This document is a Work-In-Progress!
The operations of the League Of Extraordinary Learners are centered around several strategic web-accessible software tools. These strategic tools support and coordinate all of our key operations, enabling us to operate with a very lean staff, and most importantly, enabling the exponential growth of our programs.
All of our educational software tools developed using an Open-Source model to enable Learners, Peers, Staff and supportive others to study and contribute to the development of these tools. Adoption of these tools by allied organizations only serves to further our objectives.
Our tools will avoid “reinventing the wheel” by leveraging key existing Open-Source software systems.
Although LOEL Tools will initially be designed and developed by LOEL staff, the bulk of the continued design and development work is to be transferred to Students and Peers managed by Staff as soon as possible. Eventually most management will be transferred to Senior Facilitators and staff will assume a primarily supportive role.
The design of our strategic tools is open-ended. There is a roadmap for improving each tool without limit. Once the LOEL is fully bootstrapped it is anticipated that our tools will serve double duty as tools and also as key practical projects for our Students to engage with. The design and implementation of all of our tools will reflect this dual purpose.
The LRM is an on-line directory of learning resources. Most of the learning resources are on-line and (most importantly) open, i.e. inspectable, shareable and improvable by learners and others.
The LRM is a strategic resource which is continually expanded and kept up to date to support the LOEL’s programs. It is kept in an Advanced Relational Database System and supports searches for individual resources and also Learning Paths (sequences of resources required along a Learning Plan).
Components of the LRM Phase
Regular Deliverables
The LP is a tool to allow learners and peers to create Learning Plans which are feasible courses of study leading to the achievement of learner’s educational objectives.
Example:
A learner might be interested in Quantum Mechanics. When they go to Wikipedia they discover that they can’t understand the articles because they’re missing pre-requisites. They would go to the Learning Planner to explore possible courses of study which would allow them to achieve their objective.
The Learning Planner is an interactive tool which accesses the LRM and the learner’s profile to allow the learner to create a Learning Plan which they find
The LPS securely stores each student’s learning profile, including
The LPS content is “owned” by the student. It can at any time be
Backups are secured with an encryption key known only to the student.
The SATS is designed to deliver Self-Assessment Tests to students on demand. Tests are automatically constructed from test components (including questions and challenges) which cover specific elements of knowledge. Tests are constructed by selecting appropriate components to ensure coverage and (as the database of components increases to allow this) to make each test unique.
SATS is designed to provide input to the Learning Planner as well as directly assisting Students in determining their accomplishments and any elements missing from their objectives.
The CLMS is a system for supporting small groups of Learners together with Peer Facilitators and Mentors (Expert Volunteers) in pursuing a Learning Path together.
CMMEs are immersive Multi-Person Multi-Media Environments. While such environments are currently best known as the environments for Massive Multiplayer On-Line Games (MMOGs) they have an equally long history as environments for supporting collaborative learning, from Plato to Croquet to the WWW itself.
A number of powerful open-source CMMEs currently exist which would be suitable as a basis for an LOEL strategic tool.
The CMMLE provides the services of our Collaborative Learning Management System integrated with a a CMME customized (by Learners and Peers with assistance from Mentors) into an ideal system for Collaborative Learning.