Abstract:

Nowaday, the evolution and the diffusion of ICT in the Educational System (concerning teaching, learning and training) are undisputed. ICT has penetrated into formal educational and training settings and has led to the development of new training practices and modern theories in the learning procedure. Sound ICT applications, based on appropriate pedagogical frameworks and models, have incorporated into learning-supporting and self-learning activities in order to enhance Learning Management Systems (LMSs).

In general, advanced learning systems allow the individualized support of the students while they provide teachers with analytical data that help the pedagogical design of learning sequences. The first step in this direction is the integration of the learning activities with by digital tools that promote the decision-making process and enhance the Differentiated and Personalized learning within the learners’ environment. Every approach of differentiated and personalized learning is extremely useful and very desirable. More specifically, the ultimate goal of such an advanced learning system is to provide learners with a digital learning environment in which they will be able to follow self-directed learning sequences. This is extremely vital in Distance Learning, where the need for new ways of dynamic adjustment of the learning flow is based on the particular needs and goals of each learner.

In this paper we propose a general framework that composes Predefined Learning Paths (PLPs), i.e., predefined sequences of learning steps, making up a graph of learning "nodes" followed by potential learners. PLPs were developed to support not only potential designers (tutors) but also to provide learners (students) with both ad-hoc learning and supportive activities, that are based on sound pedagogical strategies. Thus, the goal of our work is threefold: (i) to support potential designers to enrich their teaching process (teaching procedure), (ii) to effectively support students in their study (especially in the framework of Distance and Adult Education), and (iii) to promote good practices by employing e-tools that are easy to use and understand (without losing on effectiveness).

We have implemented PLPs by effectively and efficiently integrating e-learning tools that are available in LMS Moodle, like the Lesson module. LMSs like Moodle are widely used in the educational process to enhance the learning experience. We have selected Moodle since it is the basic system used for Distance Learning in our Institution, the Hellenic Open University (HOU). To support our research, a pilot implementation of PLPs for certain didactic notions from an Informatics’ course in HOU, has been conducted for the students and the tutors, along with self-evaluation exercises. In addition, short online questionnaires have been delivered to the students, for the pedagogical evaluation of PLPs and their added value in the educational process, especially in Distance and Adult Education. Finally, we present preliminary evaluation results and we demonstrate our thoughts for future work.

Keywords:

Distance learning, Differentiated Learning, Personalized Learning, Adult Learning, Self-Learning, Predefined Learning Path, Moodle.