LAMS Learning Activity Management System James Dalziel Director

LAMS: Learning Activity Management System James Dalziel Director, LAMS Foundation Professor of Learning Technology & Director, Macquarie E-Learning Centre Of Excellence (MELCOE) Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia james@melcoe. mq. edu. au www. melcoe. mq. edu. au Presentation for University of Michigan, USA, April 19 th, 2007

Overview • The missing concept of e-learning • Learning Design • LAMS – Bedside manner – PBL – Learning Design + Virtual patient mockup • LAMS – LMS integration • LAMS Community • Further information

The missing concept of e-learning • “Single-learner” content vs “multi-learner” content • LMSs have collaborative tools (forum, chat) and courseware has sequencing of content…. But why no sequencing of collaborative activities? • Face to face classes/workshops often use collaborative activities and content in a structured way – So why is this so rare in e-learning?

Learning Design • The pre-history of Learning Design exists in decades of work on systematic lesson planning, and more recently in the technical work of Educational Modelling Language (EML) – EML formed the basis for the IMS Learning Design specification – NB: When I say Learning Design, I mean the wider field, not just IMS LD • Definitions vary, but some typical examples include: – Koper (2001): “modelling units of study” – Sloep (2002): “people doing activities with resources/environments” – IMS Learning Design specification (2003): “a description of a method enabling learners to attain certain learning objectives by performing certain learning activities in a certain order in the context of a certain learning environment”

Learning Design • For me, the key to Learning Design is: Re-usable sequences of collaborative learning activities • Re-usable: Can easily be captured, stored, shared and adapted • Sequences: Managed flow of tasks (not a list on a course page) – (But not necessarily a linear flow of individual tasks) • Collaborative learning activities: “Multi-learner” tasks – (…. as well as “single-learner” tasks like content and quizzes) • Alternatively, a Learning Design is a “digital lesson plan” – But not simply a narrative description – rather, it can “do” something

Learning Design • Each activity in a Learning Design requires details about: – Who: People/roles – What: Content/Instructions (“Activities” in IMS LD) – How: Tool setup (“Environment/Services” in IMS LD) • Plus the overall Learning Design has: – When: A description of the flow of tasks/sequence structure (“method” in IMS LD) – Why: A set of educational objectives/competencies (optional) • The details of who, what and how for each task (and the sequence structure & objectives) are encoded in a machine-readable format – Eg, EML file, IMS LD XML file, LAMS XML file • So a Learning Design authoring environment creates a Learning Design file, which is then “played” by a run-time environment

LAMS • World’s leading software for Learning Design – 1000 s of educators across 80+ countries – Translated into 23 languages • Visual “drag and drop” approach to designing activities • Educator designs activities, then “runs” them with students, and monitors student progress • **Lessons can be stored, re-used, adapted and shared • Freely available as open source software

LAMS sustainability • There is no licence cost for LAMS – it is freely available as open source software – LAMS is freely provided by the non-profit LAMS Foundation • Fee-based services and support for LAMS are provided by a commercial company – LAMS International • Both LAMS Foundation and LAMS International are supported by Macquarie University

LAMS Demonstration Simulation of a module on on bedside manner (8 students)

LAMS Login

Home: Showing course (Healthcare Education) and sequence (Bedside Manner)

Learner View of Bedside Manner sequence – first activity (Noticeboard)

Learner – Q&A – individual answer

Learner – Q&A – Collated answers

Learner – Voting – individual answer

Learner – Voting – collated answers

Learner – Grouping

Learner – Chat

Learner – Access Resources

Learner – Forum discussion

Learner – Notebook reflection

Author – Bedside manner sequence

Author – Editing of individual Q&A

Monitor – Live view of sequence progress by learners

Monitor – Detailed view of monitoring of chat

Monitor – Live view of individual learner progress

Author – Alternative sequence structure - PBL

Author Mockup – Learning Design + Virtual Patient (from Karolinksa Institute)

LAMS/LMS Integration page: http: //lamsfoundation. org/integration

Sharing Lesson Plans: The LAMS Community • The “LAMS Community” is global website for communities of LAMS users. www. lamscommunity. org – Discuss the use of LAMS, new features, technical issues – **Share sequences, search for sequences, comment on and rate sequences, and get statistics on downloads – Find colleagues with similar interests, form sub-communities • We use Creative Commons “open content” licensing of LAMS sequences • Approximately 2000 members, 86 countries, 110 shared sequences, 2500 discussion postings

LAMS Community – View of various communities & forums

LAMS Community – Repository Summary

LAMS Community – Detailed view of individual sequence

Further Information - LAMS • General information: www. lamsfoundation. org – Especially CD link for case studies, video, demos; downloads • Online community: www. lamscommunity. org – Forums, sequence repository, regular newsletter, resources • Demonstration – LAMS V 2 – demo. lamscommunity. org • Sakai – LAMS integration demo – Sakai. lamscommunity. org • Fee-based services and support – www. lamsinternational. com

Learning Design for Sakai • Existing integration (Single-Sign-On) – Demo site at http: //sakai. lamscommunity. org/ • Extending the current integration – Gradebook • Tools integration – Use LAMS Tools Contract to allow Sakai tools to be sequenced by LAMS workflow engine – Expose LAMS tools to be used in Sakai courses

Upcoming for LAMS V 2. 1 • The LAMS V 2 architecture provides the foundations for many new features which are not yet visible, eg: – – – Branching Conditionality Advanced grouping “Data in/data out” Combinations of the above • Also planned for the future are: – – “Edit on the fly” Instant messaging Pedagogic planner creator/editor Student-led tools and sequencing (LAMS PLE? )

Introducing RAMS • The “Research Activity Management System” (RAMS) builds on the LAMS V 2 workflow core (+ new e. Research features) • A new suite of activity tools appropriate for peoplebased e. Research activityflows – Plus multi-purpose tools that apply across e. Learning and e. Research • The result is two different domain-specific applications (LAMS for e. Learning; RAMS for e. Research) that draw on a common workflow core • Everything is open source

Introducing RAMS Teachers Researchers LAMS Application e. Learning specific tools RAMS Application Multi-purpose tools e. Research specific tools “Education Workflow Engine” (LAMS core + new RAMS development) Admin Author Monitor Participant

Sample e. Research Activityflow Use Cases High level use cases from RAMP proposal: 1. Managing the research enterprise lifecycle (from grant planning to grant submission, to project initiation, to project lifecycle management, to research outcome dissemination), 2. Implementing auditable evaluation processes for assessing research quality (RQF assessor workflows, journal/conference peer review management, etc), 3. Designing and tracking article submission processes for Institutional Repositories, 4. Flexibly configuring and running online research collaboration processes (such as staged collaborative analysis and discussion for Ph. D/Postdocs around raw data, leading to interpretation, visualisation, and ultimately publications), and 5. Process-oriented research data collection from human subjects (such as in the humanities, and social and cognitive sciences).

The future of educational tools? Stand alone Sequenced Offline Online Teacher led Student led

LAMS 2. 0 Features: Simple and Complex Branching

Dissecting Dolly LAMS 2. 0 is not longer just an application, but instead a framework for sequencing activities Your all one-stop-dev-shop for LAMS 2. 0: http: //lamsfoundation. org/wiki Architecture Comparison Tools Contract LAMS Tools Built-in content repository and note services Developing a LAMS Tool Sequence External Tools within LAMS

LAMS 1. 0. x vs LAMS 2. 0 Architecture Comparison

Tools & Tools Contract Tool as “almost” independent web applications. Set of expected behaviours, registered URLs and API calls that a LAMS Tool has to implement to "talk" to LAMS Core. Clear separation between Design and Tool Content. LAMS Core Stores and manages Designs Author My LAMS Tool Admin Learner Monitor Services Tool Contract Manage its own content

My LAMS Tool Author Contract /API Adm in Contract/API Learner Contract/API Monitor Contract/API Services API Author Admin Learner Monitor Services

Authoring URL i. e. : <lams base path>/<tool's authoringurl>&tool. Content. ID=123 Default Tool content Auth or Contract/API Author Contract/API My LAMS Tool Author environment must have three mandatory tabs: Basic, Advanced and Instructions Preview URL Export content format LAMS Xpress interface Data exchange (input and outputs data types) Author

Monitor URL Monitor Con tract/API Monitor Contract/API My LAMS Tool Monitor Implement Summary, Instructions, Edit Activity and Statistics tabs. Allow edit and hide entries (when required). Export Portfolio URL

Learners URL Track progress within tool Learner Contract /API Learner Contract/API My LAMS Tool Learner Define later, Lock on Finish, Run offline Notify Sequencing Engine of users’ completion Export Portfolio URL

Administration URL Admin Con tract/API Admin Contract/API My LAMS Tool Admin Edit “Default Tool Content” Provide statistics about Tool usage General view of Tools metadata (tool version, etc)

My LAMS Tool Journal and notes Content repository Serv ices API Services API Chat/IM server (based on Jabber) Services Add/Remove content Add new versions of content Stream content to users

Tool Compliance and Certification Test API+ Authoring (except define later, run offline), Learning (except portfolio export). Used for testing only. Minimal TEST + Monitoring (except define later, run offline). Full MINIMAL + define later, run offline, portfolio export.

External Tool Wrapper External tool can be used as normal LAMS Tools using the tool wrapper. Effectively, Moodle, . LRN or Sakai tools can be used as native LAMS tools (including advanced features as groupings, branching, define in monitor, etc) Author Admin Learner Monitor Services Tool Contract External Tool Wrapper Tool Contract External Tool

External Tool Wrapper (Moodle Example) The LAMS/Moodle wrapper provides another level of abstraction to bundle Moodle activities as LAMS native tools that you can drag and drop create learning sequences just like any other tool Author Admin Learner Monitor Services Tool Contr act Moodle External Tool Wrapper (provided by LAMS) WS/Moodle API Forum

Where/How do I start developing a LAMS Tool? The LAMS Wiki http: //lamsfoundation. org/wiki The LAMS Tech Community http: //lamscommunity. org