Sharing and Re-Using Effective
Student Centred Learning Designs
James Dalziel
Professor of Learning Technology and Director,
Macquarie E-Learning Centre Of Excellence (MELCOE)
Macquarie University
[email protected]
www.melcoe.mq.edu.au
This presentations is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License
Presentation for CODE Conference, Chiba, Japan, February 18th, 2010
Overview
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Learning Design Overview
Learning Design and Pedagogical Theories
Collaborative Learning
Case Study 1: Open Questions for Lectures
Case Study 2: Role Play
Conclusion
Learning Design Overview
• New field of e-learning – focus on describing and
sharing “sequences of learning activities”
• Supports both individual and collaborative learning
• Sequences can provide generic pedagogical methods
(eg, “role play”) where teachers add their own content;
or can include discipline specific information (eg, role
play on climate change) ready for immediate use
Learning Design Overview
• Learning Design systems support the authoring and
running of sequences
– Running a sequence can include automatic set-up of
appropriate learning tools (eg, forums, quiz, chat, etc)
– System steps students through the sequence and monitors
their progress
– Examples include Coppercore, SLeD, GLM & LAMS (my work)
• Learning Design systems can integrate with Learning
Management Systems
– Link to sequence(s) from course page
Learning Design Overview
• While a teacher can create and use a sequence on
their own, the great promise of Learning Design is
sharing of “good e-Teaching ideas” (that is, effective
sequences) among teachers
• Good e-Teaching ideas may include advice on how to
edit or adapt a sequence template for different topics
• Online communities exist for sharing and discussing
sequences
Learning Design & Pedagogical Theories
• Learning Design is not a traditional pedagogical theory:
It does not propose a model of how students learn or
how teachers should teach
– Aspires to be “pedagogically neutral” – that is, able to describe
many different pedagogical methods
• It provides a language or framework for describing
many kinds of teaching and learning activities
– Based on descriptions of each learning activity (who? what?
how?) within a sequence of activities
Learning Design & Pedagogical Theories
• However, Learning Design gives prominence to the
role of both the teacher and learner (not just learner)
• It also gives prominence to collaborative learning –
how students interact with each other to learn
• Taken together, Learning Design is often seen as
fostering more collaborative learning
Collaborative Learning
• Many recent pedagogical theories focus on student
engagement and motivation, how students construct
meaning, authentic assessment, etc
• Collaborative learning is one of the main ways that
teaching can be changed to support these theories
– Foster groupwork, discussion, debate and other group tasks
• Also, collaborative learning fosters development of
“generic” skills, such as teamwork and critical thinking
Collaborative Learning
• So Learning Design can be used to implement online
collaborative learning to support recent pedagogical
theories and development of “generic” skills
• And… sharing of sequences allows many teachers to
benefit from good ideas from a few teachers
• So Learning Design can enhance student-centred
learning through more collaborative learning, and
increased sharing of good ideas among teachers
Case Studies
• Two case students based on my work on “LAMS” – an
open source Learning Design system
– http://www.lamsfoundation.org/
• Demonstration accounts for LAMS are available at
– http://demo.lamscommunity.org/
• The case study examples are available for download
from the LAMS Community
– http://www.lamscommunity.org/
Case Study 1: Open Questions
• For information-dense lectures, it can be helpful to
pose open questions to students from time to time
– Students consolidate their understanding of new ideas by
trying to answer questions
– Teachers can gain some appreciation of student
understanding (or misunderstanding) from answers given
• But student may be shy or concerned about giving a
wrong answer in front of others; or may take too long if
many students answer
Case Study 1: Open Questions
• A solution is to use online questions where each
student answers the question (anonymously) then sees
other’s answers
– Students can also privately reflect on their understanding, and
on ideas from other students
– Can be before, during or after a lecture
• The teacher can benefit from seeing a range of
different answers, and may use some answers for
illustrating key ideas or correcting misunderstandings
Case Study 1 Sequence: Open Questions Template (Authoring View)
Case Study 1: Open Questions
Step 1: Welcome [Text page]
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Introduction describing the seven steps of the sequence. No editing required by lecturer.
Step 2: Your Topic [Text page]
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Brief introduction to the topic of the questions – written by lecturer.
Step 3: Initial Notebook/Journal [Private area to record student ideas – not seen by other students]
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Asks student to record his/her initial ideas about the topic. This is to help activate student
engagement with the topic prior to the open questions.
Step 4: Question 1 [Question & Answer tool – re-presents all student answers anonymously]
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Asks student to answer a question written by the lecturer. The lecturer is encouraged to begin
with a general, open question to make it easy for students to start answering.
Step 5: Question 2 [Question & Answer tool – anonymous]
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Asks student to answer a question written by the lecturer. The lecturer is encouraged to make
the second question more specific about the topic.
Step 6: Question 3 [Question & Answer tool – anonymous]
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Asks student to answer a question written by the lecturer. The lecturer is encouraged to make
the third question either another specific question, or alternatively a negative statement about the
topic that requires the student to answer in a different way to the previous questions.
Step 7: Final Notebook/Journal [Private area to record student ideas]
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Asks student to record their final thoughts about the topic. This is to help students synthesise
and consolidate their ideas on the topic based on their own answers and those of other students.
Case Study 1: Open Questions
• By using this sequence with questions added by the
teacher, it can be re-used by many teachers in many
different topic areas
• The sequence itself could be extended, for example,
by adding an online discussion forum at the end for
further discussion after the lecture
• The LAMS file for this sequence is available at
– http://www.lamscommunity.org/lamscentral/sequence?seq_id=924466
– [May need to create login account first to view]
Case Study 2: Role Play
• Role play is an advanced pedagogical method where
students take on different roles in a scenario, then
discuss/debate the scenario from the point of view of
their role
• Particularly effective at helping students to see
complex problems from a perspective other than their
own personal ideas
– Where understanding multiple points of view is important for
learning
Case Study 2: Role Play
• A typical role play structure has four parts:
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Introduction to the role play and the scenario
Allocation to roles and reflection/research on roles (“Pre Role Play”)
Main role play discussion based on scenario (“Role Play Proper”)
Stepping back from role and reflection on role play (“Post Role Play”)
• While there can be a different role for each student, it
is more common to have a small number of roles, and
have several students within each role group
– To allow for discussion of ideas within role groups, as well as
between role groups
Case Study 2: Role Play
• While role plays are designed for student interaction
(rather than teacher direction), the teacher must still
monitor discussion closely, and help redirect student if
they get off track
• Timing is important to the success of a role play –
students need enough time to develop their ideas and
debate different viewpoints
– For asynchronous online role plays, this may take several
weeks
Case Study 2 Sequence: Role Play Template (Authoring View)
Case Study 2: Role Play
Part 1 - Steps 1-4: [Text pages]
• Overview and instructions for role play. Step 2 requires the lecturer to
describe the scenario for the role play.
Part 2 – Steps 5 & 6a, 6b, 6c “Pre Role Play”
• Step 5: Random allocation of students to role groups (for or against)
– NB: Steps 6a, 6b & 6c are in private branches (according to allocated role)
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Step 6a: Reflective Notebook/Journal for initial thoughts about allocated
role in the given scenario
Step 6b: Question & Answer about initial thoughts on role
Step 6c: Discussion forum for further discussion of role among others in
role group
[Stop point – released by lecturer after appropriate amount of time depending
on synchronous/asynchronous mode of delivery. Students cannot
progress past this point under released by lecturer.]
Case Study 2: Role Play
Part 3 – Step 7 “Role Play Proper”
• Step 7: Discussion forum for all students – each student posts their initial
views to their role thread, and then continues discussion/debate across
threads as ideas develop.
[Stop point – released by lecturer after appropriate amount of time depending
on synchronous/asynchronous mode of delivery. Students cannot
progress past this point under released by lecturer.]
Part 4 – Step 8, 9 & 10 “Post Role Play”
• Step 8: Voting tool – student steps out of role and decides his/her own
view for or against
• Step 9: Private Notebook/Journal – student reflects privately on what
he/she has learned
• Step 10: Question & Answer – students debrief by sharing what they
found interesting or surprising from the activity.
Case Study 2: Role Play
• While role plays are more complicated to organise and run, they
can be very rewarding for topics that benefit from discussion of
different viewpoints
• If students are unfamiliar with role plays or other collaborative
learning, they may need simpler collaborative tasks before
attempting a role play
– And may need a “step-by-step” walkthrough of the role play at the start so
they know what to expect, and a firm understanding of timing requirements
(eg, if online asynchronous, then how long each stage will last, and how often
they should read and post messages – such as every day)
• The LAMS file for this sequence is available at
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http://www.lamscommunity.org/lamscentral/sequence?seq_id=924470
Case Studies
• There are many other examples of the use of LAMS –
browse the Program section of the LAMS Conference
websites available from
– http://www.lamsfoundation.org/conferences.htm
– See paper for examples such as open questions in statistics
lectures, engineering in Singapore and role plays in teacher
training
• LAMS is translated into Japanese
– For an example of LAMS use in Japan for collaborative
learning, see Yamazumi & Yoshida (2008)
Conclusion
• Learning Design provides a framework for creating and
sharing effective teaching methods
• Learning Design systems can implement these
methods to run with students and track their progress
• Learning Design communities provide support for
sharing sequences
– Both as templates (to be edited to apply to a particular topic) &
ready to run topic examples
– I hope you might find this approach helpful in Japan ;-)