Dr Simon Paul Atkinson (PFHEA)
Enhancing Institutional 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 …
Continue reading “A2 Poster of Psychomotor Domain for Educational Outcomes”
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 …
Continue reading “Psychomotor outcomes and A.I.: the future of learning design.”
Any learning design framework that does not address the psychomotor skills is not worth exploring. There is not a single discipline taught in any formal, non-formal or informal way that does not make use of some tool or technology, instrument or mechanism (aka media), at some point in the process. It makes sense that any …
Continue reading “Psychomotor skills should be at the core of all learning”
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 …
Continue reading “Why we need to change how we design courses.”
A brief explanation (2’22”) of the central importance of designing well-structured intended learning outcomes for courses. Five domains of learning, details of which are available here: https://sijen.com/research-interests/taxonomies/ are all important in a balanced course. Structuring outcomes with an active verb, subject and context are also shared. These resources from 2013-2017 are being shared to support …
Continue reading “Writing Good Intended Learning Outcomes”
Colleague interested in designing modules and programmes that enable a full range of skills development across domains (cognitive, affective, psychomotor, interpersonal and metacognitive) will hopefully find this short video resource useful. Feel free to share with colleagues on PGCerts. It is designed to support a reflective question which is, “what are the tools that your …
Continue reading “Using Dave’s Psychomotor Domain Taxonomy across all tertiary level programmes”
Course: Designing Effective Intended Learning Outcomes (August 2022) I persist in being a fervent advocate for the use of a broader range of domains of learning, other than the cognitive domain (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001; Bloom, 1956), in course design. Higher education must surely be more than just about acquiring content and intellectual skills. A …
Continue reading “Importance of using all five domains of learning in course design”
See Courses “Why do I need to worry about manual skills? I teach history/French/maths…”. My answer is simple. What tools are used in the pursuit of your discipline? Is there not a degree of increasing proficiency in the deployment of these tools expected of students they progress through their studies? Psychomotor skills can be defined as those …
Continue reading “The Role of the Psychomotor Domain in Higher Education”
NOTE: updated high-quality visualisations of these taxonomies are available here. I think being able to visualise things is important. Faculty and learning designers need to be able to see Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs) take shape, and many find existing lists uninspiring. It’s not uncommon for faculty and instructional designers to grow weary of ILOs; they …
Continue reading “Visualising Outcomes: domains, taxonomies and verbs”
In my last posting I suggested that a module specification could usefully have four sections, clearly articulated, for Intended Learning Outcomes, so that a student could identify from their assessment evidence that they had met specific ILOs in a range of domains. In doing so they not only have a useful platform to identify future …
Continue reading “Learning Design becomes mission critical”