Understanding design for learning

1. Directorate of Human Resources Understanding design for learning Dr. Rhona Sharpe rsharpe@brookes.ac.uk Oxford Centre for Staff and Learning Development

2. Previous projects • Rich descriptions of existing practice and theoretical approaches ‘Models’ projects • Some suggestive taxonomies and tables to describe/model practice ‘Practitioners’ project • Range of evaluation tools, with common rationale LAMS and LD tools projects, case study projects • Planning and evaluating tools, case study template Effective Practice publication and workshop materials • Evaluated case studiesEffective Practice and Innovative Practice case studiesWork on case studies with HEA subject centres • Evaluated examples of specific tools in useLAMS and LD tools projects and associated examples of practice

3. Design for learning is: • a systematic approach with rules based on evidence and/or tacit, diverse, complex decisions which are rarely expressed. • a set of contextualised practices that are constantly adapting to circumstances. • a skilful, creative activity which can be improved on with reflection and scholarship • a highly valued activity in the new information economy • a discipline that has come into its own

4. We have seen that there is demand for • guidance on how to make best use of the available technologies, and blend them productively with established modes of teaching. • a tool that can help practitioners to think in terms of learning activities, and to orchestrate these as part of their planning process • examples of good practice that have been proven to work which show learners experience

5. We have seen that there is demand for • guidance on how to make best use of the available technologies, and blend them productively with established modes of teaching. • a tool that can help practitioners to think in terms of learning activities, and to orchestrate these as part of their planning process • examples of good practice that have been proven to work which show learners experience

6. Blended learning includes • Wide scale use of virtual learning environments to provide supplementary course resources • Radical, transformative course (re)designs to improve learning • A holistic view of technology, including use of own technologies to support learning and sometimes in unexpected ways.

7. Learning activities “The job of the educator or instructional designer then is not simply to create materials in which concepts are clearly explained, but to create learning situations in which students find themselves actively engaging with the concepts they are learning.”. Gary Alexander (1998)

8. Outline of a learning activity Identities: preferences, needs, motivations Competences: skills, knowledge, abilities Roles: approaches and modes of participating learner(s) specific interaction of learner(s) with other(s), using specific tools and resources, oriented towards specific outcomes learning activity learning outcome(s) learningenvironment New knowledge, skills and abilities Artefacts of the activity process Feedback (intrinsic or extrinsic) Tools, resources, artefacts Affordances of the physical and virtual environment for learning other(s) Other people involved and the specific role they play in the interaction e.g. support, mediate, challenge, guide

9. The learner perspective HEIs need to move from an ‘inside out’ approach where those on the inside know what is best, to an ‘outside in’ position where we research and evaluation students perceptions and attitudes to learning (Lea, Stephenson & Troy, 2003) Students are making use of their own technology as well as those provided for them and they are doing this in ways that are not planned for, difficult to predict and may not be immediately visible to their teachers and researchers.

10. Challenges for the D4L programme • Linking together and analysing many examples collected with developing models of practice • Encouraging practitioners to share and reuse learning designs • Communicate the insights from the theoretical and case studies projects • Influence the standards and systems that will support practice in the future • Making use of the findings from the learner experience studies. • …..

11. We will hear from.. Existing projects • LADIE reference model supports Learning Activity Authoring - the design and construction of learning activities and the discovery, specification, sequencing and packaging of content through use cases of learning activities • Unfold –adoption of open e-learning standards for multiple learners and flexible pedagogies through creating communities of practice New projects • Models of practice project will describe exemplary practice models of learning activities with technology • Two pedagogic planning tool projects will develop online planning tools (wiki & LAMS) for designing learning activities with technology

12. Different communities need different representations, focus on target audience • Artefacts need communicative facilitates • Supporting communities can build capacity • The value of communities talking to each other • Flexible tools are needed to suit all • Successful tools reflect current practices of real practitioners • Designing is an iterative and a social process • Practice is contextualised, how can we abstract generic tools, resources, models out of such practice?