The evolution of e-learning platforms from content to activity based learning: The case of Learn@WU

Over the last decades e-learning platforms evolved from tools for distributing materials and providing quiz-based assessments to complex software systems that enable didactically enriched learning experiences. This paper describes the metamorphosis of the Learn@WU system, one of the most intensely used e-learning platforms. The platform is in use since 2001, when it was designed for learning content management, complemented by community management functions over the years. One of the major usages in the beginning was the support of blended learning in large classes up to 1000 students and the provision of self-assessment in the initial phase of the study programs. From the start, the platform supported all beginner courses of all subjects without much instructional design, to give students complete freedom for self-directed learning. Today, the platform contains more than 160,000 learning materials used in the 4,000 courses offered each year. However, studies showed indications that most students prefer to use the self-assessments in order to memorize questions instead of deep learning of content, i.e. by carelessly submitting results for many exercises to receive the correct solutions provided as a feedback from the system. As a consequence, the success rates in self-assessments did not serve as good predictors for knowledge and exam success. It was also found that spaced learning and overall learning time have a positive influence on final exam results [1]. Based on these findings, the objectives for the further development of the platform included efforts to increase the validity of the self-assessment data and to better support instructional designs. The new implementation allows to assign different learning activities to resources and to organize activities in thematic modules in order to support, e.g., flipped-classroom designs. This focus on learning activities was achieved through the implementation of learning design functionality and the possibility to connect resources to several so-called `content flows', which are short workflow sequences that specify series of user interactions with the resource within a certain context. They define, for instance, if a resource has a training or self-assessment purpose (which are different learning activities), in order to improve the validity of knowledge assessment. After one month of productive use of the new features, more than 8,000 learning activities have been created in more than 100 courses of the university, which indicates good acceptance rates. According to our knowledge, Learn@WU is the first large-scale e-learning platform which has adopted a workflow-based approach for realizing differentiated learning activities.