Nº 2 ▪ January 2007
eLearning Papers
Editorial
Quality in eLearning Pierre-Antoine Ullmo and Ulf-Daniel Ehlers Towards greater quality literacy in a eLearning Europe Dr. Ulf-Daniel Ehlers The “E” - Empowering Learners: Myths and Realities in Learner-Orientated eLearning Quality Dr. Ulf-Daniel Ehlers Personal Learning Environments - the future of eLearning? Graham Attwell Interview: Can technologies offer intelligence in tutoring? Interviewee: Ulrich Hoppe Paul Davey Benchmarking Access and Use of ICT in European Schools 2006: Results from Head Teacher and A Classroom Teacher Surveys in 27 European Countries Werner B. Korte and Tobias Hüsing
Articles
eLearning Papers
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eLearning Papers is a digital publication on e-learning of elearningeuropa.info, a portal created by the European Commission to promote the use of ICT in education and training. Edited by: P.A.U. Education, S.L. Email: editorial@elearningeuropa.info ISSN 1887-1542
Editorial: Quality in eLearning
When you really get down to analysing it, the promises of eLearning often have yet to materialise. The question of how eLearning can be successful becomes more urgent as we move from an “early adopter” stage to a more general offering. In a European educational market, it is critically important to gain an understanding of quality in eLearning. Many different concepts and approaches have been developed so far for many different contexts and purposes. The concept of quality in the public perception and debate today has gained the significance of a leitmotiv for the educational field in all European countries, with the same importance that equality or scientific orientation had in the educational debates of the 1970s in some European countries. Quality in eLearning has become a slogan for educational policies, practitioners and a huge demand from learners. Achieving high quality is a hotly debated and much sought-after goal in all segments of society and education. It is characterised less by its precise definition than by its positive connotation. Therefore, we have chosen to highlight in this issue of the eLearning Papers the topic of quality. It is the result of collaboration between the elearningeuropa.info portal and the European Foundation for Quality in eLearning (EFQUEL). EFQUEL is a European membership organisation aiming to enhance the quality of eLearning in Europe by providing a forum for information, research, networking and debate on innovation and best practice in eLearning quality. The first article, entitled “Towards greater quality literacy in an eLearning Europe” and contributed by Ulf Ehlers, points out that quality development should be viewed as a key aspect, present in all activities of eLearning courses and programmes. A second article by the author, entitled “The ‘E’ Empowering Learners: Myths and Realities in Learner-Orientated eLearning Quality”, describes the concept of learner-orientated quality development. Other articles in this issue include “Personal Learning Environments - the future of eLearning?” written by Graham Attwell and exploring ideas behind personal learning environments; an article by Werner B. Korte and Tobias Hüsing pointing out the results from Europe-wide surveys of head teachers and classroom teachers in 27 countries in 2006; and an interview with Ulrich Hoppe, a professor of cooperative and learning support systems, about intelligent tutoring and Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL). We would like to thank all the authors for contributing articles to this issue of the eLearning Papers and hope that you all enjoy reading them!
Pierre-Antoine Ullmo & Ulf-Daniel Ehlers
eLearning Papers • www.elearningpapers.eu • ISSN 1887-1542 Nº 2 • January 2007 • EN
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Dr. Ulf-Daniel Ehlers Director of the European Foundation for Quality in ELearning University of Duisburg-Essen Quality development has to lead to better learning. Keywords eLearning, Quality, Quality Literacy Full text http://www.elearningeuropa.i nfo/files/media/media11559. pdf The article was previously published in: Schoob, Eric, Gilge, Stefan (2006): European Integration Forum. Dresden
Towards greater quality literacy in a eLearning Europe
The article emphasises the importance of viewing quality development not as an add-on to eLearning, e.g. as an isolated evaluation approach at the end of a course. Quality development, rather, is viewed as a key aspect, occurring in every single development and delivery process of eLearning courses and programmes. From research, three concepts can be utilised and combined to form a new, comprehensive concept of quality development: 1. Quality development has to lead to better learning. This viewpoint can be called education-orientated quality development and emphasises that quality development has to take into account the learners’ situation. Learners’ preferences are analysed to show that they cover a multitude of factors and preference profiles. This suggests that quality approaches have to be highly flexible and allow for individualised quality. 2. Quality development, however, has to take into account not only the learners’ needs; it is a process in which the interests and requirements of the eLearning stakeholders have to be considered as a whole and combined to form a comprehensive concept. Quality in this respect is seen as a relation between the demands and needs of a stakeholder group and the actual delivery of eLearning. In order to shape this relationship in the best possible way, a negotiation process is necessary, involving all stakeholders and integrating their preferences and situations against the background of the given economical and organisational situation. These negotiation processes occur in different positions of the learning environment. We suggest utilising process models such as the ISO Reference Model. 3. The third part of the concept is concerned with the question of how existing concepts, approaches and strategies can be used for quality development. A decision cycle is being suggested that makes it possible to find a suitable quality approach for a given context. However, to decide which quality approach is suitable, to choose from a set of possible strategies, and to adapt those strategies to the specific situational context, certain competencies are necessary. For these competencies, we developed the concept of quality literacy. It covers competencies such as knowledge of quality development, experiences in using particular instruments, modification skills and the ability to thoroughly analyse one’s own situation and needs.
eLearning Papers • www.elearningpapers.eu • ISSN 1887-1542 Nº 2 • January 2007 • EN
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Dr. Ulf-Daniel Ehlers Director of the European Foundation for Quality in ELearning University of Duisburg-Essen Quality development has to be seen as a process of negotiation in which all stakeholders need to participate Keywords Learner Orientation, Participation, Empowerment, Learner-Centred Quality Research Full text http://www.elearningeuropa.i nfo/files/media/media11560. pdf
The “E” - Empowering Learners: Myths and Realities in Learner-Orientated eLearning Quality
The article describes the concept of learner-orientated quality development. Learner quality concepts are introduced as the reference point for negotiation processes between the stakeholders in a quality development process. The idea is that learner-orientated quality development is a necessity rather than an option if quality development is aimed at having an impact on the learning process. Quality development always has to be a connection of processes and procedures with values and normative decisions. Every facilitator, guiding a group of learners, needs a normative decision concept, such as a didactical theory, to have a sound basis for his or her activities. Quality development, which is relevant for educational processes, can therefore be described as the sum of all activities and efforts carried out in order to improve the learning process. The emphasis of the educational process indicates at this point already that it is not possible to certify such a learning process orientated quality. It can be perceived only when the actual educational process takes place and is always a co-production between the learner and the learning environment. In recent quality debates, it is an oft-made mistake to assess educational environments isolated from the educational processes and not to take into account the target groups and other stakeholders within the environment. Since quality is not a given, stable characteristic of an educational environment but evolves only from the relation between the learner and the learning environment, quality can be perceived and assessed only in the actual context. Also, there is no means of defining quality criteria, which define quality apart from a concrete educational context. As a consequence, quality development has to be seen as a process of negotiation in which all stakeholders need to participate. The aim of such a participative model for quality development is to define the values and objectives of the learning process together among the stakeholders. Such an active participation of learners will play an important role in future quality development systems. The learners have an active role in these concepts and need to be aware of their personal proposals and demands. In a form of self-management of their own educational biographies, they have to identify necessary characteristics that learning scenarios have to meet in order to enter into a successful educational process. Such participation processes require better information, transparency and counselling on the part of eLearning providers. At the same time, learners have to be aware that their own responsibility for quality development rises, as they themselves are viewed as quality experts in the learning process.
eLearning Papers • www.elearningpapers.eu • ISSN 1887-1542 Nº 2 • January 2007 • EN
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Personal Learning Environments - the future of eLearning?
Graham Attwell Director, Pontydysgu This paper explores some of the ideas behind the Personal Learning Environment and considers why PLEs might be useful or indeed central to learning in the future. This is not so much a technical question as an educational one, although changing technologies are key drivers in educational change. The paper starts by looking at the changing face of education and goes on to consider the different ways in which the so-called ‘net generation’ is using technology for learning. It goes on to consider some of the pressures for change in the present education systems. The idea of a Personal Learning Environment recognises that learning is ongoing and seeks to provide tools to support that learning. It also recognises the role of the individual in organising his or her own learning. Moreover, the pressures for a PLE are based on the idea that learning will take place in different contexts and situations and will not be provided by a single learning provider. Linked to this is an increasing recognition of the importance of informal learning. The paper also looks at changing technology, especially the emergence of ubiquitous computing and the development of social software. The paper believes that we are coming to realise that we cannot simply reproduce previous forms of learning, the classroom or the university, embodied in software. Instead, we have to look at the new opportunities for learning afforded by emerging technologies. Social software offers the opportunity to narrow the divide between producers and consumers. Consumers themselves become producers, through creating and sharing. One implication is the potential for a new ecology of ‘open’ content, books, learning materials and multimedia, through learners themselves becoming producers of learning materials. Social software has already led to the widespread adoption of portfolios for learners, bringing together learning from different contexts and sources of learning and providing an ongoing record of lifelong learning, capable of expression in different forms. The paper considers how Personal Learning Environments might be developed through the aggregation of different services. The final section provides examples of practices that show how PLEs may be used in the future.
We are coming to realise that we cannot simply reproduce previous forms of learning, the classroom or the university, embodied in software. Keywords Personal learning environments, PLE, social software, net generation Full text
http://www.elearningeuropa.info/ files/media/media11561.pdf
eLearning Papers • www.elearningpapers.eu • ISSN 1887-1542 Nº 2 • January 2007 • EN
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Interviewee: Ulrich Hoppe Professor of “Cooperative and Learning Support Systems” University of Duisburg-Essen Interviewer: Paul Davey Kaleidoscope
Interview: Can technologies offer intelligence in tutoring? Interviewee: Ulrich Hoppe
The hype about eLearning will decrease rather than increase in coming years, according to Professor Ulrich Hoppe, researcher from the Institute for Computer Science and Interactive Systems at the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany. As a consequence, researchers will have to concentrate on core issues such as “computer integration of teaching and learning”. Ulrich Hoppe gives an insight into his involvement in the European research community through Kaleidoscope, the European Network of Excellence. He points out how convergence of the various fields of research could create synergies for Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL). Ulrich Hoppe states that technologists are the ones who have to invent or adapt new instruments; and educational specialists should judge these and appropriate the promising ones. The new aspect of this is that we have to think beyond the single tool. Tools have to be interoperable and have to support educationally meaningful and productive processes. In a forthcoming Kaleidoscope workshop, three research areas will be examined: mobile learning, collaborative learning and inquiry learning. Mobile learning is a reactive type of research; collaborative learning has to do with how we learn or should learn, and inquiry learning concerns what is worth learning. As these three aspects are complementary, the workshop examines possibilities for convergence – bringing the fields together. Hoppe also explains how “intelligent tutoring”, the mainstream of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in education, has a more difficult relationship with Computer Support for Collaborative Learning (CSCL). A potential conflict may exist between restricting the role of technologies to facilitating human-to-human communication, and Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS) that are often seen as active agents to steer human learning. Professor Hoppe is actively involved in research into technologyenhanced learning, as the Chair of “Cooperative and Learning Support Systems” at the University of Duisburg-Essen. He currently leads the research group known as COLLIDE (“Collaborative Learning in Intelligent Distributed Environments”), which has been engaged in European projects on distributed classroom technology for both virtual and face-to-face scenarios.
The new aspect of this is that we have to think beyond the single tool. Tools have to be interoperable and have to support educationally meaningful and productive processes. Keywords Technology enhanced learning, synergy, intelligent tutoring Full text http://www.elearningeuropa.i nfo/files/media/media11562. pdf
eLearning Papers • www.elearningpapers.eu • ISSN 1887-1542 Nº 2 • January 2007 • EN
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Werner B. Korte empirica
Benchmarking Access and Use of ICT in European Schools 2006: Results from Head Teacher and A Classroom Teacher Surveys in 27 European Countries
The presentation will present results from Europe-wide surveys of head teachers and classroom teachers in 27 countries in 2006. The surveys find that computers and the Internet have arrived in European schools and are widely used in class in most countries. A strong increase in ICT use took place over the past 5 years and schools have moved over to broadband. The first measurement available for the New Member States also shows encouraging signs. The study is a continuation of the earlier benchmarking exercise for eEurope 2002. It involved two surveys: a head teacher survey of more than 10,000 head teachers to obtain information on the schools and a survey of more than 20,000 classroom teachers to focus on their use of ICT for educational purposes. Both were carried out in spring 2006 in all 25 EU Member States, Norway, and Iceland. Concise Country Briefs for each of the 27 countries include information on the ICT equipment and internet in schools, their use in class, comparisons of the situation in 2001 and 2006, attitudes on ICT use by teachers, results on access, competence and motivation for using ICT in school and the ICT readiness of teachers.
Tobias Hüsing empirica
empirica Gesellschaft für Kommunikations- und Technologieforschung mbH
A strong increase in ICT use took place over the past 5 years and schools have moved over to broadband. Keywords ICT in schools, benchmarking, EU25 surveys, ICT barriers Full text
http://www.elearningeuropa.inf o/files/media/media11563.pdf
eLearning Papers • www.elearningpapers.eu • ISSN 1887-1542 Nº 2 • January 2007 • EN
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