2010 IMS Global Learning Impact Awards and !Dea10

Well this proves the point! I am not a very good blogger given that it is 12 months since my last post. My excuse is that we get very busy doing our QTI stuff plus our day job and I forget to add progressive developments to this Blog.

However, this year we were successful in the Australian round of the IMS Global Learning Impact awards that were hosted by Link Affliates at their

!Dea10 conference in Melbourne, see http://www.linkaffiliates.net.au/idea10/events/lia10.html

Following this we were lucky enough to be awarded the right to contest the Global Learning Impact Awards in Long Beach California. We were awarded a Bronze Award in the "Established Innitiatives" section.

Our colleagues from TAFE NSW CLI with their Mobilae product were recipients of a Silver Award in the "New and R&D Innitiatives", whilst Education.au were recipients of a Bronze Award for their Personal/Professional Development Network in the same category. Congratulations to Paul Wray and Gerry Leeson respectively on their great achievements.

See http://www.imsglobal.org/learningimpact2010/lia2010winners.html

Our entry was for both the Tasmanian Polytechnic and Skills Institute with this years entry covering the 2007 QTImPlayer, which we extended to now run on the iPhone in 2010, as well as, adding GURU, our online recognition system to our QTI journey. GURU was a critical part in our entry as it proved our capability in system integration and interoperability utilising our SMS, Equella as our ePortfolio and QTI tool repository, Compass as our assessment repository linked to NTIS, our National Training Information System, to ensure all QTI assessment and recognition tools are Training Package (curriculum) compliant.

I extend many thanks to both Julian Ebeli and Stephen Brain for their untiring development work, Stephen in QTI and Julian in GURU.

I also acknowledge the contibutions of Marcus Bowles of Working Futures, Marcus Ragus, Christopher Griffin, Mick Burn and Nathan Cox of the Skills Institute and Polytechnic in this research and development. As well I acknowledge the Australian Flexible Learning Framework, Link Affiliates, IMS and eWorks for their financial and standards support.

As well, our projects would never have succeeded without the support and R&D provided by the Learning Edge International ensuring that Equella could accommodate our visions.

Tasmanian Polytechnic and Skills Institute win Leadership Learning Impact Award for the QTImPlayer

IMS Global Learning Impact Awards, Barcelona Spain

Background - quoted from

http://www.imsproject.org/learningimpact2009/awards.html

The Learning Impact Awards are designed to recognize the most impactful use of technology worldwide in support of learning. This unique program evaluates established, new, and research efforts in context at an implementing learning institution.

About IMS Global Learning Consortium (IMS GLC)
IMS Global Learning is a nonprofit member organization that strives to enable the growth and impact of learning technology in higher education, K-12, and corporate education worldwide. IMS GLC members are leading corporations, higher education institutions, school districts and government organizations who are enabling the future of education by developing interoperability and adoption practice standards for educational and learning technology. IMS GLC sponsors Learning Impact: a global program and conference that recognizes the impact of learning and educational technology on access, affordability, and quality – the world’s most significant educational challenges. For more information, visit www.imsglobal.org .

Learning Impact Recognition and Awards Program
Purpose:
The Learning Impact program is facilitated by the IMS Global Learning Consortium (IMS) for the purpose of recognizing outstanding applications of technology that address the most significant challenges facing the global education and training industries.

Thesis:
Improving the quality of and access to education is the global challenge that underpins all other global challenges. Harnessing the potential power of new technologies that can enhance the reach and effectiveness of education is a compelling priority for society. The IMS Global Learning Consortium is a unique collaboration of corporations, educational institutions, and government organizations that can play a significant role in recognizing advances in technology that address key educational challenges worldwide.

The Award Process

The Tasmania Polytechnic (formerly TAFE Tasmania) qualified for the 2008/09 IMS Learning Impact Awards with its product the QTImPlayer. The QTImPlayer is a handheld mobile device built to AQTF requirements and IMS QTI (question and test interoperability) standards.

The QTImPlayer was the result of 2 Flexible Learning Framework New Practices Projects the first being 2005 and then an extension to that in 2007. Our intent to extend the 2005 QTI Player did not become a reality as the IMS Standards had changed considerably so the 2007 QTImPlayer had to be built from scratch.

The purpose of the QTImPlayer is to assist teachers and assessors to assess “on the job”, collect additional evidence and then email the results and supporting evidence back to their organisation. The additional evidence can include any word document, excel spread sheet etc, photographs and/or videos of the assessed work and audio files used when the student is provided feedback about the assessment. The results are both machine and human readable meaning that the file has the ability to be transferred directly into a student management system as the student result.

As the criteria by which the assessment tools on the QTImPlayer are AQTF compliant it is also possible for the player to be used for recognition processes. This provides opportunities for VET organisations to address Australia’s skills shortages using recognition. What is means is that employees who have no formal qualification but many years of experience can be assessed against competencies whilst working. This has the potential to lead to qualification acquisition through a “fast track” method.

Once our application was accepted we entered into the Australian round of the IMS Global Awards and were judged together with the other Australian entries. This happened in November in Melbourne and we were granted the right to go to Barcelona Spain for the final Global Awards. In both Melbourne and Barcelona we were judged by a panel of judges as well as our peers. The judging process includes review of the application and then a “speed dating” model where each entrant has 5 minutes to advise the judges or their peers of why their entry is worthy of an IMS Global Impact Award. In Australia the judging took 30 minutes whilst in Spain we had to talk about our entry over 2 hours with new groups arriving every 5 minutes. Also in Spain there were over 30 Global entrantries.

We were granted an IMS Leadership Award for the best Mobile Learning Solution, acknowledging our leadership in research and development in the field of mobile learning and IMS QTI Standards.

The Learning Technology team at the Tasmanian Polytechnic acknowledge and thank the following for their input to the development of the QTImPlayer;

• Sean Howell from http://www.intelitec.com.au/default.asp
  
• Nathan Cox Tasmanian Skills Institute
• Mick Burn Tasmanian Skills Institute
• Marcus Ragus Tasmanian Skills Institute
• Marc Bowles http://www.marcbowles.com/ifwf/
  

You can see more about the QTImPlayer at http://qti2007.flexiblelearning.net.au/qtimplayer/index.html

IMS Global Learning Impact Awards

In 2007 - 08 TAFE Tasmania developed the QTImPlayer. The following is a Framework Press release of the project.

Innovation gets instructors in sync

Whether evaluating an engineering apprentice, a hospitality student, or a building and construction apprentice, on-the-job assessment is an essential part of vocational education and training.

In the past this has meant teachers and trainers have had to carry and store tonnes of paper records. In 2005 the Horticulture South team through the national training system’s e-learning strategy, the Australian Flexible Learning Framework’s, New Practices project created the first QTImPlayer, which simplified electronic and portable assessment activities.

In 2006 the Agriculture North West team saw the need for a portable electronic solution when teacher Nathan Cox explained they had to carry boxes of paper and shred two and a half tonnes of paper records. And in 2007 TAFE Tasmania and the New England Institute of TAFE created an extended version of the QTImPlayer.

The latest version of the QTImPlayer conforms to new QTI standards, making assessing students and record management easier.

The player enables users to access, read, play, record and report outcomes to IMS QTI 2.0 (Question and Test Interoperability) standards, using AQTF (Australian Quality Training Framework) validated assessment tools.

Once the player is downloaded and installed onto a personal digital assistant using Windows Mobile® 2005 or 2006, keeping student assessment records becomes convenient rather than cumbersome.

The assessment tools are AQTF validated compliant tools and can include oral, written and multiple choice questions, observation checklists, workplace testimonials, and recognition checklists, and the ability to create new types of assessment. The QTImPlayer can also attach multimedia files such as audio, photos and videos as additional assessment evidence.

Assessment records can also be zipped which ensures the results are accurate and can be easily transferred between different student management or human resource management systems increasing audit compliance.

For more information or to download the QTImPlayer, visit: http://www.flexiblelearning.net.au/qti2007

Sea Spray

Recently I have purchased a 1926 Huon Pine 28 foot motor sailer. I have had her surveyed and apart from a number of broken ribs she is in pretty good shape. I now have a restoration plan and intend retoring her over the next 3-4 years. In the meantime she will give us plenty of pleasure cruising around the Derwent in Hobart Tasmania. Sea Spray has now been entered in 5 Australian Wooden Boat Festivals.



Brief History

SEA SPRAY was built as a ferry for the Devonport Harbour Trust for use along the Mersey River in Tasmania in 1926, and was originally called PANDORA. It is now used as a private motor sailer, but retains much of its original structure and appearance.

SEA SPRAY's builder is understood to be Harry Woods from the Woods Boatyard on the Mersey River at Devonport. The vessel is carvel planked in Huon pine with a plumb stem and stern profile.

It was launched as PANDORA and operated there until it was sold to a bank manager in Hobart who then brought it down from the Mersey. It was later sold to Mervyn Dalwood from Lindisfarne in Hobart who renamed it SEA SPRAY. Unfortunately he fell overboard and drowned. His family then sold the boat in 1958 to Robert Knight. A partnership of Knight's daughter, her son and two friends later became owners of SEA SPRAY before it was sold to the current owner (Peter Higgs).

She remains in good condition and the hull and superstructure are believed to be largely original apart from repairs.

Personal Learning Environments and Learning Management Systems; what are their roles in the Australian Vocational and Education system

There is a place for blended learning design that will cater for all learning styles. We can not expect that all of our students will learn just through a PLE or that offered through an LMS.

LMSs do not have to be intrusive in that they only feed the learner the content and objects the teacher believes they need. Students can be asked to bring their own content in by way of links to useful sites and other content they discover though tasks the teacher asks them to pursue.

Activities can be set that have to be achieved in the work place and a learning object can be an oportunity for a learner to experience a piece of plant or some operation in a virtual sense before being confronted with the real thing. Recently in Tasmania, Australia a young learner on work experience was killed using a fork lift. Maybe, if that learner had been given some virtual experiences before using the fork lift the injury may not have been as severe.

On the other extreme teachers should endeavour to get trade students to communicate using a PLE. Even if it does take the learner some years to break down their personal barriers to communicate their own learning and experiences in their chosen trade via a PLE. When all said and done the original "Mechanics Institutes" (the forerunner to formal vocational education and training in Australia)is where like minded trades people met on a weekly or monthly basis to socialise, exchange ideas and learn.

So teachers and designers need to be cognisant of their learner cohort and design accordingly, one size does not fit all. Let's move LMS's and PLE's together with other emerging Learning Technology forward as only some of the learning tools that can underpin and support learning so long as their use is designed with the learners preferred learning style/s, required learning activities and environments.

Choosing, Using & Assessing Learning Objects

Pre Conference Merlot Work Shop by Dr Liesel Knaack, University of Ontario Institute of Technology
The workshop was very engaging and hands on providing practitioners with the challenges of choosing, using and assessing learning objects. The workshop provided strategies to ensure the differing learning styles and teaching needs could be addressed. It also provided strategies to overcome the difficulties of implementation and finally assessing the use of the learning object as an effective learning tool.

I strongly advise you take a look at Liesel’s link in the links section of this site.

Aggregating ePortfolio Discourse in Virtual Communities of Practice

Merlot 2006 Ottawa Canada 11/8/2006

Kathleen Willbanks and Gayle Burns

CSU The California State University

23 Campuses involved in the project 400000 students and some 20,000 staff but you could just about calculate it. These numbers are indicative of the size of this project.

CSU identified the need for ePortfolios as essential when the teacher accreditation requirements TPA & TPE, similar to TAA, were implemented. Typically there were some staff who resisted the move.

Development was an evolutionary process in collaboration with vendors. This provided a better outcome than just taking an off the shelf ePortfolio system.

The qualification requirements included education, technology and business training making it essential that the ePortfolio system served these needs as well. The ePortfolio requirement is driven by 3 accreditation agencies which are responsible for teaching staff having been accredited to teach.

Initially they built a website that facilitated a community of practice. The model used was quite different to other communities of practice. The new model will now be used by CSU to change the model of past communities of practice. The community of practice hold numerous resources, forums, etc. The goal is to do away with the bulky hard print portfolios traditionally used. At face to face meetings the staff are provided wireless access that permits people at distance and or disparate locations to attend. This access also allows access to chat and forums. Initially CSU commenced without forum moderators but soon learned that moderators or facilitators were required.

I am not sure what the differences were and could not find out due to the need to get to the CLOE session.

There was a hybrid model for using the ePortfolio, that is it included face to face meetings mixed with a lot of online sessions.

See hand out; it is interesting to note that they are using the Australian Flexible Learning’s Flexways to assist staff identify their skills and skill gaps.

“Work Force Learning” a new requirement by USA and Canadian Federal Governments is demanding the evidence to be produced through Portfolios and ePortfolios for the accreditation process. Work Force Learning is also demanding that the Colleges and Universities design and develop resources and courses that will assist industry and enterprise training requirements.