Overview

From Benchmarking-Tel

Report on the state of the art in TEL

This work is an early attempt of the STELLAR Network of Excellence in Technology Enhanced Learning

This analysis has been set into public wiki to allow it to become a living document, a live observatory, reflecting the views of our wide and varied community. It is intended to allow any STELLAR partner or associate to contribute to this work, and we would hope for a wide participation in the benchmarking exercise; and seek to have a set of 'benchmark' versions.

August 2009 Our benchmarking Observatory thinking is now a direct feed for the STELLAR Grand Challenge thinking work, see: STELLAR Grand Challenge Strategy.

June 2009 We aim here to capture something of the nature of TEL research up to 2009. The first PUBLIC OUTPUT of this work is published as a Document: D7.1 Report on the state of the art in TEL. The publication date of this paper report is June 2009; but this Wiki will grow beyond it, and we expect new editions to appear regularly.

May 2009 In this first edition of the benchmarking process, we aim to present a short state-of-the-art report on the scientific state of Technology Enhanced Learning. We aim to include a simple analysis of the fragmentation in dominant TEL topics in 2009. The STELLAR Network intends to work towards reducing that fragmentation and helping to provide a scientific and structural framework for this field. We will also start to set out a set of benchmarks as a baseline for progress monitoring. At the start of this ambitious undertaking it is essential to step back from the hype around e-learning and the future pundit predictions about technology enhanced learning, and try to see where we are, right now. We will also flag future work that we would plan to include in subsequent iterations of this Benchmarking process. (Review 1 | Review 2)

June 2009 In this second edition of the benchmarking process, we have extracted key elements from this WIKI and produced a paper short report, Document: D7.1 Report on the state of the art in TEL. This focuses on the powerful conference data which reflects the dynamic state of the research community and key research topics.

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Introduction

An overview of what we are trying to achieve with this work.

A Benchmarking Metholology

How do you go about benchmarking the state of the art in any field? This section discusses the range techniques used for the diverse data sources that could be used to understand the state of the art of technology-enhanced-learning.

Benchmark: Conferences

Conferences and Workshops in a field reflect year-on-year innovation and dynamic change in themes and topics. With an ability to reflect the instant changes in any field, and an enthusiasm to be up-to-the-minute, the conference and workshop literature of any field is a good mirror of current themes and topics. This dynamic literature and the scale of the literature in TEL justifies a more qualitative analytic methodology.

Benchmark: Funding

What research is being funded? In this work we have started with a simple analysis of recent EU funding as a guide to the nature of the field as viewed by the EU project reviewers.

Benchmark: Previous Networks

How do we measure the impact of previous Networks of Excellence in TEL?

Benchmark: Horizon Scanning

Learning from the challenges identified by major forecasting initiatives.

Benchmark: Further work

For future iterations of this benchmarking process, we should include qualitative benchmarks on journal publication, SNA benchmarks on the influential groups and people, and key industrial and commercial change benchmarks.

Conclusion

How this work will connect with the future of STELLAR and the Grand Challenges for TEL.

References

Useful links and referenced works.

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Acknowledgements:

Extracts of this wiki have been published as:

• Gillet, D., Scott, P. J. and Sutherland, R. (2009) STELLAR European Research Network of Excellence in Technology Enhanced Learning. Proceedings of the ICEE Conference on Engineering Education & Research. http://iceeiceer2009korea.net
• Ochoa, X., Mendez, G., Duval, E. (2009): Who we are: Analysis of 10 years of the ED-MEDIA Conference, Proceedings of the ED-MEDIA, Honolulu, Hawai, AACE

An additional article has just been prepared:

• Wild, F., Valentine, C.P., Scott, P.J. (2009, in submission): Shifting Interests: Changes in the lexical semantics of ED-MEDIA

Authors: Fridolin Wild (UKOU), Peter Scott (UKOU), Chris Valentine (UKOU), Denis Gillet (EPFL), Ros Sutherland (UB), Eelco Herder (L3S), Erik Duval (KUL), Gonzalo Méndez (ESPOL), Nina Heinze (KMRC), Ulrike Cress (KMRC), Xavier Ochoa (ESPOL), Barbara Kieslinger (ZSI)