Using Cloudworks to Support OER Activities

This report forms the third and final output of the Pearls in the Clouds project, funded by the Higher Education Academy. It focuses on evaluation of the use of a social networking site, Cloudworks, to support evidence-based practice. The aim of this project (Pearls in the Clouds) has been to evaluate the ways in which web 2.0 tools like Cloudworks can support evidence-informed practices in relation to learning and teaching. We have reviewed evidence from empirically grounded studies surrounding the uses of web2.0 in higher education and highlighted the gap between using web2.0 to support learning and teaching, and using it to support learning about learning and teaching (in an evidence-informed way) (Conole and Alevizou, 2010). We have reported on findings from a case study focusing on the use of Cloudworks by a community of practice - educational technologists - reflecting upon, and, negotiating their role in enhancing teaching and learning in higher education (Galley et al., 2010). The object of this study is to explore and evaluate the use of the site by individuals and communities involved in the production of, and research on, the development, delivery and use of Open Educational Resources (OER)

Case Study: Using Cloudworks for an Open Literature Review

This case study is one of a series exploring the ongoing use and development of the Cloudworks site. This case study will focus on an expert elicitation Cloudscape established to support a literature review project led by the University of Exeter and funded by the Higher Education Academy (HEA): "The positioning of educational technologists in enhancing the student experience". We will look in detail at the way the site was utilised by the project teams and other participants in the review, and evaluate the site's effectiveness in supporting this piece of research. We will make recommendations for the development of support resources associated with the site and suggest factors that might impact on the success of similar activities

Mixing and Matching Learning Design and Learning Analytics

In the last five years, learning analytics has proved its potential in predicting academic performance based on trace data of learning activities. However, the role of pedagogical context in learning analytics has not been fully understood. To date, it has been difficult to quantify learning in a way that can be measured and compared. By coding the design of e-learning courses, this study demonstrates how learning design is being implemented on a large scale at the Open University UK, and how learning analytics could support as well as benefit from learning design. Building on our previous work, our analysis was conducted longitudinally on 23 undergraduate distance learning modules and their 40,083 students. The innovative aspect of this study is the availability of fine-grained learning design data at individual task level, which allows us to consider the connections between learning activities, and the media used to produce the activities. Using a combination of visualizations and social network analysis, our findings revealed a diversity in how learning activities were designed within and between disciplines as well as individual learning activities. By reflecting on the learning design in an explicit manner, educators are empowered to compare and contrast their design using their own institutional data

Post impact evaluation of an E-learning cross-infection control CD-ROM provided to all general dental practitioners in England

Aim To carry out a post-impact evaluation of a cross-infection control CD-ROM, developed for NHS dental teams as a continuing professional development e-learning tool. The program was commissioned by the Department of Health and developed by a project team through the UK Committee of Postgraduate Dental Deans. The Dental Practice Boardhad originally sent one copy of the CD-ROM to each dental practice in England in 2004. Method A quantitative statistical analysis of the results of 326 online respondents to the learning package and a survey of 118 dental practitioners drawn from the Dental Practice Board database. Results Practitioners felt the CD-ROM in this instance was well designed and appropriate for their needs. It is inclusive and accessible to a wide range of dental professionals including nurses and hygienists. Conclusions This form of continuing professional development is popular with dental practitioners, although it should not be the only form of continuing professional development available. However, whilst the project was generally regarded as successful, there were problems with the distribution of the CD-ROM. This suggests that anonline resource should be made available in the future

A review, timeline, and categorization of learning design tools

Enabling teachers to define or portray efficient teaching ideas for sharing, reuse or adaptation has attracted the interest of Learning Design researchers and has led to the development of a variety of learning design tools. In this paper, we introduce a multi-dimensional framework for the analysis of learning design tools and use it to review twenty-nine tools currently available to researchers and practitioners. Lastly, we categorise these tools according to the main functionality that they offer

Displaced but not replaced: the impact of e-learning on academic identities in higher education.

Challenges facing universities are leading many to implement institutional strategies to incorporate e-learning rather than leaving its adoption up to enthusiastic individuals. Although there is growing understanding about the impact of e-learning on the student experience, there is less understanding of academics’ perceptions of e-learning and its impact on their identities. This paper explores the changing nature of academic identities revealed through case study research into the implementation of e-learning at one UK university. By providing insight into the lived experiences of academics in a university in which technology is not only transforming access to knowledge but also influencing the balance of power between academic and student in knowledge production and use, it is suggested that academics may experience a jolt to their ‘trajectory of self’ when engaging with e-learning. The potential for e-learning to prompt loss of teacher presence and displacement as knowledge expert may appear to undermine the ontological security of their academic identity

Orchestrating learning activities using the CADMOS learning design tool

This paper gives an overview of CADMOS (CoursewAre Development Methodology for Open instructional Systems), a graphical IMS-LD Level A & B compliant learning design (LD) tool, which promotes the concept of “separation of concerns” during the design process, via the creation of two models: the conceptual model, which describes the learning activities and the corresponding learning resources, and the flow model, which describes the orchestration of these activities. According to the feedback from an evaluation case study with 36 participants, reported in this paper, CADMOS is a user-friendly tool that allows educational practitioners to design flows of learning activities using a layered approach

Facilitating new forms of discourse for learning and teaching: harnessing the power of Web 2.0 practices

When asked what they would find most helpful to enable them to use technologies more in their teaching, most teachers say "give me examples, in my subject area" and "point me to relevant people I can discuss these issues with". Web 2.0 technologies - with their emphasis on sharing, networking and user production - seem to offer a potential solution. However uptake and use of web 2.0 sites such as blogs, social networking and wikis by teachers for sharing and discussing practice has being marginal so far. This paper focuses on work we are undertaking as part of the OU Learning Design Initiative (http://ouldi.open.ac.uk) and the Hewlett-funded Olnet initiative (http://olnet.org). A key focus of our work is the development of tools, methods and approaches to support the design of innovative learning activities and Open Educational Resources (OER). In this paper I want to focus on one strand of our work; namely how to leverage technologies to promote better sharing and discussing of learning and teaching ideas and designs

The potential of a mobile group blog to support cultural learning among overseas students

We explored the use of mobile social software, in the form of a mobile group blog, to assist cultural learning. The potential of using this technology for cultural adaptation among overseas students was examined as those students adapted to the everyday life of studying abroad. Two pilot studies and a successful field study of a mobile group blog as used by UK overseas students are reported. A further study with prospective overseas students witnessing this ‘moblogging’ in China revealed the advantages of communicating through this technology as a form of peer-supported preparation for cultural adaptation. Potential advantages for learning a second language via this system, were highlighted as communication was interweaved with cultural adaptation and exercised in the blog entries. Given mobile internet, the language experience together with cultural observation impressively supported these students' growing confidence with time, space and imagination

Case Study 3: Exploring open educational resources for informal learning

This chapter explores the potential of informal learning within a Personal Learning Environment (PLE), as well as the identified informal learning cultures that have evolved from the use of Open Educational Resources (OER). A variety of research instruments and strategies have been employed to promote the use of PLEs in this case study and capture a rich variety of feedback from Communities of Practice. In particular, there is a focus on the active use of a PLE and its integration with OER available from the OpenLearn project of the Open University. Additionally, this chapter describes the discovered necessary guidance conditions, emergent contrasting learning contexts and evolving different scenarios in use within the selected Communities of Practice. This research has led to the identification of valuable lessons as well as the documentation of challenges that are faced by those using PLEs in the context of informal learning scenarios