Paper presented at D4Learning conference, Aalborg, November 2015

1. eLearn Center
Shaping learning. Rethinking teaching
eLearn Center
Shaping learning. Rethinking teaching
The UOC’s educational model: from collaborative learning
to agile learning
Ingrid Noguera, Anna Guerrero, Christine Appel
November 17-20, 2015

2. eLearn Center
Shaping learning. Rethinking teaching
1. The UOC
2. The UOC’s educational model
3. Collaborative learning
4. Agile learning
5. Pilot
6. Conclusions
index

3. eLearn Center
Shaping learning. Rethinking teaching
31 The UOC
The UOC
The Universitat Oberta de Catalunya
(UOC) is a 100% online university that
aims to help individuals meet their
learning needs and provide them with
full access to knowledge, above and
beyond time and location constraints.
Teachers at UOC provide the students
with the best feedback to enrich their
knowledge and the development of their
professional competences.

4. eLearn Center
Shaping learning. Rethinking teaching
42 The UOC’s educational model
The UOC’s educational model

5. eLearn Center
Shaping learning. Rethinking teaching
53 Collaborative learning
Collaborative learning
At the UOC the capacity to work in a team in a
virtual environment is considered as one of the
required competencies that every student has
to develop.
There is a mandatory subject called
Collaborative learning in virtual environments
in which every student has to be involved when
enrolled at any UOC degree.
Collaborative learning is also encouraged in any
other subject.

6. eLearn Center
Shaping learning. Rethinking teaching
6
Our students, who are adults with family
responsibilities and time constraints, sometimes
react negatively to collaborative learning.
It is not easy to create learning activities that
respond both to the individual and group
expectations nor to convince the students to
devote more time and effort to negotiate and
work with peers.
Collaboration is not always carried out
successfully.
3 Collaborative learning
Reactions to collaborative learning
We are testing new methodologies, in order to improve collaborative learning. We have
seen an opportunity for that on agile methodologies.

7. eLearn Center
Shaping learning. Rethinking teaching
74 Agile learning
Agile method
The agile method comes from the development of
software.
Characteristics:
• Teamwork and roles (project manager, team
leader, team members).
• Communication (every day/week meetings).
• Adaptation to change (new requirements).
• Decision-making (based on continuous reviews).
• Iterative (sprints).
• Planning (backlogs).
• Frequently delivery of products.
• Methodologies: SCRUM or Kanban.

8. eLearn Center
Shaping learning. Rethinking teaching
84 Agile learning
Agile in education
- Agile manifesto for software development (Fowler & Highsmith, 2001).
- Agile Schools Manifesto (Peha, 2011)
- Agile Manifesto in Higher Education (Kamat, 2012).
There are 4 guiding principles:
1) Teachers and students over administration and infrastructure
2) Competence and collaboration over compliance and competition
3) Employability and marketability over syllabus and marks
4) Attitude and learning skills over aptitude and degree
Increasingly used in teaching Computer Sciences in Higher Education.
Royle and Nikolic (2013) consider that agile learning implies:
 Learners’ creation of content.
 The development of skills in a collaborative yet competitive environment mediated by technology.
 The role of the teacher is based on facilitation and project direction from an informed perspective.
 Learners become self-directed, team-oriented and individually resilient lifelong learners.

9. eLearn Center
Shaping learning. Rethinking teaching
95 Pilot
Agile learning at the UOC
In the near future we would like to establish some guidelines on how to
successfully implement the agile method in e-learning in HE. For this reason we
have designed a pilot study in order to transfer the previous indicators to the UOC
context.
Subject • Collaborative learning in virtual environments
• Cross-curricula and common subject in all
Computer Science, Multimedia and
Telecommunication degrees.
• 61 students/1 classroom.
Methodology • Project-based learning.
• To build a digital project in small groups (3/4).

10. eLearn Center
Shaping learning. Rethinking teaching
10
Course description
To develop a project (divided into 4 phases):
5 Pilot
Searching
information
Establishing
group
agreements
and
scheduling
the work
Developing
the project
Presentation
of the project

11. eLearn Center
Shaping learning. Rethinking teaching
11
Searching
information
Establishing
group
agreements
and
scheduling
the work
Developing
the project
Presentation
of the project
Backlogs
5 Pilot
Done
Backlog: list of small tasks
Adaptation

12. eLearn Center
Shaping learning. Rethinking teaching
Searching
information
Establishing
group
agreements
and
scheduling
the work
Developing
the project
Presentation
of the project
12
6 sprints
Sprint= 1 week
Each group decides the
tasks for each sprint
Project backlog & 1
backlog per sprint
Meeting and review after
each sprint
Backlogs
5 Pilot
Done
Meetings
Backlogs

13. eLearn Center
Shaping learning. Rethinking teaching
13
 13 groups have been created (3/4 people).
 We have introduced the Trello tool for optimizing the ability of managing and
scheduling the project phases. We have asked to organize tasks in, at least,
three lists: 1) To do, 2) Doing, 3) Done.
 Rotating roles (depending on the project phases).
 Each member is responsible of the project execution and the whole group
shares the responsibility of any task.
 At the beginning and at the end of each stage, the project development is
reviewed in an iterative process.
 The schedule of the stages is continuously adapted to ensure the final product.
 The teacher provides continuous feedback across each stage and at the end of
each one.
 The teacher act as a supervisor, trying to improve each iteration process along
the digital project development.
5 Pilot

14. eLearn Center
Shaping learning. Rethinking teaching
146 Conclusions
Conclusions
 Students are learning to work as they will do it in their future jobs (e.g. for
developing software). Using agile methodologies, the university is providing society
with professionals that can be quickly integrated into the job market.
 Agile methodologies could be implemented in several disciplines, not just in
computer Sciences.
 Agile learning could break the barriers of teams and classrooms and to extend
the interaction among students from different disciplines.
 In the next semester, we aim to incorporate the agile method in all the
classrooms of the subject.
 In the near future, we aim to introduce agile learning as a key element in the
educational model trying to ensure an effective and pleasant collaborative
learning experience to all students.

15. eLearn Center
Shaping learning. Rethinking teaching
inoguerafr@uoc.edu
elearncenter.uoc.edu
Thanks! @eLC_UOC
elearncenter
Elearncenter
eLearnCenter