Theme: "Shaping Content"

On February 28, 2003, participants gathered at the University of Toronto for the first of four TILE Community Potluck events coordinated by the Adaptive Technology Resource Centre (ATRC). Community potlucks are slated to occur once every quarter and are intended to provide partners and those interested in e-learning from the larger community the opportunity to collaborate and exchange information related to learning object repositories, transformable content and their impact on e-learning.

Representatives from the ATRC, Canadian Learning Television, Trent University, Ryerson University and University of Guelph's Universal Instructional Design Project were among those participating in the potluck. Jutta Treviranus, director of the ATRC, presented participants with an introduction to the activities for the day, and oriented participants to the theme of the potluck "Shaping Content" through a thought provoking presentation. She challenged participants to explore the idea of reusable, transformable e-learning content. She asked participants to consider questions such as "How small could a learning object be and still be useful?" and "What is important to know about re-shaping existing content to meet new needs?" She further elaborated the idea of reusability in learning objects through a vivid example utilizing toy Lego blocks, illustrating that each block could be used together with other blocks in innumerable custom combinations to build unique end products. The TILE project's learning repository will incorporate the authoring tools, repository architecture, and preference schema needed to support assembling learning objects to create content across multiple contexts, according to the learners' needs and preferences.

Partners then made progress reports, as did the technical and administrative staff from the ATRC. Project partners present reported on efforts made to identify suitable candidates for transformable content to be used as learning objects in the TILE repository. Anastasia Cheetham, the project's technical lead, also provided participants with an overview of technical achievements and challenges so far in the project. ATRC technical staff have been making great progress in their development of the authoring tools, repository architecture, and preference schema deliverables for the project.

As the theme of this first community potluck was "Shaping Content" participants in attendance took part in a learning exercise aimed at introducing those present to the idea of shaping content using learning objects. Participants were asked ahead of time to supply an ingredient to a potluck "dish" in the form of a learning object related to the topic of time management. Learning objects provided by participants ranged from simple text-based articles on the topic of time management to web-based study time calculators to a video taped episode of Help TV focussed on assisting people to better manage their time. Participants were then split up into groups, with each group supplied with a basket of the ingredients and instructions to develop an online learning module using the objects provided. By way of providing some instruction and focus, groups were given a short learning template that provided instructional design hints suggesting they define their audience first, and develop some overall learning objectives. However, the specifics of the content's design and use were up to the groups to determine on their own.

After receiving instructions for the exercise, participants split off into their small groups and began development. Present in each of the groups were participant observers who were also using the exercise as a way to extract information about how people approach this type of problem in order to inform the design of the project's deliverables. The groups worked collaboratively to identify their particular audiences' characteristics, learning objectives and learning outcomes. They then developed a skeleton format for their time management module using the learning objects provided. After lunch, a representative from each of the four groups presented their time management module designs to the larger group.

The results of this potluck exercise were surprising in both their diversity and level of sophistication. All of the groups employed at least five of the common learning objects, but to varying ends and applications. Each group individually developed different intended audiences, different learning objectives and different methods of integrating the learning objects provided. For example, one group developed an online time management workshop entitled "Time Management for Undergraduates", while another's was entitled "An Introduction to Time Management "A course for busy professionals!" To view the results of this exercise, please see the list below:

• Self-Directed Online Time Management Workshop
• Introduction to Time Management "A course for busy professionals!"
• Time Management for the Undergraduate (Time Flies when you're having fun)

This collaborative content development exercise provided those present with a hands-on example of how the same learning objects can easily be re-purposed to suit different learner needs and contexts. On a much larger scale, the TILE Learning Objects Repository will provide educators/content developers with the opportunity to re-use and adapt a range of learning objects to best meet the needs of their particular learners.

For the remainder of the afternoon, discussion centred on issues raised by the potluck exercise. One key question posed by many of the participants related to the degree of granularity one could potentially break learning objects into. One group suggested that the base unit of the learning object repository be termed "a tile", with the possibility that within one large learning object there could be multiple smaller "tiles'. Each tile could then be connected to and built upon in combination with any of the other tiles available in the learning object repository. Interoperability and reusability of learning objects would enable educator/designers to access a much larger pool of stored educational information and resources. This sharing and interoperability of learning objects by online educators is one of the key intentions of the TILE project.

As learning objects would be submitted by "authors" and then potentially customized or reused, the afternoon discussion also explored the development of a tracking system for learning objects. Such a system may potentially record who was the original author of a particular learning object, when it was been submitted and what changes, if any, were made by subsequent users of the material. The ATRC's technical team is currently exploring the feasibility of developing such a system.

The TILE Community Potluck raised several significant points for further exploration and development while simultaneously providing project participants with a first-hand view of the benefits of reusable transformable e-learning content. Canadian Learning Television was on hand filming this TILE community potluck event for use in a television spot about the project to be aired at a later date. We will provide airing details for this material when they are made available.

Plans are in the works for our next community potluck event. Watch the TILE web site for more information.