eLearning Research & Programs at UC Berkeley

[Post-meeting summary from Jay Cross][Audio/Video archive courtesy of Altus]

The October 24 meeting will offer an inside look at several high profile elearning projects at Berkeley. Join us as we discuss what the future of elearning in university, school, and corporate environments may look like.

Speakers will include:

• Jim Slotta, director of TELS, a NSF-funded research consortium
• Chuck Rieger, Program Director, IBM Global Services, University Initiatives
• Raymond Yee, Technology Architect, Interactive University Project
• Mike Clancy, Director of the UC-WISE, and
• Brandon Muramatsu, Project Director, SMETE Digital Library.

Planned Agenda

Introduction

• eLearning Forum representatives
• Chuck Rieger, IBM
• Jim Slotta, UC Berkeley

Panel: eLearning at UC Berkeley (15 minute presentations)

1. The SMETE Digital Library
   Presenter: Brandon Muramatsu - SMETE Project director
2. The Interactive University
   Presenter: Raymond Yee - Technology Architect
3. Educational Technology Services and eLearning Specifications
   Presenter: Mara Hancock - Associate Director -- Learning Systems
4. UC-WISE: University of California Web-based Instruction in Science and Engineering
   Presenters: Mike Clancy, Nate Titterton: UC-WISE directors
5. Open-Source Web-based Learning (OWL) and The Educational Accelerator
   Presenters: Jim Slotta and Turadg Aleahmad - Technology Enhanced Learning in Science (TELS), UC Berkeley School of Education

Q&A with panel
Moderator: Marcia Linn, UC Berkeley Graduate School of Education

Break-out groups (plus one on-line TBD)

• Group 1: Learning Object Management
  • Management of Learning Objects is concerned with their tagging, segmenting, searching and accessing. Opportunities on the horizon in this topic include the re-use of learning object, their "tuning" to be appropriate to users, smart searching, and more.
  • Several projects within the panel are concerned with Object Management, including the SMETE digital library and the Scholar's Box from Interactive University.
  • Panel Participants will include: Raymond Yee, Brandon Muramatsu, Alex Cuthbert
• Group 2: Learning Object Content
  • Learning object content is the actual text, rich media, and interactive applications that are accessed by users. It is typically tagged according to some metatagging scheme, and can be accessed by the object management systems addressed in Group 1. This topic entails issues of platform requirements, level of functionality of the content, level of interactions with users, data sharing between objects, and assessment. Opportunities include highly interactive content, reactive (smart) content, and programmatic analysis/asessment.
  • Several projects within the panel are concerned with content, including the WISE and UC-WISE groups, who are creating new tools for learning on the Web (e.g., for drawing or programming).
  • Panel participants will include: Turadg Aleahmad, Mike Clancy, Mara Hancock, Marcia Linn
• Group 3: Learning Environments
  • Learning Environments control the experience of the user, including students, instructors, and other community members (e.g., parents, TA's, managers, etc). Learning Environments are typically more sophisticated and more interactive than the conventional learning mangement systems (e.g., blackboard or WebCT). They are designed to capture pedagogical principles, to scaffold learning, and to adhere to measures of quality. A learning environment weaves learning content into a user experience, supports user interactions with content, manages users, and serves as a portal for courses or communities. Issues in this topic include user experience, user management, server architecture, flow of instruction or learning, and mangement of courses. Oportunities include the possible "tuning" of content to be appropriate for specific learners, the tracking of learners and of content within the environment, and the representation of pedagogical content.
  • Several projects from the panel are engaged in learning environment research, including the WISE, UC-WISE and TELS groups.
  • panel participants will include: Jim Slotta, Nate Titterton, Fred Beshears, Mara Hancock

Short reports by breakout groups

Closing remarks

Lunch and networking

Attending in-person

1. Pre-register for the event via PayPal. We will accept walk-up attendees on a "space available" basis but may not be able to supply them with lunches.
2. We will be in the conference center on the Clark Kerr campus, 2601 Warring Street in Berkeley [map] [directions]
3. Parking is available in the Southwest Lot [map]. Parking permits are required and must be placed on the dashboard of each vehicle.

Attending Remotely

If you wish to participate remotely, please enroll through Interwise. To do this, please go to http://65.214.53.1/live/viewevent.asp?eventid=1263. Then click "Enroll" and enter your Interwise username and password. If you do not have an Interwise username and password, you will be prompted to set one up, free of charge. Once you have successfully enrolled, please check your email for an email confirmation from Interwise and follow the instructions outlined in this email to prepare your computer for remote participation.

Our thanks to...

This meeting is presented with the assistance of Tata Interactive and Jim Slotta of UC Berkeley.