Learning Design & Staff Development IMS Learning Design (LD & ld) The importance of learning design Where we are now Where do we want to go? Ways to get there… A critical look

IMS Learning Design - Employs a Theatrical Metaphor Exit, pursued by a bear. –William Shakespeare, Stage direction in "The Winter's Tale"

IMS Learning Design An open technical specification, allows learning designers to model, in a generic, formal way, who does what, when and with which content and services in order to achieve learning objectives. From: Olivier, B. & Tattersall, C., The Learning Design Specification, in Koper, R. & Tattersall, C. Eds. Learning Design: a handbook on modelling and delivering networked education and training, Springer, Berlin.

LD - Scripting in Order to Reproduce ANTIGONUS. “The day frowns more and more. Thou'rt like to have A lullaby too rough; I never saw [Noise of hunt within] The heavens so dim by day. [Noise of hunt within] A savage clamour! Well may I get aboard! This is the chase; I am gone for ever.” Exit, pursued by a bear. –William Shakespeare"The Winter's Tale" Role: Antigonus, bear Activity: Speak, Exit Environment - A Stage with Roles, Resources (props) and Services

An Abstraction in Order to Share

The Importance of Learning Design Shareable, abstracted, reproducible Potential for reflection and CPD Beyond CBT (multiplayer) A ‘systems’ approach More than content Great potential when used LOs, VLEs, DRPs etc But….

Where We are Now - Current Practice 1  a student on a course will pass through the hands of different lecturers all teaching from their own notes, not working as a team from the same ‘script’.  fragmenting the learning experience and subject matter,  places a higher load on the student than is necessary  obvious barriers to ‘non-traditional’ students. - Example of Boyle and Trayner

Where We are Now - Current Practice 2 “Many teachers do not possess a vocabulary for articulating and sharing their pedagogic strategies and designs with others, particularly beyond their cognate discipline areas” –(Beetham, 2004)

Where We are Now - Current Practice 3 existing design skills are ‘embedded’, in a rich working context and therefore difficult to abstract in order to share them Koper no large tradition of sharing learning designs in the UK outside specialists A largely untrained workforce with modest IT skills Stiles Organisational issues ignored in e-learning No tradition of ISD in the UK

Where do we want teachers to go? Need to start talking about their pedagogic designs and strategies and tactics in order to share them, they need help and support in doing this Sharing learning designs is a good practice with identifiable benefits……. leads us to what? and why? A prognosis for improvement would require the move away from isolated individual teaching (the pedagogy of ‘me’) toward shared team-owned teaching activity (the pedagogy of ‘we’)

Ways to Get There Not just Pedagogy… Integrated E-Learning A lot to do… Where we are = –Jochems, Merriënboer & Koper (2004)

LD activity exists on a continuum So where and how do you start? Ways to Get There - the Pedagogy 1 Embedded Abstracted IMS LD

Ways to Get There - the Pedagogy 2 You start where you are not where you would like to be… Need to say why, have a reason…e.g.jobs! or QA Time for top-down action! - core business ££££ Teachers need easy access to support simple lo-tech approaches –Guides, Conceptual and Procedural tools –Stories, Diagrams, Checklists, Grids, Templates, –Examples, Case Studies, Advocacy –Accessible use of theory - Ramsden, Laurillard, Salmon

Tools: lo-tech

Skills ‘Traditional’ problems –Aims/Outcomes –Assessment Criteria & Methods –Course/Curriculum Design –Maintenance and quality –Learning about teaching…culture & values Thrown up again by: Flexible,E & Blended Learning + new stuff

A critical look Not a tech problem!…integrate! Learn the lesson of ‘Geronimo’s Cadillac’ !

A critical look Stop labouring under the illusion that it is possible to capture everything we need to know about teaching and represent it in machine-readable form. The future of e-learning will consist of humans, assisted by technical agents; operating and maintaining networked e-learning systems. Koper