A presentation about the use of Learning Design is teacher training. Part of the ALTC National Teaching Fellowship set of recorded workshops

1. Learning Design and
Teacher Training
James Dalziel
Professor of Learning Technology &
Director, Macquarie E-Learning Centre Of Excellence (MELCOE)
Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia
james@melcoe.mq.edu.au
www.melcoe.mq.edu.au
Recorded presentation for ALTC National Teaching Fellowship

2. Background
• Recorded presentation to accompany main Learning
Design workshop recordings for ALTC National
Teaching Fellowship
– See 3 Workshop recordings, and 2 Larnaca Declaration
recordings at http://www.slideshare.net/jdalziel71
– Learning Design context and Larnaca Declaration
• Reflections on Learning Design for Teacher Training
– Undergraduate Teacher Training – Cameron, Kearney, Dobozy
– Postgraduate Teacher Training
– Generic sequences & Trans-discplinary pedagogical templates

3. Learning Design
Learning Design
Learning
Design
Conceptual
Map
(LD-CM)
Learning
Design
Framework
(LD-F)
Learning
Design
Practice
(LD-P)
The Larnaca Declaration on Learning Design:
New Definitions for the future of the field
See www.larnacadeclaration.org for document

4. Challenge
Creating learning experiences aligned to particular pedagogical approaches and learning objectives
Teaching Cycle
Educational Philosophy
Level of Granularity
All pedagogical approaches
All disciplines
Program
Theories & Methodologies
Module
A range based on assumptions
about the Learning Environment
Session
Learning Environment:
Characteristics & Values
Learning Activities
External Agencies Institution
Educator Learner
Core Concepts of Learning Design
Guidance
Representation
Sharing
Implementation
Tools
Resources
Learner Responses
Feedback
Assessment
Learner Analytics
Evaluation

5. LAMS Author – Activity tools from the left are dragged and dropped into workspace

6. Predict – Observe – Explain: Preview (student view)

7. Learning Design and Teacher Training
• Learning Design approaches, using the LAMS software,
have been implemented in a range of undergraduate
teacher training programs
– Focus on pedagogical decision making, not simply learning a
new piece of software
– For example, students create a LAMS sequence and provide
the rationale for its design as an assessment task
– Student whispered comment: “This is the first time I’ve really
thought about how to plan a lesson”
• Key examples include the work of Leanne Cameron
and Matt Bower at Macquarie University, Matthew
Kearney and colleagues at UTS, Eva Dobozy at
ECU/Curtin and others

8. Learning Design and Teacher Training
• From Dalziel 2008 summary of early implementations:
http://www.editlib.org/p/27601/proceeding_27601.pdf
• “Cameron (2008) provides a two year review of this
implementation, including student survey data on the impact of
LAMS and Learning Design on their course, as well as their
willingness to continue to use this approach in their future lives as
teachers. The overall results are very positive, including findings
such as:
– 93% of students would prefer using LAMS to create lesson plans (rather than
writing/typing the plan)
– 93% of students found that having the LAMS activity tools on the screen helped
them choose the learning activities for their sequence
– 98% of students thought that they might re-use their LAMS sequences in the
future (given appropriate facilities)”

9. Learning Design and Teacher Training
• From Dalziel 2008 summary of early implementations:
http://www.editlib.org/p/27601/proceeding_27601.pdf
•
“In Cameron’s discussion, she draws out four key points from the
student experience of authoring Learning Designs using LAMS:
1. LAMS helped students plan all aspects of their lesson
2. LAMS allowed the pre-service teachers to preview their lesson from
the learner’s perspective
3. LAMS provides a visual overview of the lesson which can identify the
learning styles addressed with the activities employed
4. LAMS creates a standardised template of activities that could be
easily modified for future re-use

10. Learning Design and Teacher Training
• “Perhaps most revealing are some of the general comments from
students on the experience of using LAMS:
– “The amount of detail did help me construct my lesson plan. The detail helped
me to organise my ideas on how I wished the lesson to go, but also provided
me with what kind of activities could be used.”
– “Being able to view the sequence, you can see where you need to make
changes. Whilst creating the sequence you are viewing it form an author’s
perspective, whilst when you preview the sequence, you are seeing it from a
learner’s perspective. After all, we are creating these sequences for learners to
use. So this is vital.”
– “It gives you a visual perspective of how your lesson varies and whether you
might have too much of one activity or not enough of another. I think the
colours are a really clear indicator of the structure of the lesson.”
– “Yes, I would re-use it. I really liked the way my sequence turned out. It could
be used in more than one way. With a minimum of adjustments I could use this
sequence in a number of different ways.”
• Cameron, L. (2008) http://www.editlib.org/p/27594/proceeding_27594.pdf

11. Learning Design and Teacher Training
• For related research, see work by Kearney, Bower and
Dobozy, including presentations by Cameron &
Kearney’s students at LAMS conferences
– Kearney:
https://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/singapore07/procs/kear
ney.pdf
http://www.igi-global.com/chapter/investigating-prospectiveteachers-learning-design/20886
– Bower:
http://lams2009sydney.lamsfoundation.org/CD/pdfs/02_Bower.
pdf
http://lams2011sydney.lamsfoundation.org/docs/RP/Bower_Mat
t.pdf
– Dobozy: http://www.tewtjournal.org/VOL%2011/ISSUE
%201/volume_11_issue_01-03_article_01.pdf
– Cameron & Kearney keynote including student designers:
http://lams2008sydney.lamsfoundation.org/program.htm

12. Learning Design and Teacher Training
• LAMS has also been used in a range of postgraduate
teacher training programs
• In addition to similar findings to undergraduate
examples, a special focus of some postgraduate units
has been on sharing and adaptation
– Applying Open Education approaches to Learning Design
• Many postgraduate students have commented on the
challenges of taking a sequence from someone else,
and adapting it to their own context
– Sometimes can “infer” the underlying pedagogy: sometimes it
needs to be made explicit
– Expert vs Novice pedagogy in relation to LAMS

13. Learning Design and Teacher Training
• Eva Dobozy has recently focused on “Transdisciplinary
Pedagogical Templates (TPTs)
– See: Dobozy, E., Dalziel, J., & Dalziel, B. (2013). Learning
design and transdisciplinary pedagogical templates (TPTs). In
C. Nygaard, J. Branch & C. Holtham (Eds.), Learning in
university education – Contemporary standpoints (pp. 59-76).
Farington, UK: Libri Publishing.
• Related to work on Pedagogic Planners in UK (LDSE &
Phoebe), and Activity Planner for LAMS
• Key focus on capturing and sharing generic
pedagogical methods

14. Learning Design and Teacher Training
• Example: De Bono LAMS sequence series
– http://www.tewtjournal.org/VOL%2012/ISSUE2/paper7.pdf
– Able to re-use a simple sequence format (see below) for a
range of sequences to engage higher order thinking
– The template can be adapted to many different disciplines

15. Conclusion
• Significant body of work on Learning Design (and use
of LAMS) in teacher training, both in undergraduate and
postgraduate contexts
– Notable student responses
– Students creating designs and providing a rationale for the
design appear to be key to the learning process
• Ongoing research on generic
sequences/Transdisciplinary Pedagogical Templates
– How best to encourage re-use and contextualisation