forum

Media workshop

Organizer

Welcome page Personal resources

Research questions:◦ Which activities tend to co-occur during a

session? ◦ Which learning paradigm related activity patterns

are used by students and teachers within IVA environment?

Data from May 2008 (only from Tallinn University): 1506 students and 57 teachers, respectively 14676 and 872 IVA sessions

Log file analysis, frequencies of http requests in each section of IVA

Correlation analysis: co-occurrence of tool use during one IVA session

Three patterns were identified:◦ Knowledge building pattern (k): involved

Knowledge-building forum, Subgroups or Workshops;◦ Knowledge testing pattern (t): involved Testing;◦ Knowledge distribution pattern (r): involved only

storing/retrieving on Webtop and Bookshelf

Although social constructivist activity patterns are dominating among IVA users, it would be difficult to attribute this fact to the pedagogy-driven design of IVA

The main difference between students and teachers is related to Knowledge Distribution pattern – students seem to socialize, communicate and collaborate in other environments

Looking for sequences (where did the student go after visiting his/her personal portfolio)

Learning activity workflow monitoring and analysis tools will be built in to IVA2 – the next-generation VLE