Ian Dolphin - Executive Director - ian.dolphin@apereo.org

Francisco Osorio - Flickr - https://www.flickr.com/photos/francisco_osorio/ - Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)

Apereo Africa - March 2016

What’s next for Apereo?

Agenda

Apereo: where we are, and how we got there …

An open platform for learning analytics

A Next Generation Digital Learning Environment?

Priorities

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– Apereo Mission

“…to help educational organizations collaborate to foster, develop, and sustain open technologies and innovation to support learning, teaching, and research.”

– The Apereo Foundation is a non-profit [501(c)(3)] registered in New Jersey

Why Open-Source?

Suitability

Cost

Control

Collaborate to innovate

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} ‘Courant Report’

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1 Software and Collaboration in Higher Education - A Study of Open Source Software www.campussource.de/opensource/docs/OOSS_Report.pdf

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Apereo: what we do …… for our software communities & communities of interest

1. Licensing and management of intellectual property

2. Technical & community infrastructure; events, lists etc.

3. Programs; Fellows, Teaching Innovation Awards

4. Banking, Accounting, Administration

5. Incubation; helping develop new communities

Deliberately minimal - we want to save edu money, not remove it!5

Apereo Foundation

Non-profit entity - 501.c.3 (New Jersey)

Membership organization.

Elected Board of Directors (+ small number of appointees)

Around 80 higher ed and commercial members worldwideClose partnership with ESUP-Portail in France. 150 Total.

Constituent communities have significant autonomy- devolve decision making to those closest to the problem

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How we see ourselves …

Series of interrelated communities Key component of a broader network

… part of an answer, not the answer

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Software Communities

Bedework CAS Karuta Opencast Open Academic Environment Sakai Student Success Plan UniTime uPortal/uMobile Xerte EDexchange POET Learning Analytics Processor OpenDashboard OpenLRS Tsugi Framework

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Francisco Osorio - Flickr - https://www.flickr.com/photos/francisco_osorio/ - Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)

Communities of InterestPurpose Teaching & Learning ePortfolio Learning Analytics

Software Development Internationalisation Accessibility Security Licensing

Geographical South Africa Netherlands Japan Spain (Europe)

Sectoral K12 Federation

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AnalyticsEmerging and complex area of research

Analysing historical aggregate data to identify potential failure/success

Distinction:

Academic Analytics: system or organisation wide data

Learner/ing Analytics: Actionable data about individuals

Needs much greater faculty engagement 10

Continuum

Prediction for intervention - Retention

Prediction for Learning pathways

Present Future

Apereo Learning Analytics Initiative - An Open Learning Analytics Platform

Collection – Standards-based data capture from any potential source using Experience API and/or IMS Caliper/Sensor API

Storage – Single repository for all learning-related data using Learning Record Store (LRS) standard.

Analysis – Flexible Learning Analytics Processor (LAP) that can handle data mining, data processing (ETL), predictive model scoring and reporting.

Communication – Dashboard technology for displaying LAP output.

Action – LAP output can be fed into other systems to trigger alerts, etc.

Learning Record

Storage

Summary and ResultsCommunication

Analysis ResultsAction

Learning Data

Analysis

Learning Activities Collection

Admin Systems

xAPI [Caliper]OpenLRS

LAPOpenDashboard

SSP + Systemsn

LMS/VLE Library?

Academic Video? OER? xAPI

[Caliper]

Financial Aid

Why a platform-based approach?

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Commercial-Proprietary Landscape

Vendors are building capability into products …

…Which then become “the solution”

Closed and proprietary

Products such as the VLE/LMS and SIS don’t “own” analytics

Data required from across education landscape

Library systems, media players…

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Open Platform

Neutral place to gather data

Flexibility and choice for adopters

Jisc Learner Record Store example

Openness enables shared experience, understanding

Open source software, open standards, open algorithms

The future: analytics and learning systems

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Learning Analytics Initiative

Community of interest

Open calls, events, hackathons, dissemination

Open Source Software communities around components

Apereo Incubation Process

Partnership with SoLAR

Adoption: Jisc

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Educause Learning Initiative: Next Generation Digital Learning

Environment

https://www.educause.edu/library/resources/next-generation-digital-learning-environment-ngdle

http://tinyurl.com/hxrtzpp

18"Blind monks examining an elephant", an ukiyo-e print by Hanabusa Itchō

Reality Check

LMS Success

99% US Institutions have at least 1 LMS

85% of Faculty use it

74% say it is a useful tool

83% of students use it

41% Faculty - promote out of classroom activity

15% of institutions plan to change it in 3 yrs 19

Why the Challenge to the LMS

Course-centred

Teacher-centred

Inflexible. Tends to be “one size fits all”.

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Replacement?Key areas from the Educause panel discussions -

Interoperability as a key enabler

Analytics, assessment and advising (LMS largest source of analytics data)

Personalisation

Accessibility (not as an add-on, but designed in)

Different forms of collaboration - not simply “courses”

Participant: NGDLE will include LMS, but go beyond it 21

BUT: Conversation reflecting silos

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Small point about empowerment: Personalisation and Customization

Learning and teaching, or holistic view of academic practice. What about research? (“Research informed teaching” anyone?)

What constitutes learning technology?

Library and electronic resource integration

Collaboration outside the institution/ between institutions

How might we realise the vision?

Technology: I don’t have to channel Dr Chuck, because he’s here …

LTI, tool interoperabilityApp store interoperability

Don’t think of this as a single application

And I’ll leave Dr Chuck to say more about that…

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Critical Role of Open Source

• Keeping market honest. An alternative.

• Interoperability: demonstrators and reference models for open standards

• Will the commercial-proprietary vendors unlock their environments?

• History of LTI

Communities sustain open source

Diverse communities innovate…

• [book covers]

Francisco Osorio - Flickr - https://www.flickr.com/photos/francisco_osorio/ - Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)

Software Communities

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Bedework CAS Karuta Opencast Open Academic Environment Sakai Student Success Plan UniTime uPortal/uMobile Xerte EDexchange POET Learning Analytics Processor OpenDashboard OpenLRS Tsugi Framework

Francisco Osorio - Flickr - https://www.flickr.com/photos/francisco_osorio/ - Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)

Communities of InterestPurpose Teaching & Learning ePortfolio Learning Analytics

Software Development Internationalization Accessibility Security Licensing

Geographical South Africa Netherlands Japan Spain (Europe)

Sectoral K12 Federation

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We are not building a suite

Priorities

Encourage community inter-connection and dialogue

That takes resource. Ultimately funding.

We persuade. We do not mandate. We are not a “top down” organisation.

Membership is one way of contributing.

And there’ll be a focus on this topic at …

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