Factors Affecting Re-Usability of Learning Objects Across National Boundaries Chris Khoo Nanyang Technological Univ. Singapore Abdus Sattar Chaudhry University of Kuwait Sujin Butdisuwan Mahasarakham Univ. Thailand Joyce C.C. Chen National Taiwan Normal University
Ifla2010 - session123 - in Gøteborg, Sweden on friday 13.08.2010
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Factors Affecting Re-Usability of Learning
Objects Across National Boundaries
Chris KhooNanyang Technological Univ. Singapore
Abdus Sattar ChaudhryUniversity of Kuwait
Sujin ButdisuwanMahasarakham Univ. Thailand
Joyce C.C. ChenNational Taiwan Normal University
Collaborations in Asia-Pacific region LIS research & education
Consortium of iSchools Asia-Pacific (CiSAP)led by Shigeo Sugimoto, Tsukuba U.
Smaller regional groupse.g. Taiwan-Singapore-Thailand Workshop on Library & Information Research
Research collaborationEducational cooperation
Repository of learning objects
Project to develop a repository of “learning
objects” to facilitate sharing and reuse of
teaching materials
Questions
• How useful is such a repository likely to be?
• What kind of content is likely to be reused?
• What kind of metadata and search/browse functions are needed?
• Will it be worth the effort?
Work so far …
1. Development of taxonomies for navigation
/browsing of LIS teaching and research materials
in NTU intranet
2. User study of students & faculty using the
taxonomies to locate materials
3. Current -- study of the factors likely to affect the
re-usability of learning objects (particularly
lecture slides):
across LIS schools
across countries
across languages.
Study approach
Compare lecture slides on the same topics
developed by instructors in different schools /
countries
Similar slides from different instructors suggest
high likelihood of reuse
Basic or well-accepted content
Potentially useful to new instructors
Study approach
Recurring content might not be useful for
experienced instructors
Not novel -- readily available on the Web
Not useful for instructor seeking to improve or update an
existing lecture
Unusual, innovative treatments or examples may be more
useful
So the study seeks to identify the types of unusual or
innovative content that may be useful to enhance other
instructor’s lecture slides
Two subject areas selected for the
study
Information organization / knowledge
organization
a well-established subject area in LIS
more technical and standards based
some aspects of information organization may be
embedded in other courses
Knowledge management
an emerging and developing subject area
more conceptual
more interest among the LIS community in Asia to find
out what other schools are teaching
Collaborative R&D project
4 LIS educators from Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand
and Kuwait
necessary to obtain teaching materials from
different schools across the region
need collaborators who are fluent in the
languages
Side-effect of the study: learn the differences in the
way Information Organization and Knowledge
Management are taught in different LIS
programmes
Learning object
Definition continues to be
an issue
Currier & Campbell
distinguished between
Learning objects -- has an
educational objective or
specific educational concept
Information objects -- simply
present information.
7 levels of
granularity /
aggregation
Information object
Information resource
Learning object
Unit of study
Module
Course
Collection.
Learning object (cont.)
For this study -- a lecture presentation (MS Powerpoint file)
is a learning object at the level of a lesson
Comprises a set of lecture slides – atomic learning object
if the slide can stand alone as a self-contained treatment of a
topic
material on a topic can be presented over two or more slides,
in which case a slide is no longer a learning object but an
information object
Diagrams and images within a slide can be considered
digital objects or assets.
Previous studiesFactors that affect reusability
Technical factors, e.g. technical standards
followed
Physical factors, e.g. granularity or size of
learning object
Dependency factors, e.g. physical and content
dependency
System features, e.g. search facilities and
metadata
Contextual and environment factors
Horizontal and vertical reusability (Currier & Campbell, 2005)
Horizontal reusability
How subject-specific the learning object is:
Generic objects can be used in any subject field or
discipline
Interdisciplinary objects are applicable to more than one
discipline or subject
Subject-specific objects are for use only within a specific
subject
Resource-specific objects are designed for use in a specific
context.
Horizontal and vertical reusability Vertical reusability
Whether the learning object may be used at more
than one educational level, and support for use at
different levels of study
A reusable learning object is one that
• can be delivered via a wide variety of platforms or technologies
• do not reference related external content and
• are not technically dependent on other external resources.
Our focus
The Content of the learning object
Characteristics of the content that are associated with
reusability
In an earlier paper, we suggested the following factors: