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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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Learning design without borders: a recap of this year’s learning design bootcamp
Not many of us have the energy for a bootcamp after all the challenges of COVID19 – unless it’s a learning design-related one, it seems. The Open University Learning Design team is hosting this year’s learning design bootcamp and we’ve been delighted to find that 47 participants representing 11 teams from four countries are taking part.
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Building aspirations: embedding employability into learning design
Many students choose to study with the OU to build new job-related skills or take a step up in their career. But plenty more benefit from the employability focus of our modules even if they’re not studying for career reasons. That’s because we see employability as more than just about building skills – we see…
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Mix, stir then blend gently: co-creating a remote community of practice
If you read our last blog post, you’ll know that like most people, we’ve made some changes to the way we work here in the learning design team thanks to COVID19. One of these has been a change to our community of practice. Before lockdown, this was informal – members of the learning design team…
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A virtual biscuit tin: creating a community of practice for learning designers in lockdown
It wasn’t just students who faced a sudden change in how they were learning in March when the UK locked down. Learners in the workplace were affected too – including our learning design team here at the Open University. We were dispersed to our homes by lockdown and overnight, lost our ability to learn from one another.
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Student journeys: embedding skills into the curriculum
The Open University approach to designing for learning puts a strong focus on knowing who the learners are, catering for their needs and supporting them to succeed. One of the strengths of the OU is that its students are very diverse – the OU’s mission is to be open to people, places, methods and ideas…
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The art of conversation: why collaboration matters in online learning
If you’ve ever witnessed an awkward role play exercise in a training session, you may dread the idea of collaborative learning activities. The good news is that when it comes to online learning, you can plan and manage collaborative activities to ensure that nobody’s embarrassed and everyone benefits – possibly in ways they hadn’t anticipated. You may have already designed some online collaborative activities. If you found it tricky, you’re not alone. They…