Personalised learning workshop for ICEM 2013: http://icem2013.ntu.edu.sg/ Personalisation has emerged as a central feature of recent educational strategies in the UK and abroad. At the heart of this is a vision to empower learners to take more ownership of their learning. While the introduction of digital technologies is not enough to effect this change, embedding the affordances of new technologies is expected to offer new routes for creating personalised learning environments. Through discussion and group activity this workshop will introduce personalised learning as the organising principle for a sense-making framework for elearning. The concept of ownership will be explored to enrich the language of learning activity and design. In this approach personalised learning can provide a context for assessing the capabilities of elearning. This builds on a series of workshops developed for the Centre for Distance Education, University of London.

1. Personalised
Learning
A Framework for e-Learning
James Ballard
jameslballard
JamesBallard2
@jameslballard

2. Overview
Designing Learning
Activity 1: Learning activities
Empowering Learning
Activity 2: Ownership matrix
Personalising Learning
Activity 3: Customisation

3. e-Learning Specialist / System
Analyst
DfES ICT Test Bed Project
UoL E-Portfolio Evaluation
JISC/BECTA Transforming Curriculum Delivery
CETIS Interoperability: Repository and Portfolio
JISC Distributed VLEs
HEFCE Online Assessment Management
JISC Assessment and Feedback
Learning Analytics
ULCC Moodle/Mahara
About Me

4. Personalised
Learning
The challenge

5. Objectives
How do we apply theory to
practice ?
What does it mean to own
a learning activity?
How do technologies
influence ownership?
Can we develop
personalisation strategies?
Education is the last hold out
from the Digital Revolution.
- Rupert Murdoch
May 24 2011

6. Ford
Any colour as
long as it’s black
McDonalds
Anything you like
as long as it’s on
the menu
Amazon
People like you
like this
Consumer Personalisation

7. Applying
market
consumerism
to education
may
compromise
the principles
of equity on
which it is
based
Values such as
self-motivation,
self-regulation,
and
educational
progress, are
not equally
distributed
among cultures
Disadvantaged
learners are
least likely to
seek help
Poorly
structured
choice may
actively reduce
the scope for
the collective
action
Contradictions

8. Activity 1
Introductions and Learning Activity

9. Activity 1: Creating Learning Activities
Introduce yourself
Create different learning
activities each on separate
post-it notes
• Fairy/folk tales
• Movie adaptions
• Computer games
• Stories for Learning
• Tourism
Content
• Simulation
• Writing
• Investigating
• Discussing
• Re-mixing
Tasks

10. Feedback
How did you find the activity?
Share your favourite activities
How did you choose activities?

11. Activity 2
Ownership

12. LEARNER NARRATIVE (TRANSLATION)
Translation will accord with learner
goals, backgrounds, and values,
resulting in varied degrees of mastery
but greater degrees of appropriation.
TEACHER LED OR SCAFFOLDING
(INSCRIPTION)
Heavy inscription may be perceived as
such and met with resistance with learners
demonstrating mastery but rarely displaying
appropriation.
Empowering Learning
WARDEKKE (2010)

13. Activity 2: Ownership Matrix
Learner OwnershipTeacherOwnership Low HighLowHigh
Discuss and place your
activities on the matrix
• Ownership is high where
individual’s can express
their preferred self
• Ownership is low where
individual’s must defend
their preferred self
Guide

14. Feedback
How did you find the activity?
Share some examples
Were areas of the matrix were problematic?
Did the group have a consensus of ownership?

15. Activity 3
Customisation

16. COST OF PERSONALISATION
In their desire to become customer
driven, many companies have resorted
to inventing new programs and
procedures to meet every customer’s
request. But as customers and their
needs grow increasingly diverse, such
an approach will add unnecessary cost
and complexity to operations.
Pine & Gilmore (1997)
FOUR APPROACHES TO CUSTOMISATION
Transparent Collaborative
Adaptive Cosmetic
Fours Faces of Customisation
No change Change
NochangeChange
Representation
Product

17. Activity 3: Customisation Types
Learner OwnershipTeacherOwnership Low HighLowHigh
Tag each activity:
Colour for customisation
types
The technology this will use
to achieve this
• Differentiate
activities based
on learning
styles and
needs.
Transparent
• Standard tools
(e.g. target
setting) create a
unique learning
path
Adaptive
• Presented in
different ways
but not
fundamentally
altered.
Cosmetic
• Learners
participate in
design
developing
creativity and
reflection
Collaborative

18. Feedback
How did you find the activity?
Share some examples
What is relationship between tool and customisation?
Did the group have a consensus of customisation?

19. Personalised
Learning
A Framework for e-Learning

20. Personalised Learning Framework
Professional
Social
National
Institutional
Personal
Portal
VLE /
LMS
Portfolio
Personal
Learning
Plan (PLP)
Accreditation

21. Complexity &
Activity Theory
Primary artefacts identify tools
used.
Secondary artefacts are
representations of these, either
through learner narrative
(translation) or teacher-led
programs of action or scaffolding
(inscription)
Tertiary artefacts represent the
creative use of secondary
artefacts and emerge almost
exclusively through translation.

22. Expanding the Framework
Tool Process
(Decision Making)
Ownership
(Customisation)
Assessment
VLE Rational Transparent Dynamic
E-PLP Judgemental Adaptive Formative
Accreditation Political Cosmetic Summative
E-Portfolio Complex Collaborative Portfolio
Ballard and Butler (2011)

23. Open Discussion
Would you use this idea in your own work?
Is ownership a useful way to evaluate e-learning?
How might you use customisation strategically?
Any other comments/question?