COLearn and open discovery space portal alignment: A case of enriching open learning infrastructures with collaborative learning capabilities

In this paper we present COLearn platform which can be seen as a shell, easily integrated on top of existing open learning infrastructures (such as LMSs and OER repositories) to enrich their capabilities by offering functionality to design rich learning activities and learning workflows. COLearn run-time environment is used to enact these activities and workflows. This way, COLearn leverages the power of the underlying infrastructures, provides structure to the groups of learners that participate in learning workflows, dynamically adapts the workflows during their enactment, monitors their evolution to facilitate assessment and provides feedback to the learners. COLearn employs an intuitive graphical representation exploiting the BPMN standard. As an internal representation and interoperability model it uses IMS LD thus offering effective sharing and remixing to realize the vision of open educational practices. This is an important aspect as it makes explicit the, otherwise tacit knowledge pertaining to the design of learning experiences.