INTERFERENCIAS ENTRE ACTIVIDADES

Basing documents on pre-defined templates

Learning Management Systems (LMSs) are commonly used to provide additional services that stand-alone documents cannot provide or to provide document types that are easy to create and administrate. Such systems usually enable sharing of educational content in a standardized way and where the user’s technical barrier for creating publications is low. This enables a larger user group to employ the system without having to undergo extensive training. Most LMSs are system controlled environments.

This means that users need to follow pre-ordained rules to use the system. These are requirements set by the system provider or system administrators.

The case LMS uses document templates to enable users to create desired document types. Document templates make the user aware of the document’s specific properties and encourage the user to describe the document with visually present content in a standardized way [36]. This allows more users to create documents with the desired properties. In the system controlled environment, the user is guided and forced to comply with the opportunities and restrictions that are provided by document templates and enforced by the content creation software.

The case LMS has restricted publishing possibilities based on the user profile: The user must log in to the LMS before he or she can publish a document. Publication can only take place in sections where the user is allowed access, meaning specific courses.

The process of creating documents based on templates

In a system controlled environment, the user is only allowed to create documents based on existing document templates. The user is not allowed to create his or her own templates. Instead there is a third party who is the only one allowed to create templates.

These templates are different from templates for stand-alone documents, in that they enable use of administrative tools that are provided through the LMS. Common central administrative tools include user group access control, time restrictions regarding document availability and management of student deliveries.

These templates have pre-defined sections intended for specific content described in a schema. The restrictiveness of the document schemas is used to encourage the user to use the template in accordance with the system’s schema. This is typically done by providing special template-specific visual characteristics in the resulting document or special administrative tools for that specific document type, such as administration of delivery dates. By complying with the system’s schema, the user then has something to gain that cannot be obtained by using other document types.

Figure 26: Creating a new document in a system controlled environment (stage 1) When a new document is to be created, the user is faced with the choice of deciding which template to use for the document. Based on that decision, the user is presented with a specific template with template-specific properties and possibilities. In the case LMS, the user can create documents based on these specific template types:

x File (“Fil”): Used for uploading stand-alone documents to the LMS.

x Link (“Referanse”): Consists of a single hyperlink.

x Note (“Notat”): An undefined template consisting of a single text section.

x Exercise (“Oppgave”): Can consist of an exercise text, multiple uploaded stand-alone documents, with exercise delivery possibilities and grading and correction possibilities.

x Image with description (“Bilde med beskrivelse”): Consists of an uploaded image and a description.

x Process oriented document (“Prosessorientert dokument"): A document type that is adapted to the users’ actions though multiple sub-steps.

x Explanatory sequence (“Forklaringssekvens”): A sequence of steps designed to explain a concept step-by-step.

x Test (“Test”): This is an online test that can contain the test, give the test to students, allow instructors to grade the test, and present the results to students.

x Inquiry (“Undersøkelse”): An inquiry where the interviewees answers questions.

In addition to documents, the case LMS allows users to customize their own course-specific section of the LMS by creating folders (“mappe”) in which documents can be kept.

Figure 27: Percentage of use of document types in the case LMS

Figure 27 shows use of the case LMS’s document types. These observations are in line with other analyses of the LMS and its usage [88]. Use of the case LMS document types was recorded during the pre-study phase of this research. Analysis of the LMS content from 55 courses showed that two-thirds of documents created in the case LMS were of the “File” type. Only 12.8% of these documents contained a content description.

Instead, the “Title” element was often used to give a short description for identification based on the educational context given through other published objects and lectured content. Close to 75% of the published documents have the ability to include one or more uploaded files. Of the other available document types, “Link” is frequently used to publish hyperlinks, while “Note” is used to present all types of plain-text content.

Document types and document content that were not intended for public display have not been collected for this research.

Template type content

In a system controlled environment, templates can be used to manage the content specified by the user, because the application can enforce compatibility with the given template schema. The user is only allowed to submit content for the document through the pre-defied sections of the template. These sections are commonly named and presented to the user to indicate what type of content should be included in the specific section. These template sections can be governed by the publishing system. Enforcing this functionality ensures that the document vocabulary used complies with the template schema, thus avoiding conflicts with controlled vocabularies [141]. This means that the application can enforce the use of mandatory template sections and validate restricted value spaces. If the schema requirements are not met, then the application can refuse to store of the document. If the applications do not enforce the schema requirements, then it is up to the user to ensure that the schema requirements are met.

Templates can be presented as a dialog where the user supplies content to the fields that are presented. This enables dynamic, multi-stage templates to actively guide the user

through the document creation process in smaller and easier steps than creating the entire document with all its properties at once. Such applications are commonly referred to as “wizards.” These must be adapted to the mental model of the user group’s

understanding of what the application should do [146].

In addition to the user-specified document content, there is the possibility of including centrally administered context descriptions:

x Firstly, descriptions of the technical placement of the new document must be recorded, such as placement in a specific subject, within a folder, subfolders and so on.

x Secondly, descriptions of the subject’s context, in which specific elements can be collected from a centrally administrated course profile, can be included. The LMS can in turn base its course profile on a course profile retrievable from another centrally controlled computer system.

x Thirdly, if the user logs in, then user information can be included: These user profiles can contain full name of the user, the user’s role in the course or possibly a complete vCard. The user profile can in turn be based on harvested data from a centrally controlled user registry.

x Fourth, the LMS can base its timer on a centrally controlled clock. The time of creation and modification is then not affected by local time variations that can occur as a result of differences between users’ personal computers.

In the case LMS, all published documents are automatically labelled with administrative data and data specific to the document type. The administrative data includes the publisher description, published date, placement data (course, semester and folder(s)).

For each document template type, there is a template-specific creation tool that displays available document content elements and enforces compliance with mandatory schema regulations (value spaces). These elements can be seen in Table 6. It is mandatory for all document types to have a title, which has to be provided manually. Aside from this element, the user decides how to use the remaining elements.

Selecting the right document type gives the publisher the ability to specify valid administrative document properties. For each of these administrative properties there is functionality within the LMS that administers the usage of the document in accordance with the described elements. Specifying the document type and its properties has a direct influence over the potential usage of the document. For example, the template type “Exercise” in Figure 29 enables the use of administrative properties for enforcing delivery dates and grading of student exercises. These are functions that are not available for other document types.

Restricted value spaces are displayed as Boolean alternatives or as a pull-down list when the document is created. It is not possible to specify entities other than the ones listed. In the creation of the document, these elements are assigned a default value. This value is a valid entity. Because of this, it is not possible to distinguish between elements that are not used by the publisher and elements which were given the correct entities by

using the default value. It is therefore not possible to evaluate the degree of actual usage of these elements without questioning the publishers.

The system controlled environment does not enforce correct usage of all template sections. The document type “Link,” presented in Figure 30, allows the creation of hyperlinks to content outside of the LMS. The LMS does not validate if the user-specified URL complies with the schema definition for valid content of its “URL”

element. It is therefore not certain that the entity complies with the LMS’ schema.

Because of this, the entity of the “URL” element cannot be fully trusted to be valid, even when it is deliberately specified by the user

Table 6: LMS document types

The LMS document types LMS type Course name Course semester Publisher name Published date Title (one text line) 6 Description (multiple text lines) Reference (one text line) Stand-alone document(s) as sub-element Mandatory (Boolean) Delivery deadline (date & time) 7 Delivery administration Acceptable tries (number) Anonymous delivery (Boolean) File name File size

File A A A A A M M U A A

Note A A A A A M M

Link A A A A A M M

Image with description A A A A A M M U

Exercise A A A A A M M U M M M M A A Process oriented

document A A A A A M M M M M

Test A A A A A M M M M M M M

Inquiry A A A A A M M M M M

Explanatory sequence A A A A A M M

(A = Automatically created, M = Manually creatable, U = Uploadable)

6 This element has multiple synonyms depending upon the LO type. For example, the LO type

“File” calls it “Comment” (“kommentar”), while the LO types “Note” and “Image with description” call it “Text” (“Tekst”).

7 Available for lecturers. Displays delivery information that includes who has delivered their assignment, the delivery time (day, hour, minute) and the delivery as a file (LO type

“Exercise”) or online answers (LO types “Process oriented document,” “Test” and “Inquiry”).

Figure 28: Creating a new document in a system controlled environment (stage 2)

Figure 29: It’s learning template for

Exercise document Figure 30: It’s learning template for Link document

Templates can pollute data as a result of template content and default values, such as when several of the case LMS’ document types are given default document properties when created. Elements such as “Mandatory” (for exercises) are set to “Yes” at default.

Properties of the document can therefore reflect other interests than those of the user.

Uploading stand-alone documents into the system controlled environment Users can have many reasons for wanting to upload stand-alone documents instead of creating documents based on LMS document types. The most common reasons are:

x To enable usage of application functionality that is not supported by the system controlled environment, such as spell-checker, document merging facilities and increased formatting possibilities.

x To allow distribution of existing documents, such as pre-made exams or print-outs or articles and lecture slides.

Stand-alone documents cannot be imported into the case LMS as a document type.

Instead, stand-alone documents can be uploaded as part of a LMS specific document type. These documents need to follow the schema regulations as do all other document types, although the content of each uploaded stand-alone document is not analysed by the LMS. Rather, stand-alone documents are commonly included as an attachment to the system specific document type. The stand-alone documents can therefore keep their original properties.

Figure 31: Uploading stand-alone documents to an existing system document