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Tip of the ICEBERG: Updated learning design principles for student retention
Catriona Matthews, James Openshaw, and Jake Hilliard ~ Learning Designers When we think about student retention and the factors that can lead to students withdrawing from their studies, learning design is often just the tip of the iceberg. The decision to complete a course – or to withdraw or pause studies – is often…
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Study speed and workload: How do they intersect?
Paul Astles and Charlie Knowlson ~ Learning Designers Imagine, for a moment, that you are standing in front of a pile of food the height of a giraffe. This pile is made up of all your favourite foods, neatly separated by sustainably sourced packaging. If you’re unsure why there is packaging, just consider this:…
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Scaffolding learning: What does it mean for students?
Clare Hill and Paul Astles ~ Learning Designers When you scaffold your learning materials, you build students’ understanding and ability gradually and in a planned way by adjusting the amount of support offered. Researchers have described scaffolding as ‘support from experts enabling learners to accomplish what is beyond their current ability’ (Wood et al.…
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Fabulous formative failure
Michael Collins ~ Senior Learning Designer Last July I had the privilege of attending the Playful Learning 2023 conference for the second time, once more bearing a bulging bag of microphones and a question. Previously Dr Mark Childs and I asked attendees about their favourite games, what they loved about them – and how that…
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Evolving design: shaping our work around a service-led model
Gerald Evans ~ Head of Learning Design Since 2020 our experiences as a Learning Design (LD) team have been heavily influenced by much of our work moving online. The pandemic led to us resetting how we operated and in particular required us to find effective online mechanisms for running collaborative sessions while continuing to have…
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Going for Green: Learning Design sustainability champions
Kathleen Calder, James Openshaw, Catriona Mattews, Hayley Johns, and Paul Astles ~ Learning Designers The Learning Design Sustainability Group at The Open University has been championing sustainability at the Open University in one way or another for some time now. The end of 2023 saw a wonderful celebration of that work at the Green Gown…
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The Introverted Facilitators’ Club: How to be a quiet LD in the sometimes noisy world of module design?
Hayley Johns ~ Learning Designer Back in September, I attended my first ever ‘real life’ or in-person conference (the ALT conference, at the University of Warwick – you can read about my and my colleague’s experiences here). It was a brilliant experience, and we learnt a huge amount. As well as all of the fascinating…
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Student Voice on GenAI: Use, Concerns and Educational Applications
Mary Simper and Eleanor Moore ~ Learning Designers Like much of Higher Education, we in the Learning Design Team at The Open University have been both fascinated and challenged by the introduction of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) tools like ChatGPT. In this blog post, we’ll uncover what our students have told us about their use of…