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Learning from practice: refreshing the OU activity types framework
The activity types framework – a categorisation of learning material into different types based on the student activity involved – is one of our core learning design tools. It shows, simply and accessibly, the variety of ways in which module teams can actively engage students with their subject content and skills development alongside reading, watching…
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Conference to practice: reflecting on a week at ALT-C
I’ve been a Learning Designer for three years now, and ALT-C (The Association for Learning Technology Conference – September 2021) was my first conference within the role. While I’d never expected my first experience with this to be online, I must say I thought it was fabulous.
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Top tools for learning: a learning design team’s perspective
We spend a lot of time talking about tools for learning, so it’s not surprising that several members of the learning design team follow Jane Hart’s annual survey of top learning tools [link opens in new tab]. However, many of the tools we talk about are part of the OU’s VLE. It’s been a while since we reflected on the learning tools we use for…
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Feedback loops: reflecting on five years of feedback from the curriculum design student panel
If you’ve ever felt frustrated by a product that doesn’t seem to work for you, you’ll understand the importance of building opportunities for feedback into a design process. It’s certainly an essential part of our learning design process: alongside various organisation-wide evaluation initiatives whose insights we access as part of our work, the learning design team runs the curriculum design student panel, which provides opportunities for students…
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Active learning: making learning engaging
We’ve probably all sat through enough ‘death by PowerPoint’ slide decks to know what happens when we’re presented with information but don’t have the chance to engage with it. In the best-case scenario, we simply don’t learn anything. But often we leave the meeting or class worse off – with unanswered questions, frustration and reduced…
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Workload mapping part 3: concurrency and activity makeup
In this series of posts, we’ve been looking at student workload mapping. This final post looks at the other neat things we can do once we’ve mapped out a module. Our example student, Alex, has had their workload smoothed out in the previous posts. Now that we’re sure the volume of learning and teaching for…
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Workload mapping part 2: mapping in learning design
In this series of posts, we’re looking at student workload mapping. This second post explains how we monitor workload during module design, and where we might make recommendations to authors. Overall workload for a module is agreed right at the beginning of learning design, with set times to aim for based on the level of study,…
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Workload mapping part 1: The student perspective
In this series of three posts, we’ll be looking at student workload mapping. This first post explains why planning is so important from a student perspective – and some of the thinking behind it. Alex is studying a 60 credit Level 1 module. Curriculum guidance suggest this should involve around 20 hours of study per week,…