Unit 1: Introduction

Designing and developing your online course

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Key concepts in learning design

Learning outcomes:
Completing this screen will contribute to your ability to describe the key concepts of learning design.

Why is learning design important?

Key terms

Learning design: is a learner-centred design approach that enables...

Learning design lies at the heart of all teaching. Although the design for learning is usually hidden from students, it involves deliberate choices about what, when, where and how to teach. Decisions need to be made about the content, structure, timing, pedagogical strategies, sequence of learning activities, and type and frequency of assessment in the course, as well as the nature of technology used to support learning. Making these decisions is the process of creating your own design.

Designing a course for learning is similar to completing a jigsaw puzzle: some pieces will not fit first time, and a complete picture requires careful consideration of the alternative options.

In some contexts the term 'instructional design' may be more familiar than 'learning design' to you and your colleagues; indeed, this terminology is often reflected in departmental and faculty job titles. Nevertheless, in general, the concept of learning design signals a shift away from focusing on the teacher and the instructional process to concentrating on the learner and the learning process. Whereas instructional design focuses on systematic planning, learning design focuses on pedagogically informed decision making. In other words, the two terms reflect quite different philosophies (Beetham, 2013).

What does learning design mean
for developing my courses?

Learning design is an approach that helps you consider all the necessary factors in designing an online activity or course. You will consider:

Learners' needs
The context learning objectives (intended learning outcomes)
The learning environment, tools and resources incorporated
Other people who are involved in the course
The underpinning learning and teaching approach

We can think about the learning design process in terms of three phases of development, as outlined in the activity below. As we work through this course, the elements in each of the three phases will be explored in greater depth.

We can think about the learning design process in terms of three phases of development, as outlined below. As we work through this course, the elements in each of the three phases will be explored in greater depth.

In the following activity, use the 'Next' button to move through the activity screens and learn more about the three phases of development in learning design.

1: Pre-development/design

Be familiar with the key principles of quality online learning and consider how each can be represented in your own course
Get to know the policies related to online learning at your institution
Think about your learners
Think about the learning environment for the course
Consider previous courses taught, face-to-face or online. What went well? What could have been improved?

2: Development/design

Plan and develop your learning activities by thinking about content and tasks
Select appropriate assessments for your activities
Select appropriate materials and media for your content
Plan appropriate evaluation activities for your course.

Post-development/design

Conduct formative and summative evaluation of learners
Conduct formative and summative evaluation of teachers.

Principles of learning design

Learning design uses these and other factors to plan and develop learning resources and activities and assessments that will help students to achieve specific learning goals. Learning design for online courses:

Requires careful and rigorous planning
Focuses on the learner and the learning
Maps learning activities on to the chosen model of online learning
Is iterative, taking a cyclical approach to course improvements.

In the following videos, expert practitioners share their thoughts on the importance of learning design, and provide useful tips.

In the following interviews, expert practitioners share their thoughts on the importance of learning design, and provide useful tips.

Click 'Play' to start the video.

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Download an engaging Q&A with Jason Carter, a new instructional...

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What are the key concepts and benefits of the learning design model?

Chad Mueller
Lead Instructional Designer, Purdue University

I think the key concepts that all models contain are that it's an iterative process, that it's not necessarily a beginning and an end but you have, kind of, a circular or cyclical nature of this, that it's continuous improvement on instruction and this can be revisited over time to improve instruction. Using a learning design model is crucial because it keeps you focused, and it provides the necessary steps to provide good quality instruction from the beginning of the process, through the development, design, implementation, and finally when you evaluate the project overall.

Should learning design be content-led?

Professor Denise Kirkpatrick
Pro-Vice Chancellor (Student Experience), University of Adelaide

I would argue that leading with content when we think about learning design isn't the right place to start. So I really do believe that when we're thinking about learning design we do begin with the learner, and then we think also very closely related to that is, what are our learning outcomes? So, for me the focus should always be on the learner and the learning. In effect, content is that vehicle by which we deliver the learning, and we can look at a whole range of different content that we could use to deliver the same sorts of learning experiences and learning outcomes. So, although traditionally as academics content is what we think about, I think we're getting better at focusing where our attention really ought to be, and that's to say learning design, thinking about the learner, the learning. Assessment then flows from that, because that's how the learning is demonstrated, and how we can measure the learning that takes place. Content? That just lets us do it.

Clark Shah-Nelson
Senior Instructional Designer and Team Lead, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

What we like to advocate as instructional designers is what we call backward design, and starting from the objectives and working through the content to make sure that the objectives are measurable, that there are assessments to measure those, and that the content matches up so that we have alignment across the board.

Why is it important to have a systematic approach to designing your online course?

Mike Highfield
Education Advisor, University of Exeter

So, there isn't a great deal of difference between developing online course materials to face-to-face materials. Actually, there is one key difference, and that is that producing online course materials is actually harder. It's harder in the sense that it requires more careful and rigorous planning. For example, if you're in a face-to-face session, it's quite easy for you to interact with your students and make mistakes and make errors and just automatically correct yourself. People can interject and raise questions and clarify understanding. If you're trying to communicate asynchronously, whether it's by a piece of video, audio, or text on screen, what you say has to be scripted and perfect. So you have to really, really carefully reflect on what messages you're trying to convey, and that's where the difficulty, I think, for many academic colleagues comes in, is realising the kind of rigour that's required at that level of course design.

What advice would you give to practitioners working with other instructors to help them design courses?

Dr. Yishay Mor
Independent Education Consultant

So don't wait until you have, kind of, a fully polished product and then expose it for critique, because then the stakes are too high. You'd be very lucky to make any changes, and any change you would need to make would be very expensive because you've probably invested a lot of effort in developing this.

Professor Denise Kirkpatrick: Start small. In the same way that we can design online learning experiences for students that are overwhelming, we can overwhelm our colleagues, particularly the ones who are just getting started in online learning. Frequently, the technology itself can be pretty scary. So, thinking about how we scaffold that change for them, thinking about things that are quite easy, quite straightforward, I would also say things that are low risk.

Dr. Panos Vlachopoulos
Senior Lecturer in Higher Education Development, Macquarie University

When I approach other academics in my own discipline area, I try to do it in the most collegial way I can. So, there is nothing better than offering examples, telling them things that you've done and they worked, and equally giving them examples where technology use was not as successful. I think in the literature, and especially in books that are published and also in a number of journals, most of the academics, they tend to publish successes and success stories, which is good, but for the eyes of the academics many times these are the people who are given, if you want, the time and the money to plan ahead and do it, and they always ask, 'What does this mean for me? That I'm overloaded and I want to teach.' So offering, also, tips, and they are very fast things that you did last night or you thought to do for next week, and selling it to them, is the best thing you can do for learning design.

The blended learning context

If you are planning a blended rather than a fully online course, it will have implications for all of the steps in your learning design process. When you consider the blended context, think carefully about the level of the desired learning outcomes, the possible ways of assessing these and how (and which) face-to-face and online learning activities can be woven together in a planned, pedagogically sound manner. You will also need to either:

Useful links

Useful summary of the flipped classroom approach: http://cft.vander...

Consider when the scheduled face-to-face meetings should be: can you arrange for these meetings to coincide with the course activities that are more meaningful face to face?
Create your course and then decide on which dates you will meet face to face. This will depend on your level of input. You might wish to try out the now popular flipped classroom approach, whereby students complete readings and lower-level assignments before coming to face-to-face sessions to complete the higher-level problem-based activities as a group (see the 'Useful links' pod to the right).
Create your course and then decide on which dates you will meet face to face. This will depend on your level of input. You might wish to try out the now popular flipped classroom approach, whereby students complete readings and lower-level assignments before coming to face-to-face sessions to complete the higher-level problem-based activities as a group (see the 'Useful links' pod at the end of the section).

Having worked through this screen on learning design, you should now be familiar with some of the key concepts that we will be using as we proceed through the course. Additionally, after watching the videos from learning design practitioners and hearing of their experiences of design and collaboration, you can start to understand the importance of following a systematic plan as you design your own online course.

Having worked through this section on learning design, you should now be familiar with some of the key concepts that we will be using as we proceed through the course. Additionally, after reading the interviews with learning design practitioners and hearing of their experiences of design and collaboration, you can start to understand the importance of following a systematic plan as you design your own online course.

Key terms

Learning design: is a learner-centred design approach that enables 'teachers/designers to make more informed decisions in how they go about designing learning activities and interventions, which is pedagogically informed and makes effective use of appropriate resources and technologies' (Conole, 2013, p.7).

Instructional design: is 'the systematic and reflective process of translating principles of learning and instruction into plans for instructional materials, activities, information resources, and evaluation' (Smith & Ragan, 1999).

Download

Download an engaging Q&A with Jason Carter, a new instructional designer from Purdue University, as he talks about the excitement and challenges of developing an online course for the first time. Do any of his experiences sound familiar?

Useful links

You have reached the end of this screen

Why is learning design important?

What does learning design mean for developing my courses?

1: Pre-development/design

2: Development/design

Post-development/design

Principles of learning design

What are the key concepts and benefits of the learning design model?

Should learning design be content-led?

Why is it important to have a systematic approach to designing your online course?

What advice would you give to practitioners working with other instructors to help them design courses?

The blended learning context

What does learning design mean
for developing my courses?