Temble

Temble (TEMplate Based LEarning) is a proposed self-paced learning tool for Sakai that merges IMS Learning Design (IMS-LD) concepts with the Template Based Learning approach developed by Micromentor.

See Learning Structures.
See Media Objects.

The IMS-LD specification provides a means to describe organization and sequencing of learning activities. Activities can be further broken down into sequenced content with outcomes and learning goals. Where the earlier Simple Learning Design page described a top down approach baesd on IMS-LD, Temble will be more bottom up, with the focuse on creating learning activities that are sequenced pages of content based on display and interaction templates.

Analysis

The simple cases of self-paced, sequenced learning consist of a series of pages. Each page has information to be conveyed to the student and an optional exercise about it.

In some ways, this is similar to the existing Quiz and Test Tool (Samigo). While Q&T provides a way to sequence collections of questions, it currently only provides for linear sequencing and doesn't provide a gating mechanism to control the sequencing progress. Samigo has a variety of question types that might be leveraged to create Temble exercises. How easy this would be to use depends on factorization of the Samigo services. At the very least, it should be possible to leverage the question bank and create a new rendering and sequencing application.

Temble also has some similarity to the Presentation Tool in that PT sequences HTML pages, images, or multimedia objects. The Presentation Tool is designed for synchronized presentation to multiple students, whereas Temble is focused on providing self-paced personal learning experiences.

Melete must also be considered in considering existing Sakai tools. Melete provides much of the same functionality. Thought it is not based on IMS-LD, it does have support for content package and OCW. Melete is intended to be synchronized to a classroom experience. As such, sequencing of activities is largely date-driven, though sequences pages of material can be presented within a single activity. Dependencies on dates prevents Melete from being a true self-paced learning tool. That said, Melete has good authoring capabilities that might be leveraged for ideas, if not for code.