Davinia Hernández-Leo, Pablo Abenia, Pau Moreno, Jonathan Chacón and Josep Blat: Let’s shake on it: co-editing and sharing diverse learning design http://www.ld-grid.org/workshops/ASLD11

1. Let’s shake on it: can we support co-edition and sharing
using diverse existing learning design editors within the same platform?
Davinia Hernández-Leo(*), Pablo Abenia, Pau Moreno, Jonathan Chacón, Josep Blat
Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Roc Boronat 138, 08018 Barcelona, Spain
Abstract. LdShake is a Web tool that enables the co-edition and social network-oriented sharing of learning
designs created using a general rich text editor. Use cases for LdShake include joint design and sharing of
learning designs in projects or communities across institutions, co-design by teams of teachers in charge of
teaching the same course with different groups of students or co-creation of designs that require the integration
of knowledge and skills developed by students in previous subjects with different teachers. In this workshop
paper, we propose that instead of extending the general editor provided by LdShake to enhance specific aspects
of its performance support for learning design, it can adopt existing learning design authoring tools which
support diverse pedagogical approaches, are compliant with different computational representations or
exporting formats, are specific to particular subject matters, etc. On the other hand, these existing tools are
usually dispersed in different websites or product providers, and do not typically offer co-edition and social
network sharing features. In the frame of this problem statement this paper poses the interest of supporting co-
edition and sharing using diverse existing learning design editors within the same platform. As a proof of
concept functional implementation the paper presents an extension of LdShake as an integrative platform
providing two additional existing tools (WebCollage and eXeLearning) which, as a result of its integration in
LdShake, are visualized within the same contextual interface and adopt the co-edition and sharing features of
LdShake. The integrated whole has been shown to different stakeholders so that they could point out their
opinion about the interest of such an approach and the quality of the resulting integrated interface and features.
Keywords: Learning design, sharing, co-edition, existing authoring tools, integrative platform
1 Introduction
LdShake, which stands for “Learning design Solutions – Sharing and K(c)o-edition”, is a Web tool or
platform enabling teachers to create and share learning designs. The first version of this tool provided a
general rich text editor and has been used in real situations and controlled user studies. For detailed
information on the design of the tool, use cases motivating its development, references to related literature,
etc., please refer to (Hernández-Leo et al., 2011; Hernández-Leo et al., submitted). One of the real cases of
LdShake are the “Integrated Biomedicine” courses included in the new curriculums of the Faculty of Health
and Life Sciences of Pompeu Fabra University. These courses are organized around the Problem-Based
Learning methodology. Each problem and associated application guide need to be designed by a team of
teachers from the different areas of expertise (Biochemistry, Physics, Physiology…) whose related
knowledge and skills are expected to be integrated and applied by the students in the resolution of the
problem. The teachers involved in these courses use LdShake for co-creating and sharing the problems.
Another case in which LdShake is used involves a community of teachers from 20 high schools distributed
among the region of Catalonia. The community, “Biologia en context” - officially recognized by the
government of Catalonia, is devoted to create and share educational materials that promote the situated
learning of Biology topics. In this second case, the teachers appreciate the co-edition, commenting and
sharing facilities of LdShake but they are not fully satisfied with the editor provided. In particular, some of
them claimed that for some activities they use eXeLearning (eXe, 2011) – an editor to which they are already
familiar and that enables them the creation of specific web learning designs.
There exists multiple learning design tools addressing different requirements or design principles that
depend on the characteristics of didactics or subject matters, the pedagogical methods, the provision of
reusable building blocks or templates, the exporting formats so that they are compliant with the learning
system and devices they have available to use with their students, institutional practices, etc. (Griffiths et al.,
2005; Britain, 2007, Neumann et al., 2010). Teachers may face diverse educational situations in which they
would require different learning design editors (e.g., designing an activity for assessment in situ using
mobile phones, designing rich collaborative activities that promote positive interdependence and individual
(*) Contact: davinia.hernandez@upf.edu 1
Submitted to the ASLD Workshop 2011, http://www.ld-grid.org/workshops/ASLD11

2. accountability in a face-to-face scenario with the support of computers, designing a game for revising
concepts at home, etc.). Besides, the existing tools are dispersed in websites or product providers, and
sometimes they might be even unknown by the practitioners. Moreover, most of these tools do not offer co-
edition and social network sharing features.
In the frame of this problem statement this paper poses the interest of providing teachers and learning
designers with an integrated environment where they can use a collection of existing tools, and within which
they can co-edit and shared the designs created using any of the tools, in the context of the same
environment. To show the feasibility of this position statement, the paper presents an extension of LdShake
acting as an integrative platform for multiple learning design editors, visualized in the same contextual
interface and which can take advantage of the co-edition and sharing features of LdShake. The resulting
integrated whole can blend together features responding to the different types of design principles for
performance support systems pointed out in (McKenney, 2008); considering some of these principles in the
integrated authoring tools and others in the LdShake platform. In particular, as a proof of concept, two
existing learning design tools, which do not natively provide co-editing and sharing support, have been
integrated. This new version of LdShake has been shown to different stakeholders in a workshop where they
pointed out their opinion about the interest of such an approach and the quality of the resulting integrated
interface.
LdShake is briefly described in Section 2. The section focuses mainly on the LdShake features that extend
the existing tools as a result of their integration in the platform. Section 3 discloses the opinions about the
approach coming from stakeholders with different profiles that had the opportunity to use LdShake in the
open workshop.
2 LdShake integrating learning design tools
LdShake enables learning designers or teachers to create and share learning design solutions (LdS) with
other teachers (LdShakers) using different access rights so that they can read, comment or co-edit the designs
(see the sharing bottom in Fig.1f). Thus, each design solution has associated a group of teachers able of
working on its edition (LdShakers with write access) and another group that can only see the design
(LdShakers with viewing rights). The LdS are organized in listings that are accessible through links in a top
bar (Fig.1b). My LdS displays the LdS of which the user is the starter and to the ones (s)he has writing
access. Browse LdS lists all the LdS the user can read and comment. In those listings the tags associated to
the LdS are shown, so that users can filter the LdS by selecting one of these tags. Editors can add tags to the
LdS using a dialog box (Fig.1e) that is bellow the title of the design (Fig.1d). Tags can be of different types,
related to the subject matter or the pedagogical approach, and to an indication of the granularity and
completeness of the design according to the framework proposed in (Hernández-Leo et al., 2007). The
profile of the LdShakers (listing of LdShakers accessible via the link shown in Fig.1c) also displays the LdS
that the LdShaker started and to which the user has access. As mentioned before, the designs can be
commented and the comments are available for all the users that can view the design. The co-editions
performed to an LdS are registered and can be visualized using a graphical representation that facilitates the
tracking of changes by users and time. Moreover, the designs can be published so that a URL associated to
that LdS is accessible outside the platform. The LdS can be also downloaded; the format depends on the
editor in which the designs have been created.
The first releases of LdShake included a Rich Text editor with similar capacities of a mid-range word
processor. Now it has been extended so that communities of users have a choice of three editors (more
editors could be integrated in the future) for the co-edition and sharing of diverse types of designs. The
integrated editors are WebCollage and eXeLearning. WebCollage is an extension of Collage, a pattern-based
collaborative learning design editor compliant with IMS Learning Design (Hernández-Leo et al., 2006),
which is now Web and incorporates assessment patterns (Villasclaras et al., 2009). eXeLearning is a popular
editor for the edition of web learning activities (eXe, 2011). The Rich Text editor, WebCollage and
eXeLearning can be used in the context of LdShake following the same approach concerning sharing and co-
edition since the above mentioned features are supported by these editors when used within the LdShake
platform.
Submitted to the ASLD Workshop 2011, http://www.ld-grid.org/workshops/ASLD11 2

3. (a) (b) (c)
(f)
(d)
(e)
Fig. 1. Screenshot of LdShake when editing an LdS using eXeLearning (out of the three editors available: Rich Text,
eXeLearning and WebCollage). Some of the features of LdShake are marked with letters (a-f).
3 Opinion from different stakeholders
The LdShake tool integrating WebCollage and eXeLearning was recently shown in a two-hour open
workshop in Barcelona. A total of 25 participants were present in the workshop. The profile of 5 of them
was not available, but the data completed in the registration forms of the remainder of the participants (20)
show that the workshop involved different stakeholders coming mainly from Education and the Industry,
with some (but limited) participation of the Administration. The profiles of the participants belonging to the
same stakeholder type were also varied. 10 participants were educators of diverse subject matters,
educational levels (3 school teachers, 2 university professors, 5 postgraduate and continuous training
educators) and institutions (none of them came from the same school, university or continuous education
provider, there were private and public institutions). 9 of the participants came from the Industry (8 different
organizations of different sizes, from a large consultancy company to small enterprises) and 1 participant
belonged to the Administration (city council).
After a short introduction to LdShake, the participants used the sharing and co-editing features of the
platform, completing a set of tasks that required them to create, share, comment and modify learning designs
in the Rich Text editor. After the familiarization with the general framework of LdShake and the use of the
conventional editor, a brief demonstration of how to use WebCollage and eXeLearning in the context of
LdShake was performed. None of the participants had seen WebCollage before, but some of them had
already used eXeLearning. Participants were informed that each authoring tool would require a devoted
familiarization workshop but that the sharing and co-editing features of LdShake were analogous to that used
with the Rich Text editor. Then, participants were proposed to either continue using the conventional editor
or to complete similar tasks (as the set proposed at the beginning using the Rich Text editor) using
WebCollage or/and eXeLearning. After this activity they were requested to fill in a questionnaire expressing
their opinion about LdShake and the integration of the diverse learning design editors.
Submitted to the ASLD Workshop 2011, http://www.ld-grid.org/workshops/ASLD11 3

4. The participants saw as positive and encouraging the opportunity provided by LdShake for the
collaboration of teachers in the joint creation and sharing of learning designs. The majority valued as
“useful” or “very useful” the sharing and co-editing options of LdShake, being the creation of groups, the
commenting facility, the use of tags to organize the designs, the sharing polices and the visualization of the
change history the most valued features. 18 participants rated as “very useful” that LdShake incorporates
different types of learning design editors, 6 of them rated this aspect as “useful” and 1 did not answer this
question. 20 participants decided to use WebCollage or/and eXeLearning in the second half of the workshop,
while 5 preferred to keep exploring the general features of LdShake and the Rich TexT editor. When asked
about the quality level of the integration achieved regarding the visualization and use of the editors in the
context of LdShake, 5 of them indicated that it has been “very well” achieved and 13 as “quite well”
achieved. Two of them said that “it seemed as if the editors were part of LdShake, what facilitates
usability…” and some of them also agreed on that “the more editors LdShake incorporates, the more options
we have…”, “the fact that it incorporates several editors and publication/exporting formats facilitates the
sharing of the designs and the direct work with the students - if the editors/formats integrated are compatible
with the learning environment we use with our students…” Another participant also indicated that “more
editors would be needed since the ones currently integrated are not suitable for some educational situations”.
4 Conclusion
This position statement has pointed out the interest of providing practitioners with support for co-edition
and sharing using diverse existing learning design editors within the same platform. It has proposed LdShake
as an integrative platform that offers features enabling users to co-edit and share designs created with
different authoring tools. As a proof of concept functional implementation a new version of LdShake has
been developed. It integrates two existing editors, eXeLearning and WebCollage. The integration of
eXeLearning was an emerging requirement of a real application case (“Biologia en context”) where LdShake
is being used. The integration of WebCollage shows that the approach can be followed with more existing
editors. Different stakeholders, who had the opportunity to use LdShake in an open workshop, appreciated
the features of LdShake and valued positively that it integrates several authoring tools maintaining the
appearance of the LdShake context and benefiting from its general co-editing and sharing features. Future
work includes the use and evaluation of the extended version of LdShake with multiple editors in the
“Biologia en context” case along the new academic year.
Acknowledgments
This work has been partially funded by the Spanish Learn 3 project (TIN2008-05163/TSI). The authors would like to thank
other members of the GTI group at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra for their contributions and ideas, and the support of the
Learning Design Grid Theme Team funded by the STELLAR Network of Excellence.
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