Lessons about learning design in online environments: CRADLE Seminar Series

20 April 2018

A full audience at Deakin Downtown and many more online joined us to hear CRADLE’s A/Prof. Margaret Bearman discuss lessons about learning design, the latest presentation in CRADLE’s 2018 Seminar Series. Margaret shared insights from Deakin’s Degrees @ FutureLearn project into the relationship between learning design and learning experience, impacts on student retention rates, and students’ divergent perceptions of the design patterns.

Here, CRADLE Fellow A/Prof. Wendy Sutherland-Smith (Deakin’s School of Psychology) shares her key takeaways from Margaret’s presentation.

Margaret spoke about some lessons we can employ from principles of learning design for online spaces. Unsurprisingly, there is complexity in the interplay between online teaching materials design and the student experiences of those materials, expressed in simile as a double-sided coin. Whilst some students felt enabled by the ease of use and streamlined, highly visual design of the structure, other students found the lack of online discussion and ‘human presence’ a constraint to their learning experiences. Learning patterns – design aspects where a constant motif such as “think, learn, do” is repeated throughout the learning cycle – were found to be powerful in this small research study. The study concluded that a simple design pattern can be valuable, but more research is needed.

So what does this all mean for higher education in thinking about online learning design?

• Online design embraces tension between elements such as platform design, pattern design, learning materials and student tasks.
• If the design pattern breaks learning tasks into small chunks, then learning materials need to provide an overall narrative so there is flow to the unit. The converse is also true.
• Further thinking is required on how learning design caters for high-achieving students who find the simple design pattern lacks elements of challenge.
• It is important to manage student expectations of their learning experiences in the space.

Finally, the online learning design challenge is thinking about curriculum and assessment across the learning design spectrum: from the myriad of institutional design requirements, and the features and constraints of the learning management system, to the end goal – optimising the student learning experience.

A packed room for @margaret_bea's @cradledeakin seminar on learning design for online environments #futurelearn #highered #edtech pic.twitter.com/CRWIEJi3aB

— Dr Joanna Tai (@DrJoannaT) April 17, 2018