Customized Learning Environment - A new approach

1. Customized Learning
Environment: A new approach
16-06-2016
Gran Canaria, Espanha
Anabela Mesquita
CICE –ISCAP / IPP, Portugal
Algoritmi RC, Portugal
sarmento@iscap.ipp.pt
Fernando Moreira
UPT, IJP, DEGI, Portugal
IEETA, UA, Aveiro, Portugal
fmoreira@upt.pt
Paula Peres
CICE – ISCAP /IPP, Portugal
pperes@iscap.ipp.pt

2. Authors
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Anabela Mesquita
CICE –ISCAP / IPP, Portugal
Algoritmi RC, Portugal
sarmento@iscap.ipp.pt
Fernando Moreira
UPT, IJP, DEGI, Portugal
IEETA, UA, Aveiro, Portugal
fmoreira@upt.pt
Paula Peres
CICE – ISCAP /IPP, Portugal
pperes@iscap.ipp.pt

3. Agenda
• Introduction
• Background
• Related work
• Model proposed
• Conclusions
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4. Introduction
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Changes
Education system must address the
diversity of students’ backgrounds and
needs.
Educational equity
Learning should be personalized
Lack of interaction in traditional classes
– which is essential for learning
Assumptions
Adopting e-learning platforms
Effective in
connecting people
and resources
Facilitate
interaction
Promote
collaboration
Contribute to
critical thinking
Development of informal learning environments

5. Introduction
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Platforms designed for e-learning, open source or commercial -
more focused on the design of the needs of institutional progress
or activities concerning teaching and learning.
Personal Learning Environment - approach to integrate different
practices and resources to address individual learning needs - more
flexible and aims to focus on the needs of students.
Still relies on what teachers make at students’ disposal and
not empower student to create his / her own environment

6. Introduction
Model
To develop their CLE using a set of
tools and services that cover the
functions in their learning process and
customise their learning environment.
Learning and e-
learning elements
Student is the focus Decides what should be
included in this learning
environment
Customized
Learning
Environment

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8. Background (1)
• Personal Learning Environments (PLE)
– “conceptual and technological frameworks that help
learners take control of and manage their own learning”.
• Providing support for learners to:
– Set their own learning goals
– Manage their learning (learning outcomes and
processes)
• Personal
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Related with engagement with other learners
and experts; consists of an assembly of
resources from various sources.

9. Background (1)
• PLE characteristics
– Support – environment planned to help students to
design and manage their learning environment;
– Educational component – all the resources that are
available in the learning environment;
– Social – environment developed take into
consideration the need to engage with other
(knowledge is something that is socially constructed);
– Technological component – design of the tools used.
All components should be tailored, student-centered
and driven.
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10. Background (2)
• Social network
– “… a web service that allow individuals to (1) construct a public
profile within a bounded system, (2) articulate a list of other
users with whom they share a connection, and (3) view and
traverse their list of connections and those made by others
within the system.”
• Social network can be:
– Horizontal - used for more general purposes; diverse users;
address a wide range of topics; reduced specialization; less
privacy, public – lot of users and information; no filter
– Vertical - highly segmented user base, addressing specific topics
in depth, high degree of specialization, generally more private
and closed.
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11. Background (3)
• Pedagogical Learning Theories
– Constructivism - all new knowledge and learning
is based on previous knowledge and past
learning.
– Main principles:
• 1) learning and understanding comes from interaction
with the environment;
• 2) learners encounter cognitive conflict which in turn
stimulates learning;
• 3) new knowledge develops through social interaction
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12. Background (3)
• Pedagogical Learning Theories
– Connectivist - learning occurs through the process
of a learner connecting to and transferring
information into a learning community.
• Characteristics related with PLE
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13. Related work
• Service-based framework
– Components:
• 1) Institutional context (include one or more LMS in which the
students carry out their academic activities, e.g. Moodle),
• 2) Personalized context (facilitates de integration of the different tools
that students use in their learning) and
• 3) Communication channels
• 4) Mediator elements (to facilitate communication between specific
instances of the LMS and the online tools included into the PLE) and /
or the representation of these elements in other contexts (such as
mobile devices).
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Learning
environment
Institutional
LMS
Facilitate
communication

14. Proposed model (1)
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15. Conclusions
• CLE
– Technological developments are bringing more
and more functionalities to this learning
environment while learning theories support and
are the basis for the conceptual principles of these
environments.
– Student is the center of all the learning process
– Learning does not occur only in the classroom
– LMS should also take into consideration informal
learning, valuing and assessing it.
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16. Conclusions
• Next step
– Test this customized learning environment
– Propose an integration of all the learning space -
formal and informal - in the LMS
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17. Thank you
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