Next - Tell open learner model - Introduction for teachers

The Open Learner Model, or OLM for short, is a tool that visualises individual learners’ current understanding of a topic, or their level of competency. The learner model updates as the student learns, and the data that lie behind the model can come from a variety of sources, such as outcomes of teacher or student self-assessment, or computer-based learning interactions. Learner models are therefore built over time, and allow you and students to easily identify strengths and weaknesses. The OLMs can be used to help students as individuals or as a group, and to help you plan future learning. To log in to the OLM go to http://eeevle.bham.ac.uk/nexttell-cas/ or sandbox.nextell.eu choose Open Learner Model, and enter your login credentials. After this you will be directed to the home screen. There are four main components of the home screen. A blue bar hangs at the top of the screen, and provides persistent navigation links through any part of the OLM. A word cloud that sums up the Next-tell project can be seen in the middle of the screen. Below the word cloud, the tools for viewing the OLM, adding evidence to the learner model, communication tools and configuring the learner model are available. At the bottom of the screen, there are links to give feedback to the development team, a news stream and the OLM user manual. Under the header “View the OLM” you can access the OLM Browser and the Competency Treemap. The OLM Browser is a tool for accessing data about students, either as skill meters, tables, histograms or word clouds. The Competency Treemap is a visualisation of all competencies involved in the current teaching, represented as a hierarchy. Under the header “Add evidence” are tools for adding evidence to the learner model for a student, using either a web form or a Google spreadsheet. These tools are where all manual teacher-given evidence that forms the basis of a student’s learner model is entered into the system. The header “Communication” provides access to the discussion feature organised by competency or topic, and notifications of any new information available in the OLM, since last viewing. Under the “Configure” header are tools for configuring various aspects of a course, such as competencies, or what you want to model, how students are grouped, how learning is delivered and how data are to be collected. Finally, at the bottom of the page, there are links for providing feedback to the development team, reading a news feed about the OLM and access to the user manual.