Connectivism & Interactive Narrative: towards a new form of video in online education Michael Frantzis University of London, International Programmes Goldsmiths College, Department of Computing, michael.frantzis@gold.ac.uk ABSTRACT interactions within communities. In the modern Techniques of online learning have evolved considerably, Connectivist era [3], the material of learning will need to with the introduction of Learning Management Systems, have the capacity to evolve. Secondly, the growing impact Adaptive Learning Environments and Massive Open of MOOCs brings to the fore the problem of scalability, Onlines Courses (MOOC). However, the video resources from both a technological and authoring perspective. The contained within them have changed little, remaining fixed current assumption is that a video lecture is a record-once, duration time-based media objects. This static nature of use-many-times resource. However, the resources educational video contrasts with evolving landscape of consumed in terms of manpower and production expertise, personalization and Connectivist ideas in learning systems. and the increasing demands of a technology literate student We propose existing models employed in interactive video generation, makes this model difficult to sustain. A new narratives, combined with emerging techniques of crowds solution is needed to allow video to evolve to meet the sourcing and automatic story generation, can enable a new needs of a new educational paradigm, one capable of form of educational video narrative which reflects the harnessing the knowledge contained in online communities. collaborative systems which surround it. Our hypothesis is that expertise and technology created in Author Keywords the field of interactive video narratives can be used to build Interactive,narrative,education,open,resource,connectivist interactive video objects for educational purposes, which can meet this need. ACM Classification Keywords H.5.1. Information Systems, Information Interfaces and BACKGROUND Presentation, Hypertext/Hypermedia There have been a number of methods by which researchers and learning technologist have attempted to allow learning INTRODUCTION materials to adapt according to user interactions. When the technology of motion picture was first Adaptive Learning Environments (ALE) typically hold a introduced, Thomas Edison pronounced, "the motion model containing a user’s learning or cognitive style along picture is destined to revolutionize our educational system with a domain model, and attempt to use these to use these and that in a few years it will supplant...the use of to enable personalisation of the types of interaction offered textbooks”. The rise of MOOCs [1], the animes used in according to the computed learning needs of individual Khan Academy1 and other distance learning offerings students [4]. Work in Adaptive Hypermedia has proposed a would suggest he might be right. However, whilst the hypermedia based-approach to navigation through learning techniques of online learning have evolved considerably, materials, encouraging learning through exploration [5][6]. the educational video object itself has evolved little. It Also important are dynamic user models [7] further remains a fixed duration time-based media object, which informing adaptive learning in a given course or even in students consume passively before moving onto other other domains. interactive tasks or assessments modules. Whilst these approaches are responsive to students needs This static nature of current video offerings poses two their focus is on tailoring or personalisation of predefined problems. Firstly, it is at odds with the surrounding media (of which one type is video). They do not attempt to landscape of personalisation in learning systems, theories of use a community of learners to improve the resources connective learning and online collaborative learning [2] themselves; rather they alter the choice, sequencing and where the accent is on constructing knowledge through presentation of a predetermined set of resources. 3rd International Workshop on Interactive Content Consumption at DISCUSSION. TVX’15, June 3rd, 2015, Brussels, Belgium. Copyright is held by the author(s)/owner(s). Techniques using interactive narrative have been employed in many educational contexts. However these have tended 1 https://www.khanacademy.org to involve role-playing and game-based scenarios, where users interact with characters within simulated environments.[8] However, new lines of enquiry are from the field of Technology Enhanced Learning and the emerging in interactive narrative research, specifically video resource they employ. automatic generation of interactive video narratives from shared user-generated content (UGC) [9] and REFERENCES crowdsourcing of interactive narratives [10]. An approach 1. Yuan, L., Powell, S., & CETIS, J. (2013). MOOCs and based on theories of mind and learning, narrative generation open education: Implications for higher education. Cetis from UGC, and crowdsourcing could offer a powerful White Paper. solution to delivering interactive video for education. 2. 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Integrating learning, problem solving, and parallels between learning through problem solving and engagement in narrative-centered learning interactives narratives [11]. Emerging techniques of environments. International Journal of Artificial crowdsourcing and automatic generation of stories from Intelligence in Education, 21(1), 115-113 UGC can now offer a valuable opportunity to create a powerful link between emerging pedagogical techniques