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The tool belongs to the category of the graphical learning design (LD) tools. It has also been designed
to help teachers/practitioners/course designers import existing IMSLD designs (created by another
tool such as Reload) as well as export their own designs in IMS LD format (Level A, B) while, at the
same time, trying to be designer friendly thus hiding the technical details of the IMS LD specification.
It advocates the concept of the separation of concerns for the design of a unit of learning. This
concept comes from architecture and the web engineering field and says that in order to create a
design one should create various design models which will be specific views of the product under
design.
CADMOS suggests the creation of two design models for a unit of learning: the conceptual model and
the flow model.
The Conceptual Model (LD ConceptualModel) defines the learning tasks that a student or a
group of students must perform as well as the support tasks that a teacher/tutor must do
during the learning process. Each of these tasks is associated to a learning resource (digital
asset) like text files, music files, video etc., or a learning service such as forum, chat, voting
system, etc.
The conceptual model of a unit of learning looks like a concept map or a tree structure,
whose root is the title of the unit of learning and its children are the learning & support
tasks. A learning or support task might be simple (simple task) or composite (composite
task). A composite task consists of many simple tasks that all are assigned to the same actor
e.g. a student, a teacher, a pair of students, etc. So a composite task and its simple tasks
should be assigned to the same actor. Of course, a composite task must consist of at least
two simple tasks.
A composite task has the following properties:
1. Title
2. Description
3. Actor
A simple task has the following properties:
1. Title
2. Description
3. Actor
4. Type (informative, theory, example, assessment, feedback, scaffold, simulation-
modeling, communicative)
5. Learning Goal
6. Prerequisite
A resource has the following metadata:
1. Title
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2. Description
1. Type (hypertext, audio, video, assessment, forum, quiz)
3. Author
4. Copyright
5. Resource File
The Flow Model (LD FlowModel) defines the sequence of the execution of the tasks specified
at the conceptual model. In particular, it consists of swim lanes, one for each actor specified
in the conceptual model. Each swim lane defines the order in which the correspondent actor
performs the tasks. The simple tasks that belong to a composite task are grouped inside a
frame so as to be obvious their association.
The order of execution (i.e the flow) might be associated to various factors/conditions like
time -a task should be completed by a specific date-, the prerequisites a task cannot start
before another task is completed- as well as specific rules that the designer might specify.
Additionally the teacher may divide the flow into phases.
Using CADMOS, a designer starts creating the conceptual model of a learning unit by arranging the
learning and support activities on the design canvas and defining all the necessary
properties/metadata. Then, the tool automatically creates the flow model by putting the specified
activities the one after the other in the swim lane of the corresponding actor. The simple tasks of a
composite activity are grouped together in a specific frame. The sequential order of the learning
tasks of a specific actor in a swim lane, accords to the way they were drawn at the conceptual model,
i.e. from left to right. In fact, the designer can change their order in the flow model. Rules can also be
added in the flow model. A designer cannot delete an activity from the LD flow model because they
are aligned to the activities specified at the conceptual model.
In the following section, an example of how to use the CADMOS for creating a learning design is
given.
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Figure 1 Initial screen of CADMOS
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Figure 2 Second screen of CADMOS
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In the following screen (Figure 4) the designer can give the prerequisites of the unit of learning that
will be designed. However there may be no prerequisites. Also in this screen the designer must
specify the actors who will perform tasks in the unit of learning. CADMOS proposes learner, group
and staff roles, but the designer may create his/her own roles as we can see in Figure 4.
The designer has the possibility to change the metadata of the unit of learning at anytime, by clicking
on the Course Info button (shown in Figure 5), as we will discuss later.
The following screen shows the design canvas where the designer will create the learning design
starting from the LD Conceptual Model (Figure 5). On the left of the canvas there is the conceptual
model toolbar. In the middle of the canvas we can see the icon with the title of the lesson that the
designer gave in previous step. Over the canvas two tabs exist that show which model the design is
working on, i.e. LD Conceptual Model or LD Flow Model. The designer can move from one model to
the other by selecting the appropriate tab.
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Figure5 Design Canvas of CADMOS with the title of the unit of learning
1. Activities
It contains the composite activity icon and the simple activity icon .
By choosing the composite activity icon, the designer inserts a composite activity on the
canvas. The designer sets the title of the composite activity. Then by right clicking on the icon
of the composite activity inserted and choosing the command Composite activity
Properties the designer can define its description and the associated actor. actor Next, by
choosing the simple activity icon, the designer inserts in
n the canvas a simple activity and its
title can be specified. Then
hen by right clicking on the simple task and choosing the command
simple Activity Properties
Properties the designer can add descriptions for the following metadata:
metadata
A short description of the task
The type of the task (informative,
informative, theory, example, assessment, feedback, scaffold,
simulation-modeling,
modeling, communicative)
communicative
The actor of the task (required)
The learning goal of the task
The prerequisite knowledge for this task
The designer must at least specify the actor of a simple activity (compulsory field) in order to
close the dialog box of the activity properties. A simple activity can be connected to a
composite activity if they have the same type of actor (e.g. learner),
learner), which means that all the
simple activities that are part of a composite activity must have the same actor, actor too.
Otherwise, CADMOS will show a warning message.
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2. Resource
By clicking on the specific icon the designer inserts a resource onn the canvas and sets
the title. Then the designer can right click on it and choose the command Resource
Properties in order to fill in the following resources metadata:
Description
Type (hypertext, audio, video, assessment, forum, quiz)
Author
Copyright (free, proprietary)
pr
Resource File
3. Links
The designer can connect the title of the lesson with a simple or a composite
compos activity as well
as a composite activity with the corresponding simple activities by using the link icon
. For associating a simple activity with a resource, the designer can use the link icon
.
4. Actions
For deleting an element that appears on the canvas (i.e. an a activity,, a link,
li a resource) the
designer should click on the element (for choosing it) and then click on the delete button
of the toolbar.
toolbar The same happens if the designer clicks Delete
Delete or Backspace
from the keyboard after having chosen the element to be deleted.
deleted Also the designer can add
In order to add an element on the canvas, the designer just clicks on it in the toolbar. If s/he
wants to link two items s/he clicks on the corresponding line, s/he goes on the icon of the first
item and when the mouse pointer is converted to a hand, s/he clicks, drags and drops over the
icon of the final item.
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Figure 6 A simple activity with the corresponding related resource
On the left of the canvas of the LD Flow Model, a specific toolbar appears which consists of the
following elements:
1. Links
This element contains an arrow icon with which the designer connects the
activities.
2. Phases
This element contains an icon with which the designer can draw a horizontal line
which divides the flow of the activities into different phases. For example if the design of a
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learning unit is based on the TPS (Think, Pair, Share) strategy
ategy the designer might want
wa to
group the activities into the three different
d phases.
3. Rules
This element contains three buttons for defining the rules that can be added into the flow
model:
User-Choice - when the designer wants to state that a specific activity will
be completed when its actor wants to, the user-choice button should be clicked in
order to put on n the canvas the icon of this rule.
rule Then
hen the designer should link this
icon to the related activity.
Insert Yes/No Conditions - when the designer wants to add a score condition
(if then-else
else rule) this icon should be clicked in order to place a rhombus shape on
the canvas. The designer can right click on this icon and set the condition/clause.
condition For
example, if the actor has scored at least 60% at a specific assignment she/he
s can
continue with the next task otherwise the assignment should be re-submitted.
re Thus,
the designed should link the rhombus both with the appropriate task tas when the
condition is met (Yes sign) and the appropriate task when the condition is false (No
sign).
No-Repeat
Repeat Condition - when the designer wants to state that a role is
not allowed
llowed to re-do
re do an activity after it is defined as completed, the no-repeat
no
button should be clicked in order to put on the canvas the icon of this rule. Then the
designer should link this icon to the related activity.
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Figure 12 LD Flow Model with the rule User Choice
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Figure 14 LD Flow Model with condition rule
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Figure 16 LD Flow Model with no-repeat rule
4. Actions
For deleting an element that appears on the canvas (i.e. a task, a link, a resource) the
designer should click on the element (for choosing it) and then click on the delete button
of the toolbar. The same happens if the designer clicks Delete or Backspace
from the keyboard after having chosen the element to be deleted.
The designer can also add comments on the flow model by clicking on the corresponding
comments button .
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Print a CADMOS learning design
The designer can print the model that is currently active on the canvas (LD conceptual model or LD
flow model).
Statistics
By choosing the command Statistics, the designer can see some statistics about the learning design
created, e.g. number of composite tasks, number of simple tasks categorized by their type, etc.
Course Info
The designer can choose the command Metadata activated only in the conceptual model- in order
to return to the initials screens of the tool and change the properties/metadata of the unit of
learning under design.
Zoom Out/Zoom In
The designer may choose to zoom out the design in case it is too big to fit the canvas or zoom in to
restore it in the original size.
Learning Strategies
If the designer chooses to open a learning strategy, then opens the corresponding conceptual model
(Figure 17), with the learning activities and the resources. Then the designer may alter the names of
the items and define the metadata as s/he wants.
S/he can also see the corresponding flow model (Figure 18). It is important to note that if the
designer adds a new activity, deletes an existing activity, creates a new composite activity or
changes the actor of an activity, the flow model is being built from the beginning.
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Figure 17 LD Conceptual Model of TPS Learning Strategy
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Figure 18 LD Flow Model of TPS Learning Strategy
In conclusion CADMOS is a graphical design tool, which is friendly to teachers-designers that have
basic knowledge in computers. It can be downloaded for free from the following url
http://cosy.ds.unipi.gr/cadmos/ .
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