Objective Purpose The ARTICULATE Consortium is responsible for assessment and evaluation of learning technologies in DELTA. In practice all DELTA projects, in particular 'pilot' projects in the 200 Series also share responsibilities for assessment and evaluation. The approach adopted (see below) therefore recognises this sharing of responsibility between ARTICULATE and others in DELTA. Answering the "big" questions Essentially we are all interested in answers to DELTA's "big" questions: What is the actual contribution of technologies to distance and flexible learning? and, What are the actual and potential impacts of learning technologies? Developing New Evaluation Approaches ARTICULATE also has a "meta-purpose": to contribute to the development of new and innovative evaluation approaches in the learning technology domain. An important motivation for many of ARTICULATE's partners is dissatisfaction with previous attempts to evaluate similar initiatives. ARTICULATE is therefore piloting a range of innovative evaluation approaches and refining them in the course of its work. The outputs of this process is intended to be of value not only to DELTA but also to others who engage in innovation in learning enabled by information and communications technology. An emphasis on learning and utilisation ARTICULATE also adopts its own particular orientation to the DELTA "big" questions - about actual and potential contribution of learning technologies. ARTICULATE is very concerned with the learning aspect of learning technologies. Reviews of pedagogic and learning theory have featured prominently in ARTICULATE's background research, as have reviews of the socio-cultural and socio-economic processes that are shaping learning technology developments. Thus we are also interested in how learning technologies are utilised. Educationalists and trainers have ultimately to find these new applications useful if they are to succeed. ARTICULATE is focusing much of its work at this level. The questions do learners learn and do users use learning technologies, are an important criteria in the evaluation and assessment within DELTA. The 'Common Evaluation Framework' document, which was developed, provides a conceptual template for each of the components of the total evaluation enterprise. Related to this is a set of guidelines for evaluators, taking them through the stages of designing their own evaluation, and simultaneously providing a common set of evaluation building blocks to ensure cross-programme coherence.ARTICULATE also produced a 'monitoring system' that used both intrusive and naturalistic measures to track the evolution of the projects. The exploration of various themes within the projects was carried out through a series of comparative case studies. A project liaison system, a programme of workshops and a 'help desk' were also set up and run by ARTICULATE.Approach How are we innovative? ARTICULATE is both developing new evaluation approaches and bringing together existing approaches in new ways. Developing and piloting learning technology applications is seen as a process of innovation occurring in a wider cultural, economic institutional, educational and technological environment. This 'environmental' perspective is one of the distinctive (and new) aspects of ARTICULATE which shapes much of the project's overall approach. The evaluation also brings together several approaches that are not usually combined in one exercise. ARTICULATE is for example undertaking: a real-time evaluation as well as accumulating outcome data: it is therefore both formative and summative independent case-studies as well as supporting the evaluation activities of DELTA projects: it is engaged in both "self" evaluation and "external" evaluation using participative and interpretative research methods alongside more conventional survey and experimental methods: it has both a "positivist" and "constructivist" orientation. "Architecture" of the Evaluation The overall architecture of ARTICULATE's evaluation is outlined below: The first year of the project was preoccupied with review activities: reviews of existing research, e.g. in evaluation and assessment, learning and pedagogy reviews of environmental processes, socio-cultural and socio-economic and educational that are influencing DELTA and, reviews of pilot projects' documentation, in order to clarify their objectives, starting positions and general orientation. This material has been used to put together an "evaluation framework" that is being used in 1993 and 1994 Activities. During this phase ARTICULATE is concentrating its efforts on three main activities: Project level evaluation is supporting and advising DELTA projects with their own evaluation activities. A Monitoring System i.e. a set of qualitative and quantitative instruments that will track the evaluation of learning technology innovations over time. Case Studies, i.e. focused and thematic studies of all aspects - educational, technological, institutional and economic - of learning technology innovations. Outputs and Impacts ARTICULATE must be judged first in terms of helping to answer DELTA's own big questions. However as an ongoing "real-time" evaluation, ARTICULATE can also be expected to contribute to the evolving self-understanding of DELTA programme participants. For example we would regard a raising of awareness about the needs of learners and more sophisticated use by pilots of self evaluation outputs as positive "outputs" of ARTICULATE. The evaluation and assessment approaches and methods being developed in DELTA should themselves constitute project outputs. One measure of the success or failure of ARTICULATE should therefore be the extent to which others use the consortium's frameworks instruments and methodologies in other contexts, in the future. Fields of science social scienceseducational sciencespedagogy Programme(s) FP3-DELTA 2 - Specific programme of research and technological development (EEC) in the field of telematic systems in areas of general interest - Flexible and distance learning (DELTA) -, 1990-1994 Topic(s) Data not available Call for proposal Data not available Funding Scheme Data not available Coordinator Tavistock Institute of Human Relations EU contribution No data Address 30 Tabernacle Street EC2A 4DE London United Kingdom See on map Total cost No data
