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Learning Design: mapping the
         landscape
Yishay Mor, Brock Craft
   ALT-C, Sept. 2012
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
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?
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.
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
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
Learning: what?
• About
  – Physiology, anatomy, pharmacy
• To do
  – Diagnose, treat, monitor
• To be
  – A medical doctor, nurse, paramedic
Learning: how?
• From
  – Teachers, More capable peers (MCPs), Books..
• With
  – Self, peers, MCPs...
• By
  – Reading, Reciting, Attending, Practising, Doing,
    Making, Designing..
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
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
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
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.
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.
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
Need ...
• Design for learning design



• A design science of learning design
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
Thank You
  Yishay Mor,
  Yishay.Mor@open.ac.uk
  yishaymor.org

  Brock Craft
  thatbrock@gmail.com
  brockcraft.com

slideshare.net/yish/alt-casld-14246450