Collaborative Learning Design within Open Source E-Learning Systems - E-Infrastructures and Technologies for Lifelong Learning - page 224

Based on the results emerging from this study,
we can conclude that the design of collaborative
online courses is not an easy task. Knowledge of
the subject matter is not enough for the forma-
tion of appropriate collaborative online learning
courses. The information that can be selected from
the Internet to be integrated into these courses may
be abundant, but this does not mean it is of accept-
able quality. Moreover, also placing individualistic
tasks within the frame of a collaborative structure
does not mean that collaboration will be encour-
aged. Furthermore, grouping students into small
teams and presenting them with team forums and
team chats, in isolation from the design of specific
structures that encourage sharing and negotiation
of meanings, does not necessarily produce the
benefits of collaboration. In our view, it seems
that PCSPs rely mostly on their own previous
experience of schooling that did not encourage
collaboration. In fact, it appears that teachers tend
to reproduce this experience, despite the fact that
they read a lot about collaboration methods during
this undergraduate course. However, one course
appears to be not enough to familiarize PCSPs with
such big issues as collaboration, learning-design
and e-learning in general, especially when these
are referred to the framework of modern theories
of learning.
To this end, it could be claimed that teachers
needed more support in the design of collaborative
online courses. Some ways of support could be
to emphasize: (a) the use of online environments
that explicitly and intuitively support learning
design, such as LAMS, (b) the provision of es-
sential content-free collaboration patterns, within
the frame of the said online environments, (c) the
provision of good examples of online courses that
incorporate collaborative methods, (d) teachers'
involvement in teams aiming at the design of
collaborative online courses and (e) the participa-
tion of teachers as learners in teams, within the
context of such courses. As LAMS is designed to
collaborate fully with MOODLE, the features of
both environments can also be exploited by teach-

ers for the design of online collaborative courses.
To this end, in the next section of the chapter,
the implementation of the previously mentioned
content-free collaboration methods -in the form
of design patterns- within the LAMS framework
is reported.

5. IMPLEMENTATION OF ESSENTIAL
CONTENT-FREE COLLABORATION
METHODS WITHIN LAMS

The said content-free collaboration methods were
implemented within LAMS using some of its
essential tools (http://wiki.lamsfoundation.org/
display/lamsdocs/Home). These tools are dem-
onstrated in its interface (Figure 1) and briefly
presented below:

• The Assessment tool that allows sequence

authors to create a series of questions with a
high degree of flexibility in total weighting

• The Chat Activity runs a live (synchro-

nous) discussion for learners

• The Chat and Scribe Activity combines

a Chat Activity with a Scribe Activity for
collating the chat group's views on ques-
tions posed by the teacher

• The Forum Activity provides an asynchro-

nous discussion environment for learners,
with discussion threads initially created by
the teacher

• The Forum and Scribe Activity combines

a Forum Activity with a Scribe Activity
for collating Forum Postings into a written
report

• The Mindmap activity allows teachers and

learners to create, edit and view mindmaps
in the LAMS environment. Mindmaps al-
low for the organising of concepts and
ideas, and exploring how these interact

• The Multiple Choice activity allows teach-

ers to create simple automated assessment