Reference implementation of mash-up personal learning environments to foster the broad community uptake

Abstract

Mash-up personal learning environments (MUPPLEs) can be understood as an infrastructure for a learner-centric TEL approach, including functionality to personalise learning, to collaborate with others, and to get support as well as feedback on one’s learning processes. However, the development of MUPPLE solutions can be problematic due to the diversity of technologies involved and the varying maturity of software solutions, as outlined in literature and experienced within the ROLE project. One approach to overcome these problematic aspects is the provision of a MUPPLE reference implementation as part of a software development kit (SDK), which fosters development efforts as well as technology uptake by developer and end-user communities. Above and beyond, this deliverable aims at examining the applicability of an SDK for integrating the existing ROLE developments as well as the potential of an SDK-based approach for exploiting technologies and for involving (internal and external) developers. Thereby, the focus of the SDK-based approach is set to MUPPLE solutions, which is a core technology of the ROLE project, and thus is included as reference implementation within the SDK. This deliverable is structured as follows. The introduction highlights positive effects of software development kits on the basis of a technology review, elaborates problematic aspects of mash-up PLEs and ROLE prototypes, and sketches an SDK-based strategy for MUPPLE developers. Then, section 2 describes the realisation of the so-called ROLE-SDK which includes a reference implementation of a sample MUPPLE prototype based on ROLE technologies. Finally, section 3 summarises experiences with the ROLE-SDK according to quantitative and qualitative results from the developer perspective and from end-user experiences with MUPPLEs. Overall, experiences from industrial practice (e.g. Java or Android) indicate that the provision of an SDK has positive effects for disseminating technology against competitors and for addressing external developers. Moreover, an SDK-based approach is useful to integrate heterogeneous approaches and software prototypes on varying maturity levels, especially when developed by different parties, as is the case in large EU projects. Regarding the assembly of an SDK for MUPPLE technologies (MUPPLE-SDK), it is recommended to include a reference implementation of such a prototype in the software package so that end-users can experience it. Providing tutorials and example code for developers is also beneficial. Consequently, the SDK developed by the ROLE consortium (ROLE-SDK) is advantageous for exploiting single developments by packaging them into the SDK, for deconstructing (i.e. opening up) existing platforms for creating useful learning tools in the form of ROLE-enabled widgets, or for integrating example widgets of the SDK into full-featured systems like learning management systems. The evaluation of the ROLE-SDK also shows that development within the project consortium has been fostered significantly and that external experts, like members of the ROLE Advisory Board, consider the focus on the ROLE-SDK a valuable approach. At the time of writing, discussions of exploiting ROLE technologies in the Apache Rave Project is in progress, Page 6 of 52 and outreach activities with related projects (OMELETTE and ITEC) are under evaluation. Due to the close relation between developing and packaging MUPPLEs for (developer and end-user) communities, this deliverable is a merge of the deliverables D4.5 (“Generic PLE implementations to foster the broad community uptake”) and D7.4 (“Final Prototype of a Mash-up PLE”). It has the title “Reference implementation of mash-up personal learning environments to foster the broad community uptake” and aims at achieving the following ROLE Objectives (cf. ROLE-DoW, p.6): • RO3: create new engineering methodologies to enable significant contributions to ROLE from learner and developer communities from outside the project consortium • RO5: exploit and disseminate the ROLE results to wider communities and markets As a side-effect, the objectives RO1, RO2 and RO5 are partially addressed through certain functionality of the SDK (RO1: widget container, RO2: widgets being based on the pedagogical models developed within ROLE) and methods used in this deliverable (RO5: quantitative and qualitative analysis of the community uptake of the ROLE-SDK). Additionally, the deliverable is related to various goals and tasks of the work packages 4 and 7, namely the tasks 4.1 (“Personal Learning Services Bundle”), 4.4 (“Test-bed Technical Platforms”), 7.4 (“Implementation of Collaborative Activity Patterns”), and 7.5 (“Analysis of Requirements and Characteristics of Learning Networks”).