Recent research suggests that training teachers as learning designers helps promote technologyenhanced educational innovations. However, little attention has been paid so far to the interplay between the effectiveness of Teacher Professional Development (TPD) instructional models promoting the role of teachers as designers and the capabilities (and pitfalls) of the heterogeneous landscape of available Learning Design (LD) tooling employed to support such TPD. This paper describes a mixed method study that explores the use of a novel Integrated Learning Design Environment (ILDE) for supporting a TPD program on Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and Collaborative Learning (CL). 36 Adult Education (AE) and Higher Education (HE) in-service teachers, with little experience on both CL and ICT integration, participated in a study encompassing training workshops and follow-up fulllifecycle learning design processes (from initial conceptualization to implementation with a total of 176 students). The findings from our interpretive study showcase the benefits (and required effort) derived from the use of an integrated platform that guides teachers along the main phases of the learning design process, and that automates certain technological setup tasks needed for the classroom enactment. The study also highlights the need for adaptation of the TPD instructional model to the learning curve associated to the LD tooling, and explores its impact on the attitude of teachers towards future adoption of LD practices.This research has been partially supported by the European Union (project 531262-LLP-2012-ES-KA3-KA3MP), by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (projects TIN2011-28308-C03-02, TIN2014-53199-C3-2-R, TIN2014-53199-C3-3-R, MDM-2015-0502), the Regional Government of Castilla y León (projects VA277U14 and VA082U16) and RecerCaixa
20 March 2007 in Innovations in Education and Teaching International
This paper describes a method for analysing the learning processes that take place in a computer‐supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environment. The approach is based on tracking the interactions between learners and tutors. Keeping track of meaningful events serves three main purposes: evaluation of the quality of the process, monitoring students’ performance in real time and the assessment of individual learning performances. The results can be of benefit to course designers, tutors/instructors and researchers involved in collaborative learning experiences. The method is based on a five‐dimensional model that includes a participative, an interactive, a social, a cognitive and a teaching dimension. Each dimension can be analysed through a set of indicators obtained by tracking course participants’ behaviour within the learning environment. Examples of significant indicators, drawn from the literature and the authors’ field experience, are discussed for each dimension. The paper also proposes a taxonomy of the data needed to obtain the described indicators. Finally, possible directions for further research are outlined.
7 February 2007 in Journal of Computer Assisted Learning