Re-learning learning design
Moving beyond traditional instructional design
Patrick Dunn
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“...a systematic approach to
planning learning tasks and
learning environments”.
“...to fashion
something from a
well-developed plan”
Goodyear
Wilson
Design?
“...activity that
translates an idea
into a blueprint for
something useful...”.
Design Council
“…starts with the first
gut feel that something
needs to change; but
when does it end? I
don’t know… ”. Dunn
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Design?
Performance improvement process
3
Communities
Blogs/wikis
Design?
Games
Courses
EPSS
Networked sims…
4
Processes
Skills
Design?
People
Methods
Tools
Values & beliefs
5
We need more creativity and innovation
We need to ask “HOW?” not “WHAT?”
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Define the problem
Outline the solution
•
•
•
Analyse learner needs
Produced detailed,
low-level objectives
•
Break down the
content; develop high
level structure
Design interface
Design the detail
•
Write scripts,
including decisions re.
use of media,
interactions etc.
Make & deploy
•
•
•
Produce prototype
Main build
Test and roll out
Evaluate
•
Assess learner
behaviour change
“When closely examined, good instructional
systems design is more engineering than art”.
O’Neal, Fairweather and Huh
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Traditional learning design practice
•
Assumes that design is a linear way of working and thinking; that design
occurs in clear, discrete, sequential stages.
•
Assumes that we can fully understand the problem we are dealing with
right at the start; that we can formulate highly detailed, low-level objectives
very early on.
•
Is built on values of neatness, predictability, analysis, logic, efficiency,
clarity...
•
Is designer/sponsor/organisation focussed (incorporates users mainly at
the start and the end of the process)
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And that’s fine if…
•
The learning challenge you are tackling is fairly simple (not a major change,
not a difficult change, learners are well motivated etc. etc.)
•
You can get your head round the problem fully to start with
•
You’re working in a fairly simple, stable organisational environment
•
You’ve a well-understood, highly consistent group of learners
•
And above all, you’ve tackled problems/solutions just like this one quite a few
times before (it’s another e-learning course!)
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And there are quite a few learning problems
around like this.
And current learning design practice deals with
them fairly well on the whole.
But on the whole they’re not the problems that
really matter.
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Industrial Age
Information Age
Standardisation
Customisation
Bureaucratic organisation
Team-based (networked?) organisation
Centralised control
Autonomy with responsibility
Adversarial relationships
Cooperative relationships
Autocratic decision making
Shared decision making
Compliance
Initiative
Conformity
Diversity
One-way communication
Networking
Compartmentalisation
Holism
Parts oriented
Process oriented
Planned obsolescence
Total quality
CEO or boss as “King”
Customer as “king”
Reigeluth, 1999
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Was…
Is now (and forever more…)
Few options:
Many options – and increasing:
• Courses
As before plus: blogs, blended games,
• Workshops
simulations, communities, mobile
• Booklets
information, epss, remote coaching etc. etc.
• Videos
Clear design constraints:
Unclear design constraints:
• Learning objectives
As before plus: technology infrastructure,
• Learner profiles
organisation culture, user fashion, national/
• Time
geographical culture etc. etc.
• Cost
Dunn, 2003
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Traditional learning design practice
Fully understand the problem; lowlevel objectives
Linear way of working and thinking;
design as clear, discrete, sequential
stages.
Neatness, predictability, analysis,
logic, efficiency, clarity...
Designer/sponsor/organisation
focussed
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Traditional learning design practice
Design practice: other disciplines
Fully understand the problem; low-
Understand the problem through the
level objectives
design process; set broad goals and
let low-level objectives emerge
Linear way of working and thinking;
Non-linear, cyclical working; stages
design as clear, discrete, sequential
difficult to define.
stages.
Neatness, predictability, analysis,
Messiness, exploration, intuition
logic, efficiency, clarity...
balanced with analysis, fuzziness, play
Designer/sponsor/organisation
User-focussed
focussed
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“What humans can’t engineer, evolution can”
Existing learning
design practice
Design practice: other disciplines
Out of Control, Kevin Kelly
Fully understand the problem; low-
Engineering
level objectives
Understand the problem through the
Design
design process; set broad goals and
Innovative! Solves
Reliable! Solves
simple, familiar
problems
let low-level objective emerge
complex, unfamiliar
problems
Linear way of working and thinking;
Non-linear, cyclical working; stages
design as clear, discrete, sequential
difficult to define.
stages.
Neatness, predictability, analysis,
Messiness, exploration, intuition
logic, efficiency, clarity...
“At 3M, balanced
A Struggle
Between
Efficiency
with
analysis,
fuzziness,And
playCreativity”
Designer/sponsor/organisation
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_24/b4038406.htm
User-focussed
focussed
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So…
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Some areas to think about…
•
Prototype early and often
•
Let your users drive your design
•
Act first
•
Build on the “Big Idea”
•
(Cultivate the right kind of people)
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Specification
v
Prototyping
See Michael Schrage – “Serious Play”
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“Yes – that’s ok. Just a few
minor changes…”
Spec
Start
Prototype
Project duration
End
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“We’ve got some really great
ideas…”
Prototype
Start
• Something concrete to form
opinions round
• Common mental models
• A great foundation for analysis
• A source of ideas
Spec
Project duration
End
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“In plain language, first decide what you think might be an
important aspect of the problem, develop a crude design
on this basis and then examine it to see what else you can
discover about the problem”
Bryan Lawson – “How Designers Think”
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Standard prototyping
Early prototyping
Is part of a controlled, linear process
Is part of an exploratory, iterative
process
Occurs during the build/development
Occurs at the start – but what phase is
phase
it in?
Is all about approval and control: “no
Is all about questioning, generating
further changes please”
ideas, creativity, challenging
assumptions: “change everything!”
Is neat and tidy; a finished product
Is deliberately messy, broken…
Produces one prototype
Produces a number of iteratively
refined prototypes
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This is all about culture and values, not just process.
It’s about thinking of design in a different way.
David Kelley, of IDEO, talks of moving from “specificationdriven cultures to prototype-driven cultures.”
Prototype-driven cultures are better able to innovate.
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Are learners involved?
Define the problem
Outline the solution
•
•
•
Analyse learner
needs
Produced detailed,
low-level objectives
•
Break down the
content; develop high
level structure
Design interface
Design the detail
•
Write scripts,
including decisions re.
use of media,
interactions etc.
Make & deploy
•
•
•
Produce prototype
Main build
Test and roll out
Evaluate
•
Assess learner
behaviour change
28
Are learners involved?
Define the problem
Outline the solution
•
•
•
Analyse learner needs
Produced detailed,
low-level objectives
•
Break down the
content; develop high
level structure
Design interface
Design the detail
•
Write scripts,
including decisions re.
use of media,
interactions etc.
Make & deploy
•
•
•
Produce prototype
Main build
Test and roll out
Evaluate
•
Assess learner
behaviour change
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Out of the 32 e-learning projects I studied between 2003
and 2007, only 4 had significant contact with users
(learners) before the project was 50% complete.
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Are learners involved?
Define the problem
Outline the solution
•
•
•
Analyse learner
needs
Produced detailed,
low-level objectives
•
Break down the
content; develop
high level structure
Design interface
Design the detail
•
Write scripts,
including decisions
re. use of media,
interactions etc.
Make & deploy
•
•
•
Produce prototype
Main build
Test and roll out
Evaluate
•
Assess learner
behaviour change
Not enough direct contact with users/learners
The wrong kind of contact with users/learners
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“I can no longer imagine doing what I’d do without getting
to know my users like I know my neighbours. Only the
most naïve novice designer would proceed very far
without deeply involving users”.
Product Designer interview - 2005
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Research shows that up to 80% of change requests on a
software project can be caused by "unmet or unforeseen
user requirements".
http://www.flow-interactive.com/businesscase
Flow Interactive
Effort
Time
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Act first
“Design is a conversation
with your materials.”
Donald Schon
“Some enterprise
processes are heavy on
the aiming. The problem is
that they spend so much
time aiming, they never hit
the target.”
codesmack.com/blog/cat
egory/t-shirt-tuesday/
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Act first
Boehm, 1988
Strategy
Analysis
Design
Build
Test
Transition
Spirals of exploratory,
business-focused action…
Not “waterfalls" of over-structured,
self-absorbed hesitation.
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“In many situations, I don’t see the point in producing
endless plans and descriptions of what you’re going to
develop. With the right tools, you can make a
representative version of what you’re aiming for – in the
same time and for the same cost.”
Stephen Walsh – Kineo
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Traditional learning design thinking/theory/practice is very “parts oriented”, not
“whole oriented”; doesn’t encourage designers to think about unifying ideas, big
ideas. Can lead to:
•
•
Losing sight of business/organisational
objectives; the main point
“Creatocidal tendencies”; stunting
innovation
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What’s the
big idea?
The “primary
generator”
(Darke)
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The staircases are outside
Everything’s outside…
It’s got curves
(it’s a gherkin)
It’s falling over
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games
community tools
courses
blogs
simulations
coaching
Business/
organisational
problem
EPS
virtual classroom
workbooks
document
repositories
special projects
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games
community tools
courses
simulations
blogs
coaching
“This is emotive case-based learning. By
adopting the role of protagonists in
authentic situations, and rehearsing the
Business/
skills people
required to reduce culturally…causes
organisational
to
change tension, learners
induced
will get to feel
problem
what it’s like to cope when challenges
arise. That’s what will drive the process
of change.”
• Learning strategy
• The “Big Idea”
Principles of learning
EPS
virtual classroom
document
repositories
workbooks
special projects
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“I never thought I would give an entry
al 10s…”
“… it did everything right…”
Cultural Awareness E-learning
Brandon Hall Gold Award, 2007
Produced by LINE Communications
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X
X
Cultivating the right kind of people
ESTJ
ISTP
ENTJ
INTP
ISTJ
ESTP
INTJ
ENTP
42%
ISFJ
ESFP
INFJ
ENFP
ESFJ
ISFP
ENFJ
INFP
Durling, Cross and Johnson, 1996
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Engineering
Design
Existing learning design practice
Design practice: other disciplines
Fully understand the problem; low-level
Understand the problem through the design
objectives
process; set broad goals and let low-level
objective emerge
Linear way of working and thinking; design
Non-linear, cyclical working; stages difficult to
as clear, discrete, sequential stages.
define.
Neatness, predictability, analysis, logic,
Messiness, exploration, intuition balanced
efficiency, clarity...
with analysis, fuzziness, play
Designer/sponsor/organisation focussed
User-focussed
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“If you keep doing what you
always did, you’ll keep getting
what you always got”
Loretta Mary Aiken
Thank you
[email protected]
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