using an integrated learning design environment

METIS - Meeting teachers co-design needs by means of Integrated Learning

Environments

http://www.metis-project.org

Using an Integrated Learning Design Environment

European workshop. Metis Project

Author(s)/Editor(s): M.Angeles Serrano and Jonathan Chacón

Project Number: 531262-LLP-2012-ES-KA3-KA3MP 1

http://www.metis-project.org/

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Project Number: 531262-LLP-2012-ES-KA3-KA3MP

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author(s), and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

2

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/

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ContentsWorkshop aims and overview........................................................................................2

Workshop activity structure...........................................................................................5

Session 1: Making sense of learning design and collaborative learning (3h)............................5

Session 2: Conceptualizing design of collaborative learning (3h).............................................8

Session 3: Implementation of collaborative learning with ICT (in Moodle) (3h).....................11

How to design Collaborative Learning activities 1

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Workshop aims and overview1. Overview

A new generation of tools will change the way teachers work with other educators, teachers plan their actions, create and implement learning activities with their students using information technology and communications. These tools enable educator to become “learning designers”: able to apply innovative pedagogies, use systematic methods for the creation of courses and activities, documenting teaching practices and reflect on their impact in order to improve themselves.

The workshop is being offered as part of the Metis Project, and it is one of three pilot workshops being run across different educational sectors across Europe. You will use different tools for the co-design of your own collaborative learning activities. In these regards, you will follow the “learning design” lifecycle proposed by Metis from conceptualising designs to deploying them in virtual learning environments, such as Moodle.

1.1 Learning and other outcomesFor participants:

Apply one or more 'learning design' practices to incorporate collaborative learning in the context of your work;Demonstrate an understanding of the value of 'learning design' and note key issues and debates in the field;Use the ILDE tools to develop a learning design that fosters collaborative learning in the context of your work and share it with peers; andDemonstrate an understanding of the value of sharing design knowledge and identify forms and formats appropriate for your work.


http://www.metis-project.org/

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1.2 Workshop Schedule

Start time

Activity

code

Activity Duration/mins.

Session 1: Making sense of learning design and collaborative learning (3h)18:00 -- Introduction to LD, CL, METIS 30

18:30 -- Consent form 10

18:40 A1 How can Metis be important for Àgora 30

19:10 -- Introduction to CL and Patterns 30

19:40 -- Break 15

19:55 A2 Group formation and coming up with CL scenarios for Àgora

40

20:35 -- Registration in the ILDE and creation of a first LDS

15

20:50 -- Wrap-up 10

Session 2: Conceptualizing design of collaborative learning (3h)18:00 -- Introduction (re-cap, session goal and

dynamics, the METIS LD cycle) (30’)30

18:30 B1 Describe design project context 60

18:30 B2 Break 20

18:50 B3 Exploring ILDE: General overview of the ILDE and introduction to the conceptualization tools

60

20:50 -- Wrap-up 10

Session 3: Implementation of collaborative learning with ICT (in Moodle) (3h)18:00 -- Introduction (re-cap) 5


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18:05 C1 Introduction to Authoring (WebCollage) 10

18:15 C2 Authoring with WebCollage 45

19:00 -- Introduction to Implementation 15

19:15 C3 Completing the authored design and implementing in WebCollage

20

19:35 -- Break 15

19:50 -- Introduction to deployment (GLUE!-PS) 15

20:05 C4 Taking the implementation and deploying to Moodle

20

20:25 C5 Sharing the implementation and presenting the Moodle courses to the whole class

10

20:35 -- Wrap-up and enactment planning 15

20:50 -- Evaluation questionnaire 10


Workshop activity structure

Session 1: Making sense of learning design and collaborative learning (3h)

This session is intended as a sort of “warm-up” to the actual workshop contents, so that Àgora’s learning community can discuss among each other and be convinced that the contents and learning goals of the workshop are aligned with their own interests. Thus, this session contains a lot of collaboration and sharing work to reflect on how learning about learning design and collaborative learning can be important for the learning community of Àgora

The session has the following parts:

Introduction to LD, CL, METIS (30’)

In this part of the workshop, facilitators welcome participants to the room (e.g. asking them to sign the signature sheet), and introduce the METIS project and goals of the workshop. Also, the general structure of the workshop (sessions) will be introduced, as well as the concept of learning design and collaborative learning in general. All this should be done in non-researcher terminology (i.e. by the Agora facilitator).

Participants’ instructions: First, the facilitators will introduce the METIS project, and the workshop itself, its goals and general structure. Also, facilitators will do a first introduction to the notion of learning design and collaborative learning.

Participant resources: Facilitator slides for the session

Facilitator resources: Facilitator slides for the session, signature sheet

Consent form (10’)

Participants fill in the consent form after being informed of the nature, objective of the project and workshop as well as of the research use of the data that is going to be recorder throughout the sessions.

Participants’ instructions: Introduce the need of complete the consent form related to the ethical procedure of the project.

Participant resources: copies of the consent form, in Catalan or Spanish

Facilitator resources: Facilitator slides for the session

How can Metis be important for Àgora (Think-Pair-Share about benefits) (30’)

For the first “active” part of the session, participants will follow a Think-Pair-Share sequence of activities (the first of a series of collaborative patterns that workshop participants will experience as students) in order to agree on what kinds of benefits they see in the running

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of these workshops, in the concrete context of Àgora. This collaborative reflection exercise can be kick started by facilitators presenting prototypical scenarios of application of Metis/ILDE to the Àgora association’s daily practice.

Participants’ instructions: Think individually - Stop for a minute (well, 5 minutes) and think about the concepts of learning design, learning design community and collaborative learning that the facilitators just presented, and the scenarios of Àgora using the Metis approach. Do you think that you (or other colleagues at Àgora) could benefit from knowing more about that? Write into post-its at least 3 concrete benefits you see from taking a workshop like the one the facilitators just presented. If you think it also has disadvantages, you can put them in additional post-its.

Pair - Organize yourselves into groups (4-5 people per group). Take the post-its from the previous activity and explain them to your group. You have 15 minutes to do such explanations and to agree on a common set of benefits (or disadvantages!) this kind of workshop may have for you in Àgora. Put those benefits and disadvantages in a paper poster and add, if you like, any examples, drawings or explanations that may help understand the poster. Take a photo of the poster, for later use.

Share - Explain the poster you just made to the rest of your colleagues (in 3 minutes maximum). One of the facilitators will note down the main ideas/benefits/disadvantages that appear throughout the presentations, and do a quick wrap-up at the end (which will also be photographed and uploaded to the ILDE). You have 10 minutes in total.

Participant resources: Paper handouts with the four scenarios, Post-its, poster paper, markers, a mobile phone with camera and messaging capabilities (can be the facilitator’s or participant’s).

Facilitator resources: Facilitator slides, whiteboard and markers for the ‘Share’ phase

Introduction to CL and patterns (30’)

After the first “warmup” collaborative activity, facilitators will provide a light introduction to the notion of patterns, and the description of a 2-3 such patterns (including the reflection about the previous activity, and what pattern it was an instance of). We could also highlight advantages and drawbacks of designing and implementing it (sp. when using ICT tools). Participants will be able to search for patterns in the ILDE using key words. It might be interesting to also dedicate a few minutes to state how collaborative learning differs/connects with the dialogic approach that Àgora members might be more accustomed to.

Participants’ instructions: Now, facilitators will briefly introduce some basic notions about collaborative learning, collaborative patterns (basic ways of organizing things that have proved to work often when doing collaborative learning), how patterns can be searched in the ILDE, and the challenges and advantages of using ICT to support this kind of learning.

Participant resources: Collaborative pattern documentation (patterns in the ILDE, plus maybe paper handouts)



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Break (15’)

Group formation and coming up with CL scenarios for Àgora (Brainstorm about concrete scenarios) (40’)

For this new burst of collaborative work, participants will be grouped in heterogeneous groups (4-5 people per group). The idea is that each group includes the different profiles: participants (learners), volunteers with basic levels of education, volunteers with educational background and/or technical background. The aim of this activity is to start thinking about concrete applications of collaborative learning and the patterns just presented, to their own real practice.

Participants’ instructions: (1) Now, split into groups, trying to mix as much as possible in order to configure heterogeneous groups of work. Share and discuss your ideas with your course’s colleagues, and make a list of “course parts” where collaborative learning could be applied, and which pattern(s) could be appropriate for each situation. (2) Explain the design of the course generated into each group to your colleges in order to know the different possibilities of the collaborative learning. Facilitators will make a photo of that list, for later use. You have 20 minutes.

Participant resources: Post-its, poster paper, markers, a mobile phone with camera and messaging capabilities (can be the facilitator’s or participant’s).


Registration in the ILDE and creation of a first LdS (15’)

Before the closing of the session, a bit of time is dedicated to introduce the ILDE platform and to register each participant in the workshop into the ILDE. The facilitators will show, step by step, how to register into the ILDE and create groups of designers for easier sharing of artifacts later on.

Participants’ instructions: Now, let's show you the ILDE platform. Take one computer, open a browser, and go to http://ilde.upf.edu/agora. Register all members of your group, and create a group of LdShakers (people that design learning experiences).

Participant resources: Access to the ILDE, quick start guide describing the registration and groups/sharing process.

Facilitator resources: Facilitator slides for the session, access to the ILDE and uploaded design artifacts.

Wrap-up (10’)

In order to close the session, the facilitator will propose a number of next steps and face-to-face sessions (as described below, but also modifying them if that’s what participants concluded in the previous activity), and will thank everyone for their participation.

Participants’ instructions: Facilitators close the session, reminding about next steps that may be taken until the next session.


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Participant resources:

Facilitator resources: Facilitator slides for the session, access to the ILDE and uploaded design artifacts.

Online/Offline (optional): register into ILDE (30’)

During the time between the first session and the second one, participants will be asked to register as users into the ILDE (if they have not done so yet). They can also be encouraged to write down any ideas they have for their design project in the first LdS that they created.

Participants’ instructions: Please register into the ILDE, following the provided instructions.

Participant resources: Access to the ILDE, quick start guide describing the registration and groups/sharing process

Facilitator resources:

Session 2: Conceptualizing design of collaborative learning (3h)

This session completes the conceptualization stage of the design of concrete collaborative learning activities, which was initiated in the previous session, and also peeks into the later phases of the learning design cycle (authoring and implementation). This session contains a lot of collaboration and periodic sharing with the whole group, so as to arrive at the end of the session with a clearly conceptualized (and peer-reviewed) design.

The session has the following parts:

Introduction (re-cap, session goal and dynamics, the METIS LD cycle) (30’)

In this part of the workshop, facilitators welcome participants to the room (e.g. asking them to sign the signature sheet), and re-introduce briefly the METIS project, the workshop goals and structure and the main contents (LD, CL, patterns) and conclusions from the previous session. All this should be done in non-researcher terminology.

Participants’ instructions: First, the facilitators will briefly remind you about the workshop goals and structure, which were agreed on the previous session, as well as the main contents seen in that session. Then, facilitators will introduce the “learning design lifecycle” that the METIS project uses to structure the design work.

Participant resources: Facilitator slides for the session

Facilitator resources: Facilitator slides for the session, signature sheet


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Describe design project context (participants, course, topic, scope, Moodle course, etc.) (60’)

This activity has three main objectives: (1) to work deeper in the design created in the previous session; (2) to introduce basic tools of the ILDE: Persona-Card and Design Narrative and (3) to redefine the design created oriented to the structure required by the ILDE.

To do it, participants group again in the same course-based groups that were used in the previous session. In order to facilitate its organization, the activity is structured into three main steps:

a) Define learners

b) Describe the context of learning (learning objectives, patterns and learning outcomes)

c) Share conceptualization with the whole group and get feed-back

In this activity, each group works with a poster that simulates and summarizes the persona-card template and the design narrative template.

a) Define Learners

The first step is to do a little exercise of considering who their learners are (optionally, using the Persona card template)

Participants’ instructions: Distribute yourselves into the same course-based groups that you used towards the end of the last session (with your course’s co-teachers). Then, taking into account the design created the previuos session, write a couple of paragraphs in the poster provided describing who your learners are, what is their age, their knowledge, their culture, their goals when they come to your course… .

Participant resources: new poster, previous poster with the design created, post-its, markers, a mobile phone with camera and messaging capabilities (can be the facilitator’s or participant’s).


b) Describe the context of learning (learning objectives, pattern and learning outcomes)

The second step is to define clearly the learning objectives, pattern and learning outcomes of the scenario/context/course they have chosen. Although participants might have already tried to assign a pattern to the scenarios in the first session, here we will give them more time to discuss and reflect on their decision.

Participants’ instructions: In the same groups (with your course’s co-teachers), think about your learners and what would be the learning objectives they may have for the course (or the part of the course) which you have decided to design for. Then, take a look at the patterns we mentioned the last session and discuss among yourselves… which pattern seems to match better the learner outcomes? Choose one and note it down (along with the reason of your choice). Finally, think about what are the learning outcomes... what is going to get learners from that course?


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Participant resources: new poster, previous poster with the design created, post-its, markers, a mobile phone with camera and messaging capabilities (can be the facilitator’s or participant’s).


c) Share conceptualization with the whole group, get feedback

In this third step, participants share their designs so far with the rest of the participants. Presentations should be brief (3 min), but some feedback and doubts from other groups (or from facilitators) should be allowed.

Participants’ instructions: Follow the facilitators’ instructions to share your work/poster of your design with the rest of the participants, and then explain (in 3 min or less) the general vision and structure of your design. You can give and receive feedback from other groups during this presentation!

Participant resources: New poster completed.

Facilitator resources: Facilitator slides for the session.

Break (20’)

Exploring the ILDE: General overview of the ILDE and introduction to the conceptualization tools ( 60' )

At that point, participants in the workshop have obtained a wider vision of the CL, LD lifecycle, patterns, design of classes (fixing learning objectives, activities and learning outcomes) and had the opportunity to reflect about their daily practices, linking this reality with the possibilities of the tools included into the ILDE. It is the moment, then to work with the ILDE!

Participants have registered themselves into the ILDE. In this occasion, and in the same groups, they enter into the ILDE. A introduction to the ILDE is necessary: general overview of the menus, where and what tools are included in the conceptualization menu, the authoring menu and the implementation menu. Some extra-tools are also introduced here: messages and tags.

Participants, with one computer per group, will follow the steps of facilitators. They will also create their LD project using the workflow prepared by facilitators: they have to complete a person-card template, narrative-design using the information defined in the poster from the previous activity and perform the authoring using WebCollage.

Participants’ instructions: In the same groups (with your course’s co-teachers), complete the person-card template and narrative-design using the information defined in the poster from the previous activity.

Participant resources: poster which simulates the person-card and narrative-design templates, laptops, internet connection, ILDE access.


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Wrap-up (10’)

To close this session, facilitators will remind participants again about the LD lifecycle, participants’ actions so far, and what remains ahead.

Participants’ instructions: Facilitators close the session, reminding about next steps that may be taken until the next session.



Session 3: Implementation of collaborative learning with ICT (in Moodle) (3h)

In the third and last session of the workshop, participants will get feedback about their designs so far (from peers and facilitators), and they will finish their first “LD lifecycle” by going over the Authoring and Implementation tools (WebCollage and GLUE!-PS), until they have a ready-to-run course in Àgora’s Moodle server.

Introduction (re-cap, session goal and dynamics, the METIS LD cycle) (5’)

As usual, the facilitators will welcome participants (e.g. and ask for signatures on the participation sheet), who will be seated according to their ongoing (small) design groups. Then, facilitators will do a brief recap of the workshop goals and structure, and will go again over the METIS LD cycle (Conceptualize, Author, Implement), the things that have been achieved so far and what will be done in this session.

Participants’ instructions: The facilitators will provide a brief welcome and recap of the goals of the workshop, what has been done so far and what we will accomplish in this last face-to-face session of the workshop.

Participant resources: Facilitator slides for the session.

Facilitator resources: Facilitator slides for the session, signature sheet.

Introduction to Authoring (WebCollage) (10’)

Now facilitators will introduce again the LD lifecycle, highlighting the Authoring stage, its role and some of the tools that can be used to help in it. Then, a brief introduction to WebCollage will be done.

Participants’ instructions: The facilitators will now explain more about the Authoring stage in the LD lifecycle, and how WebCollage (one of the tools within the ILDE) can be used to help you in structuring collaborative patterns and activities, to be reflected later in Moodle.



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Authoring with WebCollage (45’)

Participants will now take a first shot at modelling the scenario and the activities they envisioned using WebCollage. Facilitators should emphasise that doing only a partial modelling (e.g. only the first phases of the scenario) is completely OK, although they should model as much as they can.

Participants’ instructions: In your small group, use the provided worksheet (and facilitator help) to model the design you did so far in the posters, using the WebCollage feature in the ILDE. You only have 45 min, so it is OK to model only a part of it - concentrate on the patterns, activity names and descriptions. However, whatever you model, try to make it understandable for other viewers.

Participant resources: Access to ILDE, posters from previous activities, WebCollage worksheet for ILDE


Introduction to Implementation (WebCollage) (15’)

Facilitators will briefly introduce the next stage of the LD lifecycle (Implementation), and what it entails, both conceptually (selecting a VLE, forming and populating the groups, selecting resources, deploying to Moodle) and operationally through ILDE (select a VLE, and add groups and resources in WebCollage). Emphasis should be made in specific terminology and usage tricks (e.g. difference between documents and tools, automated group distribution, etc.). Participants may follow the first steps of the operation in parallel with facilitators, using their own computer (until the design-specific steps are reached).

Participants’ instructions: Facilitators will explain in more detail the next phase in the LD lifecycle: the Implementation. They will also show how you can use the ILDE to implement one design (e.g. done in WebCollage) in order to transform it into a Moodle course with all the ICT resources you need to run it right away with students. Please try to follow the actions of the facilitator with your own design (the one you did in WebCollage).

Participant resources: access to ILDE in order to follow the demonstration

Facilitator resources: Facilitator slides, access to ILDE for demonstration, pre-made WebCollage design

Completing the authored design and implementing in WebCollage (20’)

Now, participants will select the VLE and course they wanted to use from the beginning, and they will do the first stage of the implementation in Web Collage (selecting the number and composition of groups, and the ICT tools and documents to be used in each activity - or placeholders for them if they are unknown yet). A worksheet will be provided in order to help with the concrete interactions of the tool (one of the group members can go over the worksheet while another manipulates the computer). Participants should be encouraged to do partial modeling of the implementation if they do not have the time to do a complete one. However, no modeled groups (including teachers) should be left empty.


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Participants’ instructions: Please access the ILDE and select your WebCollage design, and select which Moodle course you want to deploy it to. Then, define the group number and composition for your learning activities, following the provided worksheet. Also, think about and add in WebCollage the ICT resources and tools you want students to use in each activity. You have 40 minutes to do so, but it is OK to complete only the first few activities, if you cannot complete it on time. However, do remember to populate all the groups you have (including teacher groups)!

Participant resources: Access to ILDE, ILDE worksheet for WebCollage


Break (15’)

Introduction to deployment (GLUE!-PS) (15’)

Facilitators will now present the last step in the implementation, and the GLUE!-PS tool that the ILDE integrates so as to transform the WebCollage designs into Moodle courses. Participants can follow the demonstration step-by-step along with the facilitators, until the design-specific steps are reached.

Participants’ instructions: Facilitators will show how you can use the ILDE to finish the implementation of one design. The ILDE integrates the GLUE!-PS tool, that transforms your WebCollage designs into a Moodle course with all the ICT resources you need to run it right away with students. Please try to follow the actions of the facilitator with your own design (the one you did in WebCollage).

Participant resources: access to ILDE in order to follow the demonstration

Facilitator resources: Facilitator slides , access to ILDE for demonstration

Tweaking the implementation and deploying to Moodle (20’)

In this phase, participants will do the second stage of the implementation in GLUE!-PS (checking the activities, groups and resources defined so far, tweaking things out, marking re-use of resources, etc.). A worksheet will be provided in order to help with the concrete interactions of the tool (one of the group members can go over the worksheet while another manipulates the computer). Participants should be encouraged to do partial modelling of the implementation if they do not have the time to do a complete one. However, no modeled groups (including teachers) should be left empty.

Participants’ instructions: Please access the ILDE and select your WebCollage implementation, and then finish it using GLUE!-PS to do the final tweaking of groups, resources that each group uses, etc. Then, use the “Deploy” button to load it into your Moodle course, and see the result. Voilá! You have 35 minutes to do so, but it is OK to complete only the first few activities, if you cannot complete all of them on time. However, do remember to populate all the groups you have (including teacher groups)!

Participant resources: Access to ILDE, ILDE worksheet for GLUE!-PS



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Sharing the implementation and presenting the Moodle courses to the whole class (10’)

Once they have done their first deployment of the design into a Moodle course, they will briefly present it to the rest of the participants. Facilitators should note that the teacher view and the student view in Moodle may differ greatly (the student only sees his own artifacts). Also, participants should be encouraged to leave comments or feedback in the GLUE!-PS implementation of the designs.

Participants’ instructions: Please share the result you obtained in Moodle with the rest of the class, and provide comments or ideas about them using the ILDE commenting features.

Participant resources: Access to ILDE, links to the different “design projects/tags” of the different groups - for easier access.


Wrap-up and enactment planning (15’)

Once every group has a design implemented in Moodle, the facilitators will try to wrap-up the workshop with some parting reflections, thanking participants for their collaboration. Facilitators will also emphasize the steps to be taken in order to put the design ideas they developed in practice in an actual enactment.

Participants’ instructions: Facilitators will now summarize the workshop results, and will detail next steps that you may take in order to put your design ideas into practice at Àgora.

Participant resources: Link to ILDE “support hotline” in ILDE

Facilitator resources: Facilitator slides

Evaluation questionnaire (10’)

Finally, facilitators will administer the on-line questionnaire to evaluate the workshop itself and the METIS products presented. This may require participants going into another room, if there are not enough computers in the workshop room (plus, these new computer should be on and prepared, so as to minimize delays)..

Participants’ instructions: We’d like to know your opinion about the workshop and the elements presented in it (e.g. the ILDE, the activities you did, etc.) - so that we can make them better for future runs and to be applied in your everyday practice. Please fill in this questionnaire about the workshop. It should not take more than 30 minutes.

Participant resources: Link to the survey form

Facilitator resources: WP5 questionnaire instructions


using an integrated learning design environment

Education