This paper presents an exploratory study on the potential for offering students elements to construct their own personal learning environments, by integrating an institutional virtual learning... Show More

This paper presents an exploratory study on the potential for offering students elements to construct their own personal learning environments, by integrating an institutional virtual learning environment and an e-portfolio system. The study was conducted in the University of the Balearic Islands (Spain) and 73 students enrolled on a graduate course on Pedagogy took part in the study. The course was project-based, and the study was carried out in phases. The collection of data was undertaken through observation and monitoring the evolution of the e-portfolio activity, a student questionnaire and the observation of student output. This data showed that this kind of environment is used almost exclusively for academic purposes. The conclusions include that the e-portfolio is a good tool for the organization of academic information; it is useful for collaborating and working in groups.

This paper presents a Personalized Learning Environment and Students Engagement (PLEaSE), a project that examines ways of embedding technology and empowering learners to become co-designers of their... Show More

This paper presents a Personalized Learning Environment and Students Engagement (PLEaSE), a project that examines ways of embedding technology and empowering learners to become co-designers of their learning. One of the ways is to engage the lecturers in the design of the learning environment. This paper wlecturers to engage students online through training. Five training sessions were conducted in three different higher education institutions in Malaysia. Data was collected from the online observations, online questionnaire and forums. The feedback and comments from the participants have shown that the training is useful and the engagement model is suitable for their own online courses.

Knowing whether Personal Learning Environments (PLEs) could transfer Web 2.0 affordances, which have been focused on the non-educational or recreational sphere, to the institutional sphere is... Show More

Knowing whether Personal Learning Environments (PLEs) could transfer Web 2.0 affordances, which have been focused on the non-educational or recreational sphere, to the institutional sphere is important to move the research agenda beyond “cool uses” and to understand how the learning process is affected when students use this new type of environment in formal settings. This study analyzes the use of institutionally-powered PLEs (iPLEs) as a means to enable the participatory and community-centered model of Web 2.0 in higher education. Students from two undergraduate, inter-university, online courses were divided into two groups: a control group using a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) based on Moodle, and an experimental group using an iPLE based on iGoogle, FriendFeed and Google Groups. The assumption that the iPLE is a suitable tool to create a cohesive and participative learning network that excels that generated by means of the VLE was explored. The results obtained through social network analysis performed to each environment’s forum data confirm this hypothesis.

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... Show More

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.

This paper discusses, in the context of personal learning environments, the need for Personal Knowledge Integrators – PKI’s or Knowers. It first illustrates and establishes the need for Knowers with... Show More

This paper discusses, in the context of personal learning environments, the need for Personal Knowledge Integrators – PKI’s or Knowers. It first illustrates and establishes the need for Knowers with usage scenarios and people’s requirements. It then describes the elements required to make a Knower which can exchange information with other Knowers, regardless of different platforms or technologies. Knowers will provide a person with a knowledge hub synchronising with learning management systems, personal learning environments, file systems and other sources and sinks of information. A design science approach is described with iterative cycles of design and prototyping.