Certified Learning Experiences: From Heterogeneous Learning Spaces to Portable Education Portfolios

Abstract

The digital era has accomplished new kinds of learning spaces, where learners engage in different kinds of learning activities. Thus different learners are gaining various learning experiences from heterogeneous learning spaces. A key challenge is how to systematically collect those heterogeneous learning activities into well-organized education portfolios. In existing Education Portfolio Systems (EPS) including LinkedIn, Mahara, and Open-Badges does not support importing learning activities from learning spaces. In these systems, it does not allow users to authenticate through OpenID, and also users cannot create multiple portfolio views. Thus to address these problems we propose our system named Portable Education Portfolios (PEPs) which imports certified users experiences from different learning spaces.

This thesis utilizes a Design Science Research Methodology (DSRM) for PEPs development, which intends to solve the key challenge. The proposed approach i.e. DSRM is modified to fit this research context. As a result, alike existing EPS, an innovative IT artifact called PEPs tool is created. PEPs collect certified experiences of users from different learning spaces and also create their portfolio. On the other hand, as an additional feature to existing EPS, the PEPs tool supports Life-Long Learning Process and Continuing Professional Development.

To address the research objectives PEPs system is experimented with three different learning spaces including TUT-Mantis, Moodle and OpenSE. These learning spaces follow informal, formal and non-formal learning patterns respectively. PEPs successfully collected various user experiences and created a single portable portfolio for the users. Hence, we conclude that the PEPs system is a complete tool to solve all the key issues raised in this research.