Terry’s Blog

I have been inspired to post a fuller account of my interview for the Guardian story today (A space on the web that we control by Steve O’Hear) by Miles Berry’s (That Guardian interview in full) and Ben Werdmuller’s (A space on the web that we control) posts of their interviews. It is amazing how much ends up on the cutting room floor. I only wish my students were as disciplined when it comes to word limits! The interview was conducted by email.

1. How have you been using Elgg at University of Leeds?

We are running a small pilot project to evaluate Elgg. We have some ideas on how systems like Elgg can be used in educational contexts but this is very much a process of discovery for us. I must say I am very excited about the possibilities that Elgg and the ‘read/write’ web generally open for us as academics and students. At the moment there are about 800 users. The academic staff involved are exploring Elgg’s possibilities for supporting teaching (some are supporting modules they teach using Elgg) but also how it can be used to support research and project groups, communities of interest, and individuals’ research and career development. Hopefully the pilot will lead to a larger more systematic project and the eventual roll out of the system to all students and staff.

2. What benefits does Elgg have for students / learning?

Elgg offers staff and students an additional layer, so to speak, outside of our institutional VLE. It can therefore be used in more autonomous, flexible and imaginative ways. It puts the student/user more in control and its use and value is not constrained by being closely coupled to the timetables, structure and components of degree programmes, modules, assessment and so on. Although the underlying rationale and functionality of Elgg has much in common with blogging platforms, its design, structure and additional functions make it a good basis for something more like a personal learning environment. Its flexibility means, for instance, we can evaluate it as an e-portfolio tool.

The use of a system like Elgg contributes to a number of overlapping agendas - the development of information technology skills, of information literacy skills (identifying information needs, locating information, evaluating and presenting information and engaging in the critical and reflective discussion of constructed knowledge), engaging students as active participants in the research activity and culture of the University, the life-long learning agenda (producing active, self motivated reflective perpetual learners - the ‘expert student’ concept), employability, citizenship and personal effectiveness.

It enables and encourages students (as well as academic staff) to develop an on-line presence and an on-line identity. Writing for and commenting on blogs (personal or community) requires a style of writing that is reflective, clear and concise. It helps students to find and develop a particular type of public ‘voice’ as well as communication and presentational skills.

Students have had their own personal web space available to them on the University website for many years now but in practice very few have taken advantage of this opportunity (again, likewise academic staff). A major reason for this is the still daunting complexity of designing, running and maintaining a conventional web site. One advantage for students of systems like Elgg is that they have a relatively straightforward method of publishing on the web, including pictures, hyperlinks, uploading documents and so on, that requires no design or html skills. They also have a simple method of access control that can be modified for individual posts, pictures, files and so on. Already the indication of our pilot is that students will be much more likely to use a ‘read/write’ web environment like Elgg than run a traditional web site. The interaction that is possible is also an attractive feature.

3. How does it differ from other e-learning packages? e.g. VLEs etc.

We don’t see Elgg as an institutional VLE. Institutional VLEs overlap with and have many shared features with Learning Management Systems (LMSs). It has very few of the features of a VLE or LMS. The pilot is evaluating Elgg as an additional layer to students’ participation in our VLE. It is independent of the VLE and its alignment with the structure of programmes, modules, assessment, etc. For some purposes Elgg is a ‘breakout’ from formal structures and requirements. As a student/user-centred element of a personal learning environment it links to informal networks of friends, colleagues and shared interests, extra-curricula activities, hobbies, activities, issues and concerns that are all part of what makes up the wider context of learning at university. Conversely, the personal blogs, community blogs, file repositories, podcasting features, etc. can be explicitly geared to particular modules being studied. For instance, a lecturer can start a community blog specifically to distribute information, publish podcasts, pursue and discuss with students particular issues that arise, share and exchange annotated resources, and so on.

4. Anything else you’d like to say about your experience of using Elgg?

On the whole our experience of using Elgg has been pretty straightforward. Even in the short time we have been running an Elgg installation it has had 2 significant upgrades with much of the increased functionality the community of users has asked for. For example, it now has built in RSS aggregation, wysiwyg editing, an inbuilt virtual MP3 player for podcasting, and the ability to create open, moderated and private communities. The ability to control access, posting and commenting in community blogs is a very attractive feature, as is the flexible access controls on all posts and uploaded files. Different levels of access can be set for individual blog entries so some posts can be fully public, another post only readable by a particular group, yet another one by one other person - for instance a post private to a dissertation student and his/her supervisor.

We have experienced some problems in encouraging students to use their personal blogs in Elgg. Reading around it seems this is not an uncommon experience. The issues here seem to be students’ lack of experience and knowledge of blogging (a staff issue too) and the fact that posting is optional for most students. We need to develop effective forms of induction and support to help students get going and, hopefully, reap the benefits of this type of activity, academic and personal. The flexibility and user-centred nature of Elgg and the fact that its uses are limited only by the users’ imagination make its uptake a rather daunting experience for some. And, as many others’ experience shows, blogging is not for everyone.

On using Elgg more generally, it is worth bearing in mind that it is still officially an alpha version I believe. Although it improves significantly with each new version released, there are still some navigation and usability issues. However, we have seen the proposed changes for the next version and most of these issues are being addressed. The rate of development and responsiveness to user feedback and requests has been remarkable. I would say our experience of Elgg has been extremely positive and the whole experience has been a very good advert for open source solutions.

Tags: No Comments