Access the PDF here. Sandwiched between the overlying educational philosophy and the framework for learning design lie the design principles. These are likely to be very similar across all of our design contexts, particularly if you are designing within formal tertiary institutions and in the Occidental world. Having these principles, debated and discussed by design …
Tag Archives: Learning Design
Relationship between learning models and patterns: 9S Model and DiAL-e Learning Patterns
A learning model serves to map the skeleton of a course, ensuring that it is constructively aligned, workload balanced and actively supports learning. A learning pattern is a student-engagement activity designed to meet a set of learning objectives. A quick reminder that learning outcomes are set at a course level and are always assessed. Learning …
A2 Poster of Psychomotor Domain for Educational Outcomes
I have been asked whether I had a poster specifically for the Psychomotor domain. I do now! This domain is one of the most neglected by course designers in higher education because it is wrongly attributed to purely manual training. In fact it covers all manner of dexterity and manipulation skills, including software, databases, laboratory …
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Designing for the Future: A Curriculum Horizon-Scanning Workshop
This week’s Substack resource provides an outline for a workshop that brings together faculty to explore one of the most pressing challenges in contemporary higher education: how to design courses that remain meaningful, rigorous, and relevant in a rapidly changing world. Through a series of structured provocations and collaborative discussions, participants will examine the forces …
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Why is it important to have a learning design team focused on the future?
The Challenge of Course Design All learning designers are essentially futurists. This is because the student who embarks on your designed course will not develop the skills and attributes you anticipated until they have completed it. If your course is part of a multi-year degree, you need to be thinking about a future that might …
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When is AR/VR in learning design worth the investment?
What skills are we trying to develop? The 8-Stage Learning Design Framework (8-SLDF) dictates that Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) design choices are not based on the technology’s novelty, but on a “constructive alignment” between the learner’s needs and the professional skills being developed. Here, we will evaluate the potential effectiveness of AR/VR …
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Circular Visualisations of Taxonomies for Learning Designers.
This week’s Substack resource for paid subscribers includes six PNG’s that reflect the work I’ve been doing for over a decade on educational taxonomies for educational outcomes. Each of these taxonomies is standalone, although I advocate that any sound course and programme design would incorporate all five domains of learning. Priority is being given to …
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Ipsative Portfolio Assessment: a response to AI
First posted on Substack The AI arms race still rages. Students will identify AI writing support tools, educators will rearm themselves with AI-aware plagiarism-detection software, and students will source apps that can bypass the detection software. Institutions are increasingly prioritising the ease with which mass assessments can be marked. Governments are revising legislation that banned …
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Building Beautiful Learning – a Manifesto
FIRST PUBLISHED ON SUBSTACK In 2007, I was invited to deliver a ‘keynote’ at the opening of the National e-Learning Centre in Zagreb, Croatia. I was then the Head of e-Learning and the Head of the Centre for Learning Development at the University of Hull. I argued then that the “e” in e-learning should stand …
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Psychomotor outcomes and A.I.: the future of learning design.
There is a looming skills deficit across all disciplines currently being taught in Universities today. The vast majority of degree programmes are, at best, gradual evolutions of what has gone before. At their worst they are static bodies of knowledge transmission awaiting a young vibrant new member of faculty to reignite them. Internal reviews are …
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Why we need to change how we design courses.
There are many courses out there that do a great job of teaching manual, dexterity and physical capabilities. From bricklaying, hairdressing, to gas-fitting, there are course that are focussed around manual processes. However, there are huge numbers of graduates from tertiary programmes that cannot perform duties required of employers on day-one simply because they have …
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Blended by us or differentiated by learners: the future of courseware design
Ten years ago, in 2011, I wrote a blog entitled ‘there’s no such things as blended learning’, which essentially suggested that all learning experiences are blended to some extent, making the term irrelevant. Since then, the boundaries between contexts, technologies and experiences have become even more blurred. Yet rather than discarding the blended terminology, there …
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What are the four key skills required of learning designers or instructional designers?
Let’s talk about the skills required of learning designers, or instructional designers. Context makes all the difference. Learning design in a face-to-face University context looks very different from an online instructional designer working in a government department or commercial enterprise. Roles using generic job titles can differ significantly. There are learning designers who guide academics …
Approaching learning and teaching from different perspectives
This presentation was prepared in the first months of the Covid pandemic to argue that educational designers would be vital for the creation of quality online courseware in institutions where this was not the norm. Please allow time for the audio files to buffer. This may take a minute depending on your connection. Adobe Presenter …
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Overview of the 8-Stage Learning Design Framework (11’48”)
This an introduction to a new resource being shared on this website, the 8-Stage Learning Design Framework, or 8-SLDF for short. The framework provides a supportive step by step process to enable faculty and course designers to develop robust and well-aligned programmes or modules. Publication of the 8-SLDF is in preparation so only brief explanations are …
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Four contractual agreements to make with your students about feedback (3’30”)
There are social conventions, unwritten rules, around feedback in a formal education setting. Most students associate feedback as coming from the voice of authority in the form of red marks on a written script! It is important to redefine feedback for university and professional learners. In this short overview video (3’30”) Simon outlines four ‘contractual’ …
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Using Learning Design to Unleash the Power of Learning Analytics
Atkinson, S.P. (2015). Using Learning Design to Unleash the Power of Learning Analytics. In T. Reiners, B.R. von Konsky, D. Gibson, V. Chang, L. Irving, & K. Clarke (Eds.), Globally connected, digitally enabled. Proceedings ascilite 2015 in Perth (pp. 358-364 / CP:6-CP:10). A very enjoyable presentation made this week at ascilite 2015 in Perth, …
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Enhancements to the SOLE Tookit – now version 3.5
I have no idea what the protocol is for naming versions of things. I imagine, like me, someone has an idea of what the stages are going to look like, when a truly fresh new is going to happen. For me I have a sense that version 4.0 of the SOLE Toolkit will incorporate what …
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