Forum Higher Ed & Training Forum: Re: SAKAI GUEST THREAD: When is workflow *not* appropriate?

By: James Dalziel

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Just a quick comment on Karen's suggestion that a workflow tool (like LAMS) is not the right choice unless you have collaboration.

For me (and I think for Karen), the really interesting and new aspect of Learning Design is sequences of collaborative activities (and the ability to share them) - while there are other dimensions to the LD field (such as allowing different single learner pathways through content), these have parallels in other work (such as traditional websites, or IMS Simple Sequencing, etc). That's not to say these things aren't relevant or important, it's just that for me, they don't define the dimension of Learning Design that is really new. The new bit as I see it is:
(1) Sequences of collaborative activities (may also include content)
(2) The ability to easily share these sequences

However, having said all that, I do know of quite a few LAMS users that like LAMS's visual drag and drop approach for sequencing "single learner" only sequences (eg, view content, view content, do quiz, etc). Using LAMS just for single learner activity sequences doesn't use all the power of the collaboration dimension of LAMS, but if it suits a particular pedagogy in a particular circumstance, and the visualisation is helpful, then I'm all for this type of use of LAMS.

I hope that for some faculty who start out using LAMS in this way, over time they'll start to consider bringing in some collaborative tasks (but only if it suits their teaching context - no point in doing so if, as Karen say, no one is ever online and you might as well post out printed notes and have students post back assignments).

Posted by James Dalziel

By: Michael Feldstein

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This is interesting. Can you point to specific LAMS sequences that provide good examples (for a higher ed audience) of how LAMS facilitates collaboration in ways that a traditional learning environment might not?

Posted by Michael Feldstein

By: Karen Baskett

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Hi Michael,

From a quick look at the sequences available on this site (both can be found in the public sequences folder), I can recommend “Creative Writing Place” and “Mural Design”. They’re written by Robyn Philip and Andrew Lovell-Simon, who both work at Macquarie University. I hope they will come online and explain anything or add to the following information.

Why do these sequences provide more collaborative opportunities than a traditional learning environment might? I’ll explain some of the reasons in relation to the creative writing piece. This sequence is designed to be part of a larger course. It starts with the aim, which is to write a descriptive piece about a place. The sequence then breaks down each of the steps that students go through in order to finally produce this writing. If you look at the macro level, Robyn is using the LAMS grouping options to get her students working in small collaborative groups, commenting on each other’s work. As mentioned in an earlier post, students will be moving through the sequence at roughly the same time and so have access to each other’s posts, comments and answers and will also be likely to be in the chat room at the same time.

At the tool level Robyn used a set of highly collaborative tools (mainly the Question and Answer, Forum and Chat). As far as I know, the Question and Answer is unique to LAMS and is one of my all time favourites! It’s very simple conceptually and provides such rich learning opportunities. The Instructor poses one or more questions and then the student answers. Once they have answered, they are taken to a second screen which shows everyone else’s answers as well. In my experience managing many trial, teachers always comment that students love seeing their peers’ answers, it allows them to learn from each other and gives them a sense of place within a class/course. So for example, in Robyn’s sequence,, students are asked, “ Think about a place or location which has special meaning for you. It might be a very enjoyable place, a place full of history, a disturbing place, or one that suddenly brings back memories. To get you started, take a moment to visualize the place. When you are ready, write down words that occur to you about the place. Use stream of consciousness. Don't worry about grammar or correct sentence structure. Just get your thoughts down as they come to mind. Don't edit your writing.
This is an anonymous activity. Your writing will only be visible to those in your small group.” It’s great that students have a record of their own writing, and even better that they have access to their peers’ ideas as well.

Has anyone else in the LAMS community downloaded Robyn or Andrew’s sequences and used them? I’d love to hear additional comments.

Posted by Karen Baskett