Oleg Liber

The use of the Web to deliver open, distance, and flexible learning has opened up the potential for social interaction and adaptive learning, but the usability, expressivity, and interoperability of the available tools leave much to be desired. This article explores these issues as they relate to teachers and learning designers through the case of the Reload Learning Design Editor and its successor, ReCourse. The applications are introduced and the results of evaluation are summarized. The principal challenges overcome in the development process are identified. By reflecting on the development process, the applications produced, evaluation, and user feedback, the conclusions regarding IMS Learning Design (IMS LD) and its potential use are identified. The principal areas discussed are programming frameworks, terminology, graphical interfaces, the relative salience of IMS LD elements, integration with authors' workflow, the authoring of services, and the authoring of IMS LD level B.

The IMS LD specification is internally complex and has been used in a number of different ways. As a result users who have a basic understanding of the role of the specification in interoperability may nevertheless find it difficult to get an overview of the potential of the specification, or to assess what has been achieved through its use. This chapter seeks to make the task simpler by articulating the modes of use of the specification and analysing the work carried out in each. The IMS LD specification is briefly introduced. Four aspects of the IMS Learning Design specification are identified and described: modeling language, interoperability specification, modeling and methodology, and infrastructure. The different opportunities provided by each mode of use are explored and the achievements of work so far carried out are assessed. A number of valuable contributions are identified, but the practical and widespread use of the specification to exchange learning activities has not so far been achieved. The changing technological and organisational environment in which IMS LD operates is discussed, and its implications are explored. Conclusions are offered which summarise achievements with IMS LD to date, with comments on prospects for the future.

The recent emergence of internet-enabled software tools to support e-learning has prompted many UK universities to begin to attempt to integrate auch Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) into their teaching. It is generally recognised that to be effective in an institutional context, VLEs need to be joined up to existing information and administration systems. In this paper we argue from a cybernetics perspective that in addition to the technical demands of this task, there are a wide variety of organisational, social and political factors associated with the way a university is structured, the dynamics of its internal operation and its recent history that present a significant risk of project failure of they are not given sufficient recognition and appropriate strategies for change put in place. The challenges can usefully be addressed from a cybernetics perspective. The remainder of this paper describes an approach to modelling an institution's socio-techncial systems using a combination of the Viable System Model, drawn from management cybernetics and action research techniques.

Current systems used in education follow a consistent design pattern, one that is not supportive of lifelong learning or personalization, is asymmetric in terms of user capability, and which is disconnected from the global ecology of Internet services. In this paper we propose an alternative design pattern for educational systems that emphasizes symmetric connections with a range of services both in formal and informal learning, work, and leisure, and identify strategies for implementation and experimentation

The Personal Learning Environment (PLE) is fast emerging both in practical reality and through the e-learning discourse. As with many new and emerging technologies, there is a divergence of opinion as to what constitutes this new phenomenon, or indeed, if it is a new phenomenon at all.
The aim of the PLE project at the University of Bolton has been to bring clarity to this discourse through the production of a reference model together with the creation of some prototypes. Here we present a commentary of our survey of currently emerging projects and technologies in this field and show how the attributes of the reference model may be of use in defining the relationships between current technologies, the direction of future developments and the implications for learners and educational institutions.

The concept of ‘Personal Learning Environment’ (PLE) is fast emerging as a significant branch of learning technology. This paper describes the approach to this topic adopted by the Centre for Educational Technology and Interoperability Standards (CETIS) PLE project in the definition of a PLE Reference Model and in building a PLE prototype. In a domain that is typified by emerging technology, discursive differences and a lack of common terms of reference, we explain our approach in identifying three perspectives on the PLE for analysis: themes, patterns and categories. These three strands are viewed as different ‘strata’ to approach the topic, the interplay between which has led to a perspective on the PLE which has combined an analysis of current PLE-focused discourse (themes), an examination of current practice (patterns) and an attempt to define phenomenological categories of the ‘PLE experience’ from the philosophy of technology and cybernetics. We introduce our model as the focal point for these different investigations and discuss how the model can help in the effort to coordinate technological and discursive developments that will ensue in this area. We argue that the approach adopted in defining the model has allowed us to produce an effective tool for coordination of discourse and technological design, and that the identification of categories has contributed a powerful element to our analysis – one which may have application in other areas of e-learning.