Dynamic Learning Maps Elluminate session
- 1. Project funded by Dynamic Learning Maps http://learning-maps.ncl.ac.uk
- 2. John Peterson (Project Officer) Paul Horner (Snr roject Officer) Simon Cotterill (PI & Project Manager) Gordon Skelly (Project Manager) Tony McDonald (Project Advisor) Steve Ball (Project Director) About DLM Funded as part of the JISC programme: Transforming curriculum delivery through technology Running from April 2009 to March 2011 Piloting in Medicine, Psychology & Speech Therapy
- 3. Overview Intended Outcomes • Understand the role of curriculum maps for different stakeholders • Be able to identify key barriers and challenges to developing curriculum maps • Become familiar with ways in which technology can enhance curriculum maps Structure • Overview (Intro / Rationale) 5 mins • What are Curriculum Maps? What do they do? 10 mins • Technologies / Demonstration 15 mins • Evaluation 10 mins • Discussion / Questions (throughout) 10 mins http://learning-maps.ncl.ac.uk
- 4. What's your preference for organising information? A. I prefer visual maps (mind maps, concept maps etc). B. I prefer hierarchical lists (text). Please vote:
- 5. I'm interested in today’s session mostly in relation to: A. curriculum delivery B. curriculum design C. both design & delivery D. learning about the technical approach E. All of the above (added retrospectively!) Please vote:
- 6. What's your / your institutions current use of curriculum maps ? A. We have a paper-based curriculum map B. We have an online curriculum map C. We are or plan to develop an online curriculum map D. No plan to use a curriculum map Please vote:
- 7. Background: Communicating Complex Curricula Modular courses: ‘Compartmentalisation’ Need to promote cross-modular learning
- 8. Background: Web 2.0 and changing expectations of learners “The Net Generation has grown up with information technology. The aptitudes, attitudes, expectations, and learning styles of Net Gen students reflect the environment in which they were raised— one that is decidedly different from that which existed when faculty and administrators were growing up.” Educating the Net Generation http://www.educause.edu/ “although young people demonstrate an ease and familiarity with computers, they rely on the most basic search tools and do not possess the critical and analytical skills to assess the information that they find on the web. Higher education, therefore, continues to have a unique role in providing learners with the higher-order skills of evaluation, critical analysis and reflection, synthesis, problem-solving, creativity and thinking across discipline boundaries.” Widespread uptake of social networking and other Web 2.0 = changing expectations and technical literacies of many learners http://learning-maps.ncl.ac.uk
- 9. Overview of Dynamic Learning maps Interactive ‘Web 2.0 Sharing , rating and reviews Harvesting multiple sources (‘Mashups’ ) Facilitating communities of interest Curriculum Maps Overview , Prior learning, Current & Future learning Personal Learning Personalised, sharing , reflective notes and evidencing outcomes Linking Learning Resources Curriculum & External Resources
- 10. What are Curriculum Maps? What do they do? http://learning-maps.ncl.ac.uk
- 11. Background: Curriculum Maps A diagrammatic representation of the curriculum. Different ‘windows’ onto the curriculum e.g. • Intended outcomes • Curriculum content /subject areas • Learning opportunities • Assessment • Learning resources • People (students / staff) Complexity Labour intensive
- 12. Curriculum Maps: Potential role in Monitoring & QA Declared curriculum Taught curriculum Learning & development ‘Constructive Alignment’ (curriculum – T&L – assessment) Better insight into learning outside the curriculum External resources Prior learning ‘Life-wide’ learning Identify popular external resources (QA + peer review) Map to other Curricula (widens learning opportunities) Identify ‘gaps’ in teaching Identify duplication Monitor access & equality of learning opportunities
- 13. What should be on a curriculum map? Example of different interpretations / implementations
- 14. Maps as a Metaphor Where have I been? Where am I now? Where am I going? Stakeholders • Learners • Teachers (incl. occasional teachers) • Curriculum Managers • Administrators • External regulators Reflection Revision Contextualisation Preparation What should the students already know? Where is topic X taught in the curriculum ? Career choices Curriculum choices Where is my specialty covered in the curriculum ? http://learning-maps.ncl.ac.uk Synthesis / Metacognition Planning
- 16. Developing Dynamic Learning Maps Demonstration
- 17. Overview of Dynamic Learning maps Interactive ‘Web 2.0 Sharing , rating and reviews Harvesting multiple sources (‘Mashups’ ) Facilitating communities of interest Curriculum Maps Overview , Prior learning, Current & Future learning Personal Learning Personalised, sharing , reflective notes and evidencing outcomes Linking Learning Resources Curriculum & External Resources
- 18. e- Learning Technical approach Curricula databases Library databases ePortfolio / blog Repositories External Feeds Learning Resources Life-long Learning Record ID-MAPs project Student Information Systems reflection evidencing discussion adding resources, rating & reviewing Learning Maps (topic-specific) Curriculum map Personal learning Community http://learning-maps.ncl.ac.uk
- 19. DLMs and LEAP2A HTTP GET Request HTTP Response - Leap2A XML HTTP POST Request - Leap2A XML Dynamic Learning Maps ePortfolio https://learning-maps.ncl.ac.uk/blog/category/eportfolio/ LEAP2A is used to connect Learning Maps to the learner’s ePortfolio using a simple web service developed as part of the PIOP3 project. This works in two ways – adding new records and retrieving those records so that they can be accessed inside the Map.
- 20. DLMs and XCRI https://learning-maps.ncl.ac.uk/blog/category/next-xcri-project/ HTTP Request Dynamic Learning Maps Course Database HTTP Response Our “NEXT” project looked at enhancing the support for XCRI-CAP in the North East. An outcome of that project was embedding XCRI feeds inside Learning Maps. This lets us show course related information relating to specific parts of the curriculum. We needed to extend the standard to better support competencies in order to link the map to a course.
- 22. Initial interfaces & user preferences Text-based interface Mind-map style interface Forthcoming focus groups: explore options e.g. colour coding terminology e.g. ‘nodes’ or topics
- 25. >1,000 external resources: 389 from 5 key sites (above)
- 26. Careers
- 29. Search
- 30. Challenges for Curriculum Mapping ♯1 Stage 5 Stage 4 Stage 3 Stage 2 Stage 1 2007/08 2008/09 2009/10 2010/11 2011/12 Student journey through the curriculum ‘here and now’ teaching focus Between major restructuring of the MBBS curriculum (aprox. every 5-7yrs): stable: units (modules), programme outcomes minor adjustments: sessions, cases, unit outcomes (responsive to evaluation / QA) more variation in assessment & differences in delivery by 4 ‘Base Units’ (stages 3 & 5) The curriculum changes over time
- 31. Challenges for Curriculum Mapping ♯2 Stepped availability of study guides, cases and timetable data Semester 2 Available Semester 1 Available Sept 2008 Jan 2009 Sept 2009 Jan 2010 i.e. a fully detailed / data-driven curriculum map for the current academic year would not be available until Semester 2. A partial map would be no good at all! (Needs to be a semi-persistent map but drawing on latest information as it becomes available). Resources (presentations etc) are uploaded into the VLE on a ‘just in time’ basis.
- 32. Challenges for Curriculum Mapping ♯3 MBBS study guide databases (baseline) designed to support complex curricula with large number of contributors using familiar Word documents (well formatted ‘portal documents’) these populate databases and structure the VLE when they are uploaded supports changing curriculum with views by multiple academic years Module Database (baseline) • outcomes are blocks of free text: variable formats and amount of detail Fit for purpose, but raise challenges for online curriculum maps: Key data is in the form of non-standardised text e.g. learning outcomes, core presentations / conditions etc. language is inconsistent between study guides (modified for context) hard to differentiate between unit-specific and programme outcomes & content Codes used in VLE and timetable are not persistent e.g. ‘PPD2.15’ may referrer to completely different teaching sessions from one academic year to the next Problematic as resources are linked to these non-persistent codes Existing data may not be in a readily usable
- 33. Getting the right balance Automation Specificity & Granularity Initially reliant on manually making connections (curriculum & community) Maintenance cost as curriculum changes Search – High volume of results mixed relevance Saturation (too many Connections – ‘hairball’) e.g. MBBS: 60+ learning outcomes per module. High-level outcomes present in virtually every module. Refine relevance scoring Data on connected topics used to improve future automation/specificity (related keywords / strength of connections)
- 34. Recap: Summary of DLM Interactive ‘Web 2.0 Sharing , rating and reviews Harvesting multiple sources (‘Mashups’ ) Facilitating communities of interest Curriculum Maps Overview , Prior learning, Current & Future learning Personal Learning Personalised, sharing , reflective notes and evidencing outcomes Linking Learning Resources Curriculum & External Resources
- 36. Initial Focus Group (following viewing concept demonstrator) Informal focus group: year 4 medical students: • Very keen on concept • Would need training, especially for those less confident with IT • Could it be used as additional feedback from students to lecturers? “This idea has engaged me from the outset and has potential, I believe, to revolutionise the MBBS course (as well as other courses) in many ways.” From a students point of view, one could be much clearer on ‘the big picture’, as you have a curriculum map laid out in front of you, it is simpler and easier to find out curriculum content, learning outcomes and formal resources, all linked together, and also seeing how similar topics are interlinked throughout the course.” “It seems a really good idea but it important that we get training on how to use it.”
- 37. Evaluation: Focus Groups December 2009 Focus Group: Psychology (n=2) Focus Groups: Speech Therapy BSc (9), MSc (7) Staff Meeting: Speech Therapy ~15 Module Choices Liked concept / layout Perceived duplication Importance of personal preferences Visual vs. Text Views Integration with Blackboard?
- 38. 49%51% Tree based lists Mind maps Phase 1 MBBS feedback I prefer ?
- 39. The map will help me better understand the MBBS curriculum? 18% 30% 25% 15% 7% 3% 1%
- 40. It is easy to use? 8% 32% 38% 8% 11% 3% 2%
- 41. The map would benefit my learning? 13% 33% 34% 12% 3% 1% 3%
- 42. I understand the concept of Learning Maps? 30% 32% 20% 8% 6% 0% 5%
- 43. Knowing how a teaching session relates to the rest of the curriculum is important to me? 26% 41% 10% 15% 3% 3% 1%
- 44. Having the map will be useful for preparation before a teaching session? 15% 22% 19% 18% 7% 9% 10%
- 45. Having the map will be useful for reviewing and reflecting after a session? 22% 31% 27% 9% 3% 3% 4%
- 46. Having the map will be useful for revision? 40% 39% 12% 4% 0% 0% 4%
- 47. It would be useful to add notes and reflections to teaching sessions and other parts of the map? 37% 18% 18% 12% 3% 6% 5%
- 48. I only want information and resources provided by teaching staff ? 7% 12% 7% 10% 19% 25% 18%
- 49. I frequently supplement my learning with external resources on the web ? 34% 18% 19% 6% 6% 9% 7%
- 50. How often would you envisage using the map (once complete) ? 11% 48% 32% 10%
- 51. • Current status • >750 people have accessed DLM • Initial student input, focus groups • Input from curriculum leaders & support staff • Ongoing populating the curriculum maps • Integration with learning and teaching environments • Larger-scale Piloting / Evaluation 2010/11 • Medicine • Psychology • Speech Therapy (Jan 2011) • Public Demonstrator (soon) • Looking to Pilot in other contexts Next steps
- 52. Recap: Summary of DLM Interactive ‘Web 2.0 Sharing , rating and reviews Harvesting multiple sources (‘Mashups’ ) Facilitating communities of interest Curriculum Maps Overview , Prior learning, Current & Future learning Personal Learning Personalised, sharing , reflective notes and evidencing outcomes Linking Learning Resources Curriculum & External Resources
- 53. Project funded by Further information: http://learning-maps.ncl.ac.uk Thank You