Invited talk 24th April, 2013. Division of Learning Technologies, George Mason University, USA. http://it.gse.gmu.edu/johncook

1. 1
http://Learning-Layers-eu – Scaling up Technologies for Informal Learning in SME Clusters – layers@learning-
layers.eu
http://learning-layers.eu/ – Scaling up Technologies for Informal Learning in SME Clusters
A Design Research Approach to Investigating Networked
Scaffolding in the Learning Layers Project – Using Social
Media and Mobile Devices to Scale Informal Work-Based
Learning
Invited talk 24th April, 2013. Division of Learning Technologies, George Mason University, USA.
http://it.gse.gmu.edu/johncook
Professor John Cook,
Director of Bristol Centre for Research in Lifelong
Learning and Education,
University of the West of England
1

2. Or …
Reshaping workplace design to
facilitate better learning
2
http://mashable.com/2011/08/08/mobile-workers-infographic/

3. Structure
• The opportunity
• Informal learning at
work place
• Design research
• Layers project
• Examples from Layers
• Methodological
reflections
• Q&A
3

4. 4
The opportunity
• Develop and use new technologies,
collaborative work practices and methods:
– Increase effectiveness in Lifelong learning
of current workforce
– Increase use of workplace as learning site for
innovation and on demand individual, group
and network learning
– Help to reshape workplace design to
facilitate better learning

5. 5
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324034804578350852590865198.html
―The mobile revolution—which
has changed life in so many
ways, from getting driving
directions to sharing photos—is
seeping into corporate
technology.‖ March 11, 2013

6. Informal Learning at Work place
• In Cook & Pachler (2012) paper
– Focus on literature that is empirically founded
• Given the significance and internal coherence of Eraut‘s
work
– We use it as a basis for our conceptual thinking
• Eraut‘s work (2000, 2004, 2007, 2008) also has been
derived mainly from
– Study of professionals and
– Graduate employees
– Rather than workers more widely
6
Cook, J. and Pachler, N. (2012). Online People Tagging: Social (Mobile) Network(ing) Services and Work-based
Learning. British Journal of Education Technology, 43(5), 711–725. Link to paper http://tinyurl.com/8ktmuau

7. • Learning in workplace viewed as response
to complex problem or task
• Embedded in meaningful and authentic
cultural contexts
7

8. A typology of Early Career Learning
(Source: Eraut, 2008, p. 18)
8

9. Informal learning at work place
(Cook and Pachler, 2012)
a. individual self-efficacy (confidence and commitment) (Eraut, 2004, p. 269)
i. feedback
ii. support
iii. challenge
iv. value of the work
b. acts of self-regulation (Dabbagh and Kitsantas, 2011)
i. competence (perceived self-efficacy)
ii. relatedness (sense of being a part of the activity)
iii. acceptance (social approval)
c. cognitive load (Huang et al., 2011)
i. intrinsic (inherent nature of the materials and learners‘ prior knowledge)
ii. extraneous (improper instructional design)
iii. germane (appropriate instructional design motivates)
d. personal learning networks (group or distributed self-regulation) (Rajagopal, et al., 2012)
i. building connections (adding new people to the network so that there are resources available when a learning need arises);
ii. maintaining connections (keeping in touch with relevant persons); and
iii. activating connections (with selected persons for the purpose of learning)
iv. aggregated trustworthiness (perceived credibility) = social validation + authority and trustee + profiles (Jessen and
Jørgensen, 2012)
9

10. Informal learning at work place
(Cook and Pachler, 2012)
a. individual self-efficacy (confidence and commitment) (Eraut, 2004, p. 269)
i. feedback
ii. support
iii. challenge
iv. value of the work
b. acts of self-regulation (Dabbagh and Kitsantas, 2011)
i. competence (perceived self-efficacy)
ii. relatedness (sense of being a part of the activity)
iii. acceptance (social approval)
c. cognitive load (Huang et al., 2011)
i. intrinsic (inherent nature of the materials and learners‘ prior knowledge)
ii. extraneous (improper instructional design)
iii. germane (appropriate instructional design motivates)
d. personal learning networks (group or distributed self-regulation) (Rajagopal, et al., 2012)
i. building connections (adding new people to the network so that there are resources available when a learning need arises);
ii. maintaining connections (keeping in touch with relevant persons); and
iii. activating connections (with selected persons for the purpose of learning)
iv. aggregated trustworthiness (perceived credibility) = social validation + authority and trustee + profiles (Jessen and
Jørgensen, 2012)
10

11. Design research
• Design Research (e.g. Bannan-Ritland, 2009) is a form of inquiry that
– Positions us to hypothesize and test a solution for the problem in context
– Engages with the design process to uncover ideas about
• Learning
• Performance,
• Behavior and
• Cognition as part of the inquiry process
– Produces both theories and practical educational interventions as its
outcomes
– More recently introduced as a modern approach suitable to
• Address complex problems in educational practice
• For which no clear guidelines or solutions are available
11
Bannan-Ritland, B. (2009). The Integrative Learning Design Framework: An Illustrated Example from the Domain of Instructional
Technology. In T. Plomp & N. Nieveen (Eds.), An Introduction to Educational Design Research

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Layers Project: Consortium
Project Coordination
Technology Research
Regional Application Clusters
Scaling Partners
Technology Partners
Health Care – Leeds
Construction &
Building – Bremen

13. Scaling through Clusters?
• ―… geographically proximate group of
interconnected companies and associated
institutions in a particular field, linked by
commonalities and complementarities (external
economies)‖ (Porter, 2008)
• Important to distinguish
– Managed Clusters from
– Unmanaged clusters or agglomerations/lumps with no
organisation or team working on behalf of the cluster
members to get them to move in the same direction
13
Michael E. Porter (2008). Clusters, Innovation, and Competitiveness: New Findings and Implications for Policy.
Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness Harvard Business School. Presentation Stockholm, Sweden

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Clusters
the Layers scaling strategy
• Research and develop solutions by working
with Excellence clusters and cluster
policy makers
– Piloting in Healthcare and construction.
– Involve new clusters in new countries
• Build sustainability beyond project horizon
by promoting a network of Education
Innovation Clusters to serve other clusters
with services and technologies to speed
uptake of new learning methods and techn.

15. 15
How we organize

16. 16
Timeline for our work

17. 17
Scaling Layers 2012-2016

18. Examples from Layers
• Open design library
– Ethnographic study and resulting user stories
that describe current practices at the
workplace
– Tools to inspire design, e.g. using the network
section of the MoLE app from Tribal, a
technical partner
– Wire frames & story boards
• Co-design: application partner days, Open
Design Conference, Design Teams 18

19. Case of scaling in Professional
Learning Networks
• For TEL to be adopted on a large-scale it
needs to
– Address empirically based ‗systemic pain
points‘
– If addressed have the potential to attract
significant take up by other groups of
professionals who face the same problem
– Cook et al. (submitted)
• Extends the Bannan‘s ILDF phase of
‗Informed Exploration‘ 19

20. Networked Scaffolding –
Interacting with People
• Work package 2 called 'Networked
Scaffolding – Interacting with People'
– From outset taken a Design Research
approach (Cook, 2002) to the development of
scaling through Professional Learning
Networks
– Cook and Pachler (2012) framework being use
as a starting point for designing support to
build locally trusted Personal Learning
Networks
20Cook, J. (2002). The Role of Dialogue in Computer-Based Learning and Observing Learning: An Evolutionary Approach to Theory.
Journal of Interactive Media in Education, 5. Paper online: http://www-jime.open.ac.uk/jime/article/viewArticle/41

21. Networked Scaffolding –
Interacting with People
– As a worker‘s or group‘s connections and confidence
grow, they build what we are calling a Professional
Learning Network.
– First stage of scaling is the
• Building,
• Maintaining and
• Activating Personal Learning Networks
– Second stage is where professionals move from local
trusted personal networks
• Out into wider networks that can potentially include anyone
– This is what we are calling Professional Learning
Networks
21

22. PANDORA Design Team -
Health example
• In the UK, health sector national guidelines are
published by NICE (http://www.nice.org.uk/) in
three areas
– Use of health technologies
– Clinical practice
– Guidance for public sector workers on Health
promotion and ill-health avoidance
• Guidelines are interpreted locally by
General Practitioners (GPs) and used in
local Health Practices.
22

23. PANDORA Design Team
• Communicating these ‗local living
guidelines‘ can be a problem:
– “… with guidelines coming in day by day, week
by week you don’t sit down and work out who
to communicate them with. And then it just
defaults to who you’re chatty with or who is in
your immediate circle.”
– Quotes from focus groups (Feb 2013); part of
Layers Ethnographic Study (WP1)
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24. PANDORA Design Team
• The Network section of the MoLE app
• Tribal are working within the 'Networked
Scaffolding – Interacting with People' work
package)
• Possibility to create a set of relevant
contacts to assist an individual during a
post disaster situation
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26. PANDORA Design Team
• Expert reviews
• Head of GP Practice 1 using wireframes
• Pandora as a system to support
– Sharing
– Discussion and
– Development of guideline implementation plans
– Within and between practices (picture 1)
• He can see that the system could be very useful
– Would support learning across practices
– Would help by focusing discussion on a clear topic
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28. PANDORA Design Team
• Pandora as a way of supporting
– Asking and giving of advice
– Related to particular patient cases (see picture 2)
• Trust and motivation are key to making this work
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30. PANDORA Design Team
• Expert Feedback on design ideas from 2nd Practice
• If change guidelines and everyone coming up individual Practice plan
– May be leverage in sharing across Practices?
– Possible learning between practices?
• Not same process as Practice 1, in Practice 2 one GP undertook all changes
• Thus any system we propose needs to be flexible
• Cascading training from conferences to others in practices has a lot of
interest (e.g. user story 1 ethnographic study)
– How do we support this even if they don't have f-2-f practice education meeting?
– We could use our systems to provide a substitute
• Three nurses said would find helpful to get alerts about changes in guidelines
tailored to them
– Tailored to type of clinic they are about to go into
– Highlight where things have changed (different levels of medication)
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31. PANDORA Design Team
• A key to various visualizations that are being
developed for co-design is to specify the different
levels of trust accorded to the contacts
– Close, trusted, everyone, anyone
– In one design these can be color coded so that the
user can also set time parameters for a response
• The intervention of these design artifact has the
intention of providing a ‗tool for thinking‘ in co-
design
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32. Methodological reflections
• PANDORA is tied to the design process through
– Theory
– Designs for scale
– Empirical evidence
– Co-design
• So that it provide support for
– Creating,
– Maintaining
– Activating
• Personal and Professional Learning Networks
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33. Methodological reflections
33
Cook, J., Bauters, M., Colley, J., Bannan, B., Schmidt, A. and Leinonen, T. (submitted). Towards a Design Research Framework for Scaling the use of
TEL to Support Informal Work-Based Learning, EC-TEL (European Conference on Technology Enhanced Learning), Cyprus, September 2013.

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More info
• http://learning-layers.eu/
• http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=1176688&trk=tab_pro
• http://westengland.academia.edu/JohnCook/About
• http://www.mendeley.com/profiles/john-cook6/
• http://twitter.com/johnnigelcook
• http://www.slideshare.net/johnnigelcook
• http://westengland.academia.edu/JohnCook
• @johnnigelcook

35. Acknowledgement
• Thanks to Tor-Arne Bellika for letting me
reuse a few of his slides
• Learning Layers is a 7th Framework Large-
scale integrating project co-funded by the
European Commission; Grant Agreement
Number 318209; http://learning-layers.eu/
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36. Thank you
• Q&A
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