The Larnaca Declaration on Learning Design – Implications for the Future

1. The Larnaca Declaration on Learning Design – Implications for the Future James Dalziel Professor of Learning Technology & Director, Macquarie E-Learning Centre Of Excellence (MELCOE) Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia james@melcoe.mq.edu.au www.melcoe.mq.edu.au Keynote presentation for ICEM 2013 & 8th International LAMS & Learning Design Conference, October 3rd, 2013

2. Overview • Background • The Larnaca Declaration on Learning Design • Framework / Representation • Conceptual Map • Practice • Challenges for the Future

3. Background: ALTC/OLT Fellowship “Success Factors for adopting Learning Design” From July 2011 to Dec 2012 Expert group meetings and discussions Pedagogic Planner meetings in Europe 2007-2010 Fellowship meetings: Oxford Oct 2011 & Sydney Dec 2011 Larnaca meeting in Sep 2012 & Nov Sydney followup – basis for Larnaca Declaration write up Recent followup meeting in Bintan – working towards edited book for 2014; Larnaca as opening chapter Support for this project has been provided by the Australian Government Office for Learning and Teaching. The views in this project do not necessarily reflect the views of the Australian Government Office for Learning and Teaching.

4. The problem that led to Larnaca Declaration Years of meetings with experts to discuss core ideas of Learning Design – interesting but no sense of breakthrough December 2011 meeting discussion of “agreed common ground”, yet not documented - want to avoid restating same foundational ideas each time we meet Discussion in Larnaca led to some key new ideas for foundations for the field of Learning Design Released as “Larnaca Declaration” (Dec 2012) Recent edits to improve document arising from Bintan meeting (Sep 2013) to be released later in 2013

5. Timeline of developments in the field of Learning Design

6. “Pedagogically neutral” ? Learning Design is not like other pedagogical theories, as it does not propose a theory of how students learn, and therefore how teachers should teach This is what makes Learning Design distinctive Rather, it seeks to develop a “pedagogical meta-model” for describing examples of teaching and learning based on many different pedagogical theories “Arrangement” of teachers and learners in a sequence of activities Learning Design as “pedagogically neutral” (or… aspires to be….)

7. Date of manuscript unknown. Held in Florence, Italy. Photo by Asiir 17:00, 13 February 2007, Wikipedia.org First page of the manuscript of Bach's lute suite in G Minor. Wikipedia.org

8. Learning Design Representation Learning Design is yet to develop an agreed representation/notation like music, but we have early “pointers” to what it might be See Larnaca for more details – 3 examples here LAMS (Role Play example) AUTC Flow diagram (Predict Observe Explain example) Pattern example (Jigsaw example) NB: Terminology Learning Design = the field of study a learning design = a specific instance teaching strategy = a design based on a pedagogical approach

9. LAMS representation (example of Role Play Sequence)

10. AUTC representation (example of Predict Observe Explain)

11. Pattern representation (example of jigsaw)

12. Learning Design Core Concepts Three parts: Representation – formal description of the flow of teaching and learning activities …but also… Sharing – sharing of learning designs to be viewed, re-used, adapted, shared back Guidance – accompanying information about the background and rationale for the learning design

13. Learning Design Conceptual Map In Larnaca we realised that we needed a much wider “map” of the educational landscape beyond just the “notation” idea We re-used the “metamodel” idea to try to build a broad map that could be used to analyse many different approaches to education Help to draw attention to what aspects are prominent (and less so) across the broader landscape for a given theory, and where the same component of the map is interpreted differently

14. Teaching Cycle Educational Philosophy Level of Granularity All pedagogical approaches All disciplines Program Module Session Learning Activities Theories & Methodologies Learner Responses Challenge Implementation A range based on assumptions about the Learning Environment Creating learning experiences aligned to particular pedagogical approaches and learning objectives Feedback Assessment Learner Analytics Evaluation Tools Resources Learning Environment: Characteristics & Values External Agencies Institution Educator Learner Core Concepts of Learning Design GuidanceRepresentationSharing

15. New Foundations for Learning Design Why develop a “neutral” framework/notation for educational activities? Why develop a “neutral” map for the broader landscape of education? To help educators identify, share and adapt effective teaching and learning activities What matters for music is using the notation system to convey beautiful music, not the notation system itself …and there are different styles of beautiful music (Baroque, Classical. Modern) So any Learning Design framework/notation, and the wider conceptual map, is to foster greater sharing of effective teaching and learning activities – “Learning Design Practice”

16. New Foundations for Learning Design Many educators already use the phrase “Learning Design” to mean something like “how I design activities to help my students to learn” Effective doesn’t mean only collaborative or constructivist learning approaches – sometimes “drill and practice” is the most effective method The key issue is how educators use the most effective methods to suit their context and subject matter More sharing of effective teaching ideas gives educators a wider range of options to foster effective learning

17. Learning Design Learning Design Conceptual Map (LD-CM) Learning Design Framework (LD-F) Learning Design Practice (LD-P) The Larnaca Declaration on Learning Design: New Definitions for the future of the field

18. Learning Design Futures: Adoption Adoption beyond educational specialists What is needed to foster a “mass” movement of LD? Importance of how course design and re-use really work (eg, Bennett, Wills, Badilescu-Buga – also Goodyear) Articulating quality improvement and time efficiency benefits More examples of Learning Design Practice (LD-P) Sharing effective learning design and explaining the rationale How Learning Design can help “mass personalisation” Bringing scalable collaborative learning to MOOCs Enhancing Learning Analytics with Learning Design

19. Learning Design Futures: Conceptual Still need ongoing development of representation(s) Seeking a set of pedagogic descriptors of learning activities (to allow for computational analysis) “Tool descriptions” not the same as pedagogical descriptions Beyond “sequencing” – describing deeply non-linear, open ended learning designs Can we learn from the conceptual structure of games? How teachers design an environment for student-led learning? Selection and properties of “objects” available in environment Evolving cyclic designs (eg, “turns” in card games)

20. Learning Design Futures: Conceptual Further develop combination of Curriculum Design and Learning Design Eg, OULDI, Viewpoints, link to “traditional” T&L workshops A wizard for re-usable course designs with embedded LDs? Appropriately describe the place of “teaching in the moment”, “live adaptation” in Learning Design Where it fits in the wider map How a learning design can offer advice and guidance on this But I would argue: this skill is different from design and planning Ensure Learning Design is distinctive: can’t be everything