5th June 2006
L4All Lifelong Learning in London for All
Prof Alex PoulovassilisDr George MagoulasDr Sara de FreitasDr Martin Oliver
George Papamarkos & Amy Chamier
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Project Aims
• Support lifelong learners in London• Provide access to information
facilitating progression to FE/HE• Planning of future learning• Share experiences with peers• Reflect on learning throughout life
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Project Partners• Birkbeck College• Institute of Education• London School of Economics• Community College Hackney• Advisors: John Cook (LMU), Gareth Dent (UfI),
Graeme Atherton (Aim Higher), Paul Welch (Prospects), Jill Johnson (UCAS), Suzanne Overton-Edwards (City Westminster College), Stuart Swann (Greenwich Learning Centre), Richard Rayne (BBK), Sarah Vaughn (BBK), Sue Jackson (BBK)
• Sarah Davies, JISC Programme Manager
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Motivation
• Widening participation in HE• LLN important due to high-skills
needs of the knowledge economy• Holistic view needed of individuals’
life, work and learning experiences• Importance of timely, relevant
careers guidance and support
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Approach
• Holistic approach to lifelong learners’ work and learning
• Based on learner trails/pathways• Sharing pathways with others:
learning opportunities that may not otherwise have been considered; role models
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Methodology
• User requirements elicitation:– use cases– examples of learning pathways– identification of critical decision points
• Technical requirements elicitation:– development tools and standards– existing e-services
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Methodology
• Functional Specification• Development of pilot version 1• Metadata provision and generation• First evaluation phase• Development of pilot version 2• Second evaluation phase
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Understanding the user
• Interviews with higher and further education (HE/FE) students;
• Focus groups with people aiming to get involved with teacher education, representatives from recruitment and careers specialists, course tutors and directors from HE and FE
• Workshop events; • Consultation with the project advisory group and
experts in the field;
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accommodate individual needs
Some of the findings (D3.2 User Requirements Report)
Learners requested functionalities:• Search courses and pathways• Browse courses and pathways• Case histories• Define/Edit/Modify user profile• Personalised filtering• Annotate content• Receive recommendations• Share pathways and experiences
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User
I MS: Preferences
IMS: Personal
data IMS: Interests
I MS: Competencies
Definition Sub-
elements
Title Unique
ID
Accessibility
Device
Style Sub-
elements
Performance info
IMS: Goals
External goals
Sub-elements Type
Priority
Date
Description Sub-elements
Cognitive styles
taxonomy
Descriptor
Description
Application-specific:
User History
Content
New/Updated User Model
Managements
Updated digital object
Application-specific: Change
Detection
eduPerson: Context
Type of group
Entitlement
Affiliation
Application-specific group
• Adopt IMS specification• Encode user profiles in
RDF.
This approach:• Offers flexibility to
include elements from multiple schemas, enriching them with additional elements, when necessary
• Facilitates interoperability with other systems
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E-Learning Framework
The services are organised into logical groups but no explicit association among service functional definitions is implied.
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Service Scope
DELTA (Essex) searching over the RDF metadata resources
ISIS (Hull) providing sequencing over a set of lifelong learning activities
LearnDirect searching and retrieving content from the LearnDirect database
Services examples
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D6.2 Report on L4All system architecture http://www.lkl.ac.uk/research/l4all.html
Tomcat 5.0.28
Course Metadata
DELTA Search Service
Java Beans
User MetadataISIS Sequencing Service
LearnDirect Search ServiceWeb Services
Portal
Flash applicationRegistration
Pages
L4All architecture
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User elicitation process
• Semi-structured interviews • Individuals from targeted user groups
(studying IT, teacher training, FE)• Narratives about learning and work• Formalised as flow charts
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TIMELINE
Completed GCSEs
Wants to studyBTEC (HND)
2 years
Currently studyingGNVQ Intermediate(currently in year 2)
CompletedGNVQ Foundation
Wants to studyBTEC National Diploma
2 years
Suzie is 20, of Turkish origin, and wants to obtain a BTEC (HND) qualification and has been studying IT at various levels through the GNVQ
programmes offered at her college. She is now in her
third year in college, and has another 3 years to complete her vocational learning route. She doesn’t have any work
experience, and is very interested in computer
programming, though she is unsure about what career she wishes to venture into, upon
completing her study programmes.
CASE STUDY 1 (COLLEGE STUDENT)
How do I find out about alternative and quicker career paths for reaching university
Where do I get careers advice from?
What have other students done in a similar position?
What is the best way of getting in to a job in the IT area?
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First evaluation phase
• Observational studies• Set tasks, talk aloud protocol• Identification of errors, bugs, etc.
– Concept of ‘timeline’ used instead of ‘trail’ as more comprehensible to users
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Second evaluation phase
• Proof of concept• Users invited to complete tasks
using system• Survey to elicit reflections• Positive endorsement of the
potential of the system
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Second evaluation phase
• ‘Crystalisation’: realisation that work and study inter-related, and a path existed to their aspirations
• Suggestions for use (e.g. in group sessions, facilitated, etc)– Importance of the tool in producing
representations that could be shared and discussed