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Reusing and Repurposing Learning Objects: Addressing Granularity Challenges in Texas Education

This presentation by William E. Moen from the Texas Center for Digital Knowledge explores the granularity issues within the Texas Course Redesign Repository. It discusses the importance of decomposing course content into discrete learning objects (LOs) for better reusability and repurposing in educational settings. The initiative, funded by the Texas legislature, aims to enhance instructional materials across various subjects, including math, science, and liberal arts. The development of a robust repository with effective metadata standards is emphasized, underscoring its role in improving access and usability for educational institutions.

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Reusing and Repurposing Learning Objects: Addressing Granularity Challenges in Texas Education

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  1. Reusing & Repurposing Learning Objects________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Issues of Granularity in the Texas Course Redesign Repository William E. Moen <william.moen@unt.edu> Texas Center for Digital Knowledge University of North Texas Denton, Texas Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board Reusing and Repurposing Learning Objects: Issues of Granularity

  2. Texas course redesign project • Statewide initiative, funded by Texas legislature • Original RFP requested proposals: • To redesign developmental and entry-level academic courses • To develop other related projects that would advance the statewide course redesign initiative Reusing and Repurposing Learning Objects: Issues of Granularity

  3. Texas courses being redesigned • 23 redesign projects in development including: • Developmental writing, reading, and mathematics • Biology I & II, Chemistry I & II • College Algebra, Calculus, Math for Business & Social Science Majors, Statistics • Computer Literacy • English Composition I & II • Fine Arts Appreciation • Introduction to Engineering • Spanish • U.S. Government • U.S. History I & II Reusing and Repurposing Learning Objects: Issues of Granularity

  4. Redesigning first year curriculum Reusing and Repurposing Learning Objects: Issues of Granularity

  5. The learning object repository • Two phase project • Phase I: Proof-of-Concept (May 07–Sept 07) • How course content can be decomposed into discrete learning objects (LOs) • How LOs can be individually described through metadata • How users can use the LOR to search, browse, retrieve, and download LOs • How LOs can be packaged to import into learning management systems • Phase II: Research & Development (Sept 07–Aug 09) • Moving towards a near-production level system • Primary means to disseminate redesigned courses For more information, see project website: http://thecblor.unt.edu Reusing and Repurposing Learning Objects: Issues of Granularity

  6. THECB LOR components • Repository platform: DSpace • Stores the LOs and metadata describing each • Provides authenticated user interface for submission of LOs and creation of metadata • Provides public user interface for searching, browsing, access • Manakin XML user interface tool • Course content and learning objects • Our definition of a LO: A digital resource (simple or complex) that can be used to support learning Reusing and Repurposing Learning Objects: Issues of Granularity

  7. THECB LOR components • Metadata • Serves in managing the repository’s content • Serves users to: • Find (searching and discovering LOs) • Identify (comparing similar LOs) • Select (evaluating LOs for specific needs) • Access/Acquire (downloading selected LOs) • Using metadata elements from two standards: • Dublin Core • IEEE Learning Object Metadata • Approximately 40 elements Reusing and Repurposing Learning Objects: Issues of Granularity

  8. Context for THECB LOR • Courses and course content • Developed by separate projects • No standard or common logical structure • Quality of content • Competitive grant process for redesigned courses • Intended audience • Instructors/instructional designers at public institutions of higher education in Texas • Intellectual property • Belongs to Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board Reusing and Repurposing Learning Objects: Issues of Granularity

  9. Basic organization of LOR • Discipline (e.g. History) • Sub-discipline (e.g., U.S History) • Courses (e.g., U.S. History I, U.S. History II) • Course content (Collections of learning objects at varying levels of granularity) Reusing and Repurposing Learning Objects: Issues of Granularity

  10. Reusing and Repurposing Learning Objects: Issues of Granularity

  11. From courses to LOs • Courses not designed in terms of: • Learning objects • Storage in a repository • Challenges: • How to decompose complete course into meaningful LOs • How to decide on levels of granularity • How to represent such levels • How to show relationships among/between related LOs at different levels of granularity Reusing and Repurposing Learning Objects: Issues of Granularity

  12. U.S. History I Course • Structure as designed: • Course • Units (four Units in Course) • Lessons (two or more lessons per Unit) • Topics (two or more topics per Lesson) • Structure served to guide levels of granularity Reusing and Repurposing Learning Objects: Issues of Granularity

  13. U.S. History I Course • Other course components as designed • Case studies • Teacher and student guides • Assessments (primarily at the Lesson level) • Free-standing learning objects • Derived from course content • Have value outside the context for which they were created • Interactive flash animations, video clips, etc. Reusing and Repurposing Learning Objects: Issues of Granularity

  14. Reusing and Repurposing Learning Objects: Issues of Granularity

  15. Characterizing LOs • Netg • Topic: single learning objective, a learning activity, and an assessment • Cisco • Reusable Information Object: content items, practice items, and assessment items aimed at single learning objective • SCORM Content Package • Sharable Content Objects packaged together in larger units of learning related to learning objectives • IMS Learning Design • Learning Object: object needed to perform an activity Reusing and Repurposing Learning Objects: Issues of Granularity

  16. Assumptions for the THECB LOR • Users may be in need of different sized LOs • No common logical structure for courses • No common terminology across courses for labeling structural components of course • Different courses may dictate different levels of granularity • Context for some LOs more important than others • Our definition of a LO: • A digital resource (simple or complex) that can be used to support learning • Not tied to specific learning objectives Reusing and Repurposing Learning Objects: Issues of Granularity

  17. Spanish course • Course content consists of: • Introductory web page • Podcast • Organized by topics, subtopics, specific topics e.g. • Verbs • Present tense • Present tense AR • Present tense ER/IR • Present tense Irregulars • Nouns, articles, adjectives and agreement • Articles • Definite and indefinite articles Reusing and Repurposing Learning Objects: Issues of Granularity

  18. Developmental writing course • Course content consists of: • Web pages of textual information • Assessments and activities • Organized into: • Categories • Lessons • Topics Reusing and Repurposing Learning Objects: Issues of Granularity

  19. LOs at multiple levels of granularity The Russian Doll Approach Separate learning objects are created at all levels: course, lesson, topic, page, page element (media), with each level contained in the one above it. G.W. Matkin Reusing and Repurposing Learning Objects: Issues of Granularity

  20. Russian Doll in context of courses • Spanish • Specific topic LOs • Specific topics aggregated in a subtopic • Subtopic LOs • Subtopics aggregated in a topics • Topic LOs • Topics aggregated into course level • Writing • Topic LOs • Topics aggregated in a lesson • Lesson LOs • Lessons aggregated in a category • Category LOs • Categories aggregated into course level History • Topic LOs • Topics aggregated in a lesson • Lesson LOs • Lessons aggregated in a unit • Unit LOs • Units aggregated into course level Reusing and Repurposing Learning Objects: Issues of Granularity

  21. This approach… • Addresses our lack of knowledge of granularity levels appropriate for intended users • Offers LOs at multiple levels of granularity • Provides a testbed for empirical investigation BUT … lots of challenges, including: • Terminology for levels of granularity • Use of metadata to describe/represent levels of granularity • Use of metadata to show relationships (part of, is part of) • Addressing sequencing and context where that is important I’ll appreciate your ideas and suggestions! Reusing and Repurposing Learning Objects: Issues of Granularity

  22. References • Disaggregation and reutilization of sharable content objects. Figuerua, A. & Kaufmann, M. • Learning object repositories: Problems and promise. Matkin, G.W. • Transforming existing content into reusable learning objects. Doorten, M., et al. • THECB LOR Project: http://thecblor.unt.edu Reusing and Repurposing Learning Objects: Issues of Granularity

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