The challenge of quality in peer-

produced eLearning content

Ari-Matti AuvinenHCI Productions Oy

Quality work of peer production

• European QMPP project (Quality Management of Peer Production of eLearning)– also four real-life pilots of peer production

• research work also in related fields– peer collaboration in health care– peer production of field-based

maintenance documentation

The power of peer production

• ordinary users are entering the nucleus of digital content production

• modern success stories include e.g.– development work of Linux– Wikipedia– Slashdot.org, Amazon and other peer

review actions– Eureka project (at Xerox)

What is peer production?

• digital content created, edited, enriched by peers (other people on the ”same hierarchical level”)– YouTube, Facebook, blogs, flickr,

slashdot.org etc.

• peer production already now included in eLearning many forms– eLearning courses produced by peers and

peer groups, teamworks etc.

What is user-generated content?

• peer production has similar features and qualities as UCG - by the OECD definition it is– content is made “publicly available”

over the Internet– it reflects a “certain amount of creative

effort”– it is “created outside of professional

routines and practices”

What motivates peer production?

• peer recognition– ”hacker ethics”

• collective joy of sharing– ”dancing in the street”

• collaborative joint actions– ”wisdom of crowds”

• rewarding– might be secondary in motivation

The challenge

• the very nature of peer production is its free flow of creativity and thus any formal mechanism (including the quality approach) could be seen to be against the creativity factor

• the quality work methodology in peer production is at its best dispersed and fragmented

Prosumers – also in learning

• prosumers = producers + consumers• in services different steps and phases

– growth of self-service (”mcdonaldisation”)– improving service by participation (”modern

banking”)– participation in experience creation (”reality

shows”, ”World of Warcraft”)– creating and sharing personal knowledge

(”wikinomics”)

Co-creation of value as a business trend (I)

• importance of co-creation experiences and their importance to the value creation (Prahalad and Ramaswamy)– the market is becoming a forum for conversation

and interactions, and that the management and facilitation of this dialogue is the key in value creation process

– the market is becoming instead of a seller-buyer-market rather the arena for co-creation of value

Co-creation of value as a business trend (II)

• the key building blocks for the interaction between users and providers of– dialogue – access to important information and

resources– risk-benefit assessment by the users – transparency of work and working

methods

New approach to the eLearning market

eLearningpush

Learners as target audience

Marketplace foreLearning

eLearningproviders facilitating

the valueco-creation

Learners As collaborators invalue co-creation

Market place as an arena for value co-creation

Conventional view

Value co-creation view

Examples of co-creation of value

• Nike, Polar Electro, Nokia tracker– user community of joggers

• Weight Watchers– organisation of peer group work

• Web sites of various journals– user-created advices and tips

• Karaoke restaurants– customers as performers

Scope in developing peer production

KE

Y A

CT

OR

SUTILIZATION CONTEXT

INDIVIDUALS

OWN USE +POTENTIAL EXTERNAL USE

user-createdcontent

ONLY OWN USE

INDIVUALS +PEER GROUPS

peerproduction

peer-to-peerproduction

(individual)learningportfolios

Setting of objectives vs. provision of

structureST

RUCT

URE

SETTING OF OBJECTIVES

FIRM

LOOSE

LOOSECONTROLLED

peer-produced structured eLearning courses(based on analyzed and defined

training needs)

digital content production based on on-demand

modality

communities of practice

various self-help groups and autonomus web groups

peer-produced course works and learning resources (e.g. team

works, blogs etc.)

I II

III IV

When creativity meets its limits

• peer production requires also enabling and supporting structures and their effective management (quality of learning objects vs. quality of learning systems)

Quality cycle in wikis

Enabling processes

Enabling procedures

Enabling tools

Enabling policies

Benchmarking

Rating

Creating

Enriching

Editing

Updating

Enabling processes

Enabling procedures

Enabling tools

Enabling policies

Benchmarking

Validating

CreatingEnriching

Editing

Updating

QMPP QualityScape

• in peer production quality is created as interplay between peer production of digital content and peer validation processes of digital content

• peers have different roles at different times – they can participate in the quality process as creators, but also as validators

QMPP QualityScape

Peer creation Peer validation

Editing

Updating

Enriching

Benchmarking

Peer reviews

Peer reflections

Peer learning

Enablingprocesses

Enablingtools Enabling

policies

Enablingpolicies

Peer creation actions (I)

Peer creation (including peer authoring) creating digital learning content by authoring, editing, enriching and updating using various media

Authoring (shared) authoring of texts and other digital resources; creating images, audio materials, video materials; creating content for wikis etc.

Editing (shared) editing of digital content (from proof-reading to translation), creating alternative navigational routes, creating collages etc.

Enriching creating additional digital content, publishing individual works and team works, sharing or learning (b)logs, adding library links, social bookmarking etc.

Updating monitoring existing content, updating existing content, adding specific area content etc

Peer validation actions (II)

Peer validation validating digital content with subject matter experts, validating content with peers, rating the validity and usability of the content etc.

Benchmarking identifying of good cases and practices for comparative purposes, identifying of additional digital resources, identifying areas of lacking content etc.

Peer reviews providing feedback by peers of learning goals, progress and aims within a learning community

Peer reflection encouraging the reflection of learning processes by means of own experiences and sharing the reflections within the learning community or between different learning communities

Peer learning joint learning also by the exchange of learning experiences and learning outcomes, such as e-portfolios

QMPP web resources (www.qmpp.net)

• at the web site you can find the QMPP Handbook in – English– Finnish– French– German– Italian– Spanish

Contact information

Ari-Matti AuvinenHCI Productions OyUnioninkatu 22FIN – 00130 HELSINKIFINLANDtel + 358 – 9 – 6124 9954fax + 358 – 9 – 6124 9855ama@hci.fi