Technology Enhanced Learning Workshop

Editor's Notes

• #7: Today we’re going to be trying to find some middle ground between what I think is a rather idealistic systematic approach, and the v. teacher centred traditional ideas about course design. I think few teachers have the opportunity to design courses from scratch in an ideal and wholly systematic way. Usually a course already exists and is being adapted and there are a whole range of local constraints and conventions which limit what it is possible to do. For me, the middle ground is something we call the ‘outcomes –based approach’ and it’s basically looking at the first two of steps of the systematic approach in some detail (learning outcomes and selecting & organising content) and letting the remaining steps emerge out of that. As we walk through these first steps in the process of planning, it helps if you have a course in mind as we go through. Perhaps something that needs redesigning or something you would love to do sometime, somewhere. After coffee, I will run an activity to encourage you to think creatively about course design and apply what we’ve done here first. Remember that within this room this afternoon you can be as creative and imaginative as you like.
• #11: 4 parts of learning process. having an experience reviewing the experience concluding from the experience planning the next steps Involves both theory and practice e.g. lectures and labs thinking: about theory or event which has been/might be experiences planning: how to test out explanations and prepare to learn from future actions experiencing - not same as doing - involves noticing what is taking place reflecting - being descriptive of what took place, reflecting on its meaning So, learning opportunities will be wasted if .. have no theoretical basis on which to make sense of experiences do not digest or plan but simply carry out instructions of others
• #12: The level needs to be clear from the learning outcomes (basic/complex) as well as the situation (under close supervision or working independently) and how the work is generated (working on presented problems, creating own area of investigation). What words are missing from Bloom’s list? ‘understand’, ‘appreciate’ because they are not be directly assessable. Bloom provides unambiguous, active verbs e.g. explain, describe, formulate, apply. learning outcomes are written at pass level Learning outcomes should not be a wish list –what the ideal student might achieve – but rather the behaviour which might be reasonably expected of a student at the point of summative assessment on a unit - otherwise it is an aim. If learning outcomes are used to describe what a student must do to just pass, there is masses of room left in terms of quality 'above the learning outcome' to describe or anticipate divergent or creative approaches to learning. KNOWLEDGE – the remembering of previously learned material COMPREHENSION – the ability to grasp the meaning of the material APPLICATION – the ability to use learned material in new situations ANALYSIS – the ability to identify parts, recognise organisational/structural principles SYNTHESIS – the ability to put parts together to form a new whole EVALUATION – ability to judge the value of the material.
• #13: Content often appears as a list of topics/syllabus, possibly designed by someone else and given to you. You do have a choice in how you organise it, what you emphasise and the way you convey it to students. A clearly modelled course structure helps students to organise their thinking and to plan their learning.