The personalisation of a learning environment: student-led connections online and offline

Description/Abstract

Rapidly evolving technological change is necessarily accompanied by matched evolution of individual practice amongst users. In a connected world, the users are universal, and students entering universities may arrive with a mix of sophisticated and naïve approaches to using technology to support their learning. The University of Southampton has designed and is implementing a holistic learning environment radically different from the VLEs which have gained widespread usage since the late 1990s. Whist working with colleagues across the university we based our planning framework on the concept of a ‘rich learning environment’. In the process of transforming our aspirations into reality it was necessary to embody requirements and ambitions which matched our educational, organisational and technological requirements. At the same time it was essential that any system, fit for the twenty-first century was able to meet and exceed students expectations: it soon became clear that such a learning environment is "more than a system, it’s a mindset". This presentation considers the foundations and emergence of personal learning environments and considers the interplay of ambitions and requirements needed to support personal learning in a university context. It goes on to make a case for the creation of a seemingly paradoxical embodiment – an “Institutional Personal Learning Environment (iPLE). The argument is located in the context of emerging understandings of the role and challenges to universities today of ‘digital literacies’ or more precisely the role and challenges of ‘scholarly literacies in a digital age’.