The Role of Teachers in Editing and Authoring Units of Learning

The UNFOLD project, funded by the European Commission, runs a Community of Practice for Teachers and Learning Providers which has examined the way in which teachers can work with the IMS Learning Design Specification. The results of this work is presented. Relevant aspects of the specification are discussed, in particular the design process as it is set out in the Best Practice Guide. Two main challenges are identified and the approaches taken to address them described: a) how to enable teachers to participate in the initial design stages, and b) Secondly ways of representing Learning Designs to teachers. The role of design primitives, patterns, taxonomies and templates is outlined, and interface issues for tool design are explored. A short description is provided of some key projects in the area, including ACETS, DialogPlus, 8LEM, MOT+ and LAMS.