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This series of reports explores new forms of teaching, learning and assessment for an interactive world, to guide teachers and policy makers in productive innovation. This eighth report, produced by The Open University in collaboration with the National Institute for Digital Learning (NIDL) in Ireland, describes ten innovations that have the potential to influence education in the coming years.

Self-Directed Learning (SDL) is gaining interest, as online learning is increasingly learner-centered. FutureLearn courses provide an array of online interactions and content deliveries, which have allowed the authors to investigate a diversity of SDL elements. This preliminary research examines the SDL taking place in three FutureLearn courses, and categorises those learner actions into meaningful elements and dimensions for the learners. The SDL framework by Bouchard [1] is used to interpret the self-reported findings coming from active learners. The research uses a grounded theory approach to look for learner experiences related to four dimensions (algorithmic, conative, semiotic, and economic) of the Bouchard [1] framework, and to discover new dimensions. Various research instruments are used: online surveys, learning logs, and one-on-one interviews, all collected pre-, during, or post-course. The initial adaptation of Bouchard’s framework offers insights into SDL, its meaning, and value as perceived by the learners.

This paper presents and compares a variety of approaches that have been developed to guide the decision-making process in learning design. Together with the companion Learning Design Rashomon II (Prieto et al., 2013), devoted to existing tools to support the same process, it aims to provide a view on relevant research 20 results in this field. The common thread followed in these two contributions is inspired by Kurosawa’s Rashomon film, which takes multiple perspectives on the same action. Similarly, in this paper, Rashomon I, a lesson on ‘‘Healthy Eating’’ is analysed according to five different approaches, while the Rashomon II paper is used to exemplify the affordances of different tools. For this reason, this paper does not follow the conventional structure of research papers (research question, method, results and discussion), but rather it moves from an introduction providing the rationale for the paper, to a description of the five different approaches to learning design (the 4SPPIces Model, the 4Ts, the e-Design Template, the Design Principles Database and the Design Narrative) and then to a discussion of their 30 similarities and differences to inform the choice of potential users.

Many research projects involve teams of researchers working together to create shared outputs that advance the state-of-the-art knowledge in a particular field. Often, such teams are distributed geographically, with members drawn from different institutions and different domains of expertise. In an increasingly networked world, researchers are presented with a variety of ways to connect with each other, and it is often assumed that because it is easy to link-up together, that effective collaboration will follow. This is not always the case. Just because we have access to collaborative technologies does not mean that we will necessarily use them, or that if we do use them, that we will be able to do so effectively. This is a particularly important issue for pan-European projects who assemble partners not only from different institutions, but also from different, and sometimes conflicting methodological traditions. Bringing together research partners from diverse research domains presents both opportunities and challenges. Partners need to learn from each other so that they can collectively produce a finished product that uses their combined knowledge to push the research boundaries. However it can be difficult to work together across disciplines, to develop a shared vocabulary and understanding, and to overcome the barriers of distance and language in order to collaborate effectively. This paper describes how the challenges of interdisciplinarity and distance are being addressed on an EU funded project, xDelia. xDelia stands for Xcellence in Decision-making through Enhanced Learning in Immersive Applications. It aims to use wearable sensors and serious games to identify and address the effects of emotional regulation in financial decision making in three fields; professional trading, private investment and personal finance. Over a period of three years, partners from seven institutions will work together, sharing their expertise in financial decision making, games de

This paper describes the development of a Design and Evaluation framework that aims to help stakeholders of a inter-disciplinary research project develop a shared understanding of project goals and methods by pooling their knowledge of research approaches and methodologies. The xDelia project (Xcellence in Decision-making through Enhanced Learning in Immersive Applications) www.xdelia.org, is a three-year pan-European project that uses wearable sensors and serious games to investigate how people's behavioural habits and emotional states affect their financial decision making. The project combines research skills and expertise of European partners from different methodological traditions (experimental, economic, field research) who will work together to achieve the project goals. The Design and Evaluation framework will provide a working collaborative model to capitalise on the different approaches, using ongoing participatory evaluation to ensure the development of an integrated set of research questions, optimum use of research instruments and effective collaboration between the different disciplines.

Tools to support teachers and learning technologists in the creation of effective learning designs are currently in their infancy. This paper describes a metadata model, devised to assist in the conception and design of new learning activities, that has been developed, used and evaluated over a period of three years. The online tool that embodies this model was not originally intended to produce runtime executable code such as IMS-LD, but rather focussed on assisting teachers in the thought processes involved in selecting appropriate methods, tools, student activities and assessments to suit the required learning objectives. Subsequently, we have modified the RELOAD editor such that the output from our tool can be translated into IMS-LD. The contribution of this paper is the comparison of our data model with that of IMS-LD, and the analysis of how each can inform the other.

Developers and teachers go through a complex decision making process when designing new learning activities – working towards an effective pedagogical mix, combining resources, tools, student and tutor support. This paper describes CompendiumLD, a prototype tool we have built to support practitioners through the process of designing learning activities. We describe how the tool fits into our vision of a dynamic, interactive set of resources and system tools to support effective, efficient and creative learning design. It describes CompendiumLD's features and explains the rationale behind their development. It shows how the tool is intended to aid designers make choices, and plan developments, facilitating creativity and efficiency in the design process. In our conclusions we consider how such a system can support the design of effective learning activities.

We reflect upon the LADIE project’s experience of migrating a concept of user requirements from the teaching practitioner community to the technical developer community in the light of literature on ‘mediating representations’ and ‘mediating artefacts’. We show that the practical operation of mediating representations is far more complex than previously acknowledged. We suggest that communities need to overlap, allowing reciprocal communication, to migrate concepts via a representation. If they do not, a chain of intermediate representations and communities may be necessary. Finally, we draw a tentative distinction between mediating representations and mediating artefacts, based not in the nature of the resources, but in their mode and context of use.

The JISC-funded LADIE project has produced a set of use cases of learning activities derived through a series of workshops with practitioners (www.ladie.ac.uk). From these an e-learning framework identifying the services needed to support learning activities has been produced. The Learning Activity Reference Model (LARM) is part of the e framework programme, to encourage people to design learning activities using appropriate technologies. A reference model such as the LARM provides a process for designing and implementing effective learning activities, from initial design, through requirements specification, to analysis of the technologies, specifications and standards necessary to meet those requirements. It identifies common requirements of reusable learning activities based in effective practice; and describes how these requirements can be met using existing and developing technologies, specifications and standards using a web services approach. LADIE aimed to provide a bridge between the plethora of learning activities which practitioners might wish to develop and identification and implementations of appropriate web services to support these. This presentation will focus on the assessment dimensions articulated in the use cases and how these are mapped in the LARM. It will critique the pedagogical aspects of e-assessment as highlighted in these use case, by attempting to draw out the relationship between particular pedagogical approaches, tasks undertaken by the students and associated assessment activities.

xDelia is a 3-year pan-European project building on the knowledge, skills, and competences of seven partner organisations from a variety of research disciplines and from business. The principal objective of xDelia is to develop technology-enhanced learning approaches that help improve the financial decision making of investors who trade frequently using an electronic trading platform. We focus on emotions, and how they affect maladaptive decision biases and trading performance. Our earlier field work with traders has shown that the development of emotion regulation skills is a key facet of trader expertise. For that reason we consider expert traders our benchmark for adaptive behaviour rather than normative rationality. Our goal is to provide investors with the tools and techniques to develop greater self-awareness of internal states, increase their ability to reflect critically on emotion-informed choices, develop emotion management skills, and support the transfer of these skills to the real-world practice setting of financial trading. This report provides a comprehensive overview of what xDelia is about and what we have achieved over the life of the project. In the sections that follow, we explain the decision problems investors are faced with in a fast paced environment and the limitations of traditional approaches to reduce cognitive errors; introduce an alternative, technology-enhanced learning approach of diagnosis and feedback, skill development, and transfer; describe the learning intervention comprising twelve autonomous learning elements that we have developed; and present evidence from thirty-five studies we have conducted on learning effects and stakeholder acceptance.

The JISC-funded LADIE project has produced a set of use cases of learning activities derived through a series of workshops with practitioners (www.ladie.ac.uk). From these an e-learning framework identifying the services needed to support learning activities has been produced. The Learning Activity Reference Model (LARM) is part of the e framework programme, to encourage people to design learning activities using appropriate technologies. A reference model such as the LARM provides a process for designing and implementing effective learning activities, from initial design, through requirements specification, to analysis of the technologies, specifications and standards necessary to meet those requirements. It identifies common requirements of reusable learning activities based in effective practice; and describes how these requirements can be met using existing and developing technologies, specifications and standards using a web services approach. LADIE aimed to provide a bridge between the plethora of learning activities which practitioners might wish to develop and identification and implementations of appropriate web services to support these. This presentation will focus on the assessment dimensions articulated in the use cases and how these are mapped in the LARM. It will critique the pedagogical aspects of e-assessment as highlighted in these use case, by attempting to draw out the relationship between particular pedagogical approaches, tasks undertaken by the students and associated assessment activities.

We reflect upon the LADIE project’s experience of migrating a concept of user requirements from the teaching practitioner community to the technical developer community in the light of literature on ‘mediating representations’ and ‘mediating artefacts’. We show that the practical operation of mediating representations is far more complex than previously acknowledged. We suggest that communities need to overlap, allowing reciprocal communication, to migrate concepts via a representation. If they do not, a chain of intermediate representations and communities may be necessary. Finally, we draw a tentative distinction between mediating representations and mediating artefacts, based not in the nature of the resources, but in their mode and context of use.

Self-Directed Learning (SDL) is gaining interest, as online learning is increasingly learner-centered. FutureLearn courses provide an array of online interactions and content deliveries, which have allowed the authors to investigate a diversity of SDL elements. This preliminary research examines the SDL taking place in three FutureLearn courses, and categorises those learner actions into meaningful elements and dimensions for the learners. The SDL framework by Bouchard [1] is used to interpret the self-reported findings coming from active learners. The research uses a grounded theory approach to look for learner experiences related to four dimensions (algorithmic, conative, semiotic, and economic) of the Bouchard [1] framework, and to discover new dimensions. Various research instruments are used: online surveys, learning logs, and one-on-one interviews, all collected pre-, during, or post-course. The initial adaptation of Bouchard’s framework offers insights into SDL, its meaning, and value as perceived by the learners.

This paper presents and compares a variety of approaches that have been developed to guide the decision-making process in learning design. Together with the companion Learning Design Rashomon II (Prieto et al., 2013), devoted to existing tools to support the same process, it aims to provide a view on relevant research 20 results in this field. The common thread followed in these two contributions is inspired by Kurosawa’s Rashomon film, which takes multiple perspectives on the same action. Similarly, in this paper, Rashomon I, a lesson on ‘‘Healthy Eating’’ is analysed according to five different approaches, while the Rashomon II paper is used to exemplify the affordances of different tools. For this reason, this paper does not follow the conventional structure of research papers (research question, method, results and discussion), but rather it moves from an introduction providing the rationale for the paper, to a description of the five different approaches to learning design (the 4SPPIces Model, the 4Ts, the e-Design Template, the Design Principles Database and the Design Narrative) and then to a discussion of their 30 similarities and differences to inform the choice of potential users.

xDelia is a 3-year pan-European project building on the knowledge, skills, and competences of seven partner organisations from a variety of research disciplines and from business. The principal objective of xDelia is to develop technology-enhanced learning approaches that help improve the financial decision making of investors who trade frequently using an electronic trading platform. We focus on emotions, and how they affect maladaptive decision biases and trading performance. Our earlier field work with traders has shown that the development of emotion regulation skills is a key facet of trader expertise. For that reason we consider expert traders our benchmark for adaptive behaviour rather than normative rationality. Our goal is to provide investors with the tools and techniques to develop greater self-awareness of internal states, increase their ability to reflect critically on emotion-informed choices, develop emotion management skills, and support the transfer of these skills to the real-world practice setting of financial trading. This report provides a comprehensive overview of what xDelia is about and what we have achieved over the life of the project. In the sections that follow, we explain the decision problems investors are faced with in a fast paced environment and the limitations of traditional approaches to reduce cognitive errors; introduce an alternative, technology-enhanced learning approach of diagnosis and feedback, skill development, and transfer; describe the learning intervention comprising twelve autonomous learning elements that we have developed; and present evidence from thirty-five studies we have conducted on learning effects and stakeholder acceptance.

Many research projects involve teams of researchers working together to create shared outputs that advance the state-of-the-art knowledge in a particular field. Often, such teams are distributed geographically, with members drawn from different institutions and different domains of expertise. In an increasingly networked world, researchers are presented with a variety of ways to connect with each other, and it is often assumed that because it is easy to link-up together, that effective collaboration will follow. This is not always the case. Just because we have access to collaborative technologies does not mean that we will necessarily use them, or that if we do use them, that we will be able to do so effectively. This is a particularly important issue for pan-European projects who assemble partners not only from different institutions, but also from different, and sometimes conflicting methodological traditions. Bringing together research partners from diverse research domains presents both opportunities and challenges. Partners need to learn from each other so that they can collectively produce a finished product that uses their combined knowledge to push the research boundaries. However it can be difficult to work together across disciplines, to develop a shared vocabulary and understanding, and to overcome the barriers of distance and language in order to collaborate effectively. This paper describes how the challenges of interdisciplinarity and distance are being addressed on an EU funded project, xDelia. xDelia stands for Xcellence in Decision-making through Enhanced Learning in Immersive Applications. It aims to use wearable sensors and serious games to identify and address the effects of emotional regulation in financial decision making in three fields; professional trading, private investment and personal finance. Over a period of three years, partners from seven institutions will work together, sharing their expertise in financial decision making, games de

This paper describes the development of a Design and Evaluation framework that aims to help stakeholders of a inter-disciplinary research project develop a shared understanding of project goals and methods by pooling their knowledge of research approaches and methodologies. The xDelia project (Xcellence in Decision-making through Enhanced Learning in Immersive Applications) www.xdelia.org, is a three-year pan-European project that uses wearable sensors and serious games to investigate how people's behavioural habits and emotional states affect their financial decision making. The project combines research skills and expertise of European partners from different methodological traditions (experimental, economic, field research) who will work together to achieve the project goals. The Design and Evaluation framework will provide a working collaborative model to capitalise on the different approaches, using ongoing participatory evaluation to ensure the development of an integrated set of research questions, optimum use of research instruments and effective collaboration between the different disciplines.

Developers and teachers go through a complex decision making process when designing new learning activities – working towards an effective pedagogical mix, combining resources, tools, student and tutor support. This paper describes CompendiumLD, a prototype tool we have built to support practitioners through the process of designing learning activities. We describe how the tool fits into our vision of a dynamic, interactive set of resources and system tools to support effective, efficient and creative learning design. It describes CompendiumLD's features and explains the rationale behind their development. It shows how the tool is intended to aid designers make choices, and plan developments, facilitating creativity and efficiency in the design process. In our conclusions we consider how such a system can support the design of effective learning activities.

Tools to support teachers and learning technologists in the creation of effective learning designs are currently in their infancy. This paper describes a metadata model, devised to assist in the conception and design of new learning activities, that has been developed, used and evaluated over a period of three years. The online tool that embodies this model was not originally intended to produce runtime executable code such as IMS-LD, but rather focussed on assisting teachers in the thought processes involved in selecting appropriate methods, tools, student activities and assessments to suit the required learning objectives. Subsequently, we have modified the RELOAD editor such that the output from our tool can be translated into IMS-LD. The contribution of this paper is the comparison of our data model with that of IMS-LD, and the analysis of how each can inform the other.

This series of reports explores new forms of teaching, learning and assessment for an interactive world, to guide teachers and policy makers in productive innovation. This eighth report, produced by The Open University in collaboration with the National Institute for Digital Learning (NIDL) in Ireland, describes ten innovations that have the potential to influence education in the coming years.