http://altc2012.alt.ac.uk/talks/28031 Our era is distinguished by the wealth of open and readily available information, and the accelerated evolution of social, mobile and creative technologies. These offer learners and educators unprecedented opportunities, but also entail increasingly complex challenges. Consequently, the role of educators needs to shift from distributors of knowledge to designers for learning. Educators may still provide access to information, but now they also need to carefully craft the conditions for learners to enquire, explore, analyse, synthesise and collaboratively construct their knowledge from the variety of sources available to them. The call for such a repositioning of educators is heard from leaders in the field of TEL and resonates well with the growing culture of design-based research in Education. Yet, it is still struggling to find a foothold in educational practice. In October 2011, the Art and Science of Learning Design (ASLD) workshop was convened in London, UK, to explore the tools, methods, and frameworks available for practitioners and researchers invested in designing for learning, and to articulate the challenges in this emerging domain. The workshop adopted an unconventional design, whereby contributions were shared online beforehand, and the event itself was dedicated to synergy and synthesis. This paper presents an overview of the emerging themes identified at the ASLD workshop, and guides the reader through further reading of the workshop outcomes. First, we introduce the topic of Learning Design, and the themes we will be considering. We present and compare some common definitions of Learning Design, and clarifying its links to the related but distinctly different field of Instructional Design. We then explore its relevance and value to educators, content and technology developers, and researchers, examining some of the current issues and challenges. We present an overview of the workshop contributions, relating them to the key thematic strands of Learning Design, and conclude with three significant challenges to be explored in future research.

1. Learning Design: mapping the
landscape
Yishay Mor, Brock Craft
ALT-C, Sept. 2012

2. The 30sec version
• Learning design - the solution to world
hunger.
• We had a great workshop in London last
October.
• All the workshop contributions are available at
ld-grid.org/workshops/ASLD11
• Our review / summary paper is at
researchinlearningtechnology.net/index.php/rlt/article/view/19196/html

3. So, what shall we talk about?
• What is this Learning Design thing you
mention?
• Why should I bother?
• What are the big issues?
• Where do I go from here?

5. Learning Design is..
Learning Design
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design
Acquiring new, or the creation of
modifying existing, a plan or convention
knowledge, behaviors, for the construction of an
skills, values, or object or a system.
Preferences. May involve
synthesizing different types
of information.

6. Learning – is..
• A computer program is said to learn from
experience E with respect to some class of
tasks T and performance measure P, if its
performance at tasks in T, as measured by P,
improves with experience E.
Tom M. Mitchell, 1997

7. Learning :=
Acquiring new, or modifying existing, knowledge,
behaviors, skills, values, or preferences. May
involve synthesizing different types of information.
A computer program is said to Making meanings
learn from experience E with (references, connections,
respect to some class of tasks constructs) fromtext (systems of
T and performance measure P, signs) in context (material,
if its performance at tasks in T, social)
as measured by P, improves
with experience E. (Lemke; Kress; others)
Tom M. Mitchell, 1997

8. Learning: what?
• About
– Physiology, anatomy, pharmacy
• To do
– Diagnose, treat, monitor
• To be
– A medical doctor, nurse, paramedic

9. Learning: how?
• From
– Teachers, More capable peers (MCPs), Books..
• With
– Self, peers, MCPs...
• By
– Reading, Reciting, Attending, Practising, Doing,
Making, Designing..

10. Design :=
the creation of a plan or convention for the construction of an object or a system.
everyone designs who devises courses of action
aimed at changing existing situations into desired ones
(Simon, 1969) Objects with intent
Bad design is.. just letting things happen.
John Hockenberry (ted.com)
Conversation with the materials of a situation
Donald Schon
a mutual learning process between
users and designers
Pascal Béguin

11. Craft = making stuff
Design = making stuff better
Change • Value driven
in context • Change oriented
• Functionally organised
Changin' • Context dependent
context • Representation sensitive
(Luckin) • Iterative
• Responsive
Objects that • Creative
change practice • Deliberate
• Social

12. Utility, firmness, delight
(Utilitas, firmitas, venustas) - Vitruvius*
• Utility
– Functional, existing states → desired
• Firmness
– Deliberate
– Laurillard: teachers as design scientists
– Design inquiry
• Delight
– Are we having fun?
*: HT Mike Sharples

13. Why bother?
Education is..
• Knowledge transmission
• Behaviour modulation
or -
• Designed learning:
Creating the opportunities for learners to
achieve their objectives in a complex,
dynamic, challenging environment.

14. Learning Design :=
The deliberate creative practice of devising new
practices, plans of activity, resources and tools
aimed at achieving particular educational aims
in a given situation.

15. the issues
• Representations
– capturing context, imagining change
– musical score, architectural drawing, LD … ?
• Methods
– Firmness, taming complexity
• Practices
– Teachers as learning designers, learners as designers
of own learning.
• Tools
– For all of the above

16. Need ...
• Design for learning design
• A design science of learning design

17. Next stops
• The Learning Design Grid www.ld-grid.org
• OLDS MOOC www.olds.ac.uk
• ARV Workshop
ld-grid.org/workshops/design-inquiry2013
• Participatory Pattern Workshops talk
altc2012.alt.ac.uk/talks/28096
• H817: Openness and innovation in eLearning
www3.open.ac.uk/study/postgraduate/
course/h817.htm

18. Thank You
Yishay Mor,
Yishay.Mor@open.ac.uk
yishaymor.org
Brock Craft
thatbrock@gmail.com
brockcraft.com
slideshare.net/yish/alt-casld-14246450