Modeling the Communities of Practice of E-Learning “CoPEs”

Azeddine Chikh Associate Professor University of Tlemcen, Algeria Lamia Berkani National Institute of Computer Science “INI” Algeria Akila Sarirete Lecturer and Cisco Coordinator, Effat College, Saudi Arabia Modeling the Communities of Practice of E-Learning “CoPEs” Presented by Akila Sarirete

Objectives • Extend the application of the (CoPs) Communities of Practice to the E-learning field • The proposed category called CoPE • The CoPE concepts have been illustrated through acase studywithin the European project of distance educationCoseLearn

Presentation Overview • Introduction to Community of Practice? • Concept of Community of Practice ofE-learning “CoPE” • Case Study • Conclusionand Perspectives

Managing New Functions • Educational institutions are moving towards the use of the Internet for delivery, both on campus and at a distance Current technology hyper-change faces significant challenges… • How to create a work environment that enable people to: Learn, Adapt, Share, Respond effectively to innovative systems • How to manage new functions & structures CoP/CoPE A New Field is emerging:

What is a CoP? • Community of Practice CoP (Lave & Wenger, 1998) is a tool by which knowledge is owned in practice and whose main goal is learning • It is about a group of professionals who gather and organizethemselves, face to face or virtually, in order to: • Share information and experience, related to their area of expertise, • Exchangeand cooperate in order to solveproblems encountered in their activities, • Learn from each other and develop their professional competencies • Build knowledge and formulate best practices to be followed in the realization of their daily activities.

Characteristics of CoPs From Information To Transformation CoPs are characterized by three fundamental features How it functions? A Mutual Engagement What it is about? A Joint Enterprise A Shared Repository What it has Produced?

Community of E-learning (CoPE)

What is CoPE? A CoPE is a group of professionals in e-learning who gather, collaborate, and organize themselves face to face and mostly virtually in order to: • Share information & techno-pedagogic experiences related to the development & use of Online Learning System (OLS) • Exchange and cooperate in order to solve problems • Build (improve and/or create) together techno-pedagogic knowledge and model the best practices to be followed in the realization of the OLS

What is a CoPE? (cont’ed) • Develop competencies in engineering pedagogy; • Promote the application of e-learning standards such as: IMS-LD for learning scenarios; IMS-LIP for learners description; IMS-LOM for pedagogical resources qualification; and SCORM for inter platforms exchanges; • Define terminology, glossary, or ontology, conciliating the various views and articulating them around the above mentioned standards.

CoPE & Online Learning System A CoPEis a virtual space of exchange, sharing, and resolution of problems encountered by actors of e-learning during all phases of an online learning system life cycle Acquisition Phase Utilization Phase

Learning Situations characterized by the collaborative aspect • Problem Situation: find solutions to common problems encountered during the two phases of acquisition and utilization in LMS. • Example: how to incorporate a Java Applet for a given exercise in Moodle LMS in order to make it interactive. • Decision Situation: deciding on choosing between several alternatives during the acquisition phase or the validation of some results of the design. • Example: What type of learning situation do we select in a specific course? Or what role do we choose to ensure a moderation activity in a given group (tutor/moderator-learner)? • Project Situation: concerns the final build up and realization of the online learning system according to the acquisition cycle. Confrontation of individual practices allows the best practices to surface. • Example: Development of an online learning system related to a course on system engineering for master students in computer science field

Components of a learning situation • Actors with their roles • Activities • Learning environment

Roles in CoPE

CoPE Activities CoPE members carry out joint activities to exchange techno-pedagogical information Activities correspond to the stages of learning life cycle

CoPE Environment View Use of a specific environment intended to CoPEs Use of a generic environment intended to CoPs Use of an LMS environment type

CoPE vs. LMS • CoPEis considered as a thinking space about e-learning activities. • Find solutions to encountered problems and to favor practices of reuse and exchange between actors in terms of techno pedagogic knowledge and know-how. • Strong relationship between CoPE and LMS • LMSCoPEexchange: support discussions inside CoPEs with real problem situations encountered in LMS, making the CoPE’s space more active ; • CoPELMS exchange: consists to experiment the solutions, obtained in the COPE’s space, directly in LMS before reifying them in the CoPE memory.

Case Study • CoPE developed and realized within the framework of the project of distance education CoseLearn “Switzerland Cooperation” • Promote e-learning in a number of French-speaking countries in Africa • CoseLearn program leads to the professional diploma (MIEL) of “International Master in E-learning” • Principal actors of the project: Professors; Tutors; Administrators and Master candidates

Case Study (cont.) • The problem situations: • finding answers to the various questions encountered by the candidates during all their training and instruction, namely during the duties stated in various subjects as well as during the final project. • The decisional situations: • identifying the possible alternatives of design and development, and the criteria and/or the arguments necessary to the selection. • The project situations : • exchanging the practices, which appear by a viable know-how in terms of construction of the online education courses (best practices).

Conclusion & Perspectives • Extend the application of the Communities of Practice (CoPs) to the e-learning field. • The proposed category called CoPE is considered the center of reflection of techno-pedagogic practices and promotes collaborative and cooperative learning. • The concepts related to CoPE have been illustrated through a case study developed and realized within the project of distance educationprogram CoseLearn that leads to International Master in e-Learning.

Conclusion & Perspectives • We plan to provide a specification language of the learning scenarios in CoPEs. This language will be based on IMS-LD • The feasibility of exchanges (LMSCoPE) is conditioned by a formal modeling of learning situations in their both sides. The IMS-LD language permits to model only the learning situations for LMS. Accordingly, a language of specification of learning situations within CoPEs is more than necessary

Modeling the Communities of Practice of E-Learning “CoPEs”