CompendiumLD

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As part of our work on representing pedagogy we have developed a visualisation tool (CompendiumLD) for designing learning activities. CompendiumLD is a type of mindmapping or concept mapping tool that can be used to design a learning activity. CompendiumLD comes with predefined sets of icons, some generic and some specific to learning design. The creation of a map is simple, users drag icons across and can start to build up relationships between these through connecting arrows.

Users can add captions to each icon. Further detail and explanation about the icon, be it a student task, resource or learning objective for example, can be added in a separate pop-up window (shown as an asterisk next to the icon). Most common types of electronic files can be copied and pasted in to the design (word documents, Powerpoint presentations, images, pdfs etc.) enabling it to become the perfect repository for building your resource collection. A special reference node enables you to link directly to external websites. Icons can be meta-tagged using either a pre-defined set of key words or through user generated terms. Maps can be exported in a variety of ways from simple diagrammatic jpeg files through to inter-linked websites. Other functions specifically for an educational and OU context include tool help, links to the Cloudworks learning design sharing site and the ability to assign time to each student task for workplanning.

CompendiumLD is a specialised version of Compendium, the mind mapping or argumentation software that provides a default set of icons for creating maps to visualise the connections between ideas.  Feedback from users suggests the process of visualising design makes their design ideas more explicit and highlights issues that they may not have noticed otherwise.

In addition we have been using an Excel spreadsheet as a means of capturing and representing these conceptual views. However the power of the conceptual tools is that they work equally well as discussion points or as simple pen and paper exercises. In essence they are Mediating Artefacts to guide thinking and foster dialogue.