Learning Design

Learning design at WelTec appears to be unstructured in that ‘someone’ writes the programme documentation and the learning objectives, course hours etc.

The tutor or an appointed person in some schools then writes the course activities and outlines as well as I understand the assessments. The assessments are pre-delivery moderated and, according to various moderation plans. I am unclear at what stage learning support teams are included.

During the preparation of the documentation the Key Skills section of the programme documentation is completed however in some programme documents this is not. All programme documents include a graduate profile, learning assessment outlines and types, learning hours and high level activities.

The decision to ‘put the course online’ is often made after the course/programme has been designed.  Our role becomes one of moderating or suggesting subtle changes and managing layout.

The Ed Tech team uses a QA process based on the E-learning Guidelines and approved by the (then) Moodle Reference Group. This is intended to be a self-assessment task that we ask tutors to do preferable before their course go ‘live”. In practice  a member of the Ed Tech team completes this. While this process is useful for some tutors for self-reflection for others it is a pro forma task. The Ed Tech team see this as a way to enable reflection and to persuade tutors to ensure that student information is consistent across programmes so that students can use the Moodle site consistently and easily and that we meet our (unofficial) Accessibility and Usability Standards. 

The QA document/process looks at the usage of culturally appropriate words and case studies as well as how assessments are designed.

Ed Tech initiatives

As part of the Move to Moodle project the team developed an approach using an overview of how Moodle worked with an emphasis on pedagogy. This was designed to be used in teaching team sessions and to be followed up with small team and one-one sessions. 

The team found that where tutors attended the overview session they had a big picture approach to using the LMS which those who did not attend did not get. We also found, anecdotally that the teams who developed their ideas together developed online courses that met both the accessibility and usability guidelines and the QA checklist.

This approach used a catch phrase Communicate Integrate Activate to encourage staff to use the online tool as part of their teaching not an addition to. In one or two cases this approach was adopted but in general the LMS is seen as an adjunct and an extra to face to face teaching.

Recommendations

• That a team-based approach is developed at WelTec. This team would include members of the Academic Advisors team, the Capability development Team, learning support tutors course tutors and Ed Tech Team
  
  
• An agreed flexible model of learning design that focuses on the graduate profile, the course level, the course activities and the development of skills related to the graduate profile, as well as course content.
  
  
• That the ADDIE model be retained with a shared approach to learning design using a shared understanding of learning theories
  
  
• That a shared evaluation model be used and applied
  
  
• That the model used by Ed tech team in the Move to Moodle project be adapted and enlarged on the CARPE DIEM lines so that training and development occurs in line with learning design.