UML System Model to Implement Authentic Learning in the 21st Century

Abstract

The Pandemic situation demanded all universities to transform towards online teaching and learning as an alternative to face-to-face study through Technology Enabled Learning (TEL). In most developing countries, universities use Learning Management Systems (LMS) such as Moodle and Blackboard to facilitate online education. The LMS is used mainly to facilitate staff, administration, and students sharing module outlines, specifications, lecture schedules, lesson plans, assignment generation and submission, announcements, and generating assessment reports. However, it has been observed that many inefficiencies exist in the teaching and learning approaches as there is less focus on learner autonomy. Dynamic changes in the world and drastic transformations demand continuous learning and innovative thinking. Authentic learning is an approach that focuses on real-world situations to gain new knowledge and skills in a context rather than listening to lectures and memorizing information. In authentication learning, enabling collaborative learning has been observed as a practical approach to developing critical thinking, reflective thinking, and enhancing creativity. Sri Lankan culture is inherited with authentic learning as our cultural events, traditions, and values encourage living in harmony and learning from each other. This paper proposes a new system as a web portal to ensure that the learner can effectively gain the required knowledge, skills, and attitudes to face complex realworld situations, thus arriving at practical solutions to overcome contemporary issues. The proposed system focuses particularly on distance learning programs, as those could be advanced by the adoption of a model that can be used to guide the design of online learning environments focused on elements of authentic learning. In addition to presenting the authentic task model and its theoretical functionalities, the authors have implanted Bloom's Taxonomy Theory to ensure the quality and effectiveness of the system model. Researchers have incorporated use case diagrams and activity diagrams to exemplify the UML model.