Abstract:

An educational scenario (or Learning Scenario) describes a learning framework with specific educational goals, expected learning outcomes, pedagogical approaches, utilizes specific educational tools and is implemented through a series of learning activities, with well-defined roles for students and teachers.

The development of learning scenarios is usually done by teachers; in many cases, to assist teachers in this process, “templates” are provided that include all the components needed to define a scenario, e.g. title, description, target audience, subject, pedagogical approach, objectives/expected results, duration, class organization, required materials, educational activities, etc. In some cases, instructions are provided on what each component is expected to include.

The growing transition to digital education has increased the need for sharing reusable digital learning scenarios via online, educational repositories; in most cases, however, learning scenarios are shared as doc or pdf documents. On the other hand, there is a growing demand for online environments that allow structured and assisted/guided authoring of learning scenarios.

The paper presents the design, development, and operation of a new, open, Greek national digital repository platform (Photodentro Learning Scenario Repository, photodentro.edu.gr/ls) for hosting, organizing, and sharing structured learning scenarios developed by the educational community. The platform includes an integrated digital learning design environment (Photodentro LS Designer), in which teachers are step-by-step guided to create structured learning scenarios with didactic activities, based on online, learning scenario Templates and following specific pedagogical guidelines and suggestions. It also supports the development of customizable LS Templates (Photodentro LS Template Designer).

There are many different scientific approaches as to what a learning scenario contains, how its information is structured, what is expected in each section. Based on their pedagogical approach and methodology (e.g. project-based, inquiry-based learning) or their subject matters, learning scenarios may require not only a custom structure but mainly, specialized instructions and guidelines for teachers.

Supporting customizable Templates with tailored structure and pedagogical guidelines was important for teachers to adopt a digital platform for guided authoring of learning scenarios. The Generic Learning Scenario Model Template was created; it included all potential sections, subsections, and components for describing learning scenarios, along with generic guidelines, so that all customized templates can be derived from the generic one. Twelve specialized templates were customized by educational experts, each one having a custom structure and focused pedagogical guidelines and suggestions for a specific category of learning scenarios.

Photodentro LS Repository has been developed using the DSpace open-source system. Learning scenarios are described with metadata following the IEEE LOM specification and are provided under CC licenses. The Repository supports free-text search, navigation by subject, educational level, duration, the template used, etc. It is open to everyone to view and download scenarios. It has been adopted by pedagogical faculties in three Greek Universities as a tool for training students on learning scenarios. Since its operation in Sept 2021, 122 learning scenarios have been uploaded.

Keywords:

Learning scenario, educational scenario, educational repository, learning design, learning scenario templates, OERs, user-generated content, e-learning.