Different approaches to design

[Grainne Conole]

Research has shown that individuals, teams and institutions pueden adopt quite different approaches to la forma en queset about conceiving of and describing learning designs. In part this may reflect different approaches to teaching and diferentes institutional cultures. Spend 10 minutes thinking about the last time you sat down to write a course and post your thoughts on Cloudworks, or on your blog, via twitter (#OLDSMOOC_W3), or on this thread on Google Groups. The following questions may help to focus your thoughts:

• Which part/s of the design do you usually start thinking about first when you begin to image, picture and represent a new learning design? – the students, the technology, the pedagogy, the previous course, the resource constraints, etc .
• Where do you get your ideas from? From colleagues, from conferences or events, from student feedback, from personal experience, from case studies (e.g. early work by University of Wollongong), etc.
• Do you encounter difficulties when trying to describe your ideas for the course to colleagues?

[Jane Nkosi]

 

Hi Conole,

Thank you for the introduction on design approaches. Here are my thoughts.

 

Activity 1: Different approaches to design: My reflections on designing a course for MOODLE

Six months ago I had the opportunity of designing a micro teaching course to be hosted on MOODLE. It was the most interesting but challenging experience. I had to think about the whole situation from students , tutors to the delivery mode.

a)      Which parts of the design do your think about first?

The users of any resource are central to the design. I had to bring to bear skills and knowledge of learners on online learning. This was a departure from the traditional face to face delivery. Hence the tutors and ICT support had to be brought into the picture. Since the institution is introducing online courses, I had to revisit the preferred institutional strategy.

 

b)      Where do your ideas originate?

Teaching and learning are informed by a number of factors which develop into ideas that may be part of a design process. In my case, learners’ experiences of the current distance programme had a major influence on thinking about the design.  Courses I had attended conferences and institutional policy documents shaped my thoughts.

 

c)       What difficulties you encountered when trying to describe ideas to  colleagues or self?

Since a lot of what one dreams about is in the mind it is often difficult to translate that into words that will paint a clear picture for the one listening. As alluded to in question 1, thinking about online learning and teaching is new in my institution so trying to convince someone else was a big challenge. I had to battle with questions of viability, sustainability and quality assurance. For me the main questions was how to make this design attractive e to the learner.

 

Jane Nkosi

 

[Rebecca Galley]

Thanks for sharing this Jane. I moved from face to face teaching to online/ distance about 3 years ago and it wasn't till then that I realised how much I relied on being able to fix design problems 'on the fly' - reactive rather than proactive design practice!

[Xin Alice Huang]

My thoughts on approached on design:

• Which part/s of the design do you usually think about first when you begin a new learning design? Do you start with – the learners, the technology, learning approach, previous designs, resource constraints, time constraints, institutional strategy, or ... ?

Whenever I start a new learning design, I always start with who the learners are, what challenges they are facing everyday, what issues they have in their everyday business practice Then I will look at what can be sovled by this learning design, what can be solved by other learning design, what is a performance issue, what can we do to connect learning with practice, what needs to be created as a follow up support for learners (things like job aids)  and what needs to put in place to ensure transfer of learning will happen. .( ---This is why I really enjoyed the week 2 topic, personas, contextualise learning project.  ) Then I can draw a concep map for the new leanring design. 

• Where do your ideas originate? From colleagues, from conferences or events, from student data or feedback, from personal experience, from case studies, or ...?

When I worked for GlaxoSmithKline, my ideas of new learning design always originate from the discussion with colleagues, the managers/supervisors of the sales representatives and of couse sale people themselves. I aslo did a lot of co-visiting, and use that opportunity to observe potential learning needs. Then I will talk to the Marketing and sales directors to get an overall understanding of their strategy. With all of these information I would feel comfortable to start planning of the new learning design. 

Now I work for open polytechnic, an educational setting, one thing glaring missing is the learners, My end user: learner becomes invisible, this really makes me nervous.  I watched the video clips of week 2 showing how the tutor team working together to design MOOC, and the discussion you have about who are the audience for this course, this really helps me, I would try to use this method working with tutor and subject matter expert next time to get a better understand of our learners.  

• What difficulties do you encounter when trying to describe your design ideas to colleagues or to yourself?

The biggest difficulity I had and have it to visualise the design concepts or design details to my colleauges, in my case, is the course tutors and key faculty memeber. (English is my second language which add one more difficult layer to it)

Cheers,

Xin(Alice)

[Tiffany Crosby]

I find that I normally start with outcomes. There are generally two questions that I work through. What objectives are we trying to achieve? What experiences need to happen for that to occur? Once I'm comfortable with those two questions then I start to think about the environment, the resources and constraints. Essentially, what do I have to work with? Only then do I start to lay out a design. The content actually comes last.

[Tiffany Crosby]

The challenges that I have is that I often want to incorporate informal learning and social learning but the environment doesn't support it. The students don't have the same level of resources.

[Grainne Conole]

Yep tricky to do these in a formal learning contexts

Gráinne

[Grainne Conole]

Yes totally agree! Designing online teaching requires much more effort. I wonder if learning analytics tools will help in the future and enable us to see more of what the students are doing and to identify those that are struggling

Grainne

[Grainne Conole]

Sounds like a sensible approach. For me design is very much an iterative process. From the outcomes to the activities and associated tools and resources to the assessment elements

Gráinne

[Grainne Conole]

Sharing designs with colleagues is indeed a key challenge. I hope that the visual designs you will work with in Week 3 will help make the designs more explicit and hence shareable with others.

Gráinne

[Mark Johnstone]

I've taught using Moodle for four years in a "blended environment" - I call it blended but it's actually a face to face class that meets from 9 to 14 hours a week. Because we are together I have been able to watch as students are mystified by the design decisions I have made, and the instructions I have written. Since I'm there, I'm able to explain these better in person.

• Which part/s of the design do you usually think about first when you begin a new learning design? Do you start with – the learners, the technology, learning approach, previous designs, resource constraints, time constraints, institutional strategy, or ... ?

I start by thinking about the tasks that I can design, given the constringents of the LMS. These need to be aligned to the intended outcomes and to what I assume students are able to do. I write as the course progresses so after a few weeks, I understand the students pretty well. Time is not a big deal since the LMS extends my teaching space beyond the classroom.

• Where do your ideas originate? From colleagues, from conferences or events, from student data or feedback, from personal experience, from case studies, or ...?

I get ideas from lots of places but most often from the academic press and bloggs. I usually focus on a task and try to think of ways to present it to student and help them organize their own respones. Sometimes I will leave things completely open ended.

Last semester I started a "self-directed" reading program. I told students I did not know how to assess their reading, and was not sure that I should even try. This confused them a little, but many recognized that I was trying to help them, not judge them. Several did a very good job of it. Others did nothing. Some lied, saying they had done something when they hadn't done anything. Oddly, they felt a need to misrepresent their "work" even when there was no assessment involved at all. They don't mind me knowing that they lie or cheat... and it isn't brazen defiance either... they know education is a game, and they play to win. In this country (Saudi Arabia) we all know this.

• What difficulties do you encounter when trying to describe your design ideas to colleagues or to yourself?

My biggest problem is assessment. I despise all kinds of assessment and my contempt for this always comes through when I am trying to explain what I am doing. Some people are kind heated and say that I am only "focused on meta-cognitive" aspects of my teaching. That's true. I am. I want to assess but have not found a good way to do that yet. I am interested in formative assessment that involves students in their own evaluation and in that of peers. Here, too, people are highly collaborative and mutually supportive. Peer assessment does work very well.

That's how I usually work and it's the way I am thining about our project for this MOOC.

Mark Johnstone

[landoel...@hotmail.com]

I usually start by thinking about outcomes and the reason why. This could be influenced by many things such issue of time, assessment, collecting evidence, differentiated activities, learners coming late to a course. 

I always try to keep in mind Why.

Really my ideas come form what I have to do in the classroom as we are very goal orientated in terms of getting success achievement etc.  However, I also get ideas form colleagues, blogs, and try new things out just for fun.

Difficulties in communicating my idea - I don't think I have really thought about the difficulty about communicating my ideas- I suppose that so far my learning design has been very linear-cause and effect type of learning and it should be more diffused where the content should be going form the outside in rather than the inside out

[Kelly Edmonds]

HI, Grainne and everyone. Below is my response.

• Which part/s of the design do you usually start thinking about first when you begin to image, picture and represent a new learning design? – the students, the technology, the pedagogy, the previous course, the resource constraints, etc .

I think the correct should be learner comes first in design, but it doesn't always happen that way for me. For instance, a current client is a large organization how has training needs, restraints, some resources, etc. that want addressed.  I have to think about those and then the learner (which doesn't make them any less important). The challenge (and the fun) is to find a balance between the two but slowly push the learner first during the design and development. As long as all needs are considered, the cient is happy that a good learning experience will be created within their (the orgs) parameters.

• Where do you get your ideas from? From colleagues, from conferences or events, from student feedback, from personal experience, from case studies (e.g. early work by University of Wollongong), etc. I
  

I have to say, I get so many ideas from exploring, reviewing and reading the plethora of posts and examples of work and ideas posted via social networks (LinkedIn groups, MOOCs, twitter, etc)

• Do you encounter difficulties when trying to describe your ideas for the course to colleagues?

 Of course! I am lucky at times to work with those on the same page as me (same thinking style) but then there are those that jsut want to get it done or are anxious about the amount of work students will perform. In these cases, as with a client, I ensure there is some rich learning taking place and resources for self-directed learning.

[Ida Brandão]

Dear Grainne,

 

My experience in designing online courses is recent. I'm an officer of the Ministry of Education and my main job is not teaching but monitoring and supporting a network of 25 ICT Resources Centres for Special Needs with a common mission - assessing SEN pupils needs in what regards assistive technology. As this is a very specialized field they also have an important role in training their peers.

 

Therefore, the starting point was the teachers' needs for training in a specific software (AAC- augmentative and alternative communication), pictographic communication with symbols. As we have a virtual community in the Moodle platform of my Department, we've opened a discipline to create together and test a course. We created screencasts in portuguese and other resources and tested it as participants, doing the tasks, checking timings, discussing. Adjustments were made along the testing and at the end they could use it to replicate at local level.

 

No summative assessment or credits were involved. Just free learning to help teachers help their pupils with disabilities.

 

I suppose it's a collective effort, when you work close in the field you know what the needs are and what may be more useful and urgent at a certain point. It's all a matter of context.

 

I suppose that everything is organic and context, contents, learning outcomes are entertwined.

 

I don't like summative assessment. I like formative, self-assessment, peer-assessment, eportfolios. However, I understand that this is possible to do on a non-formal and voluntary situation and institutions have other rules. Eventually they'll change in the future.

[Ida Brandão]

Sábado, 26 de Janeiro de 2013 12:37:06 UTC, Ida Brandão escreveu:

A first experience using Course/Module Map, applyed to my project

 

 

 

Sábado, 19 de Janeiro de 2013 13:23:52 UTC, Grainne Conole escreveu:

[Bob Ridge-Stearn]

Hi Grainee and all,

• I'm no longer in a position of designing or delivering courses myself but am in a role to assist others to do so.
  
  
  

  I've just read all the previous replies in this thread and can concur with and understand why all the elements have been mentioned. However, one element not already mentioned is time.  I'm not saying this is more or less important that other elements but needs to be taken into account from the outset.

  
  

  How long will we expect the students to be engaged in the course? 

  How long will we expect the tutor to be engaged in the course?
  

  
  

  We need to design a course for the students with enough material/activities but not too much.

  And similarly for the tutor - involvement must be designed in but not more than he/she is contracted, so the budget for tutoring the online course will affect the design.

  
  

  At the moment it is these considerations which are often in the forefront of my mind with new projects, but describing and calculating the time to allow for various activities is something I am struggling with.

  
  

  It is also something that concerns me with our existing courses. I look at some courses that are crying out for more tutor involvement in forums, for example, yet it is not resourced. However, if it is not resourced then the design should not have required it.

  
  

  Best wishes,

  Bob Ridge-Stearn.

On Saturday, January 19, 2013 1:23:52 PM UTC, Grainne Conole wrote:

[Carolina Kuhn H]

Hi!!

In my case this is my first time to design a structured a course.

But doing this MOOCs and putting myself in the design role I first think in my students and what we are suppose to accomplish as a main goal, not only conceptually but also from the pedagogical point of view. i.e: the important task in my course is that students create something thorough their learning process. Knowledge artifacts, in words of Popper, so I need to design a task where construction is needed and also a lot of reflection towards that construction. After the pedagogy and the task, I think in how I will assess this outcome. How will I measure, see, know that they understood the concept and the relations between prior knowledge and this knew one.

There are important things already mentioned about time, budget, time of the tutor that are important to consider. 

About the ideas for the design I am looking at the Internet and some courses from universities. I hope I can learn here more, seeing the work of others and the videos helps a lot. 

If I have to describe what I am imagining that is easy, what gets really hard for me is to put it in black and white, there I am still struggling.  Hope to get more clear at the end of week 3.

[Helen Whitehead]

Grainne Conole wrote: What difficulties do you encounter when trying to describe your design ideas to colleagues or to yourself?

There is definitely an issue with people thinking differently.  And some fixed ideas are difficult to challenge.  Assessment MUST mean essays or exams, activities must mean traditional lectures or seminars. Also difficult to  fit with requirements such as fixed amount of contact time (UK Government undermines moves to asynchronous online activities at a stroke!) or structures and facilities already available within the institution which are easier to use.

And the time required to really explore options can be much more than available, so that you can't blame people for sticking with the tried and tested.

Helen

[Ida Brandão]

Borrowing the idea of Storyboard from the 7C's slideshare of Grainne here's my attempt in Glogster, applied to my project 

http://www.glogster.com/idabrandao/oer-module-storyboard-by-idabrandao/g-6l0a62mfp9ks0erqp5a5pa0

 

Sábado, 19 de Janeiro de 2013 13:23:52 UTC, Grainne Conole escreveu:

[Kelly Edmonds]

Currently, I am working on training which I find challenging compared to designing academic courses, workshops, etc. I liked the post above about assessments and I too struggle with them. In training, it seems to be about filling their heads with stuff, and testing it. It seems to also be short in time in order to motivate the trainee to engage along with being very practical.

While I understand the nature of basic training, as an educator I want to make it enriched. I downloaded the design cards and have been playing with them for an online interactive tutorial that is about 5 modules and might take learners 1 hour to complete. I'll share any 'aha' moments when done playing with the design concepts.

[Julie Pisano]

Hi Grianne,

 

Different approaches to design questions ... great questions to get the thinking going.

 

Which part/s of the design do you usually start thinking about first when you begin to image, picture and represent a new learning design? – the students, the technology, the pedagogy, the previous course, the resource constraints, etc .

 

I usually begin with course objectives – what do we want the learner to know by completing this course.  What do the learners currently know about this topic.

 

As not all the programs I design will be delivered using technology … I still deliver some programs face-to-face, how the program is delivered usually comes after an understanding of course objectives and learner’s perceived current knowledge

 

Where do you get your ideas from? From colleagues, from conferences or events, from student feedback, from personal experience, from case studies (e.g. early work by University of Wollongong), etc.

 

All of these!!  From this MOOC

 

Do you encounter difficulties when trying to describe your ideas for the course to colleagues?

 

Yes and No … depending on what I’m trying to achieve and which colleagues. 

 

For my current project (which I’m using for this MOOC project) I spoke with my colleague about my thinking around the design ideas I have today, and she was very ‘in tune’ with my thinking and added some valuable ideas of her own.  It was a great conversation bouncing ideas off each other.

 

However, for previous program with other colleagues I have had difficulties explaining my thinking … in part I have put this down to my understanding of technology and the varying level of this shared understanding.  Also, the desire of some to hold onto what they have already done in the past. 

 

Julie P

[Apostolos Koutropoulos]

Alice you make an interesting point; that is that it's that the learner becomes invisible.  I wrote this in my cloud (http://cloudworks.ac.uk/cloud/view/6822) for this week, but in higher education the learner profile is (more or less) a given since you know the types of students admitted to your program or college. This makes things a bit easier in design. Then, you can always tweak the course as you see the actual learners in the classroom.

I did find it interesting that you know your learners MORE in a corporate setting, than in a higher education setting.  I would have thought that it would be the opposite :)

[Apostolos Koutropoulos]

We have the same problem in our on-campus courses, and the issue revolves around the LMS/VLE. Not all of our courses use the VLE, so when some instructors (later on in a student's course of studies) it's a bit of a shock going from classroom-based, to classroom-based + VLE.  I think that one potential remedy for this is for something to be acted upon at the department level to scaffold everyone toward that social learning, and it's there throughout the course of studies.

[Apostolos Koutropoulos]

Some VLEs have really basic reporting tools (such as flagging students who have not exhibited some sort of behavior recently). This can help, but the tools aren't that sophisticated yet.  I am also wondering what the incentive is for some instructors to do this, if more "glory" comes from research and publishing :)

[Penny Bentley]

Activity 1

I've just done, and lost, an hour's work on Cloudworks...not happy. I saved & it's nowhere to be seen.

OK, not writing it all out again...but the essence of my post was the learning activity I designed for myself, to find out the meaning of Learning Design. 

Used web based tools Answer Garden and Wordle to crowd source and display collected data. 

http://penbentley.com/2013/01/21/answergarden-what-is-learning-design/

My process was learner centered (me), I used 2 free, browser based, easy to use tools. Didn't have any previous designs, relied on my tacit knowledge of how to collect, analyse, display information. Don't know where the idea came from, maybe just playing around with web tools for 2 yrs now...these tools survive the ebb and flow of "start ups".
I used my Mac and iPad, had no time etc constraints but had problems re posting my info to Cloudworks and using the Web for crowdsourcing and connecting is unpredictable. 

http://penbentley.com/2013/01/30/oldsmooc-growth-in-the-answer-garden

Hope it turns up on CloudWords...anyone else having trouble posting/making clouds today? 

Not cranky anymore...going to  have lunch :)

[p003...@brookes.ac.uk]

Grainne, I totally agree with you on this. I know that Moodle has basic information (e.g. who has posted messages) - but does it have - or might it have in the future - more advanced learning analytics tools? Or do you use any other such tools for this? Best regards, Jeff

[Karen Ferreira-Meyers]

Interesting questions: I also work with Moodle (but still feel I'm a learner as I have only done so since about three years, without ever taking or having the time to go into depth in the different analytical tools) and would love to have more info on this matter.
Thanks in advance,
Karen

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[Apostolos Koutropoulos]

Is moodle the norm for VLE in higher education in Europe? :)

Από το iPhone μου

[Jeff Waistell]

I believe that is becoming so in the UK and around the world...but anyone know what the research is on this?

Best regards,

Jeff

[Cristina Neto]

Hi, Ida

I'm a student at a Master Elearning Pedagogy  course at Universidade Aberta and a post-graduate student in Special Needs at Escola Superior de Educação de Coimbra.

I've been looking at your corse map and I realized your project fits in the same subject as mine. Although I haven't made my map yet, would you mind looking at this:

http://cloudworks.ac.uk/cloud/view/7774

and this:

http://www.slideshare.net/CristinaNeto1/ideate-16217179

Should we join efforts? What do you think?

Cumprimentos

Cristina Neto

[Kelly Edmonds]

Ida, thanks for posting. I can see how this can be a great visual representation a ID and a team.

[Kelly Edmonds]

Grainne, in reviewing your slides on 7Cs and reflecting on Week 2 I wonder if an 8th 'C' might be useful  - Context.

I've learned by exploring in Week 2 how layered this concept is in that we need to understand the context of our learners, our development, etc and the constraints around our development (org perspective, budget, resources, colleagues). I think Rebecca mentioned earlier that it is best to design starting with an understanding of the design problem.

I realize you mention this under conceptualise but I wonder if exploring context a bit deeper would provide a good starting point in the design process.

[Jeff Waistell]

...and chaos and complexity too - perhaps the 7Cs could be reconfigured as a complex system of interactions that is iterative and dynamic, forever bombarded by intra- and extra-organisational forces.

Best regards,

Jeff

[Kelly Edmonds]

Good one!

[Laurence Cuffe]

Just looking a the original question and I think my current work initial workflow would be content to what problem will this solve to persona's for students and then to the institutional constraints on the medium and locus of delivery.  I think this sequence is organic and natural, but at the same time it only defines a starting point. A more structured exploration of the construction space would come later with a lot of deeper analysis of what is going on.  ITs the difference between seing education as a conversation or as a lecture I think.

[Jeff Waistell]

Laurence, I particularly like your last point. The metaphors we use for learning can either limit or expand awareness and opportunities for the growth and development of this phenomenon of massive online learning. Education could be seen as a conversation, a dance, an ant colony, a swarm of starlings...etc.

Best regards,

Jeff

On 31 January 2013 23:54, Laurence Cuffe <cu...@mac.com> wrote:

Just looking a the original question and I think my current work initial workflow would be content to what problem will this solve to persona's for students and then to the institutional constraints on the medium and locus of delivery.  I think this sequence is organic and natural, but at the same time it only defines a starting point. A more structured exploration of the construction space would come later with a lot of deeper analysis of what is going on.  ITs the difference between seing education as a conversation or as a lecture I think.

--

[Ida Brandão]

Olá Cristina,

 

I have already posted in your cloud and I think we have common interests in Special Needs. As you have probably realized I'm not a teacher, I work at the Special Needs Services of the Ministry, with the network of ICT Resources Centres for Special Needs, which assess pupils needs for technology (namely Assistive Technology) and support teachers using it. There's much information and training they provide to teachers. In your area, CRTIC Coimbra, located in «Alice Gouveia School», can assist you. 

 

I'm working on an european project that embraces teacher education and we've being designing an online course on «Inclusion and accessing technology». This year we are adding a new module on OER. Probably we'll be testing a new revised edition of the course, addressed to regular teachers that include SEN pupils in their classroom. I think that we can work together and you might consider develop activities for ASD pupils, namely for the particular case you mentioned.

 

I don't know if your school has any ASD Unit or you follow a TEACCH approach. 

Keep in touch!

[Cristina Neto]

Hi, Ida

Thank you for your reply.

In fact, I came up with your name on a page shared by a 2nd year student of the Master in Elearning Pedagogy, on Facebook. Then, I remembered I'd seen your name here at OLDS MOOC. Then I opened the page of ICT Resources Centres for Special Needs and went around to take a look. I was very excited about what I've seen and I went to the Alice Gouveia school page, too. Oh, and watch that video with the coordinators from Santarem and Viana do Castelo (?)... Went around your stuff, getting more and more excited as you may imagine.

I don't have a school, this year :( I'm unemployed... (20 years service, group 530-Educação Tecnológica, you know...)

I'm taking that post-graduated course on Special Needs and I'm going to develop a project on Autism and Technology as final project, with two more colleagues, which I'm hoping to include an online session for the learners, which will be regular teachers.

I'm very interested in working with you, that's for sure, as I may collect very good stuff for my project. In the end of my course we wil be able to present our project to Universidade do Minho in order to be included in the Activities Plan for teachers training, That's what we are hoping to achieve. And I'm available to all possibilities :)

So, let's definitely keep in touch!

Regards

Cristina Neto

[Cristina Neto]

In Portugal, I believe Moodle is the most used VLE, not only in higher education. My perception is that most of the higher education institutions use it as well as all public schools from primary to secondary schools.

However, in primary and secondary education is mostly used for teachers connections rather than actually for students. 

Also the teachers training programme uses it.

I've been using it as a secondary teacher with my students for several years now (maybe 6...) and also as a higher education student. In my teacher role, I feel students are little motivated to use it as few teachers do, for we are talking about presential education.