e learning innovationscenario_2010

C.A.T.T.I.D. Centre of Applications for Television and Digital Technology Innovation ”Sapienza” University of Rome

E-Learning: Innovation scenarios Weaknesses of traditional e-Learning and analysis of more effective methodologies

Summary

• Adults as distance e-Learners: peculiar characteristics

• Weaknesses of traditional e-Learning programs involving employed learners

• The quest for improved interactivity and the importance of relationship building

• Towards e-Learning 2.0

– Reference’s framework

– Experience of C.A.T.T.I.D.

• Simulations: opportunities and threats

– Some important aspects

– Experience of C.A.T.T.I.D

– Critical points to take into account

Employed learners who participate in distance learning programs are often quite different to learners enrolled in university or post-graduate distance learning programs. Adult learners, in fact:

• have a different set of needs, strategies and motivations towards the learning process

• can be experiential learners and have a life experience that becomes an additional resource for learning

• are often capable to successfully generate internal motivation for their learning, frequently based on notions of self-development, career advancement and achievement

Adults as distance e-Learners

Peculiar characteristics (1/2)

• are intent on directly applying their learning and approach learning primarily as a problem-solving activity

• tend to complete e-Learning in their personal time due to workload pressures in the workplace

• can experience feelings of isolation through lack of support and a perceived lack of control. These sorts of circumstances can force mature learners into non-completion even though they may be performing well in their distance studies

Adults as distance e-Learners

Peculiar characteristics (2/2)

Unsatisfied needs of employed e-Learners

Generate new knowledge building on personal experiences and previous achievements

Be involved in learning experiences that enhance spontaneous and playful dimension of learning

Being part of learning communities

Make the training an opportunity to build relationships and create discussion and group sharing

Build on their prior knowledge and perceive the applicability of the lessons learned to their work

Weaknesses of traditional e-Learning

Distributes consolidated knowledge

Is often e-Teaching

May isolate the learner

Is delivered by a single provider/institution

May ignore the learner’s context and previous achievements

Weaknesses of traditional e-Learning methodologies

involving employed learners (1/2)

Formative effectiveness can be affected by the mismatch between traditional e-Learning features and the employed-learner’s needs.

E-Learning programs that are exclusively based on self-learning, display a dropout-rate as high as 75% in working environments.

Weaknesses of traditional e-Learning programs

involving employed learners (2/2)

Because of the high failure-rate of traditional e-Learning, many professionals realized the need to keep in high regard not only the peculiarities of the used media, but also the adult students’ needs, expectations and learning style.

Positive results have been achieved through the adoption of a learning environment embodying:

The quest for improved interactivity

and the importance of relationship building

• Social networking (the so-called “e-Learning 2.0”) • A well-framed use of simulations and serious games

The advent and the rapid growth of Web 2.0 introduced, in the last few years, substantial changes in the practices of web-based distance learning.

The spread of social networking and social media, with all the corollary of interaction and activity in online communities, has created a kind of literacy to peers’ collaboration and information/knowledge sharing.

Towards e-Learning 2.0

Since 2003 Web 2.0 has been characterized by a rapid growth followed, at a later time, by a slowdown, thus testifying to its maturity. Web 2.0 provides different media, allowing for different ways to have a dialogue and collaborate: this could help learners, in an instructional environment, to enhance their knowledge in a more participant and motivating way. Which 2.0 applications could be used in a learning environment? What is nowadays their actual diffusion?


Reference’s frame (1/3)

• Social Networking Services (November 2009: over 450 million profiles on social networking sites)

• Blogs (The size of the blogosphere has doubled every 5-7 months in recent years and more than 100,000 blogs are created daily)

• Wikis (Since its creation in 2001, Wikipedia has grown rapidly into one of the largest reference websites, attracting at least 684 million visitors yearly by 2008. There are more than 75,000 active contributors working on more than 10,000,000 articles in more than 250 languages)

• Tagging, Social Bookmarking e Folksonomies (January 2010: About 5 million blogs posted at least one tagged post)



• Media Sharing Services (More than 1 billion photos are uploaded in photo sites. December 2009: there were 2,500 university channels on YouTube and many learning-related topic groups).

• Podcasts (The estimated number of podcasts in 2010 was over 1.000,000 when, only three years earlier, there had been fewer than 100,000)

• Online social gaming (more than 1000 MMORPG, “Massive(ly) Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game”, exist today worldwide. Playing games online is attracting a quarter of the total worldwide Internet population)



• AddMe, Activating Drivers for Digital eMpowerment in Europe

• Cemsdi, Civil-servants Empowerment for Multi-media Service Delivery ICT-enabled

• ESCS, Training European Senior Civil Servants for tomorrow


Experience of C.A.T.T.I.D. (1/7)

Currently C.A.T.T.I.D. is involved in various projects where, among the key elements, strategies and tools of e-learning 2.0 are used.

Among the most significant are:

ADD ME! is a pan-European network bringing together into a common framework and learning environment, by means of a community of practice, the different social and institutional organizations that support or can support disadvantaged groups in becoming major beneficiaries of public services to which they are entitled.

AddMe, Activating Drivers for Digital eMpowerment in Europe

Target: • elderly poor and retired seniors • youngsters not in education, employment and training (NEET), and non-EU

teenagers that are integrating into a local community with their families or by themselves

• individual civil servants from small or medium size local governments, mainly those administrations that do not pertain to large metropolitan areas and suffer the digital divide



Partners:

1) CATTID (CATTID) (Coordinator) IT 2) KS Nalra (KS) NO 3) GISO (GISO) GR 4) ADICONSUM (ADI) IT 5) Inesc Porto (INE) PT 6) Gov2u (Gov2u) GR 7) Digital Access (DA) GR 8) University of Adgar (UIA) NO 9) Comune di Modena (CM) IT 10) Fondazione Mondo Digitale (FMD) IT

Start Date: November 2009 Duration: 24 months

AddMe, Activating Drivers for Digital eMpowerment in Europe

11) 4C Hungary (4C) HU 12) eINK Hungary (eINK) HU 13) Nottingham City (Notts) UK 14) Esd Limited UK 15) Vysocina Region (VYS) CZ 16) Seniornett Norge (SEN) NO 17) CEMR (CEMR) BE 18) Santa Maria de Feira Mun. (SMF) PT 19) I2BC (I2BC) ES



CEMSDI is a project to empower the public sector in Europe, through a strong capacity building initiative of civil servants and other practitioners by creating a validated learning environment supporting planning, reorganization of administrative procedures and working methodologies, service delivery and communication with citizens and enterprises using the modern ICT.

Target: • civil servants from local and regional governments • practitioners from associations, agencies, institutes, local networks and

enterprises created by local/regional administrations • practitioners from SME’s

Cemsdi, Civil-servants Empowerment for Multi-media Service Delivery ICT-enabled



Partners:

1) INNOVA EU Belgium (Coord.) 2) CATTID (University of Rome “La Sapienza”) Italy 3) Scuola Superiore della Pubblica Amministrazione Locale Italy 4) Comunità Montane Media Valle del Cerchio (Toscana) Italy 5) Norwegian Association of Local Authorities Norway 6) Asociaciòn de Municipios del Pais Vasco EUDEL Spain 7) Robotiker Spain 8) Electronic Service Deliver (ESD ) Limited UK 9) INESC PORTO Portugal 10) Régie Cooperativa VARD- 2015, CIPRL Portugal 11) Vysocina Region, VYSOCINA Czech Republic

Start Date: April 2010 Duration: 24 months



Cemsdi, Civil-servants Empowerment for Multi-media Service Delivery ICT-enabled

ESCS, Training European Senior Civil Servants for tomorrow

The course aims at improving competences, networking skills and knowledge for those officials who have regular exchanges with their European counterparts or those interested in working in the Public Administration of another EU Member State. This type of mobility scheme will enhance learner’s career development and will provide them with a significant experience in an international and highly professional environment. The ESCS is an innovative model of transnational training and networking, thanks to the active involvement of European schools and institutes of public administration from 9 countries. The e-learning module lasts six weeks and is highly interactive, with full tutorial assistance to users and interaction and collaboration via a “forum café” and a “wiki”.



Partners:

• the Scuola Superiore della Pubblica Amministrazione - SSPA (Italy) • the Ecole nationale d'administration - ENA (France) • the Bundesakademie für öffentliche Verwaltung im Bundesministerium

des Innern - BAköV (Germany) • the National School of Public Administration - EKDDA (Greece) • the Kormányzati Személyügyi Szolgáltató Közigazgatási Képzési Központ -

KSZK (Government Centre for Public Adm. and Human Resource Services) (Hungary)

• the Krajowa Szkola Administracji Publicznej - KSAP (Poland) • the Instituto Nacional de Administration Publica - INAP (Spain) • the National School of Government (United Kingdom) • the Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (France)

Start Date: November 2009 (3rd ESCS Course)



ESCS, Training European Senior Civil Servants for tomorrow

Simulations allow to turn theories and hypothesis into concrete examples by showing their application in real settings. They make possible the creation of an environment suitable for experiments without risk and/or consequences of various sort. They have the ability to directly involve the learner, placing him at the center of the situation. They are suitable for training in managerial contexts, because they allow the learner to experiment new behavioral strategies, evaluating the effects of decisions in the short and long term.

Simulations: Opportunities and Threats

Some of the characteristics of simulations are very useful in learning courses that involve students who are placed in professional contexts:

• Learners’ identification. In order to fulfill its role and educational purpose a simulation should be able to engage the learner. Since this training approach is characterized by a videogame-like structure, a simulation is capable of attracting and maintaining the attention of learners for its whole duration, even if they repeat the experience


Some important aspects (1/2)

• Practical approach, problem solving oriented. The submission of real settings allows to place the learner at the center of the reference context and actively involve him/her in resolving the problem

• Obtaining feedback. At the end of the simulation, the learner is

invited to consider his/her 'performance', by evaluating the decisions taken, the exchanges made, the critical steps and the total path conducted. This is an opportunity to re-considerate the adopted strategy


Some important aspects (2/2)

LABeL is the e-Learning Laboratory of C.A.T.T.I.D. where, over the years, extensive research and experimentation have been run on areas such as immersive education, mobile learning, complexity education and digital game based learning, with special focus on simulations and serious game.

In 2009, moreover, was held at Label a series of seminars aimed to the systematization of knowledge and practice on simulations, serious games and business games, by analyzing and comparing many national and international experiences.



An example of effective use of simulations in a business context is represented by the case “Bank robberies: Security measures and effective actions” of ABI Training.

• The online simulation allows users to interact with the robbery event in a likely but protected context

• It is addressed to all operators of commercial network

• It has an estimated duration of 4 hours

• It is built on three scenarios with different dynamics of the robbery and involving a different number of robbers

• Within each scenario, the story is structured in steps, which leads the learner to the decision-making

• At the end of each scenario the user receives a report that analyzes and comments every choice



Main problems related to the use of simulation in educational contexts:


Critical points to take into account

• Long time for implementation and high production costs

• Need to employ professionals that are still rare on the market

Therefore it is not appropriate to invest much time on the development of a single training simulation, but to invest in planning a system designed to automate some of the technical aspects of the creation process of simulations, thereby enabling those who do not possess technical skills to work as developers.

[email protected] [email protected]

MORE INFORMATION

www.cattid.uniroma1.it

e learning innovationscenario_2010

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