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Stuart C Berry Camosun College Business Faculty & Doctoral Candidate - Athabasca University

Enhancing Learning Environments: Making course archives available for current and future learning. Stuart C Berry Camosun College Business Faculty & Doctoral Candidate - Athabasca University May 5, 2011. Enhancing Learning Environments:

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Stuart C Berry Camosun College Business Faculty & Doctoral Candidate - Athabasca University

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  1. Enhancing Learning Environments:Making course archives available for current and future learning • Stuart C Berry • Camosun College Business Faculty • & • Doctoral Candidate - Athabasca University • May 5, 2011

  2. Enhancing Learning Environments: Making course archives available for current and future learning The Use and Value of an Online Archive

  3. Evolution of an Existing Online Course From One Iteration to the Next Start with clean environment Removed - Lost The Use and Value of an Online Archive The Course Archive

  4. Enhancing Learning Environments: Making course archives available for current and future learning How can we capture, use, and reuse artifacts contained within course archives created as a result of the ongoing interaction of learners within networked, online learning environments? The Use and Value of an Online Archive

  5. Questions to Frame This Presentation • As a student would you use an archive, built over time, by former students/faculty in your course? • How might you see yourself using such an archive? • How useful would an archive be to you? • What barriers can you see in using or accessing an archive? The Use and Value of an Online Archive

  6. Defining Terms The Use and Value of an Online Archive

  7. Artifacts Artifacts are everything that is recorded and captured as a result of the interactions of all of the participants of the online course. Artifacts includes contributions from the teacher, learners, and all materials brought into the learning environment. The Use and Value of an Online Archive

  8. Artifacts Artifacts can include threaded discussions, files including assignments or external objects, blog postings, synchronous and asynchronous conversations. This includes items added in current or past sections of a course. The Use and Value of an Online Archive

  9. The Archive An archive is a non-linear repository. Artifacts contained in an archive are not necessarily held within a single location. An archive is an overarching term encompassing a themed but disconnected group of objects. The Use and Value of an Online Archive

  10. The Archive An archive is an organic and evolving repository of artifacts that becomes a dynamic part of a course. The Use and Value of an Online Archive

  11. The Archive The nature of an online learning environment generally determines the location and relationship of the artifacts within the archive. Structured environment “LMS” Versus Open environment “Social Networked or Mediated” The Use and Value of an Online Archive

  12. Theoretical Foundation The Use and Value of an Online Archive

  13. Theoretical Foundation of Study • Knowledge creation: A means of generating competitive advantage • Organizational Knowledge Creation Theory • … including Ba, the place or space within which tacit understandings are shared (Nonaka and others) • Tacit and Explicit Knowledge (Polanyi) The Use and Value of an Online Archive

  14. Theoretical Foundation of Study Organizational Knowledge Creation Theory: …maps out different paths by which organizations create and capture the process of knowledge generation. The Use and Value of an Online Archive

  15. Theoretical Foundation of Study Organizational knowledge creation theory: …examines the processes inherent in knowledge creation including elements believed necessary to support the generation of new knowledge while ensuring that these knowledge processes become embedded in the organization allowing for continued knowledge growth and development. The Use and Value of an Online Archive

  16. Theoretical Foundation of Study Organizational knowledge creation theory: “A central purpose of organizational knowledge creation theory is to identify conditions enabling knowledge creation in order to improve innovation and learning” (Nonaka, von Krogh, & Voelpel, 2006, p. 1185). The Use and Value of an Online Archive

  17. Theoretical Foundation of Study Organizational knowledge creation theory: The use of course artifacts by current and future learners is potentially an enabling condition for the development of knowledge and the related processes supporting knowledge creation in the online classroom. The Use and Value of an Online Archive

  18. Theoretical Foundation of Study Examine the process of knowledge creation in online learning environments Can this theory be applicable within another domain?i.e. From management to education The Use and Value of an Online Archive

  19. Research Questions The Use and Value of an Online Archive

  20. Research Questions - Summary • How can an online archive support knowledge creation and the learning process? • What value can an online archive offer learners? • What are the potential challenges to the access and use of the archive? The Use and Value of an Online Archive

  21. Research Methodologyand Environment The Use and Value of an Online Archive

  22. Research Model • Design-Based Research – a qualitative study • Based on work by Herrington, McKenney, Reeves and Oliver, (2007) • Four Stage Approach: (Anderson, 2005; Bannan-Ritland, 2003) • Informed exploration • Enactment • Evaluation within a local context • Development of design principles The Use and Value of an Online Archive

  23. Research Model The design-based research model supports interventions in existing environments with the intent of developing new theories and practices to influence learning and teaching in natural settings (Barab & Squire, 2004). The Use and Value of an Online Archive

  24. Research Environment The Intervention: Redesign elements of two consecutive sections of an online Master’s course. Alter course to have learners use content of an existing two year course archive held within a bounded social networked learning environment (ELGG**) and add their artifacts in the process. (** an open source social networking platform) The Use and Value of an Online Archive

  25. Research Environment ELGG(an open source social networking platform) The Use and Value of an Online Archive

  26. Research Environment • ELGG • A social networked learning environment providing: • A sense of security • A sense of bounded openness • Access Controls • Control is in the hands of the user The Use and Value of an Online Archive

  27. Research Environment The Use and Value of an Online Archive Access Controls

  28. Research Themesand Challenges The Use and Value of an Online Archive

  29. Research Themes • Initial Broad Themes • Supporting Knowledge Creation • A resource of common examples • Support for those willing to spend the time and look at the archive beyond the course assignments • Value of the Archive • Must have direct and tangible benefit • Challenges to the Use of the Archive • The course structure and assignments • The learning environment The Use and Value of an Online Archive

  30. Research Challenges • Research proposal did not originally anticipate issues related to the learning environment (a learning management system (LMS) versus a socially networked learning environment). The only available choice for the study of the use of a course archive was through a social networked learning space. The LMS was not designed to house and reuse an archive. The Use and Value of an Online Archive

  31. Research Challenges • It appears that we have acculturated learners in terms of online learning environments through the use of LMS’s and learners are greatly challenged by the structure of the social networked learning environment. (familiar vs unknown) • At times learners appear lost and disoriented and repeatedly express concern over the efficacy of the networked learning environment. The Use and Value of an Online Archive

  32. Research Challenges • A challenge to get students to engage with the archive so that they can begin to understand it and its relation to them and their learning. (Issues such as time, perceived value, and the relationship of the contributions of unknown learners/non-experts to the learning environment). The Use and Value of an Online Archive

  33. Research Challenges • There is an apparent disconnect between seeing the potential value of the archive from a distance versus actually spending time in the archive and getting to know what it contains and how it can be of value to the learner. (The archive perceived as a great idea but not accessed because??) The Use and Value of an Online Archive

  34. Research Challenges • A tendency to search for answers (a quick fix) versus looking for thinking or process in the archive. • Limited understanding of protocols for tagging and subsequent searching. • Even at the graduate level there is the appearance that the course is more about doing the assignment and moving on and less about the process of learning. The Use and Value of an Online Archive

  35. Research Challenges • Attitudes toward the archive • I want to figure things out myself: I want to learn on my own and don’t want to be influenced by the processes of those who went before. • I think time becomes a quintessential piece of the puzzle…  but keeping up with the 30 odd students in my own cohort leaves little time to reflect on what ghosts have said. The Use and Value of an Online Archive

  36. Research Challenges The archive has targeted value as long as the time spent results in a direct benefit to the learner in the course. The Use and Value of an Online Archive

  37. Research ChallengesDeveloping New Theories and Practices What elements are needed to build a course that contains a meaningful archive that has a high ease-of-use factor, is searchable/accessible, and contains evidence of the tacit and explicit understandings of learners and ultimately supports learners as they learn from those who went before? The Use and Value of an Online Archive

  38. Future Online Courses From One Iteration to the Next Dynamic, Growing, Evolving The Use and Value of an Online Archive The Course Archivea living resource

  39. Developing New Theories and PracticesComing Full Circle…….. • As a student would you use an archive, built over time, by former students/faculty in your course? • How might you see yourself using such an archive? • How useful would an archive be to you? • What barriers can you see in using or accessing an archive? The Use and Value of an Online Archive

  40. Enhancing Learning Environments:Making course archives available for current and future learning Thank You --- Questions? Discussion? Stuart C Berry May 5, 2011

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