LEARNING DESIGN SIG WEBINARS
Curriculum Futures: Situational Factors in Learning Design Framework
When designing or redesigning learning, whether small scale (course sections), medium (a course, module or MOOC) or large scale (programme or MOOC) the first step needs to be a careful review of the situational factors that may affect your key decisions. You will be introduced to the University of Birmingham’s Situational Factors in Learning Design Framework, the thinking behind its development explore some of the eight situational lenses (Students, Staffing, Subject, Sequencing, Space, Scene, Standards and Scholarship).
Supporting Resources
- Hinton, Danielle (2022): Curriculum Futures: Situational Factors in Learning Design Framework Workbook. National Teaching Repository. Educational resource. https://doi.org/10.25416/NTR.20029274.v1
- Learning Design Frameworks, Models and Toolkits padlet https://padlet.com/hefi1/ulvzhubn02o8kmru
How do you shift an entire Masters degree from blended, block-mode to asynchronous online over the course of one year?
That was the challenge posed to the academic teaching and learning design teams at UTS when the Masters of Education (Learning and Leadership) was redesigned and relaunched through 2020 and 2021. In this presentation, Course Director Amanda Lizier discusses the process the team followed, the zigs and zags along the way, and the lessons learned.
Based on our experience of developing and teaching the new subjects, and reflecting on student, industry, and stakeholder feedback throughout the process, we identified three key challenges:
- How can we present all content and activities for a subject in an accelerated, asynchronous, online format?
- How can we offer a high level of customisation for students?
- How can we provide research-inspired, integrated opportunities for students to learn at the cutting edge of pedagogy, technology and industry?
Working through these challenges provided many opportunities to reflect on our own practice as educators and as learning designers. In response to these challenges, this presentation will discuss three key lessons from our experience:
- Creating consistent learner experiences in asynchronous learning
- Supporting personalised and customised learning
The importance of collective expertise within and beyond our team
Entangled Pedagogy Implications for Design
Entangled pedagogy challenges the notion that technology-first or pedagogy-first framings accurately describe the complex relationships between the different elements that contribute to any educational activity. It offers a framework for thinking about how these elements inevitably shape each other, and about the kinds of approaches and knowledge that can support educators to effectively navigate the messy, emergent spaces of teaching and learning. In this talk, our presenter will use the entangled pedagogy framework to think about the implications for learning design and how aspects of educational activity are inevitably interrelated and distributed across different kinds of staff and students, both constraining and strengthening possibilities for practice. The presentation will also briefly consider some implications for faculty development, technological adoption, different modalities of teaching (e.g. on campus, online and hybrid) and ethics.
This session was presented by Dr Tim Fawns, a Senior Lecturer in Clinical Education, University of Edinburgh and Deputy Programme Director of the online MSc Clinical Education, Director of the international Edinburgh Summer School in Clinical Education. He also runs a course in “Postdigital Society” for the Edinburgh Futures Institute. His main academic interests are in teaching, learning and assessment (mostly in healthcare and professional education), technology, and memory. Before his current role, he was a learning technologist, and a graphic and web designer.
Approaches to professional skills building across degree programs, 17 June 2022
Where does learning and development of professional skills come from within a university degree program?
The short answer is everywhere. A system of connecting experiential learning and professional skills development with student reflective blogs has been established within various courses and degree programs at UNSW. This presentation focused on the process of building student awareness of their professional skills development and graduate attributes through experiential learning opportunities via assessment tasks authentic to discipline and reflective practice/ePortfolio pedagogy within coursework. This work was initially generated in courses within the medical science degree program and then translated across various courses and degree programs at UNSW. The value of using badging and microcredentialling to recognise these skills in job ready graduates will be discussed.
This session was presented by Professor Patsie Polly (SFHEA) is a UNSW Scientia Education Fellow and Co-Director of the Scientia Education Academy, Education Focussed Academic Champion and Professor in Pathology, within the School of Medical Sciences, UNSW Medicine, UNSW Sydney. Patsie is recognised nationally and internationally as a scholar. Patsie is an invited international ePortfolio AAEEBL Board member and national ePortfolios Australia Committee Member.
Patsie infuses her extensive medical research experience into educational practice by strategically integrating innovative adaptive lessons, ePortfolio pedagogy and collaborative communities of practice for students to learn career-relevant professional skills. Patsie leads BadgeCop, a community of practice focussed on micro-credentialing at UNSW.
Exploring the value of Design Thinking for higher education, 29 April 2022
Design Thinking approaches have informed creative and participatory decision making, problem identification and solution design in corporate, creative and community contexts since the late 1950s. Recent research and practice has explored the application of design thinking in the context of learning and curriculum design in higher education. In this session Susie Macfarlane and Jane Kiddell explored definitions and principles, shared experiences using Design Thinking and Co-design mindsets and considered the next steps for applying this approach to the session participant’s own practices.
Jane Kiddell is Lecturer, Learning Futures, in the Learning Innovations (Health) team at Deakin University. She has been digressing at the boundaries of education and learning technology for more than 20 years. Jane thrives on working together with academics, learners and colleagues to co-create authentic, inclusive learning experiences and strategic projects using human centered and design thinking approaches.
Susie Macfarlane (Associate Professor, Learning Futures) leads the Learning Innovations team in the Faculty of Health at Deakin University. Susie’s research and practice focus on promoting the agency and unleashing the creativity of students and educators in higher education, and her strategic leadership is informed by her background as a psychologist and educator, and her studies in design, computing, systems thinking and participatory leadership.
Jane and Susie co-lead the Co-design+Design Thinking Community of Practice at Deakin University.
The contemporary role of the Learning Designer: ideas and challenges in education and training, 18 March 2022
Learning designers are one of the most sought after roles in tertiary, vocational and corporate education. There are dozens of opportunities available for newly graduated LDs. Yet, at the same time, the historic confusion about the role of the learning designer continues unchallenged. What does it mean to be a learning designer? How is that changing in the present – and how might it change in the future? Perhaps even more importantly, with the growth of the industry, what skills are required for a learning designer? How will learning design integrate (if it does) with learning analytics? Or virtual reality?
In this webinar, Keith Heggart, the course coordinator for the Graduate Certificate in Learning Design at UTS, drew on his experiences developing the course to reflect on how he sought to develop the next generation of learning designers. He discussed both the structure and the approach involved in the course development and reflected on the kinds of skills and knowledges that are central to modern learning design.
Experiential learning and the Fourth Industrial Revolution, 19 Nov 2021
The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) is rapidly changing the way we live, work and learn. Business systems and process are becoming more streamlined and increasingly run by algorithms, AI and robotics. As a result, the industry requires new and additional skillsets from graduates. As equally as important as industry specific ‘hard skills’ are the ‘smart, soft’ behavioural skills such as critical thinking, collaboration, decision making, problem solving and empathy.
This presentation, delivered by Torrens University Australia Senior Learning Experience Designers, Dr Anu Khara and Nikki Donald, focused on how experiential learning theory, supported by the innovative use of technology can support students develop these smart soft skills using simulated and first person scenarios.
Anu and Nikki also presented a collaborative project led by the Product Innovation team at TUA to create, develop and implement authentic learning experiences using Extended Reality (XR) technology. The project is redefining the student learning experience in hospitality education for both practical, applied skills and smart soft skills, including empathy, conflict resolution and customer service. Combining research and technology to create an informed learning design strategy, the project aims to transform students learning experiences as the university embraces a digitally transforming future of higher education.
Speakers: Dr Anuradha Khara and Nikki Donald
Anu and Nikki are Senior Learning Experience Designers with Torrens University Australia. They lead, guide and manage teams of Learning Experience Designers and are SME’s in curriculum design contributing to faculty decision making and course accreditation.
Anu holds a PhD in Education. Her passion for Computer Programming and French language took her to France where she completed French Language Teachers’ Training Program and a Master’s degree in Computer Assisted Language Learning. The combination of these two programs helped gear her up to be an educator who understands the relationship between content, pedagogy and effective ways to integrate technology to make learning engaging.
Nikki is currently studying for a Masters of Education: Innovation and Change. She has 20 years’ experience in design and adult education, including corporate training, VET and Higher Ed. She is passionate about ed-tech, social justice and First Nations Reconciliation. Nikki is committed to designing learning experiences that empower students and instigate positive social change.
