Methodology

The project used the LAMS International hosting service and maintained forum-based communication on technical issues with LAMS Community groups.

An introductory LAMS demonstration workshop in July 2006 and a number of targeted emails recruited 5 pilot users by September 2006 who used LAMS in their teaching. The second wave of recruitment in October/November 2006 resulted in a further 4 members of staff becoming involved. One-to-one introductory sessions were provided to staff unable to attend workshops, which resulted in three further uses of LAMS.

Considerably more members of staff expressed interest in LAMS - some also experimenting with creating sequences - than went on to fully develop and use sequences with students in practice. Ultimately, it did not prove possible to achieve a portfolio of 25 LAMS sequences, as hoped, because of lower than expected pilot user recruitment.

Pilot users described a range of reasons for participating in the pilot, including: perceived benefits of LAMS for the student experience and curiosity about specific `design orchestration´ features of the tool, including on-line peer collaboration and step-by-step progression for students through on-line tasks; personal motivation to experiment with latest developments in learning technology, in some cases because e-learning was a specific subject focus of their teaching; willingness to experiment with a new tool on behalf of the University.

Pilot users did not tend to approach experimentation with LAMS from a `high-level´ perspective of implementing new general models of IBL (nor was this proposed by DeSILA) - but focused instead on ways in which the technology might fit with, and enhance, their existing approaches to using IBL in specific instances of teaching.

Following initial training and familiarisation with LAMS, pedagogical and technical user support expertise was developed in an ongoing way throughout the project, in response to support needs that arose.
Monitoring and recording of support, technical and organisational issues took place throughout.

The project resulted in the creation of 14 completed sequences for implementation with students - 10 of which were actually used by students - by a total of 12 academic staff from the following discipline areas: Automatic Control and Systems Engineering; Education; Geography; Information Studies; Law; Modern Languages. Topics included: introduction to blogging, e-learning, learning styles, reflective writing, article abstract evaluation, geographical visual methods, intellectual property. Both blended and distance modes were piloted. Library staff created a sequence for the purposes of team experimentation.

Pre- and post-implementation interviews were carried out with academic staff who intended to implement sequences with students. The interview guides for both pre- and post-implementation interviews were relatively loosely structured, in order to allow for open exploration of themes emerging. These data were supplemented by classroom observation and student feedback where possible.

The theme of sharing and reuse of designs for learning activity (both in general, and in relation to LAMS) was explored through interviews with pilot users as described above, and `reuse´ workshops and associated focus group discussions attended by some pilot users and other academic staff from a range of disciplines.

Data analysis: All interview and focus group data were fully transcribed and analysis was inductive, using a thematic, grounded approach. Descriptive, frequencies-based statistical analysis was carried out of quantitative questionnaire data, and thematic analysis was carried out on qualitative data received via questionnaires. Completed sequences were analysed to identify key features and patterns in pilot users´ use of LAMS tools.

The project was disseminated widely at an internal level. External promotion and dissemination was carried out mainly through a total of 8 conference presentations and workshops, including a presentation to CILIP UC&R group in Leicester, March 2007; Learning Through Enquiry Alliance conference, June 2007. One paper for publication (conference proceedings) was produced (Levy et al. 2008) and peer-reviewed journal papers are in the pipeline.

Designs were made available to other Design for Learning projects and the wider community via the DeSILA wiki and the LAMS community website.