eLearning Design and Development: a journey through murky waters

1. eLearning Design and Development: a journey through murky waters Denise M. Sweeney, Educational Designer, University of Leicester

2. Accredited programmes in university teaching • Learning and Teaching in HE – legitimate field of study • What are the key concepts that inform this body of knowledge? • How do these ideas and concepts translate to specific accredited modules that deal with e-learning design and development?

3. Learning &Teaching in HE: field of study • Keyconcepts

4. Reflective Practice - Brookfield ‘Critical Lenses’ - View and reflect upon our practice: • Our own view (autobiography) • Our students • Our fellow professionals/colleagues • Theoretical perspectives in educational literature

5. Constructive Alignment - Biggs

6. Student approaches to learning - Ramsden • Surface and Deep approaches to learning • Learning is seen as: • A quantitative increase in knowledge • Memorising • The acquisition, for subsequent utilisation, of facts, methods, etc. • The abstraction of meaning • An interpretative process aimed at understanding reality • Changing as a person • Approaches to learning are relational or context-dependent.

7. Conceptions of teaching

8. Fragmented conceptions of e-learning (Gonzalez, 2009) • A source of information provided by lecturers • A medium for occasional online communication Cohesive conceptions of e-learning • Using ICT as a way to enable students to apply and reflect about what is being discussed • A medium to support knowledge building

9. (ED7035) Module D - E-Learning: Resource Development & Student Support Aims • Design, create, implement and reflect on an interactive online learning resource • Explore the practical skills and theoretical knowledge required to create online learning resources and teach online • Introduces both the theory and practice of ‘online’ teaching and learning. • Emphasises the interactive and collaborative nature of the medium • Does not require a high level of technical expertise • Emphasis is on the creation of ‘engaging’ learning tasks • Participant workload: 150 hours • Credits: 20 CATS • Level: 7 • Criteria for Admission: Completion of Module A

10. Intended Learning Outcomes • Assess the impact on the institution, and the context within which it operates, of incorporating online learning experiences as part of the blend of both distance and face-to-face learning programmes • Demonstrate competence in choosing and using a variety of teaching and assessment and support strategies that meet the needs of a diverse and heterogeneous student body • Critically analyse theories and frameworks of online learning and assessment, and evaluate their relevance to the development and support of online learning experiences

11. Intended Learning Outcomes • Demonstrate their ability to provide online support to help students develop a reflective approach to their learning • Apply appropriate frameworks for the evaluation of an online learning experience

12. Assessment Tasks • Element 1 - 3 hour online ‘learning experience’ • Element 2 – Report and reflection of online ‘learning experience’ ( project planning, implementation and review) (2,000 words) • Element 3 - Evaluation of online ‘learning experience’ (2,000 words) • All elements = 33 1/3 %

13. Module Design

14. Learning Design

18. Participant Evaluation

21. Open Responses • What were the best aspects of this module? Give examples • What improvements to this module would you suggest? Give examples. • What aspects of the tutor's approach to teaching best helped your learning? Give Examples. • What would you have liked this tutor to have done differently? Give examples.

22. What were the best aspects of this module? • The use of the blog as a pre-session activity. The readings were very well chosen and highlighted a number of very interesting aspects of learning design and evaluation. • The blogging activity encouraged participants to engage with the relevant literature in advance of the sessions. • The practical (i.e the 'Learning Design') aspect of the module. This gave us the opportunity to apply many of the theoretical frameworks we had learnt about from the readings. • The pilot and evaluation of this resource provided a good opportunity to reflect on the learning design process and how it fitted in with our existing ideas.

23. What were the best aspects of this module? • The module introduced me to the theory and practice of eLearning and convinced me of its importance in developing learning, teaching and assessment. • … structured the module in such a way that I could keep up (or catch up!) despite a heavy teaching load. • …Blackboard was used brilliantly to make teaching resources available before, during and after sessions, so that I could catch up with work on the module whenever I had time. • … established a friendly and a collaborative atmosphere which gave us the opportunity to learn from and help each other as much as possible.

24. What aspects of the tutor's approach to teaching best helped your learning? • … was very open, approachable, and encouraging. I liked her emphasis on collaboration, regularly drawing on resources from other institutions and on each others' experiences. • … understood our different workplace contexts and offered us practical solutions to any obstacles we encountered.

25. What aspects of the tutor's approach to teaching best helped your learning? • … structured the sessions in such a way that the sessions were driven by interactivity and discussion. This made the contact sessions very enjoyable and productive experiences. • The online activities keep [sic] us engaged between contact sessions and allowed us to reflect on our existing thoughts as well as our thoughts on the readings.

26. Questions • Learning and Teaching in HE – legitimate field of study • What are the key concepts that inform this body of knowledge? • How do these ideas and concepts translate to specific accredited modules that deal with e-learning design and development?