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How can we better mediate processes of learning at large institutions? Learning analytics are used primarily in online and blended learning environments to expose patterns in learning behaviour or interaction. They make use of digital traces from virtual learning environments and combine this with other learner data. The goal is to assist both educators and learners in improving their practice. In this work, we apply the concepts of 'psychological tools' and more 'knowledgeable others' from Lev Vygotsky, and Reuven Feuerstein's model of Mediated Learning Experiences to define prerequisites that learning analytics at scale must reach, in order to be a meaningful tool for mediating learning. We present findings from an in-depth qualitative study with educators and learners at a large, online institution of higher education. We then map insights gained from this study to our model of mediated learning. The resulting analysis and recommendations indicate that we need more inclusive and dedicated practices in learning analytics development, as well as institutional will to create more complex and meaningful tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of Open Educational Resources (OER) for training in public administration has yet to see a wide adoption globally, mostly due to challenges related to the discovery and reuse of high-quality OER for training purposes. These challenges, combined with the general lack of openness in the public sector, have greatly impacted the penetration of OER in public administration. This paper presents a case study on the use of OER for expanding and enhancing curricular and resource sharing in public administration in Greece. Within this case study, an OER authoring and sharing platform was introduced to the Greek public sector, employing crowdsourcing methods for supporting trainers and trainees in authoring, sharing, reusing and remixing OER. The paper presents the deployment of this platform and the use of OER in the context of training programmes in the Greek public sector and reports on the lessons learned and the impact on public administration. The results of the case study showed that the use of OER was very positively received by civil servants, with a remarkable response, through active participation and engagement that led to the enhancement of existing OER and the co-creation of new ones for public administration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main challenges commonly associated with acquiring practical network engineering skills are the requirements for access to specialised and up-to-date network equipment, as well as the high costs associated with obtaining and maintaining this equipment. The PT Anywhere initiative addresses these challenges by offering a mobile environment for acquiring practical knowledge and skills of network engineering. PT Anywhere facilitates learner-centred anywhere/anytime learning and offers learners access to high-quality interactive learning resources. Additionally, PT Anywhere employs Learning Analytics in order to help learners and educators in understanding and improving learning. This paper presents the learning design and software design principles driving the development of PT Anywhere, as well as the outcomes of an evaluation session conducted with members of the Cisco Networking Academy. The results of this evaluation indicate that PT Anywhere holds the potential to engage learners in different ways inside and outside of the classroom, without the need for access to specialised equipment.

Open Educational Resources (OERs), now available in large numbers, have a considerable potential to improve many aspects of society, yet one of the factors limiting this positive impact is the difficulty to discover them. This study investigates and proposes strategies to better support educators in discovering OERs, mainly focusing on secondary education. The literature suggests that the effectiveness of existing search systems could be improved by supporting high-level and domain-oriented tasks. Hence a preliminary taxonomy of discovery-related tasks was developed, based on the analysis of the literature, interpreted through Information Foraging Theory. This taxonomy was empirically evaluated with a few experienced educators, to preliminary identify an interesting class of Query By Examples (QBE) expansion by similarity tasks, which avoids the need to decompose natural high-level tasks in a complex sequence of sub-tasks. Following the Design Science Research methodology, three prototypes to support as well as to refine those tasks were iteratively designed, implemented, and evaluated involving an increasing number of educators in usability oriented studies. The resulting high-level and domain-oriented blended search/recommendation strategy, transparently replicates Google searches in specialized networks, and identifies similar resources with a QBE strategy. It makes use of a domain-oriented similarity metric based on shared schema.org/LRMI alignments to educational frameworks, and clusters results in expandable classes of comparable degree of similarity. The summative evaluation shows that educators appreciate this exploratory-oriented strategy because -- balancing similarity and diversity -- it supports their high-level tasks, such as lesson planning and personalization of education.

The Peer-to-Peer Learning Environment (P2PLE) is a proposed approach to helping learners co-construct their learning environment using recommendations about people, content, and tools. The work draws on current research on PLEs, and participant observation at the Peer-to-Peer University (P2PU). We are particularly interested in ways of eliciting explicit, coded, user feedback, and in monitoring the transitions from state to state within the PLE. We discuss the ways in which these ideas can inform the design of a platform for peer-supported study of university-level mathematics. (Contains 3 footnotes and 3 figures.)

Personal Learning Environments (PLEs) help students manage and take control of their own learning. As such, the PLE promotes self-regulation in learning and allows learners to aggregate, manipulate and share digital artefacts within a flexible and versatile online space. This paper presents a case study in Greece, concerning an investigation about the penetration of PLEs in typical education. In particular, this case study aims at investigating the perceptions of educators about PLEs and their challenges in incorporating PLEs in their teaching practices. The findings are commented on the pros and cons of PLEs and the opportunities that they offer to the modern classroom. According to the results of the present research, most respondents are generally aware of the PLE concept and its advantages.

Personal Learning Environments (PLEs) have emerged as a solution to the need of learners for open and easily customisable learning environments. PLEs essentially hand complete control over the learning process to the learner. However, this learning model is not fully compatible with learning in the workplace, which is influenced by certain business factors. These factors are being investigated in this paper, through an exploratory study within a variety of private organisations in the UK. Based on the results of this study, 10 key factors affecting the adoption of PLEs in the workplace have been identified. The authors propose a framework for the adoption and diffusion of PLEs, aiming at informing decision makers within commercial organisations about the successful introduction of novel learning methodologies in their respective organisations.