Implementing effective learning designs: an overview of an ALTC Competitive Grants Program project

Learning Design for the higher education environment is a complex task, especially in light of the increasing diversity of the student body. Learning materials need to be designed to take advantage of different student ability levels, learning approaches & media, and curriculum developed to support a huge variety of outcomes that are often discipline specific. Learning Design is a professional activity for which many of our academic staff is not trained. In the project outlined in this paper we will implement a learning activity planning tool that will provide comprehensive guidance for academics that will assist them in the development of inspiring Learning Design examples and supportive activities. The project team will initially explore the issues to emerge from the implementation of Learning Designs and identify barriers to their widespread adoption and ways of overcoming them. These findings will then underpin the implementation of a learning activity planning tool that addresses these adoption challenges in its design and streamlines the planning process. A tool will then be developed which can be used by academic staff to tailor these exemplary examples to meet the individual lecturer’s and/or course co-ordinator’s particular requirements, whilst providing them with the underlying pedagogical principals involved in the Learning Design.

[1]  John B. Biggs,et al.  Teaching for Quality Learning at University: What the Student Does , 1999 .

[2]  Peter Goodyear,et al.  Educational design and networked learning: Patterns, pattern languages and design practice , 2005 .

[3]  Elizabeth A. Heathcote Learning design templates – a pedagogical just-in-timesupport tool , 2006 .

[4]  Ron Oliver,et al.  Design Experiments as a Research Methodology for Innovation in ICT , 2004 .

[5]  Barry Harper,et al.  Formalising the description of learning designs , 2002 .

[6]  Sandy Britain,et al.  A Review of Learning Design:Concept, Specifications and Tools , 2004 .

[7]  Sue Bennett,et al.  Investigating how learning designs can be used as a framework to incorporate learning objects , 2004 .

[8]  Robyn Philip,et al.  Theatre Online: The design and drama of e‐learning , 2007 .

[9]  J. Woods Beyond the comfort zone. , 2005, Australian nursing journal.

[10]  Thomas C. Reeves,et al.  Design research: A socially responsible approach to instructional technology research in higher education , 2005, J. Comput. High. Educ..

[11]  Matthew Kearney,et al.  Pre-service teachers' perceptions of LAMS as a teaching tool , 2007 .

[12]  Kearney,et al.  An emerging learning design based on analogical reasoning , 2007 .

[13]  Leanne Cameron Documenting learning environments and experiences , 2007 .

[14]  Simon Walker,et al.  LEARNING DESIGNS AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF STUDY SKILLS: REUSE AND COMMUNITY PERSPECTIVES , 2009 .

[15]  Joan S. Stark,et al.  Planning introductory college courses: Content, context and form , 2000 .

[16]  Robyn Philip Adaptable and reusable learning designs: Will they be shared? , 2007 .

[17]  Diana Laurillard,et al.  Rethinking University Teaching: A Conversational Framework for the Effective Use of Learning Technologies. 2nd Edition , 1993 .

[18]  Belinda Allen,et al.  Designing for active learning online with learning design templates , 2007 .

[19]  James Dalziel,et al.  Implementing learning design : the Learning Activity Management System (LAMS) , 2003 .

[20]  Leanne Cameron,et al.  Picture this : my lesson, how LAMS is being used with pre-service teachers to develop effective classroom activities , 2006 .