Presentation at the Adobe Connect Webinar 16 Oct 2013 organised by OER Sverige, http://oersverige.se/beyond-the-lms/

1. Beyond the LMS:

OER, PLE and Digital Learning Ecosystems
Mart Laanpere :: head of the Centre for Educational Technology, Tallinn University, Estonia
A Webinar by OER Sverige, 16 October 2013 :: http://oersverige.se/beyond-the-lms

2. E-learning strategies in Estonia
SCHOOLS
Computerisation,
internet
ICT integration,
competencies
E-learning, OER,
ICT innovation
1:1 computing,
E-textbooks,
Pilot schools
Tiger Leap
strategy
Tiger Leap +
strategy
Learning
Tiger strategy
LLL strategy
2014-2020
HIGHER EDUCATION
1997
2000
2003
E-university
consortium
First e-courses
in WebCT
2006
E-voc.school
consortium
ESF-funded programs: OER,
e-courses, staff training
2009
2014
FITE
strategy
Digital competences
infrastructure, resources

3. Institutions consolidated to FITE in 2013
 Tiger Leap Foundation (1997-2013, www.tiigrihype.ee):
 Tiger Trainers, courses, regional training centres
 Grants: ICT innovation, research, OER, software, portal, repository
 Programmes: robotics, science, handicraft, animation, coding
 EENet.ee (NREN): ISP, virtual hosting (Wordpress, Mediawiki,
Joomla, Moodle, Limesurvey, CMSimple, HTML)
 Estonian IT Foundation (www.e-ope.ee):
 Consortia: E-university, E-vocschool
 Conferences, staff training, newsletters, networking, support
 Large-scale ESF-funded programmes: OER, repository, LMS hosting

4. LMS and OER in Estonia
 WebCT: since 1997 in UT & TLU, national license 2003-2009
 VIKO (since 2001, built by CET): 70 schools
 IVA (2003-14, built by CET): 28 schools & colleges, 4800 courses
 Moodle:
 One central/national instance: 98 000 users, 5900 courses
 Tartu University institutional instance: 25 243 users, 2250 courses
 School instances hosted by EENet HaViKe service
 Blogs & wikis: around 1% of teachers use, primary teachers lead
 OER repositories: koolielu.ee, www.e-ope.ee/repositoorium

5. Discussion
 Where do you keep the largest amount of your self-
developed digital learning resources?
 Inside LMS (e.g. Moodle)
 In the institutional repository
 In the national repository
 In a global OER repository
 Scattered around in social media, services etc
 Elsewhere (specify in chat)
 I have not developed any digital learning resources

6. Geels 2002

7. Mobile communication generations

8. Moodle servers: global stats

9. Three generations of TEL systems
Dimension
1.generation
2.generation
Software
architecture
Educational software Course management Digital Learning
systems
Ecosystems
Pedagogical
foundation
Bihaviorism
Content
management
Integrated with code Learning Objects,
content packages
Mash-up, remixed,
user-generated
Dominant
affordances
E-textbook, drill &
practice, tests
Sharing LO’s, forum
discussions, quiz
Reflections, collab.
production, design
Access
Computer lab in
school
Home computer
Everywhere – thanks
to mobile devices
Cognitivism
3.generation
Knowledge building,
connectivism

10. Dialectics of TEL system evolution
 THESIS: mainstream TEL systems today are LMS (e.g. Moodle)
 ANTITHESIS: innovators among academic staff are radically
opposing LMS and propose using PLE and social media instead
 SYNTHESIS: new quality, taking the best from both worlds.
Digital Learning Ecosystem?
1.2. Participatory
design
1.3. Evaluation
IVA LMS
1.1 Initial ped. framework
Pedagogy-driven design
2.2. Participatory
design
3.3. Participatory
action research
2.3. Case
studies
Blog-based
PLE
!
2.1. Experimenting with blogs
User-centered design
3.4. Generic ped.
model for DLE
3.2. Updated
ped. framework
Dippler
DLE
3.1. Participatory design

11. Discussion
 What do you think about claimed generation shift
in TEL systems?
 There will be no changes, LMS will stay mainstream
 LMS will change and improve
 PLE will replace LMS
 New type of TEL systems will emerge
 Digital Learning Ecosystems will replace LMS
 Other (specify in chat)

12. Digital Learning Ecosystem
 Ecosystem (biol.) is a community of living organisms
(plants, animals and microbes) in conjunction with
the nonliving components of their environment
(e.g. air, water, light and soil), interacting as a
system. Nutricion cycle, energy flow, self-regulation
 DLE is an adaptive socio-technical system consisting
of mutually interacting digital agents (tools,
services, content used in learning process) and
communities of users (learners, facilitators, trainers,
developers) together with their social, economical
and cultural environment.

13. Dippler as DLE
 Core services (digital specimen): BackOffice (BOS wsdl), Wordpress as
PLE, Learning Object Repository, online testing service Questr,
institutional client, mobile clients
 Secondary services: social media (SlideShare, YouTube), identity
management (to come: concept mapping, 6 thinking hats)
 User communities: learners, facilitators, administrative staff, software
developers
 Adaptive: institutions and users can expand and adapt the ecosystem
 Self-regulation: users can change affiliation, design learning paths
 Learning analytics: annotating with domain-specific categories

14. Software implementation
Learner's Wordpress
with Dippler plugin
BOS Middleware:
BackOffice Service
Dippler: institutional
client, teacher's tool
WS
Blog
Widgets
Profile
HTTP
Users
Activities
Categories
RSS
Courses
Analytics
Course page
Courses
Institutional
Social media
IOS
app:
mobile
client
All courses
Featured
My courses
Cloud
Storage
Types of tasks:
Post
Structured post
Artefact (file)
Discussion
Self-test
Test
Group task
Offline task
Summary
Course info
Outcomes
Announcem.
Participants
Groups
Resources
Tasks
Settings

15. Conclusion
 LMS and OER in Estonia: consolidation vs institutionalisation
 Conceptual framework for Digital Learning Ecosystems as the
next-generation TEL systems
 Illustrated by a case study: design and development of Dippler
(Distributed Portfolio-based Personal Learning Ecosystem)
 The next steps: enhancing adaptivity and self-regulation of
Dippler DLE, pedagogical model, advanced learning analytics

16.  How well does the ecosystem metaphor work for
you?
 It is confusing, does not help
 I prefer to use familiar vocabulary (LMS, PLE)
 I like it, DLE captures the main idea of generation
shift beyond LMS
 I have to think about it