PLE Proposal
The following is an excerpt of the initial proposal for the PLE project at CQU.
Title: Enabling the adoption of Personal Learning Environments for CQU students and staff
Contents |
Background
Central Queensland University has set itself the mission of "providing the opportunity for all to embark on a learning journey" by providing "quality learning opportunities with personalised support". It is committed to having a focus on producing student learning, rather than providing programs of study.
In order to achieve this mission CQU's various strategic and management plans identify a number of priorities and goals that will guide learning and teaching at CQU. A major aim is to target non-traditional learners and enable them to achieve their aspirations through a learning journey that matches their circumstances through customised pathways, learning environments and student support. Another is to strengthen and extend the inclusion of integrated practice-based or workplace learning across CQU's programs.
CQU's plans outline a number of values and strategies for achieving these goals including ensuring that our teaching is informed by research and innovation. A component of this is to develop a variety of technologies to further support learning for different cohorts in different modes in order to build a multi-modal delivery system that makes CQU the 'University of Choice'.
Problem
CQU, like just about every other university in Australia, has adopted a Learning Management System (LMS) as the primary technology through which to support learning and teaching. Like these other universities CQU is now facing the limitations inherent in the design and implementation of an LMS including:
- limited staff adoption in terms of numbers and quality;
- an institutional, course offering focus, rather than a student-centered focus;
- very limited support for the type of learning experienced through the use of practice-based or workplace learning; and
- an inability to support life-long learners beyond their institutional enrolments.
These limitations are particularly problematic given CQU's stated desire to target non-traditional learners, to support them through customised pathways and learning environments and the use of practice-based learning.
Personal Learning Environments
Over recent years the concept of a Personal Learning Environment (PLE) has arisen as a counterpoint to the institutional, course focused design of an LMS. The PLE concept is still very new and there remains a diversity of interpretations of what a PLE might do (Johnson, 2006). The most commonly accepted definition is of the PLE as a collection of systems that help learners control and manage their own learning and achieve learning goals by enabling learners to: set their own learning goals; manage the content and process of their learning; and communicate with others in the process of learning. Unlike the centralised, instructor-controlled LMS, PLEs are distributed, social and learner-centric. PLEs fulfil the requirements, including connecting, social, personal, creative, flexible, open and reflexive, identified as characteristic of future learning spaces (Puni, 2007).
Project aims
The ultimate aim of this project is to provide CQU's students with mechanisms to support learner autonomy and self-regulation (Knowles, 1978) within a personalised learning space. The intent is to provide students, while at university and beyond, with engaging, self-directed and collaborative learning opportunities that match their diverse needs.
This project will:
- enable enhancement to the quality of student learning experience by providing lifelong learning support mechanisms in an integrated learning space;
- support academics to meet their educational goals and L&T needs by engaging in the PLE’s design process;
- help sustain the University’s mission to provide open access to higher education and personalised learning.
Process
The project will use a participatory design process with two year-long phases:
- Exploration and initial implementation.
- Commencement of mainstreaming.
During the first year the focus will be on generating an emergent understanding of what a PLE actually is and what requirements for changes to policy, process and systems are required to most effectively support widespread adoption of PLEs at CQU. It would actively target those courses and programs with a focus on non-traditional learners, workplace learning or innovative learning approaches.
The second year would see a similar process focusing on the leveraging of the knowledge gained during the first year to start the process of mainstreaming the use of PLEs into the broader CQU community.
The uncertain understanding of what PLEs are in practice and the radical departure they represent for existing institutional policies and practice necessitates an emphasis on discovery and development of emergent understanding. To aid in this development of understanding the project will set up an external references group to provide regular feedback on the conceptualisation and direction of the project.
Budget
The majority of the budget has been set aside for two staff that will perform the work necessary to design and make use of PLEs at CQU.
References
Johnson, M., P. Hollins, et al. (2006). Towards a reference model for the personal learning environment. The 23rd Annual Conference of the Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education, Sydney, Australia, Sydney University Press.
Knowles, M.S. (1978). The Adult Learner: A Neglected Species. Houston: Gulf Publishing.
Puni, Y. (2007). "Learning spaces: an ICT-enabled model of future learning in the knowledge-based society." European Journal of Education 42(2): 185-199.
