moen reusing and repurposing learning objects: issues of granularity1 reusing & repurposing...

Moen Reusing and Repurposing Learning Objects: Issues of Granularity 1

Reusing & Repurposing Learning Objects

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Issues of Granularity in the Texas Course Redesign Repository

William E. Moen<[email protected]>

Texas Center for Digital Knowledge

University of North TexasDenton, Texas

Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board


Texas course redesign project

• Statewide initiative, funded by Texas legislature

• Original RFP requested proposals:– To redesign developmental and entry-level

academic courses – To develop other related projects that would

advance the statewide course redesign initiative


Texas courses being redesigned

• 23 redesign projects in development including:– Developmental writing, reading, and mathematics– Biology I & II, Chemistry I & II– College Algebra, Calculus, Math for Business & Social

Science Majors, Statistics– Computer Literacy– English Composition I & II– Fine Arts Appreciation– Introduction to Engineering– Spanish– U.S. Government – U.S. History I & II


Redesigning first year curriculum

Core Curriculum Component Area Redesigned Courses

Communication English Composition, Spanish

Mathematics Algebra, Calculus, Statistics

Natural Science Biology I & II, Chemistry I & II

Humanities/Visual & Performing Arts Fine Arts Appreciation

Social/Behavioral Science U.S. History I & II, Government I

Institutionally Designated Option Computer Literacy


The learning object repository

• Two phase project– Phase I: Proof-of-Concept (May 07–Sept 07)

• How course content can be decomposed into discrete learning objects (LOs)

• How LOs can be individually described through metadata• How users can use the LOR to search, browse, retrieve, and

download LOs• How LOs can be packaged to import into learning management

systems

– Phase II: Research & Development (Sept 07–Aug 09)• Moving towards a near-production level system

• Primary means to disseminate redesigned coursesFor more information, see project website: http://thecblor.unt.edu

Moen

THECB LOR components

• Repository platform: DSpace– Stores the LOs and metadata describing each– Provides authenticated user interface for submission of

LOs and creation of metadata– Provides public user interface for searching, browsing,

access– Manakin XML user interface tool

• Course content and learning objects– Our definition of a LO: A digital resource (simple or

complex) that can be used to support learning

Reusing and Repurposing Learning Objects: Issues of Granularity 6

Moen

THECB LOR components

• Metadata– Serves in managing the repository’s content– Serves users to:

• Find (searching and discovering LOs)• Identify (comparing similar LOs)• Select (evaluating LOs for specific needs)• Access/Acquire (downloading selected LOs)

– Using metadata elements from two standards:• Dublin Core• IEEE Learning Object Metadata• Approximately 40 elements


Moen

Context for THECB LOR

• Courses and course content – Developed by separate projects – No standard or common logical structure

• Quality of content – Competitive grant process for redesigned courses

• Intended audience– Instructors/instructional designers at public institutions of

higher education in Texas

• Intellectual property – Belongs to Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board


Moen

Basic organization of LOR

• Discipline (e.g. History)–Sub-discipline (e.g., U.S History)

• Courses (e.g., U.S. History I, U.S. History II)

–Course content (Collections of learning objects at varying levels of granularity)


Moen

From courses to LOs

• Courses not designed in terms of:– Learning objects– Storage in a repository

• Challenges:– How to decompose complete course into

meaningful LOs– How to decide on levels of granularity– How to represent such levels– How to show relationships among/between

related LOs at different levels of granularityReusing and Repurposing Learning Objects: Issues of Granularity 11

Moen

U.S. History I Course

• Structure as designed:– Course

• Units (four Units in Course)– Lessons (two or more lessons per Unit)

» Topics (two or more topics per Lesson)

• Structure served to guide levels of granularity


Moen

U.S. History I Course

• Other course components as designed– Case studies– Teacher and student guides– Assessments (primarily at the Lesson level)

• Free-standing learning objects– Derived from course content– Have value outside the context for which they

were created– Interactive flash animations, video clips, etc.


Moen

Characterizing LOs

• Netg– Topic: single learning objective, a learning activity, and an

assessment

• Cisco– Reusable Information Object: content items, practice

items, and assessment items aimed at single learning objective

• SCORM Content Package– Sharable Content Objects packaged together in larger

units of learning related to learning objectives

• IMS Learning Design– Learning Object: object needed to perform an activity


Moen

Assumptions for the THECB LOR

• Users may be in need of different sized LOs• No common logical structure for courses• No common terminology across courses for labeling

structural components of course• Different courses may dictate different levels of

granularity• Context for some LOs more important than others• Our definition of a LO:

– A digital resource (simple or complex) that can be used to support learning

– Not tied to specific learning objectives


Moen

Spanish course

• Course content consists of:– Introductory web page– Podcast

• Organized by topics, subtopics, specific topics e.g.– Verbs

• Present tense– Present tense AR– Present tense ER/IR– Present tense Irregulars

– Nouns, articles, adjectives and agreement• Articles

– Definite and indefinite articles


Moen

Developmental writing course

• Course content consists of:– Web pages of textual information– Assessments and activities

• Organized into:– Categories

• Lessons– Topics



LOs at multiple levels of granularity

The Russian Doll Approach

Separate learning objects are created at all levels: course, lesson, topic, page, page element (media), with each level contained in the one above it.

G.W. Matkin

Moen

Russian Doll in context of courses

History• Topic LOs

– Topics aggregated in a lesson

• Lesson LOs– Lessons

aggregated in a unit

• Unit LOs– Units aggregated

into course level


Writing• Topic LOs

– Topics aggregated in a lesson

• Lesson LOs– Lessons

aggregated in a category

• Category LOs– Categories

aggregated into course level

Spanish• Specific topic LOs

– Specific topics aggregated in a subtopic

• Subtopic LOs– Subtopics

aggregated in a topics

• Topic LOs– Topics aggregated

into course level

Moen

This approach…

• Addresses our lack of knowledge of granularity levels appropriate for intended users

• Offers LOs at multiple levels of granularity• Provides a testbed for empirical investigation

BUT … lots of challenges, including:• Terminology for levels of granularity• Use of metadata to describe/represent levels of granularity• Use of metadata to show relationships (part of, is part of)• Addressing sequencing and context where that is important

I’ll appreciate your ideas and suggestions!


Moen

References

• Disaggregation and reutilization of sharable content objects. Figuerua, A. & Kaufmann, M.

• Learning object repositories: Problems and promise. Matkin, G.W.

• Transforming existing content into reusable learning objects. Doorten, M., et al.

• THECB LOR Project: http://thecblor.unt.edu


moen reusing and repurposing learning objects: issues of granularity1 reusing & repurposing...

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