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Are ebooks better than virtual learning environments?

Ok I’m not exactly comparing like with like here but I am very interested in the potential of ebooks as an alternative way of structuring learning experiences – particularly where there is a large amount of reading involved.

With the growing penetration of tablet devices (ownership in the US doubled to 19% over last Christmas) ebooks now have enormous potential for providing learning opportunities. And with nearly a third of UK citizens already owning a smartphone, many of them may be prepared to study extensively from ebooks on smaller screens. Due to my deteriorating eyesight I’m not one of them; tablets are clearly more comfortable devices for extended periods of study so this post relates mainly to tablets.

While the information delivered through an ebook may be identical to that provided on a website, there are several attributes of ebooks which may make them more appealing to learners than accessing content in a VLE:

Learners can own an ebook – they can’t own their institution’s VLE
An ebook is a digital version of a familiar physical product that people have grown up with. Physical books cost money and the transition to paying for a digital copy may not be too painful but people don’t like to pay for access to websites, showing that they value ebooks more. This sense of ownership may encourage learners to engage more with the content of an ebook than a website.

Ebooks can be viewed offline
Once you’ve taken possession of your ebook onto your device you’re free to view it whenever you like which is particularly useful when travelling or away from internet access.

Ebooks are self-contained
The web is a confusing place with an overwhelming number of sites and pages. It’s easy to get distracted when using the web by hyperlinks and other applications.

Ebook readers on tablets take up the whole screen
A web browser has all sorts of tool bars, menus and icons which may distract the reader and provide a less immersive experience than reading an ebook on a tablet.

You know how much you’ve read and how much there is to go
By default an ebook clearly signposts how far through its content you are. Websites may not make this clear – and indeed can’t normally do this as precisely as ebooks due to the variable page lengths of the web.

Automatic pagination makes reading easier
Due to the variety of devices, browsers and configurations, the designer of a web page cannot produce content that will consistently fill the entire screen. Users have a more complex navigational process which may involve vertical scrolling as well as page turning. One of the key features of ebook reader software is the automatic repagination to suit the platform and user preferences such as font size.

Page turning is physically easier with an ebook on a tablet
The touch screen of a tablet or smartphone allows the user to move forwards and backwards between pages with a touch or swipe – a simpler and faster process than turning the page of a physical book and also much easier than using a mouse to navigate to and click on a particular part of a web page.

Far be it from me to suggest that the VLE is dead but given all the affordances of ebooks accessed on tablets it looks like much of the learning activity currently taking place in VLEs is heading to the ebook instead.

First impressions of iBooks 2

I’ve finally managed to install iBooks 2 and the example book “Life on Earth”. This was a frustrating process that took two and a half hours of upgrades and downloads, requiring the right versions of iOS and iTunes with various reboots of both the PC and the iPad. Arguably I should have upgraded to iOS5 long ago but I didn’t when it was released because of allegations that it wasn’t robust.

On the first attempt to “read” the Life on Earth iBook the app hung and I had to reboot the iPad – again. On the second attempt it crashed during one of the interactives requiring me to start at the beginning.

When it worked it was an enjoyable experience with beautiful images, useful videos and informative interactives – and you can envisage the transformational effects this kind of experience will have for millions of learners in the very near future. There’s nothing that isn’t already done through applications on PCs or via web browsers but a few things make it inherently better on a tablet: portability, use of the touch screen for interaction and page turning, the book metaphor itself rather than the browser metaphor which frequently requires vertical scrolling, the feeling of immersiveness you get because it’s not within a browser window, and no need for internet connectivity once it’s downloaded.

My inclination was however to “play”, looking for the next fun thing to do rather than to read the text. Presumably many learners, particularly those who’ve grown up without reading much, would act in the same way.

To be really useful in education on a massive scale a few things need to be sorted out with iBooks 2:

1. The bugs need to be fixed so the app actually works – or the entire slickness of the user experience is wrecked. It’s surprising that Apple released an app with such fanfare which falls over so easily (at least on my iPad).
2. Players need to be developed for web browsers, android tablets etc.
3. Authoring tools need to be developed for other platforms too so you’re not forced to buy a Mac.
4. You must be able to get hold of the books without going through the iTunes Store.
5. The iBooks 2 format needs to be as open as ePub. Fellow tweeters assure me that it is based on HTML5 and JavaScript but I’d be very surprised if these books work seamlessly as they don’t even work properly on Apple’s own app.

Given the incredible commercial success of tying in the iPad so closely to the iTunes store numbers 2 to 5 aren’t going to happen any time soon which leads me to think that an enhanced ePub-type competitor format which runs on and can be developed on all platforms, and distributed freely, is necessary.

The Distributed Learning Environment Comes a Step Closer

Fed up being force-fed a whole lot of stuff of no great interest to you in your university’s virtual learning environment? Want to view only the parts of most relevance to your own learning – and blend them in with your other interests such as news, weather and sports updates? The Open University is now moving closer to that vision with a series of “widgets” or “gadgets” which take parts of the OU VLE and make them available on other platforms.

The developments have been made possible with a grant from JISC for a project called DOULS (Distributed Open University Learning Systems). The first prototype gadget, built by project developer Jason Platts, makes the module planner from the Moodle module website available to students in iGoogle. Jason has built the authentication module which makes it possible for the gadget to communicate with Moodle. At the moment this is a one way flow of information from Moodle to the gadget, however future versions will enable updates to data held in Moodle via the gadgets.

Future gadgets planned for development are:

• Forum Updates – showing latest updates to forums, blogs and wikis you’re subscribed to
• Assessment Helper – prompting for when next assessments are due
• Study Buddy – enabling students to connect with others who have similar interests

The idea behind all this is to allow users to work in the environments most comfortable to them and not to be forced to visit an institutional website all the time, which might not be configured in the way they want it.  Learners will be able to create their own dashboard including updates to do with their formal learning as well as anything else they’re interested in. We’re also investigating the development of similar applications in Facebook and LinkedIn. All the code will be made available freely to other institutions.

An additional benefit is that we may be able to use the functionality of the other platforms to make possible something that can’t be done solely in the VLE.

Of course many students may prefer to visit the VLE in its entirety and they’ll still be able to do so. There are also possible reasons why institutions might not want to lose them entirely from that environment – such as them potentially missing out on guidance and support, news items or knowledge of new courses. However overall it has to be a good thing to give control to learners over exactly what they want to see and in which environment they want to see it.  The VLE is not dead but merely fading away into the background.

Can technology significantly impact learning before it has been commoditised?

I’ve just had some interesting conversations at an event for new OU module chairs at Cranfield University after presenting on some of the possibilities of elearning for our students.

One academic wondered how he could be expected to design courses for smartphones and tablets when the University was not prepared to buy him these devices – and wouldn’t even upgrade his operating system to Windows 2010 from Windows 2003. Well he clearly had an axe to grind on the latter issue, justifiably perhaps, but he may be missing the point: the tools are primarily server side and all he needs to access them both for authoring and consuming is a web browser. Also if he develops content using our XML-based structured content system the module websites that he creates should automatically look good on a smartphone, tablet, laptop or desktop – without him having to do anything different for each platform.

Some of these devices do of course have clear affordances which may facilitate learning experiences only possible on that device – and necessitate alternative designs for different platforms. Thus writing an essay on a smartphone doesn’t make a lot of sense but learning applications involving geo-spatial awareness may well do. Similarly the touch-screen interface of an iPad makes it much easier to manipulate images than using a mouse with your desktop PC. So a visual learning activity designed for a tablet might not work on a desktop.

There is a very good argument that this lecturer will never be able to see the pedagogic potential of these devices unless he not only gets them to play about with but takes personal ownership of them and uses them in his daily life.

However another argument that occurred to me this week is that we only ever see significant adoption of technologies for teaching and learning when these are already commoditised. Thus while early adopters pioneered the use of the web browser for teaching in the mid ‘90s it was only a few years later when most people were googling for information and shopping online that the web really began to take off in education.

Similarly we’re now getting 10% of our students accessing our online systems from mobile devices on a regular basis. The number is growing rapidly but probably more because smartphones are taking off in society than because we’re providing useful podcasts and websites optimised for small screens.

I’ve seen a big change in attitudes over the past few years. As the internet encroaches on many aspects of life, and people become ever more used to googling, social networking etc, there are few people who don’t recognise that there must be at least some benefits of studying online. No longer do people say “Why is the OU moving online?” though there are reasonable objections of course to studying online exclusively. The innovators and early adopters need to keep pushing the limits but should we accept that most of our innovations will have minimal impact on learners until similar devices and applications are mainstreamed in society?

Some of the latest learning systems developments at the OU

Personality analysis from tweets

Tweetstats provides a great way of visualising statistics about people’s tweets – such as their frequency etc.  You can also see your most commonly used words and export them to a Wordle. Thus you can very quickly see what people like to tweet about the most.  Mine doesn’t reveal much except what appears to be  a fairly positive if bland collection of words such as good, yes, thanks, think and great.

Tony Hirst demonstrates a strong interest in data and google, and also appears to say “heh” rather a lot.  So you can also instantly pick up something about users’ use of language.

People like Gráinne Conole, use particular words so often that they completely dominate the wordle of their tweets.   In this case, I guess, Gráinne uses Cloudworks as a way of pointing people to other resources so  her tweets are not purely about the Cloudworks system itself!

In the case of John Kirriemuir, he retweets a lot which certainly shows he’s monitoring others’ tweets and likes to share. Putting aside the retweets, he has no particular obsessions apart from, perhaps, libraries and Birmingham.

Endless possibilities for psychological profiling here.  So long as I don’t come out as positive but bland!

Use of e-assessment nearly doubles at Open University

Year on year use of online assessment is nearly doubling here at the OU. In the last year around half a million quizzes were delivered to students in our virtual learning environment using a combination of the Moodle quiz engine and the University’s in-house OpenMark system.

The use of the e-assessement tools for summative purposes (affecting the final mark for a module) has risen to around 16% of all quizzes delivered.  Meanwhile a new question engine for Moodle has been pioneered by Tim Hunt and Phil Butcher and is scheduled for release this December.  Phil says “the new engine has a crispness and consistency that inspires confidence” and he’s pleased to “wave farewell to many of the inconsistencies of the old engine”.

Enhancements planned over the next year include:

• Drag and drop of words onto images
• Drag and drop of images onto images
• New short answer question using pattern-matching algorithm
• New question type using drop-down lists
• New question type to enable placing of markers on an image
• New numerical question type enabling use of mathematical and scientific notation
• New question type to enable incorporation of Java applets (including automated marking of diagrams)
• Audio recording question type
• New authoring interface
• Inclusion of STACK maths questions
• Interface to Learnosity audio recording tool
• Dragging implemented on touch screen devices e.g. iPad
• Better import and export from question bank to facilitate off-line authoring

Paperless. Done.

I’ve finally bitten the bullet and gone paperless.  I hardly ever look at any of the junk I accumulate in my filing cabinet anyway so it’s all gone in the bin or the shredder.  Everything I need (except a few things which will be scanned) is now in digital format.  So why did I keep all this stuff anyway?

• I didn’t review what I kept on a regular basis to see if it was worth holding onto
• For absurd sentimental reasons e.g. offprints of papers I’d written (which are digitally preserved anyway)
• Some items I had only on paper – e.g. papers people had given me, reports I’d picked up etc
• Until I got an iPad I felt it was easier to read long documents on paper than on the screen

To preserve the near empty state of my filing cabinet I have a cunning plan:

• Ask people to send me digitally anything they hand me on paper to which I think I might wish to refer again
• Instead of printing out articles read them on the iPad and bookmark them with Delicious
• Scan in anything worth keeping which is not already digital and ditch the original

I have a slight confession to make at this point.  I’m not really paperless yet – I still have bookshelves.  This is mainly because books look nice and I like to be surrounded by them not because I refer to them very often.  Ditching my books, as recommended by Alexander Halavais, is a step too far for me at this point.  But I’m thinking about it.

Facilitating group interaction in Google Apps

Our pilot roll-out of Google Apps is going well.  To date we’ve invited 12,000 students and nearly 2,000 of them have signed up.  At the moment it’s up to students what they do with the tools and we’re staying out.  The possible uses for formal learning though are intriguing and I just had a chat with Rhodri Thomas about the next steps.

We’re looking at replicating our tutor group structure within Google apps.  That would have two initial benefits:

1. You could email those in your group more easily
2. You could share documents with them easily too

It also might make you feel some affinity with those in your group I suppose and be more likely to share things.  Some students of course might not want to be emailed by members of their group or to have documents shared with them so we’ll need to think about that.

Sharing documents with the wider world outside the University is also likely to be of interest.  Currently we’ve locked down the ability for users to share documents outside the my.open.ac.uk domain but there will soon be pressure to open this up.  You might have a collaborative project with people elsewhere or wish to share eportfolio content with a future employer.  There are also third party applications such as DocsToGo which apparently won’t work unless this option is switched on.

Our exploration of the use of Google Apps as an eportfolio system continues.  Eportfolios sometimes need to be assessed, and one of our key requirements will be to ensure that any content that is submitted for assessment is preserved in that state.  Another option would be to export it into our assessment handling (eTMA) system however the alterations to formatting when transferring out of Google Docs and into Word may mean it’s better to keep the documents in Google and invite the tutors to go there instead.

Annotation – the missing element in iPad-based learning

I’ve been getting a bit obsessed recently about the importance of annotation functionality, as a number of my long-suffering colleagues will testify.  Here’s my logic:

1. iPads and other ebook readers will increasingly replace paper
2. Some learners, particularly children, will make the transition away from paper now very quickly and be happy to study considerable amounts of textual content from iPads (and a whole range of even better devices under development)
3. When reading educational content most learners will want to take notes in order to help them concentrate, reflect, and for future revision
4. The success of social networking, social bookmarking etc suggests that many learners may wish to share their annotations and view the annotations of others

Trying out various systems and in conversations with people here including Anna de Liddo, Louise Olney, Jason Platts and Colin Chambers, I’ve been clarifying my thoughts on the features an ideal annotation system for learning in a social context should comprise:

Platform
While I’ve been talking primarily about an iPad app so far, working offline, the system would ideally work with content viewed on any web browser as well.  Google sidewiki is an example of a basic system which allows you to annotate any web page.  Cohere is a much more sophisticated system which also allows you to build up concept maps collaboratively.

An issue with both systems is that they require adaptations to the web browser – a plug-in for Firefox or IE for example.  We could potentially build similar functionality into Moodle so that it works on any browser – but then you’d only be able to annotate content presented in Moodle.  I like the idea of the system sitting outside the LMS/VLE so that you can annotate anything found on the web.

Making an annotation
While viewing content in a web page or ebook you can select some text you wish to annotate.  That text is then placed into an area at the side of the document or superimposed on it temporarily.  You can edit the text and add comments and tags.

Sharing annotations
You can opt to keep the annotation private or to share it with various groups (this is where the annotation system could link to the LMS/VLE for greater usefulness) e.g. tutor group, course, the University, the world or a user-defined group.

Viewing annotations
A web page shows all the annotations you have made, organisable by document name, date of annotation, tags etc.  When browsing documents you’ve annotated the relevant text is highlighted, and you can see the annotation if you want to.  In addition you can see the annotations of people in the groups you belong to or your friends.

Friends, rating and reputation
As with Facebook, Twitter etc you can choose to follow people whose annotations you like.  You’re prompted in some way when they’ve made a new annotation.  You can choose to rate their annotations and this leads to reputations for some people as great annotators.  That may prove motivational for some people and also allow others to identify the best annotators.

Social bookmarking
As well as annotating text you can annotate an entire document or webpage, tag it and share it in the same way as other annotations.  This amounts to the same kind of thing as a social bookmarking system.

Good annotation software should help many learners to study online or offline in the future using a computer or iPad-type device. We have a project at the Open University aiming to develop such functionality over the next year and are currently looking at whether Cohere can be adapted.  I’d love to hear any ideas for further functionality.