Enabling creative learning design through semantic technologies

Abstract

The paper advocates an approach to learning design that considers it as creating digital artefacts that can be extended, modified and used for different purposes. This is realised through an ‘act becoming artefact’ cycle, where users’ actions in the authors’ software environment, named Learning Designer, are automatically interpreted on the basis of formal active ‘concepts’ embedded in users’ activities as they create learning designs. This is underpinned by semantic technologies, which enable creating active, in computational terms, artefacts. The paper illustrates how the proposed approach integrates pedagogical considerations, expressed using the Conversational Framework, with semantic technologies, especially ontologies, providing a snapshot of the tool. It discusses evaluations and findings from the user studies that were carried out. Finally, some conclusions and next steps are provided.

Keywords:

• learning design
• semantic web
• ontologies
• co-construction of knowledge
• act as artefact

Notes

1. LAMS: http://www.lamsinternational.com/.

2. Moodle: http://moodle.org/.

3. CompendiumLD: http://kn.open.ac.uk/public/workspace.cfm?wpid=8690.

4. Higher Education Academy (HEA) (2009) Evaluation and impact assessment. www.heacademy.ac.uk. Its central purpose is to help those seeking to enhance the learning experience of their students, by improving the quality of their teaching and learning support. It has a wide range of uses.