+

Designing in practice: aligning design creativity with practice

Gráinne Conole, Open University, UKTechItUp Conference, KamloopsKamloops University, 23/10/09

More info, slides and references:

http://cloudworks.ac.uk/index.php/cloud/view/

2559.html

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+Improving the design process

How can we design learning activities that make effective use of technology and that are pedagogical informed?

How can we represent and share designs?What kind of help and support can we provide?

Assessment

Learning outcomes

Tasks

Aspects of design

+Learning design: a definition

A methodology for enabling teachers/designers to make more informed decisions in how they go about designing, which is pedagogically informed and makes effective use of appropriate resources and technologies Covers design of resource and individual learning

activities up to whole curriculum level Helps make the design process more explicit and

shareable

Includes resource, tools and activities

+What do we know about design?

How do teachers go about the design process?

Where do they get ideas and inspiration from?

How do they represent their design process?

To what extent do they share their design ideas with others?

Where do they get help and advice?

How do they evaluate the effectiveness of their designs?

+Design strategies

Design process creative, messy, iterative

Sharing and reuse difficult, but valuable

Serendipitous routes to support

Every teacher does it differently

Different aspects to design - focus and level of granularity

No one perfect design tool or approach

Different aspects – resources, tools, outcomes, support, etc.

+Design creativity vs. design practice The vision…

Open plan, with creative spaces, “quiet rooms”, hot desking areas, technology-enhanced, lots of social space

The Jennie Lee Building, The Open University, UK

+

Representing pedagogy

Guiding design Sharing ideas

Empirical evidence base

Andrew Brasher, Paul Clark, Simon Cross, Juliette Culver, Rebecca Galley & Paul Mundin

The OU Learning Design Initiative

+OULDI tools, resources, activities

Design methods:schema & patterns

Tools: Visualisation & guidance

Events:

Cloudworks: sharing & discussing

+

Design tools & methods

Resources & examples

Towards an OULDI Learning design toolbox

+Facets of OULDI work

Evidence base: Understanding the design process

Collaboration: Structured events for fostering shared meaning and collaboration

Representation: Tools to support different forms of representation

Connection: Harnessing web 2.0 practices to foster debate and sharing

Reification: Abstraction and guidance through schema for thinking differently

+Facets of OULDI work

+

Design challenge

Cloudfests & Design summits Blurring real & virtual

Collaboration: events

Workshops

+Facets of OULDI work

+Representations

Seeing curriculum differently Not content-focused Alternatives to simple

text-based descriptions Different views to

foreground different aspects

Recognising design at different levels – from activity to whole course

Visual – tables & diagrams, descriptive & metaphorical

+CompendiumLD

Tool for visualisation designs

The method is an important as the tool

Will provide a demonstration

Hands-on exploration of the tool

+CompendiumLD

Core icon set

Design icon set

+A simple design

Learning activity

Output

Learning outcome

Resource

Role

End of activity

Task

Tool

+Key features

Time allocation for tasks

In-situ help

Conditional branching

Design templates

+Summary Visual maps with icons +

connections Generic icon set +

customised design icon set

Multiple layers, maps within maps

Drag and drop different file formats (images, videos etc.)

In-situ design help –customised google search and links to cloudworks

Aggregation of task times by roles

Design templates Flexible export options

from picture to interactive web page

+Forms of representation We have indentified six “views” for a course

Task swim line Course map Pedagogy profile Cost effectiveness Course performance Design factors views

Uses Representing an existing course Comparing courses As part of the design process

Describing the curriculum Cloudscape: http://cloudworks.ac.uk/cloudscape/view/1907

+Task swim line

Based on: Roles – student, tutor, etc. Tasks – read, discuss, etc. Tools and resources Outputs

Advantages Makes design explicit Maps out design Sharable with others Good at activity level

+Pedagogy profile

Map of student tasks to time periods (weeks, semesters, etc)

Six types of student tasks + assessment

Each cell indicates the amount of time spent in that period on each type of task

Widget provides graphical view

22

Guidance &support

Evidence & demonstration

Information & experience

Communication &interaction

Thinking & reflection

Course map

Gives an “at a glance view”

Five components to any course

Uses:

Represent a course

Compare

Design

Course map/At a glance representation

Guidance and support “Learning pathway”Course structure and timetableCourse calendar, study guide, tutorials

Information and experience “Content and activities”Could include course materials, prior experience or student generated contentReadings, DVDs, podcasts, lab or field work, placements

Communication and interaction “Dialogue”Social dimensions of the course, interaction with other students and tutorsCourse forum, email

Thinking and reflection “Meta-cognition”Internalisation and reflection on learningIn-text questions, notebook, blog, e-portfolio,

Evidence and demonstration “Assessment”Diagnostic, formative and summativeMultiple choice quizzes, TMAs, ECA

Evidence & demonstration

6 TMAs – submitted online (505 of overall score)

3hr examination (50% of overall score)

Thinking & reflection

Activities throughout learning guides (4-7 per guide)

5 website ‘interactives’

Journal space in MyStuff

Core questions, thinking points and summaries in course books

Communication & interaction

Course-wide Café forum

Tutor group forums with sub-forums for each block

F2F tutorials near beginning, middle and end of course (some regional variation)

KE312 Working Together for Children60pt course over 32 weeks3 blocks/20 learning guidesWhole weeks devoted to TMAsConsolidation week (week 22)

• Practice related• Aligned to latest prof framework for mult-agency working• Rich case studies• Read – relate to practice – reflect – write

Information & experience

PDF resources

Links to e-journal articles and other websites

3 co-published course books (21 chapters/ 960pp)

DVD – videos of 3 practice settings + interviews (XXmin)

Plus own experience and practice

Guidance & support

Study planner

20 Learning guides

General assessment guidance

TMA questions

Course guide

Study calendar

Tutor support – 1:20; 21 contact hrs; band 7

Course map example

25 Mick Jones

+Facets of OULDI work

+

Teachers/design want examples, want to share/discuss!

Many repositories of good practice, but little impact

Blogging

Facebook

Twitter Slideshare

Flckr

Youtube

Commenting

Live commentary

Tagging

RSS feeds

Embedding

Following

Harnessing web 2.0 practices

Can we change practices through use of web 2.0 ideas?

+Cloudworks: Social and collective

+Vision & principles

Connect people with similar interests

Showcase work

Provide a place for different communities

Encourage sharing

Low barrier to entry

People-orientated

Open site, open content

Target particular communities

The site acting as a conduit

Enable people to find, share & discuss learning & teaching ideas

+Key concepts: Clouds

Clouds: IdeasDesign or case studiesTools or resourcesQuestions or problems

+

+Key concepts: CloudscapesCloudscapes:ConferencesWorkshopsCourse teamStudent cohortResearch themeProject

+

+Emergent patterns of use

Events: conferences and workshops ALT-C conference, 8-11th September 2009 http://cloudworks.ac.uk/index.php/cloudscape/view/1870

Discussions: Flash debates Is Twitter killing blogging? http://cloudworks.ac.uk/index.php/cloud/view/2266

Eliciting expertise and open reviews Literature review of educational technologist http://cloudworks.ac.uk/index.php/cloudscape/view/1872

Aggregating resources En Rumbo Spanish course http://cloudworks.ac.uk/index.php/cloudscape/view/776

+Case study: Personalised learning Irma Pianucci, Santander Fellowship

Interested in more personalised forms of learning

http://cloudworks.ac.uk/index.php/cloudscape/view/1871

+Case study: personalised learning

+

+

+

+Conclusions

Motivation: helping teachers/designers make more innovative use of technologies to create better learner experiences

Approach: development of a range of resources, tools, methods and events to support this

Evidence-base and agile development: on-going evaluation and reflection to enhance understanding and drive future developments

Reflection: How effective is this? Where to next? Is it transferable? How “open” can we really expect teachers/learners to be?