NGDLE Implementation Proposal

[brettwilcox]

Summary

• The Next Generation Digital Learning Environment.pdf
• Next Generation Learning.pdf

For this research, we have adopted the term next generation digital learning environment (NGDLE) for what should come after the LMS era. LMS needs to be supplemented (and perhaps later replaced) by a new digital architecture and components for learning that contribute to and enable the transitions that higher education is currently experiencing.

Why I opened this discussion.

Discovery of the core foundations of what we are trying to accomplish with a new learner model.

New Architectures

• At the built layer, it will be a confederation of IT systems, including content repositories, analytics engines, and a wide variety of applications and digital services.
• Full adherence to standards for interoperability, as well as for data and content exchange.
• Personalization as an option at all levels of the institution. The NGDLE will not be exactly the same for any two learners, instructors, or institutions.
• For users, it will be a cloud-like space to aggregate and connect content and functionality, similar to a smartphone, where users fashion their environments directly with self-selected apps.
• If the paradigm for the NGDLE is a digital confederation of components, the model for the NGDLE architecture may be the mash-up. A mash-up is a web page or application that “uses content from more than one source to create a single new service displayed in a single graphical interface.” 8 Hence it uses a heterogeneity of components to produce a homogeneity of function. The confederation-based NGDLE will be mashed up at both the individual and the institutional levels, as opposed to consortia forming to create open enterprise applications.

How this may play out

• An institution may decide to forego the current LMS altogether and instead set up a confederation of components that provide similar functionality.
• An institution could retain the LMS as a core component, preserving its value as an administrative tool and a linchpin for learning data. But learning pioneers would be able to experiment and innovate by hooking apps and other functions onto the LMS. Contact with the LMS would be more indirect than direct for most users.
• Clusters of institutions could form consortia (such as Unizin or C-BEN) 10 to set up co-ops to provide a buffet of apps and other tools, either purchased or donated. In this case, each institution’s learning environment would be a unique blend of these components.

To be fully realized it must address five domains of core functionality:

1. Interoperability and Integration
2. Personalization
3. Analytics, Advising, and Learning Assessment
4. Collaboration
5. Accessibility and Universal Design

Interoperability is the linchpin of the NGDLE. The ability to integrate tools and exchange content and learning data enables everything else.

• All components must be able to accept and exchange curricular content in common formats.
• Integration must be easy enough for end users to quickly and easily add tools to the environment
• the learning environment will continue to be the key source of learning data.
• must enable the creation of new interoperability standards in ways that are compatible with its other standards so that overall coherence is maintained.

The key is defining what is meant by “NGDLE conformance.” Legos work because of a design specification that ensures the pieces will interlock, while enabling a wide variety of component parts. For the NGDLE to succeed as we describe here, a similar set of specifications and services will need to be defined that constitute the conformance needed to make the Lego approach workable.

Next Generation Learning Challenges

Seeks to answer these questions:

• How do we better engage young people in learning and demonstrate its relevance to—real life—and their aspirations?
• How do we personalize learning to accelerate and deepen understanding and knowledge retention?
• How do we encourage persistence and completion in spite of the competing demands of students’ lives?
• How can institutions and educational systems afford improvements in student success in light of flat or declining budgets?

[brettwilcox]

Developer Information

I am going to marry this up with this above information.

• https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2020#technology-platforms-professional-developers5

Learning How to Teach

Below is a good article with citations. I'm looking at making an outline on how you can build in automation around best practices.

• https://www.sciencemag.org/careers/1999/11/learning-how-teach-how-do-it-and-why-you-want
• https://tll.mit.edu/teaching-resources/how-to-teach/
• Developing your Teaching Philosophy #54

[brettwilcox]

Evaluating Digital Leadership Training Programs with Britney Cole

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eG_Ua_rg8k