1 About the Oracle Student Learning (OSL) Learning Tool

This chapter gives an overview of the OSL Learning Tool (LT).

1.1 Overview of OSL Learning Tool

OSL is a teaching and learning product that aims to improve the learning outcomes of students. It is a comprehensive environment for teachers, students, and parents to collaborate in the learning process with lesson creation, participation, evaluation, and dialog. It helps teachers offer a personalized learning experience for students by better understanding the learning pathways of each student.

The OSL LT provides the user interface that allows teachers, students, and parents to participate and collaborate in learning activities in one or more school curricula.

The teacher's interface facilitates:

• Preparation and delivery of courses and lessons

• Sharing of information, courses, and resources within and across schools

• Greater collaboration among the teaching community

• Direct linking of learning standards and outcomes to learning tasks of students

• Assessing, tracking the progress, and managing the learning pathways of each student

• Reporting and providing feedback on the student progress to parents and school administration

• Communication with parents and students online with ongoing feedback relating to student work

• Simplifying many of the administrative requirements of schools and teachers with less time spent on gathering data and more time spent acting on it

The students' interface facilitates:

• Viewing their learning plan and tasks online

• Keeping of online journals and participating in online discussions

• Submission of work to teachers online

• Easily accessing online learning objects and other online resources

• Reviewing their learning over time, encouraging a deeper understanding of their learning

• Communication with teachers online with ongoing feedback relating to student work

• Creation of knowledge about the student's learning and progress, also knowledge about the process of teaching and learning

• Continuous and ongoing feedback to parents, teachers, and student managers

The parents' interface facilitates:

• Viewing his or her children's learning plan and specific tasks online

• Reviewing his or her children's learning over time, encouraging deeper understanding of his or her children's learning

• Communicating with teachers online with ongoing feedback relating to his or her children's work

1.2 Understanding OSL Learning Tool

The following sections define concepts related to using the OSL LT.

1.2.1 Class

A class is a group of students and teachers that is defined in a specified period in relation to a specified course. For example:

• Grade 2 General Studies 2007

• Year 9B English 2006

• Middle Years Peer Support Program Term 2 2008

1.2.2 Learning Item

Learning items are key elements that act as a reference against which lessons may be assembled, participated in, and assessed.

1.2.2.1 Root Node

Within the Class area, learning items are displayed in a hierarchy, with some learning items containing subordinate learning items. This allows teachers to organize and group their lessons as they see fit.

At the top of the hierarchy is a root node. In the case of the teacher's personal planning area, this root node represents the personal planning area. In the case of a class, the root node represents the class.

Each teacher is allocated a personal planning area by default, that no other user can access. Lessons created within this area do not necessarily have any relation to each other and no student can be assigned to these lessons.

Classes are configured and maintained by school curriculum administrators.

Teachers are able to edit the properties of their personal planning area or classes in which they teach. They can create and maintain learning items under these root nodes. Teachers are also able to view other classes at the schools in which they teach, however they are not able to modify these classes or the learning items within them.

1.2.2.2 Container Learning Item

As its name suggests, a container learning item can contain multiple secondary learning items.

Figure 1-1 Containers for Learning Items

Containers can be:

• Folders

  A folder helps teachers organize their lessons into logical groupings. Lessons can be grouped as time segments like week 1, week 2; topics such as Global Warming, Urban Pollution; or elements of the curriculum such as Maths, English.

• Documents

  A document represents a package of work that is composed of several activities. It may be a single lesson or several lessons that are displayed as a single activity in a document format. Users can access the learning items within a document separately, or as a whole.

Through the use of containers, teachers can organize their lessons in any way they want. A single learning item may represent a lesson, or a teacher may teach several lessons based on a single learning item.

There is one restriction when preparing containers, a document may not contain a folder.

1.2.2.3 Service Learning Item

Service learning items represent the actual activities that are undertaken by the students. Service learning items cannot contain other learning items.

Service learning items can be:

• Tasks

  A task contains only a set of instructions. It may be used within a container to provide guidance regarding the other learning items in the container. Or it may be a placeholder for recording assessment and feedback against an offline activity.

• Submissions

  A submission allows students to make an online submission of a piece of work. Students can enter text through a rich data editor, insert images and links from a content management system, attach files from local system, or record audio. Students may participate in a Submission Item as an individual or as part of a group.

• Journals

  A journal allows students to maintain a sequence of journal entries or personal thoughts on a certain topic, as instructed by their teachers. Students can enter text through a rich data editor, insert images and links from content management system, attach files from local system, or record audio.

  Teachers may add their own comments to their students' journals.

• Discussions

  A discussion allows students to participate in a discussion forum, which helps them to share and discuss ideas in a moderated environment. Students can enter text through a rich data editor, insert images and links from content management system, attach files from local system, or record audio.

  Teachers may join in the discussion as well.

• References

  A reference allows teachers to refer students to a specified URL such as an educational Web site that is displayed within the OSL page.

When a learning item is created within a class, the teacher can specify the start date, end date, and due date (for submissions only) along with the students who should participate in the learning item. Container learning items derive their start and end dates from their subordinate learning items. A student must be assigned to a container learning item before he or she can be assigned to a subordinate learning item.

1.2.3 Curriculum Framework

A school curriculum is defined by a curriculum framework, which is created and maintained by a curriculum administrator.

A curriculum framework consists of several framework items, defined in a hierarchy. Each framework item identifies an element within the curriculum. In most curricula, the elements are of a type dictated by their level in a hierarchy. For example, the first level may be called Learning Areas, the next level called Outcomes, and the next level called Aspects.

Note:

Throughout the OSL LT, and within this document, any element within a curriculum framework is typically called an Outcome.

Outcomes define areas within the curriculum with decreasing scope. Outcome statements are used to further decrease the scope of a definition, and are used to define the level of competence of a student against an outcome.

Within each curriculum framework, one or more proficiency sets are defined. Each level is typically given a number, with a higher number indicating a higher level of proficiency. Proficiency levels may be divided further into sub-levels for finer granularity.

Outcome statements are associated with proficiency levels so that it is possible to define several outcome statements for the same outcome, in the order of lowest proficiency to highest. By doing so, teachers are able to assess the abilities of a student in light of a particular outcome by assigning the student a particular outcome statement. Such assignments may be made as demonstrations of a student's ability while participating in learning items, or as confirmations of general ability. For more information on demonstrations and confirmations, see Section 3.12.1.