Personal Learning Environments: Challenging the networked ecosystems with people agency

A Design Framework for Personal Learning Environments

Objective: This study explores students' perceptions of using Personal Learning Environments (PLEs) in the era of generative artificial intelligence as a learning resource in higher education. The specific objectives are: 1) to determine the current tools that students incorporate into their PLEs and 2) to identify students' perceptions of the use of PLEs for lifelong learning. Theoretical Framework: UNESCO and other institutions recognize lifelong learning as an essential competency for personal and professional development. Personal Learning Environments (PLEs) are considered effective tools for promoting self-directed learning, allowing students to manage their learning processes, especially with the advent of generative artificial intelligence technologies. Method: A qualitative study was conducted with 207 first-semester engineering students from a public university in Peru. Participants were introduced to a training program to develop their PLEs using various digital tools, including generative AI tools such as ChatGPT DALL-E. The instrument used to evaluate students' perceptions was the MUSIC model (Jones, 2009), which focuses on empowerment and usefulness. Results: The results indicate that more than 80% of the students positively perceive PLEs, considering them valuable and empowering tools for achieving their learning objectives. Integrating generative AI tools into PLEs is notable, as it provides a dynamic and personalized learning experience. Most students found PLEs helpful for their future and relevant for promoting lifelong learning skills. Research Implications: The research suggests that PLEs, especially when integrated with generative AI tools, positively impact self-directed learning and promote collaborative and social learning. These findings can inform the development of educational programs and policies that encourage using PLEs as a student-centered learning strategy. Originality/Value: This study contributes to the understanding of the role of PLEs in the context of higher education and generative artificial intelligence. It is one of the first studies to examine students' perceptions of using PLEs with generative AI tools, highlighting their potential to enhance learning autonomy and personalization.

A Personal Learning Environment or PLE is described as a process that helps students organize the influx of information and resources that they are faced with on a daily basis into a personalized digital learning space or experience. A PLE is primarily facilitated by cloud-based Web 2.0 technologies and services designed to help students create, organize, and share content, participate in collective knowledge generation, and manage their own meaning making. Hence, a PLE is student-designed around each student’s goals or learning approach. In a PLE, the student develops an individualized digital identity through the perceptual cues and cognitive affordances that the personalized learning environment provides such as what information to share and when, who to share it with, and how to effectively merge formal and informal learning experiences. To gather data on PLEs, Mason students were asked what do they like to learn about; what hardware (devices) and software do they use to learn; what digital tools they wish they had access to for learning; and what their ideal PLE might look like. In this presentation, we will share student responses to these questions and provide recommendations for supporting the development PLEs in teaching and learning contexts.

Professor Ricardo Torres Kompen is a leading proponent for, and researcher in, personal learning environments (PLEs). During his interview, Torres Kompen clarified his research on PLEs, particularly the digital toolbox within PLEs. He elaborated on experiences with implementing PLE initiatives, personal insights on using social media and Web 2.0 technologies, and the role of PLEs in designing learning for an increasingly complex, networked community in the digital age. Located in Barcelona, Spain, Torres Kompen has traveled extensively and worked in diverse settings. His work has a broad impact, including educators and students, formal and informal learning environments, from primary school students to lifelong learners. The innovative leadership traits referred to as the Innovator's DNA (Dyer, Gregersen, & Christensen, 2011) was used to contextualize major developments in Torres Kompen's contributions to research and practice in PLEs.

It is commonly argued that learner participation and interaction can be enhanced by the use of Personal Learning Environments (PLEs). However, this idea has yet to be reflected in practice. In this sense, researchers are encouraged to do more empirical research in order to know whether PLEs could allow the transference of the participative and networked nature of Web 2.0 to the institutional sphere. In this sense, this paper presents a differential study in which the authors analyzed student participation and interaction when working with a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) and a PLE in two online, higher education courses. With that aim in mind, participation measures were calculated and social network analysis was performed on the digital data collected from the learning environments. The findings reflect the effectiveness of a PLE over a VLE for facilitating student participation and for assisting students in the creation of more cohesive learning networks.

This study designed and pilot-tested a learning path in Personal Learning Environments (PLEs) to facilitate learners’ Self-regulated Learning. 122 postgraduates who joined an International English Language Testing System (IELTS) course at a comprehensive university in China were evenly divided into two groups. The experimental group used PLEs with a learning path design, while the control group used PLEs without a learning path design. The pre-and-post-tests of IELTS were conducted to assess participants’ cognitive achievements. The results indicated that both groups improved cognitively, with the experimental group indicating significantly better improvements than the control group. Further, a questionnaire on participants’ satisfaction with the PLEs platform was administered. The results showed that the experimental group was highly satisfied with the path-controlled PLEs, while the controlled group expressed their need for scaffoldings in PLEs. The study could provide learning platform designers with useful guidance to improve learners’ learning performance and satisfaction.

In this paper we present the results of a naturalistic study carried out with higher education students which describes their learning environments when working on academic tasks in groups and individually. In this study we want to analyse how they organize their learning activities and knowledge processes (reading, reflecting and sharing) and how these learning processes are integrated into their Personal Learning Environments (PLE). In order to achieve that, students had to reflect about the basic ‘components’ that make up their learning process: reading (using not only by text but also multimedia), doing/reflecting (creating cognitive artefacts) and sharing (discussing, showing, and offering and receiving feedback from and to a community of reference). Students formed relationships between those components and any technological tools they used and created mind maps to represent their PLEs. The main objective is to try to understand how PLEs are organized and how they are perceived by learners, not from a technological perspective but from a learning perspective. The main results confirm the strong nature of PLEs as a pedagogical approach with a strong technological base. In addition, those results suggest a close relationship between students’ beliefs and expectations regarding academic tasks as well as the importance they give to each component in their learning process.

The paper aims to explore the correlations between Malaysian students Personal Learning Environments PLE in terms of four significant factors; self-concept, planning and management, tool & resource utilization as well as social interaction.The emphasis is on variances such as age, gender and wealth.Out of 198 students aged 13 to 17, the data indicated that 66.2% scored "High" in social interaction, with similar numbers for use of tools and resources (72.7%), planning and management (80.8%), and self-concept (84.8%).These qualities are only very slightly correlated with age, as older students generally perform better.To take one example, 92% of the solenoid needed for 17-year-olds were scored as "High" in Self-Concept than just 70% of those solenoid needed for 13-year-olds.Gender Differences: In all dimensions, women outperform men and employ Planning Tools and group learning effectively with PLE tools.Limitations such as limited access to technology compound wealth disparities, meaning many lower-income students experience very different patterns of social interaction and resource utilization.Our findings highlight the need for inclusive PLE designs and targeted interventions, such as equitable access to digital devices and tools; gender-sensitive design features, and personalised supports-if PLE benefits are to be maximised for diverse learner populations.

The incorporation of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) into higher education has profoundly revolutionized the manner in which students engage with educational resources and acquire knowledge. Personal Learning Environments (PLEs) facilitate a tailored and adaptable learning approach, empowering students to take charge of their own educational experiences. Nonetheless, to effectively leverage PLEs in higher education, a robust ICT framework is imperative. This paper explores the development of an ICT framework specifically designed for PLEs within the context of higher education. The framework encompasses diverse ICT attributes, including accessibility, flexibility, data analysis, extensive capacity, automation, personalization, and security. Analyzing interview data led to the formulation of a PLE-ICT framework prototype, comprising five dimensions: ICT hardware, ICT software, ICT services, project development, and support team. The findings of this study enrich the theoretical comprehension of ICT integration in PLEs and offer valuable insights for the future elaboration of more intricate PLE-ICT scales. The suggested ICT framework delivers a comprehensive and pragmatic blueprint for the implementation of PLEs in higher education institutions, with the potential to augment student learning experiences and outcomes.

Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) favor better scenarios for teaching and learning processes. Personal Learning Environment (PLE) improves the educational process. Under the computational and ubiquitous learning approach, a ubiquitous PLE model (uPLEMO), an example of a PLE design for teachers and its application in courses are presented here. Results of such model were very positive. The ubiquitous PLE model can be applied in any area of knowledge, for teachers, learners, companies or institutions planning educational processes based on ICT.

<p class="RESUMENCURSIVA">Buscar y gestionar la información constituyen componentes fundamentales de los Entornos Personales de Aprendizaje (PLE). En este estudio se analiza el nivel de conocimiento, uso y capacitación de los estudiantes de Educación de la Universidad Nacional de Costa Rica, así como las finalidades que se pretenden y las actividades que se desarrollan cuando manejan herramientas tecnológicas para el acceso a la información.</p><p class="RESUMENCURSIVA">Basándose en un diseño ex post facto de carácter transeccional, se aplicó un cuestionario construido ad hoc en el que participaron 381 alumnos. Los resultados muestran como los PLE de estos estudiantes necesitan un mayor desarrollo acorde con la vertiginosa evolución de la tecnología. Destaca su desconocimiento de ciertas herramientas, especialmente web 2.0, así como el escaso uso y la limitada capacitación que poseen. Se recomienda fortalecer la formación tecno-pedagógica de los estudiantes de manera que se pueda enriquecer su PLE en su doble vertiente de usuarios y futuros formadores.</p><em><strong></strong></em>

This paper belongs to a PLE (Personal Learning Environment) research, whichis in a development phase. This research is about PLE design, production andevaluation, and is designed with the goal of qualifying university staff in theusing of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT).The research presents four revised phases, all of them focused in methodology and working plan: a) PLE design, production and evaluation; b) pilot study; c) virtual environment dissemination; d) development of the final report. Owing to the fact that the research is in a development phase we don’t have results. It’s our purposal to obtain different scientific-technical taxes and benefits with this project, for example: identify the most significant aspects for the faculty’s training in order to incorporate ICT in teachers’ professional development; create a PLE with the aim of developing an environment for the faculty’s training on ICT; recognize the impact that different tools have in the faculty training; become aware of the necessary methodological change that involves incorporate the PLE in the European Space for Higher Education (ESHE) at university. Before concluding this paper, we would like to present our intention to incorporate some proposals from PLE Congress. (Julio 2010, Cornella)

This study proposes a Blockchain-based Student Identity Management System (BSIMS) to address critical challenges in current identity management systems in higher education, such as trust deficits, data confidentiality breaches, and lack of interoperability. BSIMS is designed to enhance the personal learning environment (PLE) in higher education by providing secure, reliable, transparent, and efficient identity verification and data management services. The model was developed based on insights from semi-structured interviews with seven ICT experts from both academia and industry, focusing on personal data confidentiality within the PLE. Thematic analysis identified key challenges, including data security, control, circulation, trust, user needs and experience, and system performance and scalability. BSIMS comprises modules such as PLE participants, platform, identity authentication, blockchain verification, shared learning content, blockchain technology, and a Learning Record Store (LRS) verification system. These modules are characterized by autonomy, security, flexibility, and efficiency. The study details the functionality and interactions of these components while acknowledging the model’s limitations and suggesting future research directions. This research highlights the potential of blockchain technology to create an autonomous, secure, and efficient identity management mechanism within higher education's PLE. The innovation lies in applying blockchain to the PLE's identity verification process and introducing a feature to record user behavior using blockchain, thereby enhancing personal data confidentiality and demonstrating blockchain’s potential in education.

En este trabajo se presentan los resultados de un estudio empírico donde se analizan entornos de aprendizaje como Entornos de Aprendizaje Personalizado (PLE). El objetivo ha sido reformular el concepto de PLE a partir de la visión original que psicopedagogos en formación tienen del mismo tras su diseño. En la experiencia participan 68 estudiantes universitarios de Psicopedagogía. La investigación sigue las directrices metodológicas propias del estudio de caso, considerando que el interés principal es descriptivo y exploratorio. Los datos se recogen a partir de la reflexión autoevaluativa que ellos hacen al identificar e interpretar sus propios PLE. El Método de Análisis Temático nos ayuda a encontrar significados en las reflexiones de los estudiantes. Para minimizar el sesgo en los análisis realizados, se calcula la consistencia de las interpretaciones de los investigadores a través del coeficiente Kappa Cohen. Este alcanzó un K=0.79, considerándolo como un proceso fiable. El valor científico de la investigación viene dado por la captación de las diferentes subjetividades e interpretaciones que se hicieron en la respuesta al encargo académico-profesional (tarea) de la confección de los PLE. Los resultados ponen de manifiesto el valor del PLE como herramienta de gestión consciente de dónde aprenden. Nos han permitido identificar sus dimensiones, funcionalidad e implicaciones. La conclusión principal nos lleva a entender el PLE como entorno de aprendizaje personalizado (customizado), connotación diferenciada de la traducción que en nuestro contexto se viene haciendo como entorno personal de aprendizaje (estándar)

Personal learning environment is a relatively new concept that emerged under the influence of the increasing popularity of Web 2.0 applications and critical understanding of hierarchical systems of distant learning. In the center of this concept is the effect of personalization, according to which the activity of the actor is an important factor of personal development, strengthening of subjectivity of learning, development of learning through social and other types of interaction. The article highlights general theoretical basics of building a personal learning environment as one of the directions of development of modern models of learning, its basic characteristics. Special attention is paid to consideration of one of the variants of constructing personal learning environment – institutional personal learning environment, which combines the benefits of distance learning and the advantages of flexible, adaptive, open educational environments. In a broader sense, an institutional personal learning environment is a mechanism for the integration of formal and informal educational environments.