Presentation of the next iteration of the development of a sensemaking tool for informal learning at the EC-TEL 2014. The tool was developed as part of the EU-IP Learning Layers and a collaboration of the Technical University of Graz and the Tallinn University.

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Learning Layers
Scaling up Technologies for Informal Learning in SME Clusters
Making Sense of Bits and Pieces
Sebastian Dennerlein, Matthias Rella, Vladimir Tomberg, Dieter Theiler, Tamsin
Treasure-Jones, Micky Kerr, Tobias Ley, and Christoph Trattner
A Sensemaking Tool for Informal Workplace Learning

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•„Scaling up Technologies for Informal Learning” (Ley et al., 2014)
•Design-Based Research:
•Balanced an iterative development of :
•Bits & Pieces (B&P): one out of 4 design teams
Framework –
EU-IP Learning Layers
(Tomberg et al., 2013)
I’ll tell you more now ;)

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Design Problem (Domain Understanding)
•Situation: Wealth of informal learning experiences in healthcare (e.g. putting guideline into practice)
•Problem: High time pressure prevents collection and connection of experiences
Evidence: Practice of Boxfile
•Result: Experiences are forgotten or traces lost on cluttered information bits and related chances for individual development are missed!
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Design Idea
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more busy time more flexible working time
Evernote
AchSo!
KnowBrain
B&P

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Theoretical Concept
•Eraut (2004):
–Informal learning experiences stored in the episodic memory
–Need to be remembered and organized later on  turn them into semantic memory
•We study these activities as a Sensemaking Process (Russell et al., 1993; Pirolli et al., 2005)  two meta loops:
–Information foraging &
–Organizing
•This perspective excludes the individual creation of ‘data’!
 Understand Sensemaking in Informal Learning!
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Design Solution
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Study Design
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•Field study in realistic setting
•Sample: 4 HC professionals
–2 diabetes specialist nurses
–1 healthcare assistant
–1 doctor
•Procedure: 2 phases 
–Collection : gathering of informal learning experiences over 2 weeks in Evernote
–Sensemaking : remembering and making sense out of collected experiences in Bits and Pieces

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Evaluation
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•Timeline Widget:
–Reminds about past experiences , provides a view of things to work on at a glance & indicates one’s own learning activity
–Time cues are working:
•‘That’s the card sort photo, I remember that [. . . ]. Just check I’ve remembered all the things I thought about last time.’
–Necessity of re-evaluating bits:
•‘[D]o I still need this? If I do need this, what am I going to do with it?’
•‘What you really need, is to be able to go back to something you’ve collected, go into it, read it and then [. . . ] make your own notes.’

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Evaluation
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•Organizing Widget:
–Interactive nature of sensemaking via the organizing and categorizing of bits into circles was valued
–Example for successful sensemaking effort by grouping experiences on diabetes treatment according to their influence on blood pressure:
•‘[P]eople’s blood sugar levels have gone down through exercise as opposed to diet’.
–Demand to make the transition of pieces of information from the timeline to the organizing view permanent:
•‘[T]hey’re on the timeline [. . . ] so I know now that I have to [. . . ] read them[. T]hen once I’ve read them, put them into whichever category [. . . ,] I would have thought to take that off the timeline means then that’s finished.’

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Conclusion
•Initial support for the effectiveness of B&P for supporting
–retrieval and foraging traces for informal learning experiences via timeline
–relating experiences to each other and making sense out of them via venn diagrams
•First evidence for a re-evaluation step as part of the sensemaking process
Need of possibility to remember and make sense out informal learning experiences traced in cluttered bits and pieces
Need to understand sensemaking in informal learning
Need for ‘Bits and Pieces’! ;)
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Outlook
•Further theoretical refinement of this view on sensemaking of informal learning experiences
•Extend design solution to include additional widgets and cover collaboration
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References
•Eraut, M. (2004). Informal learning in the workplace. Studies in Continuing Education 26(2), 247–273
•Ley, T., Cook, J., Dennerlein, S., Kravcik, M., Kunzmann, C., Pata, K., Purma, J., Sandars, J., Santos, P., Schmidt, A., Al-Smadi, M. & Trattner, C. (2014). Scaling informal learning at the workplace: A model and four designs from a large‐scale design‐based research effort. British Journal of Educational Technology.
•Pirolli, P. & Card, S. (2005). The Sensemaking Process and Leverage Points for Analyst Technology as Identified Through Cognitive Task Analysis. In: Proceedings of International Conference on Intelligence Analysis
•Tomberg, V., Al-Smadi, M., Treaure-Jones, T. & Ley, T. (2013). A Sense Making Interface for Doctors’ Learning at Work: A Co-Design Study Using a Paper Prototype. ECTEL meets ECSCW 2013: Workshop on Collaborative Technologies for Working and Learning.
•Russell, D.M., Stefik, M.J., Pirolli, P. & Card, S.K. (1993). The cost structure of sensemaking. In: Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems, 269–276.
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Thanks for your attention!
sdennerlein@know-center.at
twitter: @SDennerlein
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More information:
Open Dev Library: developer.learning-layers.eu
Open Design Library: odl.learning-layers.eu