Overview of the Institute of Learning Innovation

Terese Bird, Grainne Conole, Palitha Edirisingha, and Paul Rudman

1st July 2013

Outline

• The context – E-learning timeline– Learner experience

• Research at ILI• Future challenges

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The importance of e-learning

• Potential to support interaction, communication and collaboration

• Developing digital literacy skills• Preparing students for an uncertain future• Improving employability opportunities• Increased importance of technology in society• Connecting students beyond the course

The MATEL study

• Productivity and creativity• Networked collaboration• Content creation• Visualisation and simulation• Learning Management Systems• Learning environment• Games• Devices, interfaces and connectivity

http://www.menon.org/matel/

6

• Technology immersed• Learning approaches: task-

orientated, experiential, just in time, cumulative, social

• Personalised digital learning environment

• Mix of institutional systems and Cloud-based tools and services

• Use of course materials with free resources

Learner experience

Sharpe, Beetham and De Freitas, 2010

EDUCAUSE survey

Institute of Learning Innovation

• Mission– To research and apply

learning innovations to inform policy and shape practice

• Vision– To enable creativity, quality

and innovation in learning and teaching to enhance the learner experience

Areas of activity

• Research• Teaching• Supervision• Consultancy• Visiting scholars• Institutional advice

Areas of research• Openness (OER, MOOCs, digital scholarship)

– POERUP, OER in Rwanda • Learning Design

– SPEED and METIS • Mobile learning

– eBooks and PLACES, iPads for reading strategies, podcasts • Virtual worlds

– SWIFT • Social media

– use for research • Learner experience/teacher practice

– use with teachers • Digital literacies and creativity

– PELECON • Technology-Enhanced Pedagogies

– Overview and SCENE

POERUP outputs

• An inventory of more than 100 OER initiatives http://poerup.referata.com/wiki/Countries_with_OER_initiatives

• 11 country reports and 13 mini-reports http://poerup.referata.com/wiki/Countries

• 7 in-depth case studies• 3 EU-wide policy papers

MOOCS

FreeDistributed global community

Social inclusion

High dropout ratesLearning income not learning outcome

Marketing exercise http://olds.ac.uk

http://olds.ac.uk

Promise and reality

Social and participatory media offer new ways to communicate and collaborate

Wealth of free resources and tools

Not fully exploited

Replicating bad pedagogy

Lack of time and skills

Digital literacy skills

http://edudemic.com/2013/04/important-21st-century-skills/

Creativity

Multi-tasking

Performance

Simulation

Appropriation

Play

Distributed cognition

Judgment

Collective Intelligence

Transmedia Navigation

Networking

Negotiation

Jenkins et al., 2006Lisa Marie Blaschke on fb

The 7Cs of Learning DesignConceptualise

Vision

CommunicateCapture ConsiderCollaborate

Activities

Combine

Synthesis

Consolidate

Implementation

http://www2.le.ac.uk/projects/oer/oers/beyond-distance-research-alliance/7Cs-toolkit

Course features• Pedagogical approaches• Principles• Guidance and support• Content and activities• Reflection and demonstration• Communication and collaboration

http://cloudworks.ac.uk/cloud/view/5950

Embedded E-books and E-Readers in Distance LearningLessons from projectsDUCKLING& Places

Terese BirdLearning Technologist and SCORE Research FellowMobiLearn Asia 2012Singapore Photo by brewbooks on Flickr

DUCKLING: Delivering University Curriculum: Knowledge, Learning and INnovation Gains

• 3 distance programmes in 2 disciplines:– One MA in Applied Linguistics and TESOL, Education– Two MSc in Occupational Psychology, Psychology

• 4 technologies:

Podcasting

Wimba Voice Board

Sony E-book readers

Second Life

http://www.le.ac.uk/duckling

28 Sony PRS-505 e-book readers, pre-loaded with course materials and podcasts, given to 17 TESOL and 11 OP students

Instruments TESOL OP Total

Blackboard Survey 17 11 28

Cognitive mapping Interviews

9 3 12

Causal map

The pilot and research

Course material conversion

epubbud.comCalibre.com

Flexibility and mobility

Small, compact size

Readability

Easy on the eyes

Access from a single device without internet

Portability Capacity

Long battery life

Continue reading, Bookmark

Photo by Kzeng on Flickr

Photo by Yummy Pancake on Flickr

One-iPad-per-distance-student:MSc in Security, Conflict and International Development, Department of Criminology

Photo by The USO on Flickrr

Peacekeeper-student’s coffee break during long-range patrol

Yida refugee camp, South Sudan by Acnur Las Americas, Flickr

Overall course evaluations 2012-2013:

50%use the Course App and iPad daily

90%found iPad to be ‘useful’ or ‘very useful’ part of the study pack

61%use the Course App more than Blackboard

…even though Blackboard is required

Student comments:

Being in the military I needed a course I could study literally anywhere.

The innovation of Leicester in taking distance learning forward into the 21st Century made it an obvious choice.

The course App is easily accessed, it is pre- structured and organised. I find it a logical progression and a great guide to complete a unit by using the course app. If it was not available I would use the blackboard as opposed to print,

again as it easier to access view. I travel quite a lot for work making the use of Ipad ideal

Course tutor’s comments:

“…Absolutely fantastic. Aside from it being so intuitive, the way students can access materials, it’s just so lightweight; the amount of stuff they get, it doesn’t

take up much room. “

“… In the field, they’re not going to take their laptop, they may not have access to computers… but they’ve got their iPad, so they can look at the material.”

Enhancing learners’ metacognition about L2 reading in Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL)

School of Education

Postgraduate Researcher Conference

2013 Saturday 29th

June 2013

Enhancing learners’ metacognition about L2 reading in Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL)

School of Education

Postgraduate Researcher Conference

2013 Saturday 29th

June 2013

Natalia Auer

PURPOSE

• To examine the reading strategies used by adult Spanish learners to understand digital texts when using tablets

• To determine which features in the tablets enable awareness of reading strategies

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

• How L2 metacognitive reading strategies can be mediated by the technology?

• What type of metacognitive L2 reading strategies do Spanish language learners use with tablets?

• Which functions in the tablets (iPad) facilitate metacognitive L2 reading strategies?

VIDEOCONFERENCING and CODING

Social media

Include learninginn, ILI blog, tbird twitter, fb page

Social Mediato enable and profile the researcher

Terese Bird, Institute of Learning InnovationDr Alan Cann, Department of BiologyResearchers’ Workshop, 14 June 2013University of Leicester

Photo byjennifermackenziejones, Flickr

iTunesUReach & SPIDER Projects: Social Media to conduct & disseminate research• Website• Blog – open notebook, disseminate, collaborate• Online survey – baseline• Scoop.it – identify, curate, collaborate, disseminate• Data collection via Twitter and ‘Chinese Twitter’ Weibo• YouTube, Vimeo - disseminate• Slideshare - disseminate• Twitter & Facebook to disseminate and discuss

SWIFT – Learning in virtual worldsFeatures:• Harnesses imagination• Experiential learning• Creates learning context• Computer as personal tutor

Example applications:• Practical subjects• Language practice• Abstract concepts• Artistic creation

SCENE – Problem-Based Learning (PBL)

Aims:• Promote the use of PBL

as a teaching method in the EU

• Train teachers, trainers and head teachers on PBL pedagogy

Online coursevideo, discussion

forums, virtual classrooms

PBL repositoryTo share PBL

scenarios

Virtual Facilitator

To assist learners

Research Aims

• To identify HE students’ access to and the use of digital technologies and web 2.0 tools for their formal and informal learning in HE.

• To identify their level of media literacy, awareness and to develop strategies for addressing gaps in levels of literacy.

• To make recommendations for supporting students to further develop their competencies with online information.

Methods• Questionnaire surveys of 100 undergraduate and postgraduate

students to identify their ownership of and use of digital devices and web 2.0 tools– First round (2010-11) returned: 53– Second round (2011-12): returned 41

• Focus groups (4) with students (3 – 4 in each group) to gain a deeper insight into their use of web 2.0 tools in a learning context– First round (2010-11) 3 groups (10 students in total)– Second: 1 group of 3 students

• Workshops with students to develop and validate appropriate online activities and learning tools to improve their level of web awareness and literacy.

Key Theoretical Concepts

Digital / media literacy

Online affinity spaces

Participatory culture

You can download the data from the 2010-2011 questionnaire survey

http://goo.gl/kraQF

Next slides based on 2011 - 2012 data

Ownership of computer and other digital devices (% reporting)2012 data

Desktop

laptop

Smartphone

Phone

Camera

MP3Player

Tablet

eReader

GameDevice

0 20 40 60 80 100 120

35

100

82.5

17.5

92.5

87.5

42.5

10

25

2012 data set 1, n = 40

Devices used to access internet during term-time (% reporting)2012 data

UniComputer

OwnComputer

MobilePhone

iPodTouch

OtherDevices

Tablet

0 20 40 60 80 100 120

85

100

77.5

7.5

10

25

2012 data set 1, n = 40

[55% in 2011]

Freq

uenc

y of

usi

ng W

eb 2

.0 to

ols

and

activ

ities

– 2

012

data

Update SNS

Watch Television

Listen to radio

Write blog

Use SBMS

Contribute to wikis

Play video games

Download / share music

Use 3-D virtual worlds

Chat (e.g., MSN)

VOIP

Share digital photographs

Share videos

Record own music

Mix music

Make graphic art

Contribute to bulletin boards

Microblogging

Subscribe to RSS feeds

Programming

Selling on ebay

Online shopping

Online banking

Use ‘Apps’

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45

Missing

Rarely/never

Sometimes

Frequently

Special issues

• Designing for learning• Social inclusion and OER

Professional bodies

Social media

Include learninginn, ILI blog, tbird twitter, fb page

Policy debate

PhD students and visitors

• 11 PhD students• 2 - 3 visiting scholars per year• Visiting delegates (including: OU China,

Denmark teachers, Finland, South Africa, India, Kurdistan)

• 2 – 3 visiting PhD students

Consultancy

• Offerings across our research expertise areas• Learning Design workshops particularly

popular• Clients (including: Singapore, South Africa,

Ireland, China, UK, Malawi/Ghana) • Off the shelf workshop and bespoke offerings

Activities

• Cutting edge research and horizon scanning

• Institutional service and support

• Advice and consultancy• Input to policy debate at UoL

and beyond• Dissemination (at events and

via social media)

Learner practice

Use of technologies Diversity/culture

Teacher practice

Design practice

Use of technologies

Research

OERLearning design

Web 2.0

Virtual worlds

Learner experience

Horizon scanning

Research into practice

PolicyOER/iTunes

Learning spaces

Cloud computing

Virtual Learning Environment

Future challenges

• Disaggregation of Education

• Digital literacies• Digital skills and

jobs gap• Changing business

models• Future of work

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrsdkrebs/6400358699/