Research

NeLLL research is concentrated in six program lines. All six program lines have a focus on lifelong learning.

Program line 1 - Cognitive-educational perspective

Programme Line 1 studies instructional methods for lifelong learning and broadens the psychological basis for the development of these methods. Projects in this Programme Line might study, for example, instructional methods that aim at the acquisition of sustainable assessment skills and other self-directed learning skills enabling lifelong learning across the lifespan; organisational principles that allow for the flexibility to accommodate the extremely heterogeneous group of lifelong learners (re. age, prior knowledge, culture, work setting etc.), and assessment methods that make it possible to adapt and personalise applied methods to individual needs of lifelong learners.

The mission of this Programme Line is to promote formal and informal lifelong individual and group learning (i.e., expertise development) in complex cognitive domains through uncovering the underlying cognitive processes and the development of a detailed and comprehensive theory of instructional design. The focus is on authentic learning assignments based on complex real-life experiences as the driving force for learning. Providing learners with authentic ´whole´ tasks is believed to help learners to integrate the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary for effective task performance, to give them the opportunity to learn to coordinate qualitatively different constituent skills that make up this performance, and eventually to enable them to flexibly apply what is learned to their daily life or work settings (i.e., transfer). In addition, the key to surviving in an ever more rapidly changing and complex world with increased emphasis on web-based learning, remote learning, blended courses, and lifelong learning is learning how to learn. Therefore, the ultimate goal of the instructional design for lifelong learning is to arrive at sustainable learning, which means that learners have acquired such a level of expertise (i.e., knowledge skills and attitudes) that they are able to regulate and sustain their own learning.

Research Topics

(1) Creating flexible environments for acquiring complex cognitive skills)
Flexible learning environments - that are not necessarily computer-based - follow learners during the learning process and monitor their progress in the acquisition of knowledge and/or skills in order to adapt the learning content or instruction to their current needs. Research shows that such environments facilitate learning. This theme focuses on the following aspects of these environments: (1) prior knowledge activation, (2) learning tasks, (3) assessments/tests and (4) the adaptation loop. For each of these aspects research topics are identified. The first topic focuses on choosing prior knowledge activation strategies (e.g., mobilising, perspective taking or self-explaining) as a function of knowledge and/or skill level to enhance complex cognitive skill acquisition. The second topic focuses on choosing learning content (i.e., assignments/problems and information in single, multi or hypermedia format) and/or instruction (e.g., support, guidance, feedback, or learner control) as a function of knowledge and/or skill level to facilitate complex cognitive skill acquisition. The third topic focuses on using assessments and tests as learning instruments. Finally, the fourth topic focuses on (automatically) diagnosing assessment/test products, (automatically) determining the instructional consequences and, the role of learner control during these processes.

(2) Solving complex information problems
This theme deals with research on the processes that take place when students solve information-based problems c.q. carry out different types of information-based tasks as well as on instructional support within the learning environment to foster acquisition of information problem solving IPS - skills (e.g., information literacy). The research questions that are characteristic for this research theme relate to uncovering the strategies and processes that students employ when learning from multiple hypertext documents, how students judge the trustworthiness of information and sources that they find on the internet, and how they integrate information from different sources to construct knowledge. Finally, research on innovative ways of assessing IPS is carried out Tools for providing instructional support to foster the acquisition of IPS skills (e.g., process worksheets) will be designed, developed and their effects will be studied.

(3) Development of domain-specific expertise
The development of domain-specific, vocational and professional expertise extends from school often rooted in and affected by pre- or non-school learning far into adulthood and - depending on the learner - reaching very high levels of performance often never reached within the school. The dynamics of domain-specific expertise development is not only affected by teaching and (self-directed) learning including the personal factors associated with those learning processes, but also by the features of the domain (e.g., the half-time of professional knowledge) and by the context / learning environment where learning and performance take place (e.g., the assessment of learning and the feedback quality of the workplace). The research questions in this theme aim to 1) describe and explain these processes, taking both personal and environmental factors into account, and to 2) develop ways to improve these processes through measures (i.e., tasks, environments and assessments) that support and optimise learning and performance. The output of the studies under 1) is input for the studies of type 2), using design studies to improve practices.

Program line 2 - Learning networks for non-formal learning and professional development

The Learning Networks Programme Line specifically addresses the needs of professional learners. Its point of departure are the individual professional's employability concerns, translated into competence development needs. Learning Networks thus are primarily an environment for competence development, their set-up being determined by professional needs and demands. It is assumed that there are cohorts nor curricula, that learners enrol at their convenience; and that educational service providers will be involved in helping the professional learner to fulfil his or her needs. These assumptions amount to the adoption of non-formal modes of learning. Such modes, embodied in a Learning Network, provide the best possible environment for professional learners to fulfil their competence development needs. Learning Networks need to be designed and the designs need to be implemented. Programme line 2 has three research themes, that each focus on a particular design consideration.

Professional Development
All learners who join a Learning Network will have objectives. These goals will have to be translated in terms of specific competences that feature on the Learning Networks competence map. This demands services that map someone's goals onto a competence-bound goal position unique to the Learning Network in question. A similar mapping is also needed with respect to someone' s starting position. Whoever joins a Learning Network will not be a clean slate, but will have past educational and labour experience. This experience needs to be translated into competences which then have to be marked as 'already acquired'.

Questions addressed in this theme are:

• What competence descriptions and maps are robust enough to support a diversity of interest groups and remain valid for almost a learners full life span?
• How can learning opportunities (materials) best be mapped to a specific competence map? What constraints if any are conducive to such mappings usefulness?
• How can prior competences be assessed adequately and in ways that are commensurate with their intended usage?
• How can learning objectives be mapped into a specific competence map, what do the tools needed for this look like if they are peer-based or provider-based?
• What tools can be developed such that peer assessments of competences can be carried out successfully?

Learning Network Support Services
In a traditional organisational view of a Learning Network, various providers will be active, who collectively offer a variety of services. A hosting provider makes sure that a particular Learning Network can have an online presence, that users once registered remain having access, etc. There will also be content providers as well as providers of assessment services and of tutoring services. All these services literally stand in service of the well-being of the learners, In the context of a Learning Network, these services are needed as well as they cater for the needs of professional learners, but they will have to be provided in other ways.

Questions addressed in this theme are:

• What profiling data on learners need to be stored to allow learner support services adequately to operate?
• What privacy issues are there that constrain data storage and accessibility, and how do they affect the setting up of learner support services?
• What technology is most suited to underpin which learner support services: semantic web technologies that demand explicit ontologies, statistical techniques based on language technologies, or mixtures of them?
• To what extent is an overarching, pre-defined architecture needed and to what extent can it be avoided so as to allow for maximum setting-independence of specific learning networks?
• What interaction design principles are specific to supporting lifelong, professional learners with a variety of services?

Professional Communities
The Professional Development and Learning Network Support Services themes argue from the perspective of the individual learner. However, there is also the perspective of the network as an ensemble of interacting communities. Such communities emerge and disappear, wax and wane, all depending on their usefulness to the interests of their members. Communities in a Learning Network are therefore ad-hoc (focussed on a particular topic) and transient (short-lasting).

Questions addressed in this theme are:

• How should learner support services be configured so as to contribute maximally to the emergence of sociability in a Learning Network?
• What incentive structures, if any, are needed to fire off and maintain learner support services on the long term? Are these domain, profession or culture dependent?
• How can sociability best be defined and measured if it is to act as a proxy for the kinds of social relations that Learning Network inhabitants should maintain to further their own interests qua lifelong learners?
• What network structure, in social network analytical terms, are most conducive to the emergence and maintenance of communities (of practice and learning) within a Learning Network?
• How can desirable network structures be attained? To what extent are they bound by profession, domain, culture, dominant age, etc.?

Program line 3 - Personal and professional development

Implicit learning and implicit knowledge

The challenge of ensuring that citizens and employees continue to be equipped with the skills and competencies needed to live and work has never been more urgent. Demographic trends, global competition and technological advances demand an ongoing improving and optimizing of human potential, in both professional and personal contexts. Lifelong learning is essential in living up to the demands of todays knowledge societies. It helps to improve one's professional position and career opportunities, it may serve as a source of health, as a buffer against stress, or as a goal in itself by enriching one's life.
Line 3 focuses on the implicit knowledge and skills by means of which individuals become successful participants in social life. Whether in a professional or private setting, becoming a skilled practitioner often requires more than knowing what to do. Especially in everyday social settings, knowing how and when to do it, are just as important. Next to formal knowledge, expertise involves sensitivity, feeling, timing and attitude that are not so much the result of explicit instruction but rather result from implicit training and on-the-fly adjustment to significant others. Sometimes, implicit instruction or formal training is altogether absent in these cases.
Research in Line 3 is interested in such everyday practices, which are often taken for granted and are labeled as expertise, habits, daily routines, heuristics, unwritten rules, tacit knowledge, and so on. How are they acquired and deployed in informal interaction with others? And how can we understand the implicit normativity that is inherent in them?
Line 3 applies a wide range of research techniques, both qualitative and quantitative, to tackle further question like:

• What profession-specific heuristics for learning and performing do professionals have? How and when are they used, learned and improved in professional situations?
• What guidelines can be discerned from the characteristics of expertise acquisition and development within professions for designing and developing responsive, flexible and sustainable learning environments?
• What personal variables (e.g., age, gender, traits, ethnicity, money, prior education) influence lifelong learning? How can positive factors be optimised and negative factors eliminated or minimised?
• What are the effects of implicit learning on ones growth and personal deployment with respect to factors such as maintaining employability, or utilising ones personal capital?

Program line 4 - Socio-economic perspective

This program line focuses on the social and economic aspects of lifelong learning. We distinguish three focal points to which we commit our research efforts.

1. Learning and performance in working organisations
The central aim of contributions to this sub-theme is to enhance our understanding of learning and knowledge management within firms and in what way it contributes to processes of continuous learning and innovation. How can knowledgeable people be attracted to the firm and what role can be played by personal development (formal and informal)? In what way can staff training (learning at the individual / employee level) contribute to better social, ecological and economic performance of the firm.

2. Interorganizational learning and innovation
This research theme concentrates on different aspects of managing relations in the supply chain, with a focus on learning from forward and backward linkages. A key objective is improving our insights about the factors that stimulate or hamper interorganizational learning and innovation. Supply Chain Management encompasses the planning and management of all activities involved in sourcing and procurement, conversion, and all logistics management activities. Importantly, it also includes coordination, collaboration and learning with channel partners, which can be suppliers, intermediaries, third-party service providers, and customers. Issues revolving around learning processes and innovation management between supply chain parties are an essential aspect to be taken into account when studying supply chains. It is commonly accepted that technological change and innovation is the driving force behind economic growth and development. In this research theme we will elaborate on the direct effects on firm-level learning processes and innovation from being part of a supply chain. This leads to questions like: In what way do learning processes and knowledge accumulation take place within firms. What are the mechanisms by which knowledge is disseminated through the supply chain. What are the conditions under which these mechanisms operate efficiently? Research is undertaken about factors that stimulate or hamper interorganizational learning, including trust, power and dependence positions and relational norms.

3. Policy guidelines on competitive regions and sustainable development
Studies in this line of research concentrate on policy aspects. They focus on factors that stimulate and hamper interorganizational learning, and in particular learning processes that take place in the interaction between governmental institutes and firms. A central aim is to shed light on the way in which governmental institutions can stimulate learning within firms and regions with the aim of enhancing social, ecological and economic development i.e., People, Planet, Profit dimensions of sustainable development. Research questions pertain to, e.g., methods and techniques that help cities and regions to develop into learning cities and learning regions; in what way contribute learning cities and learning regions to the development of the knowledge society.

Program line 5 - The teacher perspective

Program line 5 has, more than the other four program lines a specific subject focus. Since it is grounded in the Ruud de Moorcentrum (RdMC) of the Open University of the Netherlands, it aims at research that helps our understanding of what works in teacher work place learning, HRD, development and education. In line with the mission of the RdMC the focus is not on formal teacher training, but on tools, guidelines and support for teachers who work as professionals. In other words, the focus is completely on life long learners. The aim is not to provide courses with study credits, accreditation or diplomas, but to support teachers in their actual profession.
In the Netherlands there are many concerns about the way teachers manifest themselves as professionals. It is for instance doubted if teachers are willing or capable to innovate their teaching approach and learning materials in line with the increasing impact of ICT in education. It is doubted if they are reflective practitioners who are able to research and question their own way of teaching. Job satisfaction is relatively low and burn out rates are relatively high.
RdMCs mission is to co create tools and procedures to improve work place learning and to stimulate teachers professionalization. RdMC publishes research based reports on its manifold of demand driven projects. What is strongly needed is a way to combine these studies with a more overarching research of common research topics or issues.
Therefore, this research program line in Nelll is intended to strengthen the academic research on teachers as life long learners. This strengthens both the Nelll profile and the RdMC research. In program line 5 specific overarching themes will be addressed, based on data that will be acquired in projects that run at schools. This means that the research orientation is oriented towards practical usefulness and impact on education. This also has implications for the research tools and methods employed in this program line for they will have to combine relevance in educational practice with scientific quality. This means: leading tot results that are transmittable to a scientific audience on the one hand, and to the other hand research methods that are able to grasp the complexity of educational innovation and teachers work.
Program line 5 has only recently been established in Nelll and some parts of it are still under construction. All overarching research topics that will be addressed in program line 5 are related to teachers. They are listed below. For each research topic a series of exemplary research questions is given:

• Teacher motivation
  - What is the impact of autonomy on teachers intrinsic motivation?
  - What is the impact of teachers(intrinsic) motivation on educational reforms and other projects?
• Teachers working and learning in (social) networks
  - How do teachers use their social networks for workplace learning?
  - What is the nature of a learning tie?
  - Which forms of networked learning are effective?
  - What are productive networked learning competencies?
  - How does it facilitate professional development?
  - Does networked learning contribute to an improved teaching practice in the classroom?
• Teachers as researchers
  - What action research competences are needed?
  - How can the development of research competences be supported?
• Tools for effective design based research
  - What quantitative or qualitative methods are suitable for effective design based research?
  - How can we avoid design creep and design blur in educational design based research?
  - How can we deal in our research with highly complex contexts or topics?
• Teachers as prosumers of ICT
  - How can we support teachers with tools that enable them to become active developers of multimedia learning materials?
  - How can teachers be supported to make more and more effective use of multimedia learning materials (e.g., Wikiwijs, L24)

Programme line 6 - The learning media perspective

This programme line researches innovative, challenging and pervasive ways of learning and teaching that exploit the opportunities of emerging digital media, media technologies and devices, which include wide band internet and mobile network technologies as well as user-generated content and a variety of new portable communication devices. It thus addresses the changing patterns of human functioning and communication as a result of these new media technologies and, more in general, the associated changing demands for learning and education in the knowledge society. A basic assumption of this programme line is that human living and learning will be subject to progressing virtualisation, which will effect the seamless integration of learning, working and living in service of better employability, lifelong competence development and learner empowerment.

Immersive media
This theme covers challenging, immersive and greatly involving environments, which mimic and mostly simplify real world complexity for learning purposes, or create absorbing non-existing realities for this. Immersion Media include virtual laboratories, virtual practicals, computational simulations, serious games and virtual worlds. They offer learners a safe and dedicated space for exploration, experimentation and practicing and they are known to be highly motivating and challenging because they place the learners in control, offer substantial freedom of movement and provide a lot of natural feedback.

Mobile media
Handheld and mobile devices are a fast-growing market. Also, the devices combine various separate multimedia and networking functions: i.e. telephone, photo and video recording, playing music, PDA-services, uploading blogs, mobile tracking services. They open up a mixed reality by defining new representations of the world that extend the real life arena. Hence, physical reality and virtual life are getting more and more intertwined. Mobile media for learning cover two fields of application: 1) the ubiquitous and cross media access to learning resources, and 2) the contextualisation and personalisation of learning media using context parameters as location, time, task, environment, or user information to adapt media for best learning support of the individual. Mobile media strongly support the intertwining of learning with daily life and work, and thus enable new opportunities for non-formal and informal learning, e.g. workplace learning.

Social media
This theme transsects the other themes. It covers emerging modes of user-generated content, content sharing and content tagging according to Web-2.0 approaches. The abundant emergence of (free) web services allows users to combine various tools and resources into rich and personalised working and learning environments. So these new technologies enable learners to aggregate, monitor and combine information streams from various sources and use these for new ways of learning and reflection. This so-called web syndication and the associated mechanisms for tagging and annotation of digital content create new opportunities for expression of thoughts, communication and content handling and thus it procures radical changes in the ways individuals learn.