Harnessing learning design…

1. Harnessing learning design… to create more effective learning activities Gráinne Conole, Stewart Nixon g.c.conole@open.ac.uk VLE LD Workshop 16th April 2007

2. Introductions and aspirations: what do you want to get out of the workshop?

3. Outline The learner experience What is learning design and why is it important? What constitutes a learning activity? Supporting the design process, summary of OU learning design work Case studies and tools for constructing learning activities Different ways of thinking about the design process Applying to your own context: Using Compendium Brainstorm and next steps

4. Online survey Audio logs Interviews Learner Experiences Project Student experiences Subject discipline differences Effective e-learning strategies LXP Uses of technologies http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/lxp_project_final_report_nov_06.pdf

5. Potentially endless possibilities

6. The crucial issue… How can we design learning activities which make effective use of tools and pedagogy? How can we capture practice? scaffolddesign?

7. What is learning design? Shift of focus from content to activity LD is a means of describing learning activities Formally representing (and thus reusing) learning sequences Provides a way of representing learning activities so that they can be shared between tutors and designers and a scaffold to the process of creating new learning activities

8. Why is it useful? Means of eliciting designs from academics common vocabulary/language and understanding of learning activities Way in which designs can be reused Guides individuals through process of creating activities Creates an audit trail of design decisions Highlights policy implications Guide learners through activities

9. How do you currently design learning activities? What resources or support do you use? What issues do new technologies raise? Discussion

10. The best approach? There isn’t one! Everyone is different! • Learning outcomes: • What do you want the • students to achieve? Pedagogy: What pedagogical principles do you want to emphasis? • Activities: • What do you want • the students to do? Assessment: What do you want to assess and how? • Tools: • What tools do • you want to use? • Resources: • What resources do • you want to use? • Problem: • What specific problem • do you want to address?

11. Tasks Learning outcomes Assessment Tools Pedagogies Context Fundamentals Learning activities

12. Supporting the design process • Identify • How teachers design • (examples of good practice) • How tools are being used • (barriers and enablers) • Based on • Southampton • DialogPlus and LADIE projects • Open University • VLE LD work and case studies Feed into Development of an online learning design tool Associating support mechanisms and workshops

13. OU case studies

14. HSC courses • K315 Multimedia simulationAli Wylie • K214 ePortfolioAnthea Harris • KE308 Forum-based collaborative learningMartin Robb • SORRS project Resource-based learningMarion Hall • K311 Online icebreakerCathy Lloyd • KZX100 Forum-based collaborative learningAnn Martin • K113 Interactive assessmentIngrid Nix • K315 Group projectSandy Fraser • K216 Multimedia simulationSandy Sieminski

15. Recap New technologies provide new opportunities How to best match pedagogical approaches, types of activities and use of tools Definition of the components of a learning activity and review of pedagogical approaches and key characteristics of learning Learning design as an approach to representing practice and scaffolding design A look at a selection of tools and resources for design

16. Tailoring to your needs A lot of factors! Pedagogy, activities, tools, support, resources, … AND A lot of potential tools, resources and different approaches to design! Reflect again on how you design learning activities Reflect on how you might use learning design tools and resources

17. Abstraction Model Vocabulary Diagram Pattern Case study Mediating artefacts Capturing practice Existing Learning activity

18. Case study Narrative Textual description

19. The Pattern Approach Problem + Solution

20. Diagrams Collaborative group work in a wiki

21. Mindmaps and vocabularies

22. Experiential Rarification Learning as social participation Conversational framework E-moderating Mediating artefacts Legitimate participation Constructivist Outcome Social theory of learning Subject Object Learning as belonging Community Division of labour Rules Activity theory Communities of Practice Community Learning as doing Learning Identity Practice Learning as becoming Meaning Learning as experiences Models

23. Existing Learning activities Existing Learning activities Existing Learning activities Existing Learning activities Existing Learning activities Abstraction Model Vocabulary Iconic representation Pattern Case study Mediating artefacts Aggregation Meta mediating artefacts Guidelines Tips and hints Repositories FAQs Toolkits Planners Construction New Learning activity

24. From existing practice: OU case studies, AUTC Learning Design Pedagogical Patterns JISC effective practice case studies Approaches to Learning Design By scaffolding the design process: DialogPlus, Phoebe, JISC Pedagogic Planner, LAMS

25. JISC Effective Practice case studies

26. AUTC Learning Design Case studies

27. DialogPlus toolkit

28. JISC pedagogic planner

29. JISC Phoebe planner

30. LAMS Learning Activity Management System

31. Hands on Demonstration of using Compendium Identify a learning activity of your own to design or use one of the case studies Explore using Compendium to design a learning activity

32. Different ways of thinking No one approach to design Ideas for different ways of thinking about design Making connections Scaffolds for design

33. Affordances “Affordance” refers to the perceived and actual properties of a thing, primarily those functional properties that determine just how the thing could possibly be used By tagging tools, activities and pedagogical approaches with their affordances for learning we might be able to make better decisions on how these are used in a particular context

34. Affordances Creativity Dialogue Collaboration Interaction Reflection Organisation Authenticity Inquiry

35. Discussion Map on the key affordances for each of these tools Wiki Discussion forum MSN Chat Blog E-Portfolio Search engine Word Interactive DVD Video conference Powerpoint Spreadsheet E-assessment

36. Discussion Map on the key affordances for each of these activities Web search: Students search the web and collate resources against a given set of criteria Drill and practice: Students work through a set of resource, Then complete a formative self-assessment Debate: For and against arguments posted, Students choose sides and post their views, read and respond to other postings Portfolio: Student gather evidence against learning outcomes into a portfolio

37. Constraints Time consuming to develop Cost Difficult to use Assessment issues Lack of interactivity Time consuming to support

38. Activities Problems/Pedagogy Tools Tools, activities, problems Is there a relationship between tools and activities? Is there a relationship between activities and problems? Is there a relationship between tools and pedagogy?

39. Mapping problems to activities Discipline differences Addressing a real problem

40. Scenario for a design tool • User wants to see examples or create a new activity • Advice and examples of other learning designs Presented with a number of views and additional information (Tools, Resources, Activities, Problems) • Set of templates offering different approaches to design and levels of scaffolding • Starting with their preferred starting point the user can drag elements onto their workspace and create a design • The system will then prompt related elements, eg “a collaborative activity” will list relevant tools e.g. asynchronous conferencing, wikis etc.

41. Issues to consider What information will people find useful, in what format? Balance of abstraction vs. context Making connections across the themes: pedagogies, problems, tools and tasks Can we draw out key affordances? How do we populate and update the tool? How can we incorporate user adaptation? How do we combine with workshops, etc?

42. Next steps Feedback please! Work up of case studies Develop and testing of prototype tool Identification of additional support

43. Additional resources • Case studies • JISC effective practice guides (all as free pdfs) • Effective practice with e-learning http://www.elearning.ac.uk/effprac/ • Case studies of innovation http://www.elearning.ac.uk/innoprac/ • Student experience (available Sept. 07) • AUTC learning design • http://www.learningdesigns.uow.edu.au/index.html • Learning design tools • DialogPlus • JISC Pedagogic planner • Phoebe http://phoebe-project.conted.ox.ac.uk/ • LAMS http://www.lamsinternational.com/

44. References • Overview of e-learning: Conole and Oliver (Eds) (2007), Contemporary perspectives on e-learning research, Routledge Falmer • Learning Activity Taxonomy: Conole, G. (forthcoming), ‘Describing learning activities: tools and resources to guide practice’ in Rethinking pedagogy for a digital age, H. Beetham and R. Sharpe (Eds), Routledge Falmer. • Policy and practice: Conole (forthcoming), ‘An international comparison of the relationship between policy and practice in e-learning’ in Andrews and Haythornthwaite (Eds), Handbook of e-learning research, Sage • Classification of tools and their functions: Conole (2006), ‘What impact are technologies having and how are they changing practice?’, in McNay (ed), Beyond Mass Higher Education: Building on Experience, The Society for Research into Higher Education, Open University Press/ McGraw-Hill Education, 81-95.

45. References • A model for learning theories: Conole, Dyke, Oliver, and Seale, (2004), ‘Mapping pedagogy and tools for effective learning design’, Computers and Education • Affordances of technologies: Conole and Dyke, (2004), ‘What are the affordances of Information and Communication Technologies?’, ALT-J, 12.2, 113-124. • A Pedagogical toolkit: Conole, G. and Fill, K. (2005) ‘A learning design toolkit to create pedagogically effective learning activities’, Journal of Interactive Multimedia Education, 8, http://www-jime.open.ac.uk/2005/08/ • Learning design: Conole, G., Thorpe, M., Weller, M., Wilson, P., Nixon, S. and Grace, P. (2007), ‘Capturing practice and scaffolding learning design’ EDEN 2007, Naples. • Mediating artefacts in design: Conole, G. (forthcoming), ‘Capturing practice: the role of mediating artefacts in learning design’ in L. Lockyer, S. Bennett, S. Agostinho and B. Harper (Eds) Handbook of Research on Learning Design and Learning Objects: Issues, Applications and Technologies • The learner experience: JISC learner experience projects – www.jisc.ac.uk/elp_learneroutcomes.html and www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/elearning_pedagogy/elp_learnerexperience.aspx and learner video clips http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/elearning_pedagogy/elp_learneroutcomes/elp_learnervoices.aspx