[AISWorld] Interactive Learning Environments Special Issue on LMS - Evolving from Silos to Structures (Last Call)

[Francisco José García Peñalvo]

Call for Papers

Special Issue of Interactive Learning Environments

 <http://www.informaworld.com/ile> www.informaworld.com/ile 

LMS – Evolving from Silos to Structures

 

The Guest Editors for this Special Issue invite papers addressing the theme
of eLearning platforms evolution for Interactive Learning Environments. 

 

Rationale

The learning process is continuously evolving. This evolution is always
related to context and sometimes is influenced by technological, pedagogical
or sociological trends.  One of the most common tools used in eLearning is
the Learning Management System (LMS); 100% of Universities have at least one
LMS and 79.5% of large companies use these systems in their eLearning
initiatives (Wexler et al., 2008).

 

>From an institutional perspective, LMS have supported eLearning by providing
a nexus for learning activities and a set of tools that support and permit
the management, within a closed environment, of teaching and learning
processes. But today there is a need for emerging innovations to be taken
into account in the design and use of LMS. Web 2.0 tools, social networks,
and cloud services are increasingly used for learning in both formal and
informal contexts, but usually outside the institutional LMS. The increasing
presence of these tools is something that should be taken into account and
incorporated into the concept of the LMS. Otherwise these tools will
increasingly become walled gardens, distanced from the kinds of ICT uses and
behaviours that are prevalent among learners. There is a need to open up the
LMS concept so that instead of constituting a closed set of predefined tools
for management, it becomes an adaptable and flexible framework for
supporting the learning process.

 

Moreover, LMS are usually centred around one specific institution or course,
and though they provide very useful tools for teachers, course designers and
human resource managers in companies they cater more to these needs than to
the needs of the learners. The institutional investment in LMS, particularly
the resources employed to adapt them to the needs of the institution makes
it unlikely that they will be discarded. There is therefore a need to
address ways in which they can be adapted, so that they evolve to meet the
emerging needs of the learners, the key actors in the learning process, and
thus ensure their continued educational relevance (and that of the
institution).

 

Learners increasingly use a wide range of tools and resources to learn, and
do so in a wide range of contexts. Although this has arguably always been
the case, the emergence of a range of ICT tools that support learning
outside formal contexts has made these processes more transparent. This
implies that, if they are to meet the needs of the learner, in an
increasingly competitive context, LMS need to be restructured to make them
capable of adapting to, and at times incorporating, new tools. They should
be capable of supporting learners beyond the institutional context,
throughout life, and guarantee the learner´s mobility between contexts,
while at the same time continuing to meet the institution´s needs. This
implies that first it is necessary to look at how students use
institutionally provided LMS and how this use relates to their use of other
tools, in other words how the institutional LMS fits into or interacts with
their existing wider Personal Learning Environment, and then how the LMS
might enrich or support this PLE across courses and institutions and over
time.

 

The challenge with respect to this relates to a pedagogical shift. The name
Learning Management System suggests, or even assumes, that the institution
“manages” the students learning. However the idea of supporting learning
across contexts implies that the responsibility for learning devolves to the
student. Regarding this, there are two important issues to explore: 1) Are
learners ready for this responsibility? And 2) Can LMS help learners to
organise their existing PLE in ways that will meet their educational needs
(and enrich their learning) in a lifelong learning context? To do this, it
will be necessary to explore student behaviour, the kind of tools they use
in and outside the institution, how they collaborate with other students
during the course or with other students in the same institution and so on.

 

In order to achieve these goals, LMS must be reconceived as repositories for
learning services and resources, that are capable of coexisting with and
within, rather than aiming to replace (as is frequently the case), the
learner's PLE - throughout life and across contexts.

 

The aim of this special issue is to explore this challenge and provide an
overview of existing approaches that enable more flexible and open “Learning
Management Structures”. Contributions will include, among others, work
related to service oriented solutions; communication between LMS and
external tools; interoperability initiatives to guarantee solution
portability; personalization, and also new hybrid contexts for learning. 

 

Topics

•                    LMS evolution tendencies

o        Technological tendencies

o        Pedagogical possibilities

o        LMS future trends

•                    LMS restructuring

o        Service oriented solutions

o        Tools integration

o        Communication channels

o        Other contexts for LMS access

•                    Personalized learning environments

o        Theories and frameworks for PLEs

o        Technologies for PLE development

o        Innovative technologies in PLEs

o        Personal Learning Networks

o        Experiences using PLEs

o        User as owner/director of the learning process

o        New tools for learning

o        Measurement and assessment of learning in PLEs

o        Institutional Learning Environments

o        Mash-up Personal Learning Environments

•                    Lifelong learning integration

o        Informal and formal integration

o        Supporting informal and contextual learning

o        Measurement and assessment of informal learning

o        Initiatives for supporting lifelong learning tools

o        Competence recognition in LMS

 

 

Submission Guidelines 

Instructions for authors can be accessed via the journal homepage
www.informaworld.com/ile. All papers must be submitted through the journal’s
Manuscript Central system: http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/nile.

 

Important dates

Deadline for paper submission:                               19.January.2012
(Extended)

Feedback from reviewers:
15.March.2012

Revised manuscripts:
15.April.2012

Acceptance notification:
30.May.2012

Camera-ready submissions:                                      30.June.2012

 

More information

Prof. Dr. Francisco J. García-Peñalvo 

Computer Science Department

University of Salamanca

Salamanca, Spain

fgarcia at usal.es 

 

 

 

Dr. Francisco José García Peñalvo

Profesor Titular de Universidad

Departamento de Informática y Automática

Facultad de Ciencias - Plaza de los Caídos S/N

Universidad de Salamanca

37008 Salamanca (España)

Tfno. +34 923294400 Ext. 1302

Fax   +34 923294514

fgarcia at usal.es

 

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