\u201cThere is no interaction, no feeling of belonging, no presence \u2013 I didn\u2019t want to read an encyclopedia, I wanted to learn!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cI hated this course. PowerPoints, a disembodied voice at the end of the phone lecturing\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Even well intentioned designs can go wrong.<\/p>\n Some online courses are poorly thought through and designed and do not reflect what we know about adult learning, student engagement and learning outcomes, the importance of interaction and feedback and the need for presence. In fact, a number of courses are designed as replicas of classroom courses rather than as courses purposely designed for an online learning environment: what works in a classroom may or may not work online.<\/p>\n Design is a discipline and process. It begins and ends with the needs of students and requires an in-depth knowledge of who students are, what they expect and what they bring to the task of learning for a specific course. That is, rather than asking \u201cwhat do I want to teach these students?\u201d, the question that drives design for learning is \u201cwhat is it that these students need to know, understand and be able to use as a result of taking this course?\u201d. Design is therefore a user-centred process aimed at achieving high levels of user engagement and satisfaction. We can show this process by means of a simple model:<\/p>\n Figure 1: The Design Process<\/p>\n While this captures the essence of this work, a fulsome explanation<\/a> can be helpful.<\/p>\n There are several components to this design stage, but the keys are these three: (a) understand who the students will be and what they know \/ don\u2019t know about the knowledge and skills they will be required to study; (b) develop an in depth understanding of the knowledge and skills students will need to master during their work on this course \u2013 what is essential, helpful and \u201cnice to have\u201d \u2013 and how the knowledge and skills will be assessed, both in terms of helping students learn (assessment for<\/em> learning) and it terms of mastery (assessment of<\/em> learning); and (c) discovering what resources \u2013 especially free to use, open educational resources (OER) are available to support student learning.<\/p>\n Matching learning requirements for the course with available resources is an obvious challenge. There are so many resources available; how do we choose the most appropriate? The common solution is to find a textbook that is the best fit to the purposes of the course. An increasingly used approach is to customize a text for the course \u2013 a service now available from major publishers like Pearson<\/a> or McGraw Hill<\/a>. This enables the instructor to \u201cmix and match\u201d materials from a variety of sources into a text uniquely created for the course they are designing. An alternative is to develop \u201clearning playlists\u201d of OER materials from a variety of sources (iTunes U, OER Commons, OERu, YouTube and the web) which are available under a Creative Commons License<\/a>.<\/p>\n So as to know which materials will work, there is a need to fully understand the needs and experiences of different students who are likely to take the course:<\/p>\n \t\u00a0<\/li>\n <\/p>\n \t\u00a0<\/li>\n <\/p>\n \t\u00a0<\/li>\n <\/p>\n \t\u00a0<\/li>\n \n<\/ul>\n At this discovery phase, the work of the designer is to think through how the different needs of different students can be met so that, by a variety of routes, all can achieve the learning outcomes required from the course.<\/p>\n At this stage it is a good idea to spend time exploring how students who normally take this course (or similar courses if the course to be designed is completely new) usually approach their work and to discuss with faculty colleagues what works and what hasn\u2019t worked as well as expected.<\/p>\n It is also important to understand that a \u201ccourse\u201d is not a linear thing \u2013 it is a set of related experiences. A key discovery challenge is this: \u201chow can we design a set of learning experiences which, when taken together, represent both powerful, memorable and effective ways of learning and also achieve the outcomes intended for all <\/em>students?\u201d.<\/p>\n One idea to rule out early in thinking at this phase is that there is a single route to success for an \u201cideal learner\u201d. No two learners take the same route to learning and your chances of having a class full of ideal learners are, well, as near to zero as you can imagine.<\/p>\n The discovery phase focuses on understanding and gathering options \u2013 options for resources, options for activities, options for assessment, options for playlists and approaches. In this phase we need to \u201cland\u201d on specific approaches.<\/p>\n There are some helpful lessons from many years of instructional design practice. Here are the top ten:<\/p>\n \t\u00a0<\/li>\n <\/p>\n \t\u00a0<\/li>\n <\/p>\n \t\u00a0<\/li>\n <\/p>\n \t\u00a0<\/li>\n <\/p>\n \t\u00a0<\/li>\n <\/p>\n \t\u00a0<\/li>\n <\/p>\n Figure 2: A Framework for Presence in Online Learning<\/p>\n This suggests the designer should think through and design ways in which they:<\/p>\n \t\t\u00a0<\/li>\n <\/p>\n \t\t\u00a0<\/li>\n <\/p>\n \t\t\u00a0<\/li>\n <\/p>\n \t\t\u00a0<\/li>\n <\/p>\n \n\t<\/ul>\n \n\t<\/li>\n <\/p>\n \t\u00a0<\/li>\n <\/p>\n \t\u00a0<\/li>\n <\/p>\n \n<\/ol>\n When you scan these top ten items, you have the sense that design is not about \u201cdesigning an online course\u201d but about designing learning experiences, which enable the learners to achieve the desired learning outcomes, possibly by a variety of routes.<\/p>\n To support this work, smart organizations use design teams \u2013 a faculty member (expert knowledge), an instructional designer who understands this work, a librarian (they can find OER) and a technology team member. For a rich and effective learning experience, the expertise of all of these individuals are required.<\/p>\n Having done all of this imagining, planning and thinking, we now need to develop the first full version of the learning experience, run it, evaluate it, and improve it. We are using what is known as the Deming Wheel, after Edwards Deming \u2013 the father of quality management. The wheel looks like this:<\/p>\n Figure 3: The Deming Wheel<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Steps 1 and 2 of the design process are the plan<\/em> phase of this cycle. We are now at the do<\/em> phase. We offer the learning experiences to the student, modifying it as we go in the light of their experience and feedback. At the end of the experience, when all assessments and feedback are in, we can study<\/em> the way in which our design worked and evaluate the design in a systematic way, identifying what we need to do to improve both the experience for the next group of learners but also completions and learning outcomes. Then we act<\/em> to change the experience.<\/p>\n When we evaluate and look at what happened, we should ask four questions:<\/p>\n \t\u00a0<\/li>\n <\/p>\n \t\u00a0<\/li>\n <\/p>\n \t\u00a0<\/li>\n <\/p>\n \n<\/ul>\n This is all very practical work. All design activities are stepping stones to the next design and the one after. We are creating a virtual learning circle aimed at high quality learning experiences based on sound design, a strong presence and student engagement.<\/p>\n The work of design is a discipline. We are all trying to design a memorable, meaningful and engaging experience which results in high levels of student success and satisfaction. There are some outstanding online learning designs in use \u2013 creative, imaginative.<\/p>\n \n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Some online courses are poorly thought through and designed and do not reflect what we know about adult learning, student engagement and learning outcomes, the importance of interaction and feedback and the need for presence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":17569,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","article-categories":[205],"ai-resource-hub":[],"micro-credentials-resource-hub":[],"oer-resource-hub":[],"class_list":["post-17565","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","article-categories-designs-for-teaching-in-the-digital-age"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/teachonline.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/articles\/17565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/teachonline.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/articles"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/teachonline.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/articles"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachonline.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/teachonline.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"article-categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachonline.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article-categories?post=17565"},{"taxonomy":"ai-resource-hub","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachonline.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ai-resource-hub?post=17565"},{"taxonomy":"micro-credentials-resource-hub","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachonline.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/micro-credentials-resource-hub?post=17565"},{"taxonomy":"oer-resource-hub","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachonline.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/oer-resource-hub?post=17565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Understanding Design<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"diagram](\"https:\/\/teachonline.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/allaboutdesign1.jpg\")
<\/p>\nDiscovery Phase \u2013 Three Key Tasks<\/strong><\/h3>\n
<\/p>\n
Design Stage \u2013 Top Ten Tips<\/strong><\/h3>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"Venn](\"https:\/\/teachonline.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/allaboutdesign2.png\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Develop and Support Stage \u2013 The Four Questions<\/strong><\/h3>\n
![\"Deming](\"https:\/\/teachonline.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/allaboutdesign3.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Putting it together<\/strong><\/h3>\n