Educational modelling language: modelling reusable, interoperable, rich and personalised units of learning

Nowadays there is a huge demand for flexible, independent learning without the constraints of time and place. Various trends in the field of education and training are the bases for the development of new technologies for education. This article describes the development of a learning technology specification, which supports these new demands for learning challenging the new technological possibilities. This specification is named Educational Modelling Language (EML) and is developed by the Open University of the Netherlands. Introduction In this article a learning technology specification for units of learning, called ‘Educational modelling language’ (EML) is described. A unit of learning is an artefact that is designed for learners to achieve one or more interrelated learning objectives. A unit of learning cannot be broken down into its component parts without losing its semantic and pragmatic meaning and its effectiveness towards the attainment of the learning objectives. In practice you see units of learning of all types: courses; study programmes; workshops; practicals; lessons, etc, are all examples of units of learning. EML is defined as a semantically rich information model and binding, describing the content and process within units of learning from a pedagogical perspective in order to support reuse and interoperability (see Koper, 1991, 1998, 2000). To state it differently: EML is a semantic notation for units of learning to be used in e-learning. The ideas underlying EML are derived from various trends in the field of education and training, such as life long learning, globalisation and possibilities offered by new technologies. There is a worldwide need for continuous access to knowledge and a need for assessment and accreditation of competences related to employability, whether obtained formally or informally. The borders between learning, work, leisure and homeactivities are diminishing. Institutes for training and education are at a pedagogical level faced with new paradigms of teaching and learning, which have been established 538 British Journal of Educational Technology Vol 35 No 5 2004 © British Educational Communications and Technology Agency, 2004. in order to make education more effective. Examples are competency based learning (Schlusmans, Slotman, Nagtegaal, and Kinkhorst, 1999; Spencer and Spencer, 1993), collaborative learning (Dillenbourg and Schneider, 1995), case-based learning (Leenders and Erskine, 1989) and performance improvement approaches (Robinson and Robinson, 1995). Most of the new approaches are based on constructivist principles (Brown, Collins, and Duguid, 1989). They are applied, both purely and mixed, to the older directed instruction formats (Roblyer and Edwards, 2000). At the technological level , institutes are faced with large investments in infrastructure. Most institutes of education and training are exploring the possibilities of the use of Internet-based learning management systems (e-learning) for delivering courses and curricula. All these developments in the field define new requirements for learning and the instructional design of units of learning. This also constitutes a need for open, flexible and rich learning environments independent of time and place (Scott Grabinger, 1996; Manderveld and Koper, 1999; Koper, 2001a). Flexible in terms of time, place, content, sequence and delivery media and adaptive in terms of matching the characteristics of all the persons using it, not only for learners, but also for staff members. The definition of these new requirements is met by the development of learning technology specifications. We define learning technology specifications as specifications of methods and techniques which support the realisation of e-learning. The design and development of learning technology specifications is a global issue. Several initiatives at a national or regional level as well as industrial consortia (IMS Global Learning Consortium) and expert based initiatives (IEEE, LTSC and ADL, Advanced Distributed Learning) are developing learning technology specifications. These learning technologies’ specifications are developed to support innovation of teaching and learning (Oliver and Bradley, 1999). Until now the focus of developing learning technology specifications has been on developing specifications for learning objects. A learning object is defined by the IEEE LTSC (2000) as any entity, digital or non digital, that can be used, reused or referenced during technology supported learning, eg, exercises, cases, study tasks, etc. The specifications for learning objects have primarily been designed to ensure interoperability, focusing on technology issues and reuse of learning objects. The instructional value of learning objects is barely discussed. However, Wiley (2002) tries to explore the instructional value and use of learning objects. But this does not take away the uneasy feeling that developing and using reusable learning objects leads to e-learning as page turning (Stacey, 2003). The defined specifications for learning objects do not meet the demand for more flexible constructivist ways of learning. Another major problem with learning objects at this moment is that they are not typed to their usage in the context of a unit of learning. There is a lack of semantic relationship between different types of learning objects in the context and use in an educational Educational modelling language 539 © British Educational Communications and Technology Agency, 2004. setting (Koper, 2001b). Another problem is that there are from our point of view a variety of learning objects, such as learning activities, knowledge objects, questionnaire objects, but in the learning object specifications they are all typed as learning objects. This reasoning led to the conclusion that we must focus on the development of a learning technology specification which provides a pedagogical framework of different types of learning objects, expresses the relationships between the typed learning objects and defines the structure for the content and behaviour of the different learning objects. This specification must also support objectivist and constructivist views of learning. In order to attain the objectives described above we started the project to develop EML in 1998. In the next paragraphs the focus is on the development of EML. Eventually, EML is presented and the steps to be taken in order to implement a pedagogical design in EML are described. Development of EML The development process of EML consisted of separate iterations of analysis, design, implementation, test and evaluation. The complete development process of EML took about three years and was conducted by a large variety of experts such as educational technologists, ICT-experts, XML-experts, etc. In this section the method of development is described.