Student User Profiling

At the back of my mind I like to keep some basic definitions: "a complex of living organisms, their physical environment and all their interrelationships in a particular unit of space" —Encyclopedia Brittanica; and "a biotic community or assemblage and its associated physical environment in a specific place" —Tansley.

The abiotic environment I have described as being made up of the servers, database and core code. Course materials (Moodle 'resources' and 'activities') are the analog of vegetation. And the "biotic community"—as I see it—is made up of instances of student user and tutor user, with an occasional rare sighting of manager user (often mapped to the more commonly named coordinator user. The student user species is sub-divided into school leaver, modern apprentice, post-graduate, lifelong learner, recently redundant, long term unemployed, and cross cultural. The tutor user is sub-divided into those who choose to teach online and those who are forced into it by organisational policy; the latter are depracated and will not exist in future versions. There may be other sub-species of which I am not aware, but those listed are the ones I commonly observe in my experiments and thought experiments.

This discussion narrows the scope of the popular Cloud Learning Environment to that of Walled Garden, to hold true to Tansley's definition of an eco-system existing "in a specific place".

Environment

In the Moodle eco-sanctuary the server, database, and core code provide a stable and friendly environment. The login scripts are the predator-proof fence. In real life (in RL) the environment is threatened by pollution. In the Moodle environment are the threats of corruption and loss of data integrity, but these are well-managed. In cyberspace we have the luxury of resetting the server or going out of Moodle, clearing our browser cache —and coming back in with a clean slate.

Habitat

The habitats exist on the platform of the environment, and within the predator-proof fence of the login scripts. In the wonderful Tardis world of Moodle the predator-proof fence is almost infinitely expandable, limited only by the size of the database, which in turn is probably limited not so much by technical considerations as by the storage allowance of your account with the server company. Just as the environment is expandable, so you can go on creating habitats to your heart's content; course instances can run into the thousands without any concerns for stability. So, the words "Course" and "Habitat" become interchangeable.

Just as we do in Zealandia, we lean on the wall surrounding a given habitat —and look in. If Zealandia, at 550 acres, is too big for your visualisation then try rockpool, aquarium, or vivarium. Thinking about rockpools is useful: Rocks, sand, water... that's the environment... but with each successive tide and with wave action the habitat is always changing, and the creatures come and go. The idea maps to evolving course designs, and fresh intakes. The idea of spring and neap tides maps to the tertiary education sector too: on neap tides the sea may not reach the rockpools and they become a little bit stagnant. But in just a few days the spring tides come around again, bringing a fresh supply of nutrients and crabs.

Organisms

Later, I very much want to look at the role of micro-oraganisms, softbots that creep about unseen doing the dirty work in the environment and on the floor of the habitat. In another article I discuss the organic nature of course content. But for now we'll limit ourselves to the larger more obvious inhabitants.

User {Manager, Teacher, Student}

I use the Moodle 2 default names for the roles or sub-species of User for the title, but immediately map them to terms common in the polytechnic sector: manager > coordinator; teacher > tutor; student > student.

Manager (Coordinator)

Few reported sightings, and none confirmed . But when 'manager' actually means 'coordinator' then they may be more visible —assigning roles, looking at the activity logs, chivvying the tutors and so on.

Teacher (Tutor)

Now I have to ask you a question: Do you see the teacher existing with the students inside the habitat, or do you see the tutor leaning on the wall like a zookeeper, looking in? Because I see the tutor like some kind of worker ant ("At night the worker ants move the eggs and larvae deep into the nest to protect them from the cold. During the daytime, the worker ants move the eggs and larvae of the colony to the top of the nest so that they can be warmer. If a worker ant has found a good source for food, it leaves a trail of scent so that the other ants in the colony can find the food." —Facts About Ants), and he or she is right in there amongst the other (student) ants. And I see myself (the course designer) as some kind of amateur zoologist on the outside looking in. Of course in many cases the tutor and the course designer are one and the same person, in which case they are constantly hopping over the wall to tinker, or back out again to observe —and this makes for a great line in action research.

Typically, Enthusiasticus will be right in there amongst the other ants, adapting the environment, moving everyone around from place to place, and generally leading the way. Enthusiasticus will be highly active in the forums. Enthusiasticus will often use external channels like Skype, Twitter and Facebook to further enhance communications, and herein lies a threat to the habitat, because disease may enter down these subterranean corridors; that is a topic I will expand on in due course.

Typically, Reluctanticus will attempt to distance itself from the students, will create activities that do not require supervision, and will observe from outside the wall, only reaching in when absolutely necessary. Habitats maintained in this way rarely thrive.

The Non-editing teacher (tutor) is often promoted from the student population, and has an analog in the now thought to be extinct tutor assistant.

Student (Student)

Lifelong learner > reliable, self-sufficient, consistent, thorough, internet savvy...

Long term unemployed > absent, unreliable, needy, slow, internet dysfunctional...

Cross cultural > unreliable, quick, just-in-time, does not ask for help, internet savvy...

Suggested Task

I have described the abiotic and biotic components of an ecosystem, and drawn analogies between those and the components of a Moodle course. What I have not yet discussed is Energy Flow. The sun does not shine on the Models and Controllers of cyberspace, it's very dark like some kind of underground darkess; only the Views are illuminated with a backlight shining through the red, green and blue liquid crystals of your display.

What is the source of energy in a Moodle habitat? What causes that energy to flow and to be distributed to all the organisms that choose not to hide from it? Is it quantifiable? Is it sustainable? Can it be managed?

Make notes and bring your ideas to the forum.

It might be that the analogy has been drawn out too far, and there is no definable source of energy Supported by a sound argument this could be one valid outcome from this task.

Sources

I've not yet done a proper literature search on 'e-learning ecosystems' and I think I should do that next.

Zealandia: an ecosystems approach