Co-design for Conceptual Spaces:An Agile Design Methodology for m-

Learning

Yvonne Howard,Dave MillardLearning Societies Lab

The mPLAT Project: Mobile Learning Support Tools

• University of Southampton– Learning Society Lab, School of Electronics and Computer Science

– School of Nursing and Midwifery

• Thames Valley University– Faculty of Health & Human Sciences,

– Faculty of Management and Information Sciences

• Bournemouth and Poole College (FE)

‘a well connected team….’

Background• What is Mobile Learning?

– The delivery of training by means of mobile devices such as Mobile Phones, PDAs and digital audio players, as well as digital cameras and voice recorders, pen scanners and so on (Douglas McConatha and Matt Prau, Aug. 2007)

• Why Mobile Learning?– Location-based and contextual learning is more connected to surroundings and offers more collaborative activities.

Background: Conceptual spaces in m-learning

• Enabling users to navigate, understand and engage with a conceptual space– Social space

• A model of people, their affiliations, relationships and communications

– Knowledge or domain map • A network of concepts in a domain and their relationships

– Competency framework • A description of skills, abilities and the relationships

between them

The challenges of designing for conceptual spaces

• Developers require domain specific expert knowledge– May not understand the potential or limitations of the domain

• Domain experts are unlikely to have experience of mobile tools and applications– May not appreciate the potential or limitations of the

technology

• Both may miss the potential for innovation

• Co-design methodology brings domain experts and technologists together as partners in innovation

mPLAT case study• Nurses need to become holistic practitioners within a competency

framework of inter-related skills and abilities

• Clinical placements are 50% of 3-year course

• Paper Portfolio based summative assessment

• Heavy workload of the supervising mentor

• Assessment processes can be fragile– Mentors are reluctant to fail failing students

• Students are away from their usual learning environment

• Difficult to access learning resources whilst on placement

Co-design methodology for the mplat toolkit

A team of technologists and domain experts (nurses, mentors, students) work together to design the toolkit through a number of focused co-design meetings.

The mPLAT co-design outcomes

• Support connection between placement opportunities and learning outcomes

• Support reflective practice through: – Self assessment– Revealing the inter-connectedness of the proficiency and skills network

• Support the student and mentor learning relationship

• Provide adaptive information, advice, guidance on actions to be taken

… the conceptual space

• But also to support learning networks– Access to on line resources– Communication with peer learners– Communication with Academic tutors

• Personal organisation tools– Diary, notebook, journal

Challenges

• Contextual– What is permissible in the environment?– Privacy Issues?– Data Protection– Intrusiveness

• Technological– Independent access to the Internet– Lightweight tools that can be combined– Usability

The MPLAT Toolkit – What we built

Implemented on a Tytn II Smartphone- 3G Wireless for independent access: to the internet, School of Nursing intranet, email, SMS.- The toolkit could be used either connected or disconnected from the internet

Windows mobile Office applications: calendar, MSWord etc - Usable, flip out, qwerty keyboard- Other built in features, useful in future development of the toolkit, aiding

documenting of evidence, such as sound recording, and camera / video functionality. - Met NHS requirements for infection control in clinical areas

Design and Implementation – Placement profile Tool

• Placement profile creation by mentor– What experiences are available in this placement for each Proficiency

and skill?

– Rated by quality of availability

Design and Implementation – Self assessment

• Reflective self assessment by the student– Rate your ability in each Proficiency and Skill in the competency

framework

– Comment on your assessment

– Formatively reveal your priorities to work on

Implementation – Self assessment

• Self assessment by student – Visualisation of competency proficiency and skills network

– Explore connections between proficiencies and skills• What other proficiencies can I work towards by tackling these skills?

Design and Implementation – Action plan view

• Mentor and Student work together to produce an Action Plan– Self-assessment and Placement Profile brought together

– What learning outcomes are possible in this placement and which are the priority for the student’s competency achievement

Design and Implementation – Action plan view

• Viewable, printable, browsable action plan to support daily placement practice

Evaluation: Trials in a clinical setting

• First Trial: Southampton– 4 weeks to get accustomed to the ‘native tools’ available with the Smart

Phone

– 4 weeks using the mPLAT placement tool

– Support site, (FAQ’s, support team)

– Browser based alternative for mentors

• What we learned– Informed, careful, traditional deployment is not enough

– It’s different for nurses!

• Second Trial at TVU– Co-deployment brought in to the methodology

• Deployment needs to involve the mentor, placement and student

• Third Trial at Bournemouth and Poole College

Conclusion

• Co-design methodology – Combines techniques from: HCI, agile development, lightweight

software engineering– Mutual learning and fusion of horizons towards a goal

• mPLAT : M-learning tools for complex conceptual spaces – Encourages reflective, holistic practice by engagement with the

competency conceptual space– Connects physical activities in the real world with a conceptual

space– In the context of the relationship between students and mentors

Thank you

Questions, comments, discussion…