Informal learning recognition through a cloud ecosystem
Introduction
The emergence of information and communication technology (ICT) and its application in different contexts has entailed a revolution in the way communication tools are used by people in their daily life. Computers, the Internet, mobile devices, and Web 2.0 tools provide new ways to access, share, and exchange information and knowledge. As part of this process, learners and teachers have embraced new technologies as a means of acquiring tools and resources for learning [1] and engaging with each other through the use of social networks. Teaching practices have consequently adapted to changes in the technological environment [2].
However, new organisational challenges arise from the new technology. These include:
- (1)
The problem of technology deviation [3], whereby the need to continuously upgrade technologies confines learners and teachers to technical processes, rules, and resource constraints so that technological concerns rather than pedagogical requirements take precedence.
- (2)
The problem of interoperability [4], exemplified by the fact that the most representative ICT tool applied in a learning context, the learning management system (LMS), has limited synergistic capabilities. Lack of reusability and portability can lead to lock-in with system vendors and a lack of flexibility for learners, and presents barriers for the integration of new tools or the evolution of existing systems.
- (3)
The problem of centralisation, whereby institutional requirements shape the technology and not learner requirements. Rather than bringing their own favoured tools to their learning, learners are forced to use institutional tools with functionality that often reproduces that of extra-institutional tools, which are invariably more effective than the institutional variety [5], [6].
- (4)
The problem of access beyond the institution, where the LMS is often unavailable to learners once they finish their studies, so that integration of lifelong learning and institutional learning is difficult [7], [8].
Cloud computing, defined as “a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g. network, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction” [9], is one of the major drivers of change in education. Broadly, this technology marks a transition from local computing offerings to external ones [10]. Offerings can be fairly simple, ranging from services, such as a virtualised desktop, data storage, and email, to whole applications such as an office application suite, a security package, and collaboration tools [11].
Cloud computing applied to learning and teaching processes is known as cloud learning. The concept is built on three service models: infrastructure as a service (IaaS); platform as a service (PaaS); and software as a service (SaaS). It can be understood as a shared pool of learning courses and digital assets and resources that instructors and learners can access via computers, laptops, IPTVs, mobile phones, and other portable devices [12]. The technical capabilities of cloud learning invite new pedagogical designs that emphasise learner-centred resource-sharing and collaboration among learners to jointly build personalised learning environments [3].
The flexibility of cloud technology can help learners to bring technologies of their choice to their learning rather than having institutional technology imposed on them. In this way, some of the issues identified for the technological deviation problem might be addressed, with greater personalisation facilitating more attention to higher-level thinking skills and group intelligence rather than technical coordination. At the same time, problems of interoperability, integration, and reuse can be overcome by increased use of web services on cloud platforms.
In considering the third problem of institutional-centred platforms, integration with personal cloud-based technologies is becoming a technical architecture requirement as institutions seek to integrate their own services with Web 2.0 tools under the student’s control [13]. The rationale for the shift in this locus of control is that personalisation can improve learning by empowering students to manage their learning at their own pace [14] and with their own technology within the context of activities of their daily lives that are managed using the same technologies. This can be achieved through the broad concept of a personal learning environment (PLE), which directly addresses the technical coordination problems of learners by providing a means to coordinate services from the institution with other services from the web [15].
The PLE approach facilitates coordination of institutional learning episodes and real life. Informal learning is an important element in the support of lifelong learning. A technical means for coordination of informal learning brings the potential for recognition and exploitation of informal learning activities. In the workplace, informal learning is important because it can enhance employability and produce positive benefits for managers and companies. Recognition of informal learning produces information that can be used to develop knowledge of skills and know-how within an organisation and be an indicator of social norms and preferred patterns of behaviour [16], [17]. For employees, recognition of informal learning provides an opportunity to keep their skills up to date, and such recognition can become part of the workplace culture for self-development beyond corporate training regimes. These opportunities have led to interest in informal learning from the corporate world, driven by a desire to capitalise on the intellectual assets of the workforce, to manage organisational knowledge, and to recognise that informal learning may prove a cost-effective way of developing competence [14] driven by the increasing transparency of technology [18].
The TRAILER (Tagging, Recognition, Acknowledgement of Informal Learning Experiences) project [19], [20] describes an architecture and methodology that facilitate the exchange of experiences among employees or students and institutions. The aim is to expose competencies that are acquired informally that would otherwise be invisible to the institution. The methodology is supported by a cloud-based architecture that combines different tools for semantic tagging of learning activities carried out in different contexts, such as web-browser applications, remote laboratories, games, and social software widgets. TRAILER does not just define a cloud-based system that integrates resources [21], facilitates a set of specific services (such as mobile services) [22] and teaching [23], and defines a cloud learning management system [24] or PLE [25]. It also facilitates exchange of knowledge related to informal learning activities among learners and institutions. In this paper we focus specially on how different types of activity (activities carried out through a browser, game, or widget, or in a remote laboratory) are integrated in the architecture, tagged by the user, and published for institutions, employers, and other individuals.
The remainder of the paper is organised as follows. Section 2 describes the TRAILER project and its architecture. Then three informal activities for which information is gathered by the system are described: games (Section 3); remote laboratories (Section 4), and social software widgets (Section 5). Section 6 discusses some evaluation results for the system.
Section snippets
TRAILER project
TRAILER [19] is a research project funded by the European Union through the Lifelong Learning Programme. The project is based on the premise that although technology may afford practical solutions to problems of personal learning, technological approaches can present new issues of ownership and control. A desirable aim is that learning processes are under the control of the learner, which requires integration of informal learning with formal approaches balancing personal enquiry and
Special tools on the cloud to gather informal learning activities
The TRAILER project facilitates the use of contrasting tools to gather informal learning activities. The most common tool is a web browser. Navigation to a web page, participation in a forum, reading of a blog, and watching of a video constitute examples of activities that a learner might choose to submit. However, these are not the only ways to gather information. In this section we present other ways to take into account informal learning activities by using tools on the cloud.
Making decisions as a service
The tools described above can be used independently to carry out informal learning activities. However, the TRAILER project proposes a way to make such activities visible to users’ institutions or employers. One of the aims of TRAILER is to facilitate institutional decision-making by gathering information on informal learning activities carried out by users. This is achieved by collecting information on all the activities carried out using these tools and others on the cloud, and providing
Results
The TRAILER project is now a year old and most of the developments have been carried out as a proof of concept. The main components (competency catalogue, institutional environment, ILC, and portfolio) have been developed and integrated. Regarding the tools previously described, the game and widgets are fully implemented. All these components will be tested in two pilot actions: one oriented around users (learners/workers) and the other around institutions. Before these tests are carried out,
Conclusions
We described the cloud-based technologies and services used in the TRAILER project to tag, recognise, and acknowledge informal learning activities. The main aims are to allow individuals to reflect and make visible the competences and knowledge they have acquired via informal means, to build dialogue interfaces between organisations and their employees to recognise the overall hidden value of informal learning processes, and to establish methods to analyse and discover knowledge in
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Lifelong Learning Program of the European Union under Project 519141-LLP-1-2011-1-ES-KA3-KA3MP with support from the European Commission. This publication only reflects the views of the authors and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein. We would like to thank the other members of the partnership who participated during project development and do not appear as authors of the paper.
Francisco José García-Peñalvo holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science (2000, University of Salamanca). He works as a Professor in Computer Science Department of the USAL. He is the GRIAL Group head. He was Technology and Innovation pro-Chancellor of the USAL in charge of the definition, planning and development of the USAL technical management strategy based on Open Source solutions. He is member of the EFQUEL. He has leaded the MIH Project and now he is leading the TRAILER project.
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Francisco José García-Peñalvo holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science (2000, University of Salamanca). He works as a Professor in Computer Science Department of the USAL. He is the GRIAL Group head. He was Technology and Innovation pro-Chancellor of the USAL in charge of the definition, planning and development of the USAL technical management strategy based on Open Source solutions. He is member of the EFQUEL. He has leaded the MIH Project and now he is leading the TRAILER project.
Mark Johnson is Reader in Applied Research in Educational Technology and Systems at the University of Bolton. He has been involved in e-learning for many years, having worked on a variety of projects for JISC (Joint Information Systems Committee) in the UK and the EU. His published work crosses a number of domains from e-learning to cybernetics and economics, but his broad focus is on themes of ‘personalisation’, where his research has brought together perspectives on ‘personal learning environments’. This work explores ways of understanding the relationship between using computer technologies and human experience in learning and living.
Gustavo Ribeiro Alves graduated in 1991 and obtained an M.Sc. and a Ph.D. degree in Computers and Electrical Engineering in 1995 and 1999, respectively, from the University of Porto, Portugal. He is a professor at the Polytechnic of Porto - School of Engineering, since 1994, and he has been involved in several national & international research projects, including the IST PEARL, ALFA RexNet, Physics LabFARM, and LLP TRAILER projects, among others. He has authored or co-authored circa 130 conference and journal papers with referee process. He also co-edited a book (2012), with Javier García-Zubía, from the University of Deusto, Spain, entitled “Using Remote Labs in Education”. His research interests include engineering education, remote experimentation, and design for debug & test. He is currently serving as a program co-chair of the 1st International Conference of the Portuguese Society for Engineering Education (CISPEE’13) and as the general chair of the 11th Remote Engineering and Virtual Instrumentation (REV’14) conference.
Miroslav Minović is an assistant professor of information technology at University of Belgrade, Faculty of organizational sciences. He is also an active member of Laboratory for Multimedia Communications, IEEE Society and European Association for Biometric. His research interests include human-computer interaction as well as the development of advanced user interfaces in education and games. Minovic received his Ph.D. in informational technology from University of Belgrade in 2010. You can contact him at [email protected].
Miguel Ángel Conde-González holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science (2012, University of Salamanca). In 2004 he began to work on software development for GPM, a web development and multimedia company. In 2005 he began working for Clay Formacion Internacional R&D department where he was involved in different e-Learning projects. Currently, he is working in the Information and Communication Service of the University of León and also as an assistant teacher in such university. He is also a researcher of GRIAL (Research Group in Interaction and e-Learning) and his research is focused on merging of informal, non-formal and formal environments.