This document provides an overview of an upcoming learning design workshop on applying design thinking approaches to learning. It discusses the objectives of thinking about why learning design is needed, introducing the design process and strategies like problem-finding and ideation. It also covers exploring analogies to trigger ideas for learning experiences. The workshop will focus on the learner experience over technology. Groups will use concepts like an amazing race, reading under a tree, and drinking coffee to generate keywords for potential learning interventions for an example client brief on HIV/AIDS training.

1. ideatecre8iterate
a learning design workshop
Jolanda Morkel
Senior lecturer, Architectural Technology, Faculty of Informatics and Design,
Cape Peninsula University of Technology
CPUT part-time coordinator, OpenArchitecture
E learning update, Emperor’s Palace, Johannesburg, 5 – 7 Aug 2015
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/combinatorial-creativity-and-the-myth-of-originality-114843098/?no-ist

2. Previous related workshops
E/merge Africa online Learning Design Workshop series presented
with Dr Nicola Pallitt. 5 – 21 May 2015.
Learning Design Workshop co-presented with Prof Grainne Conole,
for e/merge Africa, 22 April – 16 May 2014.
Flipped Classroom on Advanced Learning Design for Rhizomatic
Learning. Workshop facilitated with Prof Johannes Cronje, at the E
Learning Update, 21 – 23 July 2014. Emperor’s Palace,
Johannesburg.
A Flipped Classroom on Learning Design. workshop with Prof
Johannes Cronje and Liza Hitge. Learning LandsCAPE
Conference. 15 – 17 April 2014. Riverclub, Observatory, Cape Town.

3. Workshop objectives
• Think about why we need learning design
• Introduce the design thinking approach
• Explore the design process, drawing on
design disciplines
• Introduce two useful design strategies for the
early learning design stages
- problem-finding
- ideation/ conceptualisation using analogies

4. What is learning?

5. What is learning?
“The activity or process of
gaining knowledge or skill by
studying, practicing, being taught,
or experiencing something: the
activity of someone who learns.”
Evidence of learning is change in
behaviour.
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/learning

6. What is design?

7. What is design?
You cannot hold a design in your hand. It's not a thing.
It's a process. A system. A way of thinking. (Bob Gill)
Design Thinking is a creative process of thinking
backwards from people, that leads to design of a
service, a product etc., based on the conclusions of the
knowledge gathered in the process. (Pilar Saura)
Do we really need a simple definition of design or
should we accept that design is too complex a matter
to be summarized in less than a book?
(Bryan Lawson)

8. Learning design:
a design-thinking
approach…
A MINDSET
not a method
Focus on the
LEARNING
EXPERIENCE, not the
TECHNOLOGY
Iterative not linear
Innovative not procedural

9. Focus on the Learner
& learning experience

10. design process: early stages
Imagine. Investigate. Inspire. Ideate. Prototype. Evaluate. Reflect.

11. design process
Iterative cycle: design
process seen as the
negotiation between
problem and solution
through activities of
analysis, synthesis &
evaluation Lawson 2005

13. What is this?

14. Umbrella [noun]
A light, small, portable, usually
circular cover for protection
from rain or sun, consisting of a
fabric, held on a collapsible
frame of thin ribs radiating from
the top of a carrying stick or
handle.
Dictionary.reference.com

15. Did you know?
The word 'umbrella' comes from the
Latin 'umbra' meaning shade or
shadow. The basic umbrella was
probably invented by the Chinese over
4,000 years ago, to provide shade from
the sun. The Chinese first waterproofed
their umbrellas, using oiled or waxed
paper and used mulberry bark or
bamboo for frames.
http://www.umbrellahistory.net/

16. If umbrella is the
solution,
what is the
problem?

17. Do you think it
is a good
solution to the
problem?

18. If not, what
problem
is it not
sufficiently
solving?

19. How would this
(re)definition of
the problem
change the
design?

29. It depends on how the problem is framed…

32. Lawson, 2005
Designers ‘play around with ideas to get more
understanding about the problem rather than focus
on just finding a solution.’ Maher & Poon, 1996
Problem-finding

33. A large corporate client approaches a learning design
team to design a learning experience intervention to
educate staff on HIV/ Aids. 3000 employees spread
across 2 cities and 5 sites need to be trained. The
objective of the training is to train staff to be aware of
health issues related to HIV/ Aids, to address the stigma
and to change their mindset about the epidemic. The
target audience consists of knowledge workers, mostly
graduates. They have limited exposure to eLearning.
Previous eLearning exposure was for compulsory
compliance training. Employees are based in different
departments and represent a range of age groups, from
early 20s to mid 50s. The time commitment should be
no more than 1 hour.
Corporate HIV/Aids training brief

34. The results
● Within 4 hours:
78% completion
● Attitude shift
● Conversation
● Anecdotal
evidence of
learning

35. • Divergent thinking (convergent later)
• Consider many alternatives
• Ask many “what if” questions
• Use analogies to explore the possibilities
Ideate/ conceptualise

36. Concepts are frameworks within which we can design solutions to
problems/ challenges
They can be seen as a coherent set of guiding principles, which
inform us at every step of the design process.
They are are development of our overall architectural intention.
They should NOT be seen as static and unchangeable, but rather
as flexible and malleable approaches
They “instruct” us how to make decisions about any aspect of the
design
To prioritize design issues that have to be dealt with (limits design
decisions)

37. The Town Hall at Saynatsalo, Finland (1950 – 1961)
Finnish Architect, Alvar Aalto
Inspired throughout his career by the Italian hill
towns;
• “The town on the hill… is the purest, most
individual and most natural form in urban design”
• “Nothing does a town greater honour than a well-
developed public life and beautiful, functional public
places…”
Baker, Geoffrey H. Design Strategies in Architecture.
New York, 1989
Civita.org

38. In your groups…
Explore the analogies below:
one per group
Write down keywords to describe
the learning experience that might
be associated with and triggered
by the concept/ analogy.

39. Amazing race participation…
1

40. Reading under a tree…
2

41. Drinking coffee with a friend…
3

42. Sitting around the campfire…
4

43. Visiting the opera…
5

44. Hunting for a treasure…
6

45. Shopping in the Mall…
7

46. Speed dating…
8

47. Having fun at a carnival…

48. Pixabay.com
Sitting, reading under a
tree
Competing in the
Amazing Race
Drinking coffee with a
friend
1 2 3

49. Pixabay.com
Visiting the operaSitting around the
campfire
Hunting for a treasure
5 64

50. Pixabay.com
Shopping in the Mall Speed dating
87

51. 51