Lifelong Learning Network Research Articles

A Study on Social Capital Formation through Lifelong Learning Network

본 연구는 지역사회의 평생학습 네트워크의 운영 과정에서 어떠한 구체적 유형의 사회적 자본이 형성되고 산출되는지에 대해 탐색하는 것을 목적으로 한다. 이를 위해 연구자들은 평생학습 네트워크의 운영이 활발한 서울 강남구 평생학습 실무협의체를 연구대상으로 하여 참여관찰과 심층면담을 통한 사례 연구를 진행하였다. 연구 결과, 평생학습 네트워크는 협의회를 구성한 후 지속가능한 운영방식을 확보하고 참여자 중심의 운영을 도모하면서 차츰 네트워크의 수준과 영역을 확대하였다. 이러한 평생학습 네트워크를 통해 산출된 사회적 자본은 ‘강화된 관계망의 밀도와 상호이해에 기반한 신뢰’, ‘공유된 다양한 네트워크 가치와 자원들’, ‘확장된 주체적 지역사회 활동’의 세가지 범주로 분석되었다. 강남구 협의회의 네트워크 활동을 통해 산출된 다양한 사회적 자본들은 평생학습 네트워크의 지속적 전개와 성장을 이끄는 동력 역할을 하고 있는 것으로 나타났다. 이와 같은 연구결과에 따라 평생학습 네트워크의 구축에는 어느 정도 사회적 자본을 공유하고 있는 집단을 기반으로 시작할 필요가 있는 점, 네트워크에서 다양하고 높은 수준의 사회적 자본을 산출하기 위해서는 탈집중적 방식의 네트워크 구조를 구축할 필요가 있는 점, 네트워크 구축의 당위성확보 및 활성화 전략을 위해서는 향후 네트워크의 활동의 다양한 산출물 중 하나인 사회적 자본에 대한 구체화된 연구가 필요함을 제안한다.

Automatic segmentation of three clinical target volumes in radiotherapy using lifelong learning

Background and purposeConvolutional neural networks (CNNs) have comparable human level performance in automatic segmentation. An important challenge that CNNs face in segmentation is catastrophic forgetting. They lose performance on tasks that were previously learned when trained on task. In this study, we propose a lifelong learning method to learn multiple segmentation tasks continuously without forgetting previous tasks. Materials and methodsThe cohort included three tumors, 800 patients of which had nasopharyngeal cancer (NPC), 800 patients had breast cancer, and 800 patients had rectal cancer. The tasks included segmentation of the clinical target volume (CTV) of these three cancers. The proposed lifelong learning network adopted dilation adapter to learn three segmentation tasks one by one. Only the newly added dilation adapter (seven layers) was fine tuning for incoming new task, whereas all the other learned layers were frozen. ResultsCompared with single-task, multi-task or transfer learning, the proposed lifelong learning can achieve better or comparable segmentation accuracy with a DSC of 0.86 for NPC, 0.89 for breast cancer, and 0.87 for rectal cancer. Lifelong learning can avoid forgetting in sequential learning and yield good performance with less training data. Furthermore, it is more efficient than single-task or transfer learning, which reduced the number of parameters, size of model, and training time by ~58.8%, ~55.6%, and ~25.0%, respectively. ConclusionThe proposed method preserved the knowledge of previous tasks while learning a new one using a dilation adapter. It could yield comparable performance with much less training data, model parameters, and training time.

Using Personal Learning Environment (PLE) Management to Support Digital Lifelong Learning

Personal Learning Environment is a promising pedagogical approach to integrate formal and informal learning in social media and support student self-regulated learning. The use of PLEs to support lifelong learning can be expanded to the formal, non-formal, or informal learning environments. This study empirically examined how PLE management predicted the use of PLE to support three types of lifelong learning (i.e., formal, non-formal, or informal learning). This study concluded that PLE management was predictive of each type of learning respectively. PLE is not only a technical platform but also a new digital learning literacy, conceptual space, pedagogical process, and social networks that enable and support learners to achieve their lifelong learning goals. While Open Educational Resources (OERs) are perceived as a solution for social justice in digital lifelong learning, PLE and Open Network Learning Environment are identified as the key pedagogy and instructional strategies to empower learners gaining network-learning literacy and becoming competent digital lifelong learners.

生涯学習と図書館情報ネットワーク (特集:わが国の情報流通施策)

生涯学習と図書館情報ネットワーク (特集:わが国の情報流通施策)

A personalized recommendation system with combinational algorithm for online learning

With the fast development of online and mobile technologies, individualized or personalized learning is becoming increasingly important. Online courses especially Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) often have students from many countries, with different prior knowledge, expectations, and skills. They in particular could benefit from learning materials or learning systems that are customized to meet their needs. On this note, this paper suggests a personalized recommendation system for learners in online courses. The system recommends learning resources such as relevant courses to learners enrolled in formal online courses, by using a combination of association rules, content filtering, and collaborative filtering. Pilot testing of this system in the Shanghai Lifelong Learning Network, a platform for free and open education, indicates that this recommendation system can improve the utilization rate of educational resources and also promote the learning autonomy and efficiency of students.

The research on China's policies and practice of lifelong learning in u-learning environment

Recently, lifelong learning and u-learning are significant concepts in the area of technology-enhanced learning. They have actually changed learning. This paper begins with an overview of u-learning and lifelong learning. And then, it reviews China's national policies on lifelong learning. National policies could influence the development of lifelong learning and decide the key points of building learning society. By means of Keller's Attention, Relevance, Confidence, Satisfaction ARCS model, this paper proposed lifelong learning motivation strategies, and finally analyses Shanghai Lifelong Learning Network as the practice case.

Lifelong Learning Network (LLN) progression agreements: An effective and sustainable approach for promoting the social mobility of vocational students?

This paper will critically reflect upon the findings from a recent Higher Education Academy (HEA) funded literature synthesis on how progression agreements (PAs) promote social mobility through improving pathways to the professions and vocational careers. This was based on material in the HEA‟s Widening Access, Student Retention and Success national programmes archive, predominantly focused on the work of PAs which formed part of HEFCE-funded Lifelong Learning Networks (LLNs). The agreements were designed to support transition into Higher Education (HE) for holders of level 3 vocational qualifications, including those studying via work based learning programmes, and to help develop clearly defined access routes into graduate careers. Such students tend to come from lower socio-economic groups than those with A levels, making LLN PAs potentially important instruments for the promotion of upward social mobility through providing alternative pathways into and through HE. Although the full impact of their activities won't be fully understood for some time, the paper will consider some initial evidence from the literature on the impact of progression agreements in areas such as academic and employment benefits for students; employer engagement; the sustainability of inter-institutional partnerships and networks; and the status of vocational qualifications in HE.

Design and Implementation of C-iLearning

The gradual development of intelligent learning (iLearning) systems has prompted the changes of teaching and learning. This paper presents the architecture of an intelligent learning (iLearning) system built upon the recursive iLearning model and the key technologies associated with this model. Based on this model and the technical structure of a cloud-based intelligent system, the authors developed an exemplary iLearning system-”Mobile Class”, accessible from the Shanghai Lifelong Learning Network, an online platform for the continuing education of Shanghai residents. This cloud-based intelligent learning (C-iLearning) system can adopt the cloud management model and synchronize users' learning process in the clouds, so as to support users' continuous learning with different devices. Formal testing with target users revealed the effectiveness of this system in supporting anytime anywhere learning.

Barriers and solutions to HE progression for Early Years’ practitioners

Shifts in UK social and economic policy have focused on education and care in the Early Years as key to improving social inclusion, skills acquisition and longer term social and economic prosperity. The implications for practitioners in the sector have been significant as roles, functions and foci have been renegotiated through the processes of professionalising the workforce. Drawing on the outcomes of a qualitative study of the career trajectories and aspirations of Early Years educators working in the private, voluntary and independent sector, this paper explores the processes of professionalisation as they collide with the lived experiences of practitioners at the chalk face. The project, funded by the Lifelong Learning Network, aimed to achieve understanding of the influence on career development decision making, particularly in relation to progression to higher education. Our findings suggest that many practitioners fall into the category of ‘non-traditional learners’ and that socio-cultural issues may be key factors in determining decision-making about career development. By bearing witness to the lived experience of practitioners we argue that the processes of workforce development must place greater emphasis on the contestable nature of professionalism and the plurality of professional identity and that Universities are key to achieving this.

Monitoring networking between higher education institutions and regional actors

As major contributors to research, higher education institutions have to tackle scientific questions that arise in connection with the transition of societies around the world towards more sustainable development. But universities are also significant societal actors – they shape their local, regional and national environments and are therefore important drivers for a sustainable future. A new way of cooperation and networking between higher education and regional actors is required in order to take up society-driven challenges for a cooperative solution-finding process. This paper aims at reflecting and analysing the diverse roles of higher education institutions in networking with regional actors. Three cases of networking and capacity building between higher education and regional actors, which were developed in the framework of the European Union project 3-LENSUS (Lifelong Learning Network for Sustainable Development), will be assessed in this paper: the COPERNICUS Alliance, the Database on Learning for Sustainable Development and the Seminar Series for Sustainable Development. The examples are methodologically reflected on the basis of the Graz Model for Integrative Development, as this model not only reflects the actions but in particular the processes behind the cases.

Learning networks with involvement of higher education institutions

Abstract The presence and importance of education for sustainable development has grown in response to the massive social, technological and environmental changes experienced by global society. This article describes the experience of developing academic and multi-sector learning networks for education for sustainable development, and shows briefly how these activities are rooted in the international pursuit of developing new approaches to learning that will better equip societies to cope with this global change. It provides a brief overview of the learning network theoretical principles, a practical example of such a network (Virtual Campus for a Sustainable Europe – VCSE), a case study of teaching/learning in a virtual environment that provides an opportunity to meet and cooperate in a transdisciplinary, multi-stakeholder and international setting (European Virtual Seminar – EVS), and a project aimed at transfer of the institutional and teaching/learning innovation from learning networks into university outreach activities (Lifelong Learning Network for Sustainable Development – 3LENSUS).

What women want: barriers to female entrepreneurship in the West Midlands

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the barriers that inhibit the development of female entrepreneurship in the West Midlands. This region is characterised by pronounced low levels of participation in higher education and entrepreneurship. With the support of funding from the Lifelong Learning Network (LLN), the paper contributes to a re‐evaluation of the current support available to women entrepreneurs and informs and aligns the provision of services to the needs of women across the region and beyond.Design/methodology/approachA study was commissioned by the LLN to identify the main barriers to female entrepreneurship in the Staffordshire, Telford & Wrekin and Shropshire areas. The main business support provision available to assist female entrepreneurs in June 2009 was mapped and these data were used in an online questionnaire to identify the level of awareness of this support provision amongst women in the target area, as part of the larger pilot study. An extensive online questionnaire consisting of 44 questions was designed in Version 1.82 of LimeSurvey, an open source PHP based survey tool. The survey was designed to capture information on the relationship between aspirations to start a business, demographic information, past experience of entrepreneurship, current skills levels, perceived barriers and knowledge of current business support provision.FindingsWhilst for many women accessibility to training was a major issue, an area of greater concern was found to be financial risk and the belief that women are less likely to start a business if they have a friend or family member with a business. The research findings suggested that even vicarious exposure to the pressures of running a business was a positive deterrent to entrepreneurship.Social implicationsThe research findings suggest that the mechanisms (business support agencies) through which information and support are provided to potential entrepreneurs needs to be reviewed. This preliminary research suggests that the existing infrastructure is inadequate and as business support is becoming more streamlined as a result of the public sector spending review, it could inform the nature and range of support provided to women entrepreneurs within the region and beyond.Originality/valueIn addition to contributing to development of strategy within the region, the authors feel that the research could have wider implication for regions with a similar economic profile to the West Midlands.

Symposium 4: Learning Analytics in a Teachers' Social Network

What is the social capital of a European teacher? We cannot give an answer for every teacher in Europe; but we have developed some measures for teachers participating in the eTwinning portal run by European Schoolnet as a case study. Driven by the idea that teachers collaborate across the borders with the support of an electronic platform, we were able to find correlations between social network analysis measures like degree and betweenness centrality as well as the local clustering coefficient, activity statistics about usage of eTwinning and the quality management of European Schoolnet. Only the combination of the three measures gives us indicators for the social capital gathered by a teacher. This learning analytics combines structural properties of the lifelong learning network of European teachers with the concrete usage statistics of a large-scale pedagogical social networking site using wall messages and blogs for communication among teachers and an established decentralized quality management framework which is unbiased by central policies. All work is implemented in a series of analysis and visualization prototypes working on anonymous data set extracted from the eTwinning network at certain time points. From this we can draw also on the evolution of the collaboration network as whole as well as on the development of the social capital of single teachers and their communities. As we have extracted different network structures mirroring the project and contact network of teachers and the online activities, we can compare the different factors contributing to the social capital of teachers.

An evaluation of the Advanced Diploma from the perspective of staff and learners

The article presented evaluates the experiences and aspirations of learners enrolled on the Advanced Diploma (level three 14–19) as well as documenting the thoughts of developers, managers and practitioners who have been responsible for the implementation of the award. In order to gain a clear picture of existing research, analysis of the literature to date has been undertaken. In addition to this, nine interviews and three focus groups have also been performed. These activities were undertaken in order to determine the opinions of those persons involved in the development, management and delivery of the Advanced Diploma. Twenty-six learners enrolled on Advanced Diploma courses have also been questioned in order to discover their views. Several recommendations and conclusions are presented as a result of this research. This work was completed by the Staffordshire, Stoke-on-Trent, Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin Lifelong Learning Network (LLN). This LLN was led by Staffordshire University in partnership with Keele University, University of Wolverhampton, Open University, Harper Adams University College and 13 further education colleges across the network’s area. LLNs were introduced by the Higher Education Funding Council for England during 2004 to create progression routes and progression agreements into and through higher education for vocational learners in identified vocational sectors. This article comprises part of a portfolio of work that has been completed by the LLN.

Accessing learning opportunities: the development and impact of an innovative Web-based progression tool

This article profiles a Web-based tool developed with the support of two lifelong learning networks (LLNs) to address issues around higher education progression amongst under-represented groups across the East Midlands, including vocational learners and adults returning to education. Having introduced the site and explored its development, the article assesses its impact by considering the level and nature of usage. Whilst meeting its key objectives in terms of visitor numbers, this evaluation also addresses the quality of visits made to the site and the positive feedback received from surveyed users. The underlying reasons for the site’s success are then investigated. With attention turning to the site’s sustainability this exploration also considers the lessons that can be learned from developing and managing an online information and advice tool. In doing so, it is suggested that the findings will be of value to others involved in advising learners, given the increasing emphasis placed upon the Internet as a medium for the provision of information, advice and guidance.

A case study exploring student choice making behaviour and progression agreements

This article examines the choice making behaviour, in relation to progression into and through higher education, of a small group of foundation degree students at a further education college in England. This study was conducted within the wider context of an evaluation of the impact of progression agreements within a Lifelong Learning Network and as such is influenced by other findings from the wider evaluation. The students interviewed, all of whom were high achievers at Level 3, nonetheless exhibited signs of having a tentative learner identity which constrained the choices they made in relation to progression into and through higher education. They also showed a marked reluctance to engage with formal methods of information, advice and guidance (IAG), preferring to rely on more informal sources. It is acknowledged that this is a small-scale study and as such needs to be treated as a case study rather than a generalisable piece of research. However, by comparing the initial themes emerging from the interviews with those of similar studies elsewhere in the UK (e.g. London, Scotland) it is hoped that the findings will be sufficient to provide some useful indications of the implications and impacts of some of the key activities of Lifelong Learning Networks, particularly progression agreements and IAG work.

The landscape of vocational progression in higher education: understanding the retention and progression of vocational learners through a regional perspective

This project aimed to better understand vocational student progression into higher education. Following an initial literature review a large dataset was purchased from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (covering the years 2002/3 to 2006/7 and 2007/8). This allowed for a quantitative analysis to take place which compared and contrasted the experiences of vocational and traditional learners (both full-time and part-time). Analysis of the quantitative data used displays how the overall relationship between entry profile and retention is a complex one and that it is too simplistic to say that vocational learners have significantly negative outcomes in terms of non-completion. The quantitative data also displayed that vocational learners are significantly more likely to be drawn from the lowest socio-economic groups. Other important points that were found after analysis of the quantitative data include the fact that vocational entrants are more likely to leave Year 1 full-time (FT) and sandwich awards than traditional entrants, that in the main there is little difference in completion rates between vocational and traditional entrants (apart from on Year 3 undergraduate awards) and that the distribution of degree classifications on FT awards shows that vocational entrants have a lower proportion of first and upper-second class degrees. The comparison of a sample of other universities has also shown that the main relationships and correlations identified in the study of the Lifelong Learning Network are observed elsewhere. The importance of the degree of deprivation in background has been shown to be a strong factor that impacts upon entry routes and retention.

Progression to higher education: the voice of the apprentice

This paper represents a contribution to the Skills Commission’s call in 2009 for more research into the attitudes of apprentices towards advanced further education and higher education. Understanding of the perspective of apprentices has been argued to be important to informing any policy change aimed at increasing the low progression rate of apprentices to higher level learning. This paper outlines how the issue of apprenticeship progression, particularly progression to higher education, has latterly fitted with the aims of Lifelong Learning Networks, set up to facilitate progression for learners on vocational pathways and to create opportunities for vocational learners to build on their earlier learning. We present two pieces of research into apprentices’ attitudes towards progression to higher levels of learning and show how this forms a contribution to our understanding of the issues around progression from apprenticeships, within the wider context of Lifelong Learning Networks’ endeavour to facilitate greater vocational progression into higher education.

Enabling staff development praxis: establishing effective journeys through the looking glass of widening participation perception

Higher education has always aspired to be seen to encourage open access to all types of learner including those with vocational qualifications. The reality of participation rates for such vocational learners is low (about 18%), however the reasons for such levels appear to mainly be reflected in perceptive issues amongst employers, learners and educational staff rather than procedural or technical barriers within qualifications themselves. Key to aiding progression are staff in higher education and the associated development opportunities they can access. Accepting there are issues specific to certain occupational strands in higher education, it is a clear cross-party political intent to encourage further progression of vocational learners and indeed to increase the whole vocational delivery of such provision as apprenticeships. Recent announcements around fee levels and demands for visible efforts relating to widening participation make the requirement to increase progression levels critical to the future of educational pathways. There is also a clear demand for such vocational qualification pathways from a cohort of interested learners, supported by employers, all with an intention towards progression. Accepting there is a case for widening participation, associated change within Higher Education (HE) appears to require staff development support to ensure such change occurs. This paper outlines some of the key activities, operated by the Western Vocational Lifelong Learning Network, that can successfully be adopted to encourage such learners and ensure higher education meets the aspirations for widening participation to this key cohort.

Crossing campuses: Level 3 tutor visits and vocational progression

This article focuses on a Western Vocational Lifelong Learning Network (WVLLN) initiative aimed at supporting Level 3 vocational tutors in further education (FE) who have moved into a teaching career via professional experience rather than through higher education (HE), but who play a significant role in advising young people about progression to HE. In early 2008, it was decided to pilot informal visits whereby small groups of Level 3 FE tutors were invited by departments of WVLLN partner institutions, to visit campuses, to meet with first-year lecturers, faculty admissions tutors and students and to sit in on a typical teaching session. While not originally conceived as a research project, the systematic collection of participant feedback and recording of changes to practice as a result of the visits reflect an action research approach. The article considers the challenges presented by this deceptively simplistic formula. It reviews the inter- and intra-institutional and cross-sector collaborative process required to initiate and sustain the programme and evaluate the feedback received. It outlines ways in which insights arising from the programme are feeding into practice around vocational progression to HE including continuing professional development and enhanced collaboration.