Representing Models of Practice

Practice models are generic approaches to the structuring and orchestration of learning activities for pedagogic purposes, intended to promote sharing of effective e-learning practice. This chapter surveys the background to the idea of practice models, and then examines the issues surrounding their representation that emerged from the UK Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC)-funded Mod4L project. These issues are ones of purpose, design as a process, granularity, community, and characterisation. It analyses the purpose and the metaphor for design, coupled with consideration of the audience for practice models, suggesting that while generic models are useful for technical developers, they may not be an effective way of sharing teaching practice. The possibility that a rich domain map coupled with community building activities and richly contextualised exemplars might be more effective is briefly discussed. The complex interactions of characteristics of a design representation underpin the necessity for different representations to fulfil different user needs.