re:Learnings

Wow! How many training courses take you to LA? Alkimia Learning 's incredible ~ KAOSPILOT Masterclass Part 2: Designing and Facilitating Learning Spaces ~ did. It was an intense and valuable learning experience. This fearless training was tough, but it made the learning oh-so-deep: Team 23 had to discover the learning by doing. Together, we came to grips with the Learning Arches approach. Shaped and guided but never told, Ramon showed us the path, but we had to walk it. Once walked, his skill in sense-making of that experience is extraordinary. We experienced the highs and lows of learning across the four days. After completing Part 1 in October, I went in looking for a co-construction approach to designing learning journeys. Got that and so more. We did the 'preject'; we 'set-held-landed' our arches, weaving together pedagogy, narrative and KSAVs. Together, we joined-the-dots for a coherent, holistic learning design approach. Never have I been so...

For the CLO and Assessment Review project, the concept of Constructive Alignment was the one “definition” that had precious workshop time dedicated to. The concept developed by John Biggs (1996) emphasises creating coherence between three key elements of teaching and learning: Learning outcomes - what students should be able to do by the end of a course Teaching and learning activities - how students will learn and practice those skills Assessment tasks - how students will demonstrate they've achieved the outcomes The core idea is that these three components should be "aligned" - they need to work together consistently. The term "constructive" reflects the constructivist view that learners actively construct their own understanding through what they do, rather than passively receiving information. The objective of the training was to communicate the active role CLOs have in framing learning activities and assessments. Therefore, making it worthy o...

The CLO Review project's face-to-face session logistical challenges required a pivot to an online format.  Yet designing effective videos for online learning is challenging.  To do this well, I employed a number of key good learning design practices included: The video production principles:  Along with chunking video (Harris et al, 2021), the video production principles (Guo et al, 2014) used:  Shorter videos are much more engaging. Videos that intersperse an instructor’s talking head with slides are more engaging than slides alone. Videos produced with a more personal feel could be more engaging than high-fidelity studio recordings. Khan-style tablet drawing tutorials are more engaging than PowerPoint slides or code screencasts. Even high quality pre-recorded classroom lectures are not as engaging when chopped up for a MOOC. Videos where instructors speak fairly fast and with high enthusiasm are more engaging. Students engage differently with lecture and ...

The task The School of Engineering Course Learning Outcome (CLO) and Assessment Review Project was significant: 28 Programs. 350 courses. 1 Deputy Dean (Learning & Teaching). 6 Deputy Head of Departments (DHoD), 160 course coordinators, 1 project coordinator, the Program Life Cycle team, 1 learning designer and myself all reviewing and revising more than 1,600 CLOs. The imperative was derived from: Program Learning Outcomes changes to better align with Engineers Australia Competencies. New program designs course accreditation documentation were triggering reviews of CLOs, assessments and course materials. Many older courses had evolved in the face of technology and teaching teams but the accreditation documentation had not kept up. The plan The process was intense but rewarding. The plan developed was to: Learning Designers create CLO suggestions by reviewing courses within scope for changes in PLO mapping and alignment of assessment, syllabus and activities, Run workshops to buil...

Have you ever heard the saying, "The value of Learning Design is real but just not visible"? I have heard this sentiment echoed by many Learning Designers from many universities. But why is this the case? From my experience and observation, major successful university-wide initiatives that pivot the Learning and Teaching course experience often have academic managers holding academics accountable for course development work. However, outside of these major projects, such structures seem to be absent in regular Learning Design projects and operations. Course development requires tracking and reporting. Often, we report progress to our own line manager, being held accountable for work by someone who does not officially report to us (and is often swamped by competing priorities). If we take on this project management role, it places us in a conflict of interest: collaborating with academics versus managing the completion of work. We simply don't have the autho...

Rubrics. You've got a matrix of criteria and standards and descriptors. I've never been satisfied with the labels given to standards. Most rubrics use either "HD, D, C, P, F" or "Excellent, Very Good, Good, Fair, Unsatisfactory" or some variation. To my way of thinking that's: 1. It's discouraging judgement - not actual meaningful feedback - working against belonging and the spirit of ungraded assessment. 2. It's what you actually give as the final mark. Today's Tom thinks that the best descriptors (high to low) for a 5-Standard rubric are: Outstanding - Thorough - Developed - Sound - Limited The terms that leapt out at me were "Thorough", "Sound" and "Limited". Thank you NSW Education Dept's example rubrics. While you might ascribe the same range of marks to these as ever, these terms feel like they best describe "levels of competence". Tomorrow's Tom might think differently, but...

Guiding academics through the long chains of common sense during course design and development makes using templates a mighty helpful and common strategy. Now, Learning Designers, as a tribe, are mighty capable in the digital space of creating media and learning resources such as templates. I've spent many an hour creating visually beautiful templates, with detailed instructions, lots of branding and fancy tricks. ...and failed miserably getting academics to use them. Ego is such a fragile thing. That's what I have had to do: let go of my own design ego and rethink my approach. As any UX designer will tell you: you must understand your user. In my case at university, academics aren't in media production day-in-day-out; they are constantly multitasking and time-poor. So when I give the fancy templates means they have to stop and figure out how to use the damn thing. That's where I fail with fancy. Every bit of extra metadata I ask the academic is yet ano...