Design and Development of Personal Learning Environment for Higher Education

Research Proposal Presentation

10 November 2010

Agenda Introduction

Problem Statement Aim and Objectives Scope and Limitation

Personal Learning Environment (PLE) Social Computing Learning Management System (LMS) Contrasting LMS and PLE

Research Methodology Conclusion

Introduction Evolution in web applications/technology (Web

2.0) enables endless possibilities of teaching and learning

E-learning is prominent in higher education In reality, interaction is still limited within e-

learning platform – lack of social interaction in learning

To design and develop a better learning environment – Personal Learning Environment (PLE) – integrate with existing e-learning platform

Problem Statement Institutional e-learning platform - Learning

Management System (LMS) LMS – coursework focus and support teaching

and administration more than learning Problems/limitation in LMS:

Unidirectional knowledge creation Limited communication Lack of collaboration Learning ends with semester

Proposed solution: PLE allows learner to control own learning environment with the use of social software

Aim and Objectives Aim: Design and develop a personal learning

environment (PLE) for higher education by integrating PLE to existing e-learning platform (LMS)

Objectives: Understand the underlying learning principles or

theories that required to support PLE Identify types of social software Propose a design of PLE for both learners and

educators Develop a PLE prototype Evaluate the prototype

Scope and Limitation The research will be conducted based on the

following assumptions: Both educators and learners are current users of

existing e-learning platform They are ‘super-users’ in Web 2.0 technology Scaffolding and self-directed learning are sufficient

and effective for most knowledge domain Learners are comfortable to participate in

community learning and are willing to share and connect

Personal Learning Environment

Social Computing Social software can be categorized into 4

conceptual groups:Category Description Types of Application: Examples

Collaboration Applications that allow collaborative authoring

content by multiple parties

Wikis: Wikipedia

Communication Applications that allow interaction between

multiple parties

Email: Gmail

Instant Messaging: MSN Live, Yahoo

Messenger

Peer-to-peer: Skype

Relationship

management

Applications that allow identity and relationship

management via social network

Social network: Facebook, LinkedIn

Information Applications that allow collection or publishing

or sharing of information and facilitating

feedback input

Blog: Blogger, Wordpress

Microblog: Twitter, Plurk

Media Sharing: Flickr, YouTube

Social Bookmarking: Del.ici.ous

Learning Management System (LMS) Typical functions of LMS:

Content management: Manage and upload coursework

Learning process control Organize content according to coursework requirement

Communication Email and forum

Assessment Grading assignment

Administration Educator has the administrative control Learner has the basic control

Contrasting LMS and PLEEssential Aspects LMS PLE Challenges

1 Role of learner Learner is only consumer of

knowledge and highly dependent

on the educator’s content for

learning

Learner is ‘prosumer’ (producer +

consumer) of knowledge and

educator acts as scaffold

Self-regulation is essential

to move from consumer

role to prosumer

2 Personalization Organization of content is limited

to the system functionality and

preference of the educator

Organization of content is flexible

and to the preference of the

individual learner

Self-organization and

competence of using tools

3 Content Developed by the educator or

domain experts

Consists of myriad source of

knowledge from multiple sources

in the Web

Competence in searching

and organizing appropriate

sources

4 Social involvement Limited collaborative work and

only focus on the closed learner

group

Community and social

involvement is the key for learning

process

Community and

collaboration as learning

opportunities

Contrasting LMS and PLE (cont.)

Essential Aspects LMS PLE Challenges

5 Ownership Controlled by the educational

institutions

Controlled by the learner or

service providers

Awareness of personal

data

6 Educational &

organizational culture

Imitation of classroom learning,

coursework focused and educator

oriented

Focus on self-regulated learner Change of learning

culture and perspective

7 Technological aspects Classical learning content

management interoperability

between LMS and database

Social software and aggregation

of multiple sources

Interoperability between

LMS and social software

Research Methodology General Methodology of Design Research

Knowledge Flow Process Steps Output

Awareness of problem

Suggestion

Development

Evaluation

Conclusion

Proposal

Tentative design

Artifacts

Performance measures

Results

Circumscription

Operation & Goal knowledge

Conclusion The expected outcome:

A PLE system to bring e-learning in higher education to next level where teaching and learning are not limited to the boundary of institutional learning environment

Challenges: Perspective shift - both technological and human

aspects Change of learning culture – focus on self-

regulated learning Community and collaboration as learning

opportunities