Isobel Falconer & Allison Littlejohn Caledonian Academy, Glasgow Caledonian University JISC Design4Learning Programme MOD 4 L models of practice project

MOD 4 L models of practice project JISC & Glasgow Caledonian University Working with: Practitioner Focus Group Ron Oliver, Edith Cowan University, NSW Lori Lockyer, University of Wollongon, NSW Helen Beetham, JISC Heather Sanderson, TESEP

MOD 4 L models of practice project JISC & Glasgow Caledonian University Aims To develop a range of practice models that can be used by practitioners in real life contexts to improve general teaching practice….  …(and support sharing and reuse)

MOD 4 L models of practice project JISC & Glasgow Caledonian University What are practice models? Generic approach to the structuring and orchestration of learning activities. They express elements of pedagogic principle and allow practitioners to make informed choices. (JISC funding call) Common, but decontextualised, learning designs that are represented in a way that is usable by practitioners (teachers, managers, etc). (Mod4L working definition)

MOD 4 L models of practice project JISC & Glasgow Caledonian University To be effective Practice models need to be: representations of effective practice (signify successful instances of good practice), effective representations of practice (have high impact on practice)

MOD 4 L models of practice project JISC & Glasgow Caledonian University Representing effective practice Grounded in authentic practice: Case studies – from practitioners and existing collections, eg. JISC effective practice, JISC innovative practice, LADIE Learning designs – from practitioners and existing collections, eg. LAMS, IMS, AUTC Learning Designs

MOD 4 L models of practice project JISC & Glasgow Caledonian University Effective representation of practice a learning design can only be shared with others through a representation. representations must convey the information that teachers need in a form that the teachers can understand.

MOD 4 L models of practice project JISC & Glasgow Caledonian University Three representations of learning designs

MOD 4 L models of practice project JISC & Glasgow Caledonian University Types of representation Case studies Matrices/templates Flow diagrams Concept maps LAMS Taxonomies Videos Temporal sequences Patterns

MOD 4 L models of practice project JISC & Glasgow Caledonian University An issue for practice models The definition: Common, but decontextualised, learning designs that are represented in a way that is usable by practitioners (teachers, managers, etc). (Mod4L working definition)  (… that will support sharing and reuse and improve teaching practice) The problem: generic or decontextualised learning designs do not appear to be very useful to teachers

MOD 4 L models of practice project JISC & Glasgow Caledonian University Implications for Mod4L? What are the (contextualised) representations useful for?  Browsing  Choosing  Adapting  Implementing How can generic designs be used?  Taxonomies  Temporal sequences

MOD 4 L models of practice project JISC & Glasgow Caledonian University What is useful to teachers? An insight into the “wiggling around” that constitutes teaching Evidence of student engagement Contextualised representations A variety of representations of the same design Representations as a focus for discussion – a community of practice

MOD 4 L models of practice project JISC & Glasgow Caledonian University The runnable design? For me, there are two fundamental problems: (i) education is more than just content, so any attempt to share good practice requires e- learning systems capable of replicating the pedagogy of a typical classroom – that is, a structured flow of content and collaborative tasks; and (ii) the sharing of good practice requires a community of educators to discuss ideas and practice – a searchable content dump is not sufficient. (James Dalziel)

MOD 4 L models of practice project JISC & Glasgow Caledonian University What is the role of the teacher in design for learning? the dialogues between learners and teachers [are] what I most value in learning (Burgos) When the role of the teacher is reduced [in online learning] the strategies available … to overcome breakdowns in the learning process, are radically reduced (Griffiths & Garcia) The design tradition is very poor in education.… In education it is mostly ad hoc (Koper)

MOD 4 L models of practice project JISC & Glasgow Caledonian University Is a learning design still effective if transferred to a new context? My role is to evaluate resources for a repository and some of them are very good, but I find it extremely difficult to work out how to use them within my own teaching context and have never actually done so (Mod4L focus group member) I stuck closely to the planned programme as the safest way to ensure that the session went smoothly …. The mixed student reaction to a suggestion of altering the programme … knocked my confidence in what I was trying to achieve (Mod4L focus group member)

MOD 4 L models of practice project JISC & Glasgow Caledonian University Design an environment, not a machine? A route plus a train? A transport system plus a navigation aid? Snakes and Ladders plus a set of dice? A play plus a troop of actors? An environment plus a life-form?

MOD 4 L models of practice project JISC & Glasgow Caledonian University Implications Ownership? Granularity? SOA?

Isobel Falconer & Allison Littlejohn Caledonian Academy, Glasgow Caledonian University JISC Design4Learning Programme MOD 4 L models of practice project