D7.4 Validation 4

This deliverable describes the objectives, approach, planning and results of the third pilot round, in which both individual and threaded services underwent validation. The two goals of this round were to provide input to the LTfLL exploitation plan and roadmap (deliverable 2.5). 531 participants (316 learners) took part in the pilots, which used LTfLL services based on five different languages. The average timespan of the pilots was three weeks and involved learners, tutors, teaching managers, the LTfLL team and Technology Enhanced Learning experts. The validation approach was based on Prototypical Validation Topics derived from the Round 2 validation topics, which refocused the validation topics on exploitation and allowed conclusions to be drawn across all services. Results demonstrated the areas of strength and weakness of each service, informing the selling points and barriers to adoption within the exploitation strategy, as well as suggesting possible further contexts of use. All services were noted to have high relevance in addressing burning issues for organizations, but further improvements to accuracy from a user viewpoint are required. Results on future enhancements to improve likelihood of adoption contribute to the roadmap. Results also provide an indication of each service's current readiness for adoption and provided insights into transferability issues. The overall conclusion is that some LTfLL services are more ready than others for adoption now, with some being currently more suited to sustainability in research settings.