eLearning with Claroline
Marcel Lebrun
IPM/ UCL
lebrun@ipm.ucl.ac.be

Claroline is a free LMS, online learning management system developed in PHP/MySQL, which is an Internet based database programming language. Originally developped in the IPM, Institut de Pédagogie universitaire et des multimedias of the UCL, Université Catholique de Louvain, it results now from a collaboration between the former and the ECAM, Institut Supérieur Industriel, both from Belgium.

A platform from teacher for teacher

The teacher training philosophy of IPM is to develop the teacher autonomy concerning pedagogy and, furthermore the good use of technical tools in pedagogy. This main objective was expected to be met by allowing teachers to make experimentations, to discover the need for a sound pedagogy and so to foster pedagogy in university teaching. IPM intended, 5 years ago, to use WebCT but the autonomy requirement failed behind the difficulties to develop courses with this platform. In a team meeting, we develop the idea that a large percentage of the teachers needs may be fulfilled with approximately five or six functionalities like : publishing documents and announcements, giving students tools to develop activities and to demonstrate their competences, allowing interactions between students and with teachers.
Simplicity of use and independence concerning pedagogical setup were the leitmotivs of the development and accompaniment teams. Yet, in our traditional university, the platform would allow traditional “lectures”, autonomous learning, blended learning or real distance learning. As far pedagogy is concerned, the possibilities will range from documents delivering to problem and project based learning with a special attention paid to collaborative eLearning. Also, this platform which supports evolution in the teachers uses may act as a catalyst for pedagogical innovation and faculty development.

A pedagogical model for eLearning

A wide variety of models concerning eLearning developments (or instructional design) exist but these are often scarce about pedagogical fundament. The purpose is not to constrain pedagogical considerations in one definitive model but to discern some pillars on which to build effective pedagogical setup.
The purpose of these educational tools is to promote learning but how to do that without a small knowledge about the nature and the conditions of learning ?
In searching for a dynamic model for learning, we have investigated many authors (Combs, 1976; Saljo, 1979; Biggs & Telfer, 1987; Savoie & Hughes, 1994) who attempt to describe this process. We have also tried to federate a lot of “learner-centered” factors derived from the American Psychological Association (APA, 1997). In addition, learning factors that are particularly well boosted by ICT and derived from educational technology research are embedded in this model (Means & Olson, 1994; Dijkstra et al., 2001). The figure below shows the results presented as a dynamic adaption of our five poles model (Lebrun, 1999) somehow provocating because oversimplified.

Figure 1. Dynamic representation of our learning model

As we will see, this figure may act as a check-list in order to properly design or evaluate a large variety of “devices” devoted to learning promotion : textbooks (the nature, the structure, the attributes and the lay-out of the information), pedagogical software (the context of the proposed activities or the directives to be followed), educational web sites (the activities proposed to the students or the place of the web site in the pedagogical scenario), pedagogical plans (carefully considered individual and collaborative activities), students’ output … This model may finally be used, to boost, design and evaluate innovation inside an institution (Lebrun, 2002; Lebrun, 2005).

In the centre, the three rectangles are inspired by the constructivist approach: briefly, information is transformed into knowledge by the student activities and this new knowledge feeds the following process (systemic loop). This process is enabled by motivational factors and sustained by interaction (from the environment - functional interaction) or from other students and from teachers (relational interaction)).

Our model is in good concordance with the M. D. Merrill “first principles of instruction (Merrill, 2000). Describing these principles is a good opportunity to illustrate again the openness and wideness of our model :

Learning is facilitated when students are engaged in the solving of real problems (informations and motivation)
Learning is facilitated when prior knowledge is activated and questioned with new contexts (informations and motivation)
Learning is facilitated when new knowledge is explicated, demonstrated and justified (informations, activities)
Learning is facilitated when new knowledge is applied by the learners (activities, productions)
Learning is facilitated new knowledge is integrated into the learner's world (productions).

Despite the fact that Merrill’s principles cover rather well our Learning components, mention should be made for the lack of the “interaction” part which makes us belonging to socio-constructivism. In all cases, Merrill uses this model as a guideline for the development of pertinent pedagogical setup (5 star instructional design rating) … it’s also the way we intend to use our own model.

The main components of our model are also coherent with expectations of various actors for the competences needed in the society (information gathering, autonomy, communication, abilities for team work …) and may be undertaken by the tools developed on Claroline. (Evers et al., 1998, Knight & Yorke, 2004).
Lets see how.

Tools to promote learning

In eLearning, the most important factor is not the “e” which comes from eLectricity or eLectronics as you like. In eLearning, the main point, for us, stays Learning and so we intend to go deeply in these learning enhancing factors .
The learning factors embedded in Claroline need to be enlightened in order to be useful for teachers. We will try to discern some considerations useful when one develop a pedagogical setup “around” Claroline.

What’s about information given as a starting point for learning ?

What will be the context (content source and setup) which will give the way knowledge is used, the objectives of the learning process, the competences to be acquired ?

What are the tools (analysis grid, experimental protocol, evaluation sheet …) given to the students in order they will be able to construct active new knowledge and useful new competences ?

Are the different work stages well balanced between collaborative work, individual appropriation and synthesis by teachers ?

Are the sudents aware about the objectives, the products, the conditions of learning … the signs of completed learning ?

Using the five poles or pillars of our mode, we will now give some very concrete advices deduced from our model :

Information
The different forms around « knowing » (knowing, knowing how to do, knowing how to be) are often reduced to knowledge and knowledge seems to be often confused with information. The information society is quickly (too quickly) become learning society. For a lot of teachers attracted by eLearning, the most important operation is still to provide information : publishing his PowerPoint seems to be the most common use of the « eLectricity learning ». But, we have seen that this use of the publication feature is somehow only one step in the discovery of the platform by the teacher. After some times and good training conditions, he will go deeper in innovation by using other available tools.
Montaigne, some centuries ago, said that « the student is not only one vase to be filled. It is a fire to be lit ».
What can be done ?

To transmit contents (only a first step)
To inform about the scenario, the pedagogical setup
To give learning objectives and evaluation criteria
To illustrate the context
To show the way from prior knowledge and competences to new ones
To give tools in order to assess new knowledge (grid, evaluation sheet …)
To provide resources with small granularities
To provide well chosen web links

Claroline tools like documents and links, announcements, agenda, home page of the course … are tools suitable for these purposes.

Motivation
There is a lot of motivation theories. These generally postulate the importance of contextual factors enabling the representation a student may have about the future situation and the work he has to perform in order to acquire new knowledges and competences.
Following Viau’s theory (Viau, 1994), important factors are : understanding of future competences to be acquired, interest and value of the task, feeling about the control over the tasks to be done … All these feelings originate in the scenario and the context of the activities. Learning effective activities are grounded in everyday and professional realities. The knowledge about the activities is important to develop a “security” feeling about the learning task.
What can be done ?

Underline prior knowledge and “already there” competences
Clarify objectives
Illustrate and underline the importance of new knowledge and competences
Enlighten the context of use of knowledge
State precisely instructions and agendas
Comment over the interest and the value of the task
What are the degrees of freedom and the controllable part of the activities ?
What are the elements of interaction, feedback ?

Claroline tools like course description, Documents and links, announcements, agenda, learning path, home page of the course … are tools suitable for these purposes.

Activities
Quality learning don’t arise only from transmissive methods (transferring contents from books to students head). Not even from collaborative or interpersonal work ! It needs a personal “internal” work to assimilate new knowledge into earlier cognitive structure. Humans don’t learn online, they learn “per se”. So a most important part of learning is not embedded in the technological tool, nor only in the pedagogical setup. It’s necessary to give students tools in order to facilitate this intrapersonal work, to figure out the achieved task and the work still to be done, to assess the efficacy of the acquired knowledge.
What can be done ?

Give a time scenario showing the different steps
Propose tools in order to work through informations (analysis grid, exercise, …)
Consider also activities out of the platform (library and Internet exist also outside the platform)
Be progressive, diversified and coherent over the different activities
Give tools (exercises mainly) in order to assess new knowledge
Alternate readings, exercises, problems, applications, cases
Give activities with the objective to produce or demonstrate something
Alternate individual (convergent) and collaborative (divergent) work

Claroline tools like course description, exercises, learning path, assignments, forums … are tools suitable for these purposes.

Interaction
For Cohen, quoted by Bourgeois and Nizet (1997), a collaborative task is defined as a set of activities divided in different operations or steps and aiming at the realisation of a goal. It should be complex (not easily achievable by one person) and open (different operations or steps are possible) and should request real exchanges between the participants. students’ learning. Furthermore, this influence seems to work rather at the affective level than at the “productive” one. The students need to be supported and to know that someone pays attention to their urges and expectations all the way through the project.
Generally speaking, there is collaboration when a “positive interdependence of goals” is achieved (one will reach his or her goal if everybody succeeds). Competition, in this way, is a “negative interdependence of goals”
What can be done ?

Choose appropriate tasks (needing really team work)
Produce group instructions and shape activities in order to promote interdependence
Acknowledge for multiple points of view
Give opportunity to exert critical thinking
Send feedbacks to students
Give time for personal appropriation
Find a good “middle point” between flexibility and constraints, between divergent thinking and synthesis
Take advantage of the use of writing (in forums)
Use properly advantages of synchronous and asynchronous tools

Claroline tools like users, forums, groups, chat, wiki but also agenda, announcements … are tools suitable for these purposes

Productions
Above all, learning is a process but products may not be discarded as important signs of achieved learning. Computers are tools, production tools. This means that a lot of productions may be developed outside the platform by using usual office tools. An important motivation tool is also to develop something of his or her own, to do his work in an open space.
What can be done ?

Produce and recognize new knowledge
Give the opportunity to build an object, a writing, a sign … a new knowledge
Provide time for publication, communication, sharing of findings
Design activities to evaluate objects with criteria
Design activities to elucidate acquired and missing knowledge and competences
Highlight new questions, new challenges
Make students curious and aware foe a new learning process

Claroline tools like assignments, exercises, forums but also documents, learning path … are tools suitable for these purposes

A synthetic model for eLearning with Claroline

As a check-list for pedagogical set-up development or evaluation, we propose the next picture with our learning model surrounded (and somehow activated) by the Claroline tools.