Supporting Qualifications-Based Learning (QBL) in a Higher Education Institution’s IT-Infrastructure

Abstract

This dissertation is concerned with design, implementation, and application of an approach called Qualifications-Based Learning (QBL) that is inspired by the idea of Competence-Based Learning (CBL). The name QBL has been chosen, because it reflects the basic assumption that competence is just one of many qualification types; other examples are skill and factual knowledge. In QBL terminology, the generic term for a qualification of any type is Competence/Qualification (CQ). QBL takes up former research & development activities in the area of CBL and proposes extensions that improve the possibilities for realizing visions like: creation of CQ-based courses and study programs, design and processing of CQ-based didactic scenarios, realization and usage of personal CQ profiles, and cross-institutional comparison of CQ related information. Examples for CQ related information are learning goals of courses and study programs, and personal CQ profiles containing the students’ achieved CQs. This PhD project started with a pre-study that investigated the big picture of CBL and outlined the wide range of involved topics, approaches, specifications, and software solutions. The pre-study was the initial step of a comprehensive State of the Art research that acquired the knowledge base for conceiving QBL, designing the Qualifications-Based Learning Model (QBLM), and planning appropriate proof-of-concept implementations. A main topic of this thesis is the design of the QBLM, which consists of a Domain Model, an Architectural Model, and diverse Service Distribution Models. The QBLM describes the domain of QBL in a common modeling language, provides a basis for integrating QBL software solutions into Higher Education Institutions’ IT-Infrastructures, and outlines service-based interactions between the involved components. To validate the QBLM, diverse proof-of-concept prototypes have been designed and implemented. One of these prototypes is QBL4Moodle, an extension pack for the Learning Management System (LMS) Moodle. The initial version v0.1 emerged in the context of this thesis and primarily concentrates on QBL basis functionalities. QBL4Moodle is currently used and further developed by subsequent research projects. Another software solution that emerged from this thesis is the LTI-based Moodle-WebAssign-Integration; since winter semester 2017/18, it is a regular part of the IT-landscape at the University of Hagen (FUH; German: FernUniversitat in Hagen). This feature enables transparent embedding of exercises provided by FUH’s assignment system WebAssign into Moodle courses by using services that comply with the Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) standard. Furthermore, a concept has been designed that integrates an LMS-independent authoring tool for CQ-based courses and study programs into FUH’s IT-infrastructure. Another distributed QBL application scenario adopts and extends the LTI-based Moodle-WebAssign-Integration for CQ-based educational games. These approaches are not yet fully implemented and will be completed by subsequent QBL projects. The QBL approach, the QBLM, and the proof-of-concept prototypes have been subject of several evaluation scenarios with participation of varying target groups including researchers, developers, course authors, and software architects. The evaluation results have been positive; the documented needs for improvements are covered by subsequent development cycles. An outlook on currently running and scheduled further developments concludes this dissertation.