MAKING LEARNING DESIGNS IN LAYERS: THE CADMOS APPROACH

Mary Katsamani (marykatsamani@gmail.com)Symeon Retalis (retal@unipi.gr)

University of Piraeus Department of Digital Systems

Computer Supported Learning Engineering Laboratoryhttp://cosy.ds.unipi.gr

The presentation in brief … This presentation is about a model-driven learning design

process, called CADMOS-D(esign) supported by a graphical LD editor. Ambition: CADMOS-D should be simple enough to be used

by practitioners Innovation: This process accords to the principles of

software/web engineering It is model driven It advocates the notion of “separation of concerns” in learning

design Technological support: It is being supported by a graphical

design tool It tries to produce reusable learning designs (forward &

backward engineering) that conform to the IMS LD specification

Learning Design (LD) LD is a planning and ordering of learning activities that take place in

a unit of learning (Current research in learning design, Rob Kopper) A “digital lesson plan”

But not simply a narrative description – rather, it can “do” something

A teacher may create a learning design for a simple activity, for a course lasting one or a few hours, for a course lasting a few weeks or even months or for a curriculum, meaning a whole year teaching programme [Britain, 2004; Goodyear, 2005]

A teacher has to specify for the LD: Learning Activities

Orchestration of these activities (order, conditions, rules)

Learning Objects related to these activities

The learning design challenge

Teachers as designers do not have to be experts in technical skills

Teachers as designers want to use tools that would guide them and will be error prone

A Learning Design should be shared and re-used

It must be used a common, formal and “rich” design language

Learning Design Languages vs Visual Learning Design Tools

Learning design languages and visual learning design tools have been proposed to aid teachers during the learning design task

Both languages and tools have advantages and disadvantages

We have studied LD tools and languages and drew some conclusions about their characteristics

These design characteristics had been followed when creating the CADMOS LD tool

Learning Design Languages

A design language:

is a mental tool,

offers a specific notation style for creating a design without the support of a specialized learning design tool

So….often teachers face problems

We studied 4 popular languages according the following criteria suggested by Luca Botturi et al. (A Classification Framework for Educational Modeling Languages in Instructional Design, 2006)

Classifying Learning Design Languages User Skills: novice, medium, expertise Stratification: flat or layered. Is there unique representation or are

there several "tools" to describe various objects like in coUML ? Formalization: between formal or informal. E.g. UML and XML-

based vocabularies are both formal languages. Elaboration: conceptual, specification or implementation. These

levels are based on the UML model (Fowler, 2003): the conceptual level allows to gain a global view of a design and its rationale, the specification includes all the details, and the implementation level includes sufficient precision to create executive code.

Perspective: singular or multiple. Is there a same view or different views to describe different entities? E2ML for instance allows to model both structural and temporal relations between activities.

Notation system: none, textual, visual. If there is a notation system, it can be either visual or textual.

Botturi, Derntl,Boot & Figl (2006)

8

User skills

Formalization

Stratification

Elaboration

Perspective

Notation

E2ML Novice Semi-formal

Flat Conceptual

Multiple Visual

PCeL Medium Semi-formal

Layered Conceptual

Single Visual

coUML Medium Semi-formal

Layered Conceptual

Multiple Visual

POEML Expertise Formal Layered Implementation

Multiple Visual

Learning Design Languages

Visual Learning Design Tools

Visual learning design tools offer a structured environment that teachers may use to design

There is a graphical interface that facilitates teachers to create their lessons

We compared COMPENDIUM, MOT+, LAMS, OPENGLM and COLLAGE, according to the following criteria:

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User skills GuidanceTemplates/

Design Patterns

Exports IMS-LD A,B,C

Edits IMS-LD A,B,C

Complendium medium - + - -

MOT+ expertise - -IMS-LD level A

-

Collage medium + +IMS-LD level A

-

Lams medium - -IMS-LD level A

-

Openglm medium + + + +

Visual Learning Design Tools

CADMOS-D method & tool

LD Tool

s

LD Langua

ges

CADMOS-D: A blend…

Separation of concerns

Main Idea of CADMOS Is the Separation of Concerns (SoC), an

Established Concept in Architecture/Software/Web Engineering

Objectives of SoC Use of Divide-and-Conquer Approach for addressing

complexity of a problem Ease of handling these smaller problems in relative

isolation Ease of solving these relatively isolated simpler

problems

The term separation of concerns was probably coined by Edsger W. Dijkstra in his 1974 paper "On the role of scientific thought"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Separation_of_concerns

Separation of Concerns in CADMOS Two design views /models:

Conceptual Model or learning activity design view Flow Model or learning activity flow design view.

The Learning Activity Design View defines the learning activities and the resources/services that correspond to these activities.

The Learning Activity Flow Design View captures the orchestration of the learning activities

Conceptual Model - Learning Activity design view

Flow Model/Learning Activity Flow Design View without rules

Flow Model/Learning Activity Flow Design View with rules

CADMOS-D: Advantages

One can change a resource in the conceptual model without changing anything else at the flow model

One can create several flow views keeping the same learning activities in the conceptual model

The Learning Design can be opened and edited again

The Learning Design may be exported to IMS-LD (A/B) xml manifest

An IMS-LD may be imported into the tool

CADMOS: Interoperability

Currently, CADMOS-D conforms to IMS LD Level A/B, LD player

Conceptual Model

Flow Model

CADMOS

CADMOS models

IMS LD models

CADMOS models

IMS LD models

Moodle

Case Study 1/2

36 MSc students in the Department of Digital Systems

25 of them were teachers (20 of them were high school teachers and 5 of them were elementary school teachers)

5 of them did not have experience in learning design and the rest of them had used at least one Learning Design Tool

Case Study 2/2

Was completed in two phases: Phase 1: presentation of the tool in the laboratory,

the students made in CADMOS a prescribed learning design 3 hours

Phase 2: the students made in CADMOS a prescribed learning design that were given from us and a learning design from their own teaching practice 1 week

Finally they completed an on-line questionnaire of 25 questions

Case Study – Evaluation of CADMOS 1/2 70% claimed that were satisfied from both the

approach and the tool 69% of them stated that were highly satisfied

with the guidance that was provided to them All of them said that the design approach via the

two models was very helpful All of them said that the use of CADMOS was

simple and that were able to complete the learning design easily and quickly

Case Study – Evaluation of CADMOS 2/2 All of the participants mentioned that any

teacher, with no specific knowledge in learning design and with basic computer skills, can apply it

The 86% of the participants claimed that the presence of ready-to-use design templates would have helped them

83% of them stated that they appreciated the fact that they could reuse existing learning designs

In conclusion CADMOS: Can be used by practitioners with basic technical

skills It has a visual notation It offers guidance to the designer It is layered it describes different objects (such as

activities, resources, rules) It is multiple-perspective activities are described

from different views (conceptual/flow model) It can convert its own learning design, to an IMS-LD

level A/B manifest file It can import an IMS-LD level A manifest file and

convert it to its own notation system

Future plans CADMOS version 1.6

http://cosy.ds.unipi.gr/cadmos/

To distribute CADMOS tool version 1.7 To enrich the conditions in the flow model Compatibility with IMS LD Level C To add in CADMOS tool design patterns as templates To interoperate with Moodle

Questions?

Thank you!