Facilitators:

Rune Baggetun, InterMedia, University of Bergen, Norway.

Symeon Retalis, University of Cyprus, Cyprus.

E-LEN: A network of e-learning centres

Collaborative Learning Workshops at CSCL 2003

1. Aims of the workshop

The main aims of this workshop are to present ideas about the application of design patterns and to engage participants in refining and elaborating some design patterns for CSCL. The workshop will also lay foundations for a continuing process of design pattern development within the CSCL community: the longer-term goal being to create a communal repository of useful design patterns.

2. About design patterns

Experienced designers know how to solve certain problems because they have seen them appear repeatedly and have developed design patterns implicitly in their heads. These implicit design patterns are in practice what separates the experienced designer from the novice one. According to Alexander et al. (1977) “each pattern describes a problem which occurs over and over again in our environment, and then describes the core of the solution to that problem, in such a way that you can use this solution a million times over”. Patterns are not conceived in a ‘big bang’ but rather are discovered and elaborated through numerous implementations of the same solution to a given problem, usually by different people. It is more or less a process of reverse-engineering the systems that embed good design in order to make that design explicit, and to help communicate it to other designers, so that it becomes common practice and common property.

Alexander has also proposed the notion of a pattern language, which is a collection of related patterns that captures the whole of the design process and can guide the designer through complex problems.

Repositories of patterns exist for various disciplines and offer the chance to re-use design expertise within their corresponding communities. Examples are in object-oriented software engineering, hypermedia and human–computer interaction. We believe that it is now timely for the CSCL community to engage in a similar initiative.

3. Who is the workshop for?

CSCL practitioners, researchers and designers will find this workshop useful. No special knowledge of design patterns is required. We are looking for people who are willing to engage in testing out the ideas behind, and usefulness of, design patterns in CSCL.

4. Working methods

This 2-hour workshop will be run three times. The workshop facilitators will provide a concise introduction to the use of design patterns, their potential relevance to CSCL and to ways of constructing a communal repository of CSCL design patterns.

The main part of the workshop will involve small groups of participants refining and elaborating some example CSCL design patterns.

The workshop will close with a critical discussion about the approach and with agreement about ways of taking the work forward after the workshop.

5. Outcomes

For workshop participants, the outcomes will include a chance to experiment with and evaluate a new way of approaching design, and the opportunity to exchange ideas about good practice. For the E-LEN project team and for the CSCL community as a whole, outcomes will include laying the foundations for the collaborative production of a pattern language for CSCL and the identification of some key R&D issues.

6. Design patterns: references and resources

Pointers to relevant literature and websites can be found on the E-LEN project website at http://www.tisip.no/E-LEN

7. About the Organisers

E-LEN is a European network of institutions with considerable e-learning expertise and experience. The network is established in order to share and develop information and design patterns regarding e-learning design issues in a systematic manner. An important activity of the network is the dissemination of design patterns to relevant parties. The partner institutions in E-LEN are: University of Cyprus (co-ordinator); The Learning Lab, University of Maastricht (NL); CSALT, University of Lancaster (UK); A Priori Ltd (UK); Ilmenau Technical University (DE); Hypermedia Open Center – Politechnico di Milano (IT); InterMedia, University of Bergen (NO); NITOL (NO); TISIP (NO); National Technical University of Athens (GR); and Open University (NL). E-LEN is partially funded by the European Union under the Minerva programme.