+
Blog: Learning Design at the OU: visualising,
www.e4innovation.com guiding and sharing designs
Websites:
ouldi.open.ac.uk
Gráinne Conole, The Open University, UK
olnet.org LAMS European conference
The Open University, 7/7/09

+ Focus
 OU Learning Design
Initiative
 Representing
 Guiding
 Sharing
 OL-net
 Learning Design
 Pedagogical patterns
 Open Learn

+ OU Learning Design Initiative
Representing
pedagogy
Empirical
evidence
base
Guiding Sharing
design ideas
Andrew Brasher, Paul Clark, Gráinne Conole, Simon Cross,
Juliette Culver, Rebecca Galley and Paul Mundin

+ Project strands and plans
 Strategically funded institutional strand (Aug 07)
 Development and trialing of a range of tools, methods and
approaches to learning design
 Institutional embedding
 JISC-fund Curriculum Design strand (Sept 08)
 Alignment with Course Business Models works
 Refinement, cascading and validating
 Hewlett-funded OL-net initiative (March 09)
 A network of support for researchers and users of Open
Educational Resources
 Learning Design strand: Applying Learning Design and
Pedagogical Patterns to OER development and reuse

+ Representations
 Features
 Granularity: micro (a learning activity) to macro
(course level)
 Types: Sequential/temporal, pedagogical,
financial
 Some examples
n Task timeline
n Pedagogical profile
n Course map/”At a glance view”
n Other views: financial, course performance,
tool/task mapping, etc

+ 1. Task timeline
Task1 Forum
Tasks
Tools Task2 Chapter 1
Resources
Task3 Wiki

+ 2. Pedagogy profile
Block 1
Block 1 5 3 4 1 0 0 4
Block 2
Block 2 6 3 3 3 3 2 4
Block 3
Block 3 6 3 3 3 4 3 4
Total
Total 17 9 10 7 7 5 12
Conole, 2008 in Locker et al.

PM
+ En rumbo – Unidad 1 Task Matrix Summary
L140
L140 En rumbo Task Profile Review
40.00
34.50
35.00
30.00
25.00
Student Hours
20.00 Task Type
14.75
15.00 13.00
10.00
5.00 2.50 3.25
0.75 0.00
0.00
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Pr
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As
As
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8
OU Course Business Models - Paul Mundin

+ 3. Course map/At a glance view
Evidence &
demonstration
Guidance
& support
Information Communication
& experience & interaction
Thinking
& reflection

Evidence &
demonstration
Guidance
& support
Information Communication
& experience & interaction
Thinking
& reflection

+ Course map/At a glance representation
Guidance and support “Learning pathway”
Course structure and timetable
Course calendar, study guide, tutorials
Information and experience “Content and activities”
Could include course materials, prior experience or
student generated content
Readings, DVDs, podcasts, lab or field work,
placements
Communication and interaction “Dialogue”
Social dimensions of the course, interaction with
other students and tutors
Course forum, email
Thinking and reflection “Meta-cognition”
Internalisation and reflection on learning
In-text questions, notebook, blog, e-portfolio,
Evidence and demonstration “Assessment”
Diagnostic, formative and summative
Multiple choice quizzes, TMAs, ECA

+ CompendiumLD
 Tool for visualising designs
 Provides in-situ help and templates to guide the design
process
 Designs can be exported in a range of formats
 Can have multi-layer designs
 Supportsimporting of range of file types (word, audio,
video, powerpoint, etc) and can link to web pages
 Semi-runable design

+CompendiumLD workspace
Core icon set
Design icon set

+ Task timeline representation
 Temporal, sequential
 Swim lines:
 Roles + tasks,
 Resources + tools

+ Time aggregation

+ Layers and branching

+ The power of visualisation
 Captures design at a glance
 Makes structures and
relationships explicit
 Collaboration, group
activities and communication
of ideas
 Organising thoughts,
including mind-mapping and
brainstorming
 Sharing the visual design or
‘learning plan’ with students

+ Evaluation
 Communication
Getting involved in course design discussion
Communication with course team at very early stage
 Process & Planning
Initial drafts/spec of course material/Note taking
Identifying gaps (or unnecessary activities in material
 Clarification and mapping
Simplification of potentially complex problems
Big picture
Mapping course items/Mapping online activities
 Benefits
 Aspects of their work would benefit from using visual
representations (80.6%)
 Want to improve knowledge of visualisation (80.6%)
 Visualisation helped them more quickly see structure and
components of the course (51.6%)
Simon Cross

GC
+ The value of representations
 Guidelines for curriculum design
 Comparing between courses
 Deconstruction of existing learning
activities
 Checklist of good practice
 Reflective evaluation
19

+Cloudworks:
social networking for learning & teaching
Blogging Youtube
Live commentary RSS feeds
Facebook
Flckr
Changing practices through use of social networking
Tagging
Commenting Following
Many repositories of good practice, but little impact
Embedding
Twitter Slideshare

+ Core concepts
Clouds:
Learning & teaching ideas
Design or case studies
Tools or resources
Questions or problems
Cloudscapes:
Conferences
Workshops
Course team
Student cohort
Research theme
Project

+ A cloud

+ Cloudscape

+
Examples of use
Aggregation of student
generated course
resources and course
twitter stream
Conference collective
blogging and backroom chat
Workshops: workshop material,
live blogs of sessions and plenary
discussions, aggregate of group
discussions

+ User profile

+
Features
 Dynamic list of clouds + new comments
 Comments on clouds + cloudscapes
 Can “follow” people + cloudscapes
 RSS feeds of cloudscapes + people
 Embedding: pictures, video, presentations
 Twitter feeds for people +cloudscapes

+ Adding in abstracted good practice
Pedagogical Patterns
 Derived from Alexander’s work
 “Solutions to problems”
 Introduction
 Context
 Problem headline
 Solution
 Picture
 Similar patters
Andrew Brasher, Yannis Demistriadis, Patrick McAndrew, Tina Wilson

+ Putting it all together: “Open Design”
Sharing and
discussing:
Harnessing Web 2.0
practice, Cloudworks
Tools for design: Good practice:
Templates,
Pedagogical planners, principles,
CompendiumLD Pedagogical patterns

+ Mediating artefacts
A mediating layer Pedagogical planner tools
Mediating Templates and patterns
artefacts Resource sites
Repositories of designs
Dialogic channels
OER
Designer Creates Has an Design
inherent
User
Can we develop new innovative mediating artifacts?
How can we make the design more explicit and sharable?
Vygotsky

Open Design in practice

+ Explicit design
 Shows tasks and associated tools and resources
 Lists learning outcomes
 Begins with a diagnostic test
 Includes branching
 Uses the jigsaw pedagogical pattern

Design, use, reuse
Deposits
OER
Creates
Designer
Design Deposits
Quiz + beginners route
Uses
Learner A
OER Quiz + advanced route
Chooses Learner B Uses
Design
New OER
Repurposes
Tutor
New Design

Prior designs
Process design New designs
& resources
Content:
(OER repositories, etc)
New OER
Designs: & designs
(Pedagogical
Patterns,
CompendiumLD designs)

+
Questions/issues
 Paradox: “I want to share/give me examples” vs. “lack of time”
 Cloudworks good for “live” events (conferences, workshops),
how do we shift to use to support ongoing communities?
 How do we shift attitudes and practice towards more open and
web 2.0 approaches?
 Which communities should we work with across the sector?
 What is the right balance of technical development with real
use?

+ References & Acknowledgements
Acknowledgements
 Funding:  http://ouldi.open.ac.uk
 The OU, JISC and
 http://compendium.open.ac.uk
Hewlett foundation
 http://cloudworks.ac.uk
 People:
 Andrew Brasher, Simon  http://olnet.org
Cross, Paul Clark,
Juliette Culver, Yannis
Demitriadia, Patrick
McAndrew, Tina Wilson