Using PLEs in Professional Learning Scenarios - The Festo Case for ROLE

The competitiveness of a company depends strongly on the skills and abilities of its employees. Teachers and learners within companies often lack media competence and the ability to use self-regulated learning (SRL). The evaluations conducted in the scope of the Responsive Open Learning Environment (ROLE) project showed that the vocational training and workplace learning providers appreciated the SRL approach and the idea of personalisation of the learning tools and content. Further, the implementation of SRL in an organisation needed the development of specific competencies by the learners, as well as guidance through the learning process from its very beginning. Thus, a learning software solution allowing a combination of curriculum-based and selfregulated learning approaches has become necessary. To address this requirement, the ROLE Project developed a Personal Learning Management System which is an OpenSocial-based Learning Management System (LMS) combining functionalities of a LMS and a PLE (Personal Learning Environment) and allowing users to construct their virtual learning environment according to their learning history, goals, and preferences. This paper describes the development of the ROLE solution from the point of view of Festo, a test bed which actively contributed to the development, testing, evaluation, and application of the ROLE approach and technology.