Breaking the silence – taking learning online

Breaking the silence – taking learning
online

The case of computer science
education & open source software
communities
---
Towards a hybrid approach to
Software Engineering at Aristotle
University of Thessaloniki - Greece

v.090119_andreas_meiszner

Learning is a silent and often invisible PROCESS

Offline

Reading (from book)
Doing exercises
Thinking
etc.

Reading (from screen)
Doing exercises
Thinking
etc.

Online

Though the PROCESS of Learning might become visible

Offline

Discussions
Group work
etc.

Discussions
Group work
etc.

Online

The artifacts created within the learning PROCESS might
even become a LEARNING RESOURCE for others
Offline

Notes
Commented copies
Paper based exercises

Notes
Commented texts
Exercises
Forum or blog posts
Full range web 2.0 tools
offer
Online

Learner generated resources might also become a part of
(course) learning materials...
Offline

Last year exams
Student tutorials
etc.

All types of user
generated content that is
linked / connected in a
somewhat structured
way to further (learning)
materials

Online

... therefore contributing to a continuous improvement and evolutionary
growth... materials, processes, spaces, tools, community...

One cycle, many names... Kaizen, CPI, PDCA,...

This happens offline as well as online – with pros & cons...

Offline
Pro
Con
Usually more
• Much remains invisible
structured (e.g.
• Much is lost
Tutorials, learning
• Not automatically
groups)
preserved
Face2face
• Content and context
interactions
usually isolated
• Slow / local / closed

Con
Pro
Usually less structured
• High visibility
Need to dig-in and
• Fast / global / open
understand the
• Low (information) loss –
environment / community
though need to be found
Usually no Face2face
• Automatically preserved
interaction
• Content and context usually
Online
connected

Some advantages of traditional educational structures

• Educator input – to provide students with guidance and support.
• Structure – learners approaching a new subject area value the
structure and focus offered.
• Learning objectives – to set out for students what they should be
able to learn through the experience.
• Assessment – some form of formal assessment and the
possibility to obtain a degree or certification
• Face2face interaction with others – students as well as
educators.

Some advantages of online learning communities – lessons
learnt from open source
• A greater range of inputs – not just from the educator, but from all contributors so
the collective is the source of knowledge, not one individual
• A more personalized learning experience – learners can gather the elements of
knowledge they require – but skip what they know already.
• Greater sharing of knowledge – in higher education much of the previous input is
lost, whereas in FLOSS the dialogue, resources, and outputs remain as learning
resources => CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT & EVOLUTIONARY GROWTH.
• Peer production – active engagement in producing something with a set of peers
is a powerful motivational and educational driving force.
• Real activities – engaging in legitimate activities that are not restricted to an
artificial university setting also provides valuable experience.
• Peer support – a large support network provided voluntarily by peers in a
collaborative manner nearly 24/7.
• Open learning environment – The sum is bigger than its parts, thus there is the
need of providing new educational models and scenarios that are not limited to
students formally enrolled at a course.

Breaking the silence – taking learning online...

Now, how to take advantage of the learning opportunities the web
provides, but keeping desirable traditional characteristics?
...
We first analyzed how online learning communities function on the
example of open source communities
...
We than had a look how some recently piloted open courses were
run online – and how they worked out
...
With this understanding we subsequently drew up three
application scenarios for (higher) educational settings: inside,
outside or hybrid approach

Open Educational Scenarios: ‘inside approach’

• The inside approach takes principles found in open source communities and
applies them within a (higher) education context.
• This involves mapping the key principles onto education, including an
evolutionary growth of the course and its environment.
• Current students would build upon the work of earlier students developing
course and content further year by year, therefore improving content quality and
richness and providing regular feedback.
• Such feedback might refer to course structure, material, processes and tools.
• The inside approach thus takes the sort of characteristics and tools found in
open source as its inspiration.
• Within the inside approach institutions might also decide to ‘open up’ their
virtual learning environments to fellow universities or the general public to view
what is going on within the environment.
• Institution might even allow those outside groups to participate and engage at
this environment, in the case doing so, this likely would be a first step towards a
‘hybrid approach’.

Limitations of the ‘inside approach’

• The outside world remains largely or totally disconnected, depending on the
degree of openness (e.g. open to view, open to participate, etc.).
• ‘Community building’ and ‘evolutionary growth’ is per-se limited within a given
institution that only involves the own student population, and usually even further
limited due to
• (a) a 100% student turnover per semester / course and
• (b) a comparatively small number of potential community member
(formally enrolled students of a course).
• Students are kept within the institutions learning environment preventing their
‘semi-structured’ engagement and collaboration within the wider web.
• Therefore limiting the opportunities of ‘best of breed’, as the wider web might
provide better technological solutions or already established and mature
communities for respective study fields.

Open Educational Scenarios: ‘outside approach’
• The outside approach might take traditional education as the starting point by
providing theoretical information and then sends the students ‘outside’ to find
well established communities, such as the open source ones, to work within
those communities and to apply and deepen their theoretical knowledge.
• Students are sent into already well established and mature environments to
engage at and collaborate within those communities on pre-defined tasks.
• Students are provided with an initial academic background and then required
to choose and engage within a real world project.
• This gives students real experience of collaborating with others.
• This approach can be realized whenever there is an external ‘real’ community
that is operating on principles such as e.g. common for open source, or also
Wikipedia.
• The outside approach might be the least complex and almost cost neutral;
and therefore relatively easy to implement.

Limitations of the ‘outside approach’

• The results of this collaborative learning and knowledge production remains
within the outside community and…
• Therefore likely will be lost for future students.
• The outside approach does not provide next year students (newbies) with an
easy access as no former learners, nor the resources they created, are
present at the institutional level to facilitate the newbie entrance.
• The outside approach does not foster an evolutionary growth and continuous
improvement of the institutional / course environment.

Open Educational Scenarios: ‘hybrid approach’
• A hybrid approach combines components of the inside and outside approach.
• Some of the principles of open source communities are adopted within the
institution (inside approach), with activities occurring in a broader ecosystem
consisting of various spaces that are open for everyone combining students,
informal learners, tutors, experts, organizations, etc, allowing learners to engage
in a real community (outside approach).
• It allows a continuous evaluation (by educators, students and the wider world)
of what ‘the best of both worlds’ is and how the transferred elements actually suit
in their respective new environments.
• A hybrid approach could also be a response to challenges such as a 100%
student turnover per semester as (a) not all participating students should start at
the same time and (b) free learners outside of formal education and practitioners
are not bound to any course schedule.
• A hybrid approach would include a number of environments where students
could engage at in a ‘semi-structured’ way and where guidance and support is
provided through technologies (e.g. RSS, suggested contents, etc.) and humans
(e.g. educators, knowledge brokers, community support, etc.).


So much about the theory
...
The ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ approaches have been succesfully piloted
within (higher) educational settings
...
The ‘hybrid’ approach promises the highest gain – BUT – also
comes at the highest complexity
...
Would it work out in practice within the current educational
frameworks we are opperating at?


...
first steps
...

A hybrid approach to Software Engineering at Aristotle
University – the NetGeners.Net pilot

• We developed an experimental hybrid learning environment
• Run subsequently a small scale 4 month trial with 10 volunteering students
from Greece and Spain (located in 5 different countries)
• That were supported on a regular base by 1 educator and 2 further less
regular participating ones.
• The environment provided the same type of tools as identified within the open
source case
• It was aimed to provide learners on the one hand with a basic ‘on-board’ set
of communication and collaboration tools (Blog, Chat, Forum and Wiki) and on
the other hand providing a personal space and a space for personal learning
projects, including rating and commenting systems as e.g. provided by
Amazon.
• We also took into account open source particularities such as modularity and
project based work through the concept of small students driven learning
projects


Small students driven learning projects should allow learners to engage (to a
certain degree) within areas of their personal interest; individually or together
with other learners as a group work, therefore:
• contributing to the overall development of the learning environment.
• providing a potential bridge between ‘static’ content on the one hand and
learning processes and activities (discourse) on the other hand that might allow
a similar type of ‘re-experience’ as in open source.
• allowing an open source type engagement, where content is often taken
forward and backward, contextualized, adapted, translated, re-mixed,
embedded into processes or feed into new products by individuals. Those
individuals act as knowledge brokers allowing content to be dynamic and
causing it to continuously change.
• allowing learners to become an active participant in the respective study field,
to acquire subject matter skills through practice, and providing the potential of
gaining key and soft skills as a result of their activities and engagement.


One underlying believe is that for many ‘questions’ or
‘needs’ the answer, or an approximate to it, is already
‘somewhere out there at the web’ and therefore, instead
of ‘reinventing the wheel’ each time, learners need to
learn how to find, analyse, evaluate and use what
already exists at the web and to incorporate it into their
own work.


...
following steps
...


Objectives:
To apply an open approach to Software Engineering that allows taking
advantage of the opportunities the web provides
To bring together students from different institutions, free learner outside
of formal education and open source communities
To allow students and free learner to learn with practitioners of open
source projects by providing an easy entrance for the first and low burdens
for the later...
And therefore opening up education and combining formal with informal
learning

NetGeners.Net Tools & spaces – simplified overview

Stakeholders & places – simplified overview


The piloted course, some facts:
• Fifth semester course ‘Introduction in Software Engineering’
• Since 2005 adopted an ‘outside approach’
• Duration of the course is 12, 5 weeks and has an average student number
of 150
• One of the students’ assignments being to participate at an open source
project, counting for 40% of the total grade
• Students can choose between three options: (1) to test open source code,
(2) to develop open source code, or (3) to write a requirement specification
documentation for an open source project that still had none
• Also, students can work on their assignments beyond the 12,5 weeks of the
official lecturing period and submitting it at a later time at 3 pre-defined dates
per year – This leaves space for some type of continuity beyond
semester terms


The starting challenge:
• The initial cohort of students for the year 2008/2009 won’t be able to gain
from earlier students’ works…
• So how can we provide an added value once they would use the online
environment (without ‘forcing them’ to do so)?
• Apparently regular chats, prompt responses to forum posts, or initial content
uploaded is not enough…
• Bringing into this environment fellow university students, free learners and
open source practitioners could add this extra value, since this can’t be
provided ‘offline’! – So how to inform and attract fellow university
students, free learners and open source practitioners?


...
and further to this
...
more generally speaking
...
there are a number of other questions to be taken into account
...


(Organizational) Questions:
How to fit the structured learning as provided in traditional (offline)
education into the unstructured open virtual learning environments the web
provides?
In which way might online learning activities be organized to provide the
same “evolutionary growing open participatory learning ecosystem” that
e.g. the open source case shows and at which learning processes and
outcomes become an integrated part of this ecosystem therefore being a
learning resource for future learner and leading to a continuous
improvement of products and processes?
How to bring the different stakeholders (my students, fellow students,
free learner, practitioners and educators) together in such a semi-
structured open environment?

(Motivation / Incentive) Questions:
• Motivations to participate at open source are e.g. ‘to learn’, ‘gaining reputation’
or ‘personal enjoyment’
• Providing a clear ‘win / win scenario’ between information seeker and
information provider resulting in learning benefits for both sides
• Motivations to participate in formal education mainly relate to obtain a formal
degree! So:
• What would be the motivation for formally enrolled students to become
active and assume roles as to be found in open source?
• What would be the motivation for free learners and practitioners to
participate at such an open learning environment?
• How to create the type of win / win scenarios as can be found in open
source?

HOW TO ADDRESS THIS WITHIN THE EDUCATIONAL FRAMEWORK WE
ARE ACTING IN!!!


(Motivation / Incentive) Possible Answers:
• To reward students who voluntarily assume positions, e.g. similar to project or
community managers in open source.
• To include into the curricula the obligation of more experienced students to
share their knowledge with the less experienced.
• Incentives for practitioners to participate would be to involve learners into
concrete project works – e.g. to provide computer science students with the
opportunity to take on some tasks at a respective open source project.
• Allow participants to build up an online repute – analogue to open source –
where informally attained skills in are provable therefore providing a positive
value on the labour market.
•Free learners outside of formal education might also be offered a certification of
their learning outcomes against fees, or a virtual credit account that rewards them
for taking on roles such as mentor, facilitator, moderator or tutor. Those virtual
credits than might be used to pay for assessment and certifications.


…
So, how did it work so far?
…


…
Slow
…
we are still at the beginning
…
still need to involve the different stakeholders: fellow
universities, free learners & open source practitioners


…
Let’s recall some benefits
…
WHY
…
fellow universities & open source practitioners might like to join
our efforts

University – the NetGeners.Net pilot (2/2)

What’s in it for open source projects?
Share the burden of newbie integration to the open source world as a
joint venture of higher education institutions and open source projects, and
Therefore build up a synergy of scale
Identify potential contributors early
Provide learners with practical tasks that are of interest for both sides:
the project and the learner (do something meaningful)
Help learners to learn by contributing to a given project at the same time

What’s in it for (higher) education institutions?
A richer learning experience for your students
The opportunity to create a learning community, which is not possible
within closed traditional educational settings
To establish a learning ecosystem that is continuously improving and
growing in a natural evolutionary way
To assure that subjects meet actual demands, curriculum is up to date
and courses are taught in the best way possible (double feedback loops)
To work together with fellow educational institutions and open source
communities and thereby sharing the burden of developing such novel
educational provision
In the long tale: To establish new revenue models, by e.g. providing free
learners outside of formal education with assesment and certification
options against fees (as said, the long taile)


What’s in it for students (and free learners)
Learn together with other students, free learner outside of formal
education and enthusiasts from open source projects!
Learn from reviewing and studying the learning project activities,
outcomes and presentations from others – build upon what others did, this
can be much easier than starting from scratch!
Collaborate and get in touch with peers and practitioners within a real life
situation!
Find help!
Socialize and experience learning within a joyful and interesting
environment!
Do something meaningful by contributing to actual open source projects,
gain repute and expertise – add an extra to your CV!


What’s in it for students (and free learners)
Learn how to update your skills and knowledge self-dependently within a lifelong
learning context
Learn how to take full advantage of the web to support your own learning, to
collaborate with others and use the tools required to do so
Be capable to find sources at the web and to critically evaluate and analyse
them
Be aware about available free online and desktop software solutions that
facilitate learning, knowledge exchange and collaboration
Know how to find online communities, to engage in them for personal support,
and to and understands the way they function
In a nutshell: To gain today's required soft skills; like to communicate,
collaborate and engage in discussions with others, defend your own work and
thoughts and present them, know how to manage a project, or how to resolve
conflicts

Oh, and just to recall: What this is about and what not!!!

It is about finding new ways on how to organize collaborative learning,
sharing and knowledge production within a participatory web 2.0 world
using technology for the sake of its usefulness and bringing together the
various stakeholders

It is not about designing complex socio-technological systems for the
sake of technology hoping that it would become a killer application to
revolutionize education as we know it

The idea is to start simple, to see what works out and what not, and to
develop it further step by step based on the experiences gathered

Thanks for your attention!

For further details read the paper at:

http://www.netgeners.net/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_download&gid=63&Ite
mid=29
http://www.scribd.com/doc/10933440/A-HYBRID-APPROACH-TO-COMPUTER-SCIENCE-
EDUCATION

Contact:

A.Meiszner@open.ac.uk

Breaking the silence – taking learning online

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