Improving teaching and learning through open education: Examples from Learning Design James Dalziel Professor of Learning Technology and Director, Macquarie E-Learning Centre Of Excellence (MELCOE) Macquarie University Open Education Resources Seminar, QUT, Brisbane, 23 rd September, 2008 This presentations is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License

Overview Open Education Case Study: Learning Design & LAMS Two Examples Sharing Learning Designs: The LAMS Community Conclusion

Open Education The Cape Town Declaration provides a statement of principles of free sharing for open education – –NB: Different meaning to distance/flexible education “everyone should have the freedom to use, customize, improve and redistribute educational resources without constraint” –Free to use (no cost) –Freedom to change

Open Education in Higher Education Many open education projects in higher education, both for HE itself, and for others sectors (eg, schools) driver by higher education –OpenCourseware (MIT & others) –MERLOT (& many other) repositories of Learning Objects –Open education software such as Moodle & Sakai But, few whole-of-organisation approaches –Many innovative open education projects exist inside universities that are mostly based on closed approaches

Open Education We have had two great successes and one significant failure in open education to date The first success is the development and adoption of open source course management systems like Moodle and Sakai The second success is the open sharing of educational content, such as OpenCourseware (from Ch 24: “Sharing Learning Design: Sharing Pedagogical Know-How” )

Open Education The failure is our difficulty in describing and sharing good pedagogy – the teaching and learning processes that foster deep approaches to learning How can instructors benefit from the good teaching ideas of their peers, and how can these ideas be easily instantiated in online courses?

What is Learning Design? Learning Design is a new approach to describing teaching and learning processes in a structured way Typically describes sequences of student activities (scaffolding of content + collaboration) –A sequence applies to a class/week/topic (not whole unit) Focus on sharing and re-using good sequences Often implemented online with technology –But becoming a general framework for face to face and online

What is Learning Design? Learning Design is particularly useful for pedagogical approaches that have a structured process, eg: –Inquiry Based Learning, Role Plays, Problem Based Learning Learning Design focuses on how educators structure activities to foster student learning –LAMS is a leading Learning Design system used by thousands of teachers throughout the world, translated in 27 languages Learning Design systems can integrate with LMSs –For students, link(s) from course area to the relevant sequence –Lecturer single-sign-on and easy authoring and launching

LAMS + Sakai: Learner Sequence launched from Sakai Course page (SSO)

Example 1: Inquiry Based Learning “What are the qualities of an effective teacher?” Step 1: Answer question, then reflect on others’ answers Step 2: Vote on a list of qualities, consider collated votes Step 3: Discuss responses to Steps 1 & 2 (Stop) Step 4: Read an expert’s view on the topic Step 5: Discuss expert’s view compared to class view (Stop) Step 6: Personal reflection (or essay if assessment) on initial question, based on initial views, class discussion & expert view Can be run face to face with no technology, or fully online, or a mix

Example 1: Inquiry Based Learning - “Qualities of an Effective Teacher”

Example 1a: Inquiry Based Learning “What are the qualities of a great leader?” Step 1: Answer question, then reflect on others’ answers Step 2: Vote on a list of qualities, consider collated votes Step 3: Discuss responses to Steps 1 & 2 (Stop) Step 4: Read an expert’s view on the topic Step 5: Discuss expert’s view compared to class view (Stop) Step 6: Personal reflection (or essay if assessment) on initial question, based on initial views, class discussion & expert view

Example 1a: The overall Learning Design remain the same, but…

Example 1a: …. editing of content within individual activities

Example 1b: Inquiry Based Learning “What are the qualities of energy efficient engines?” Step 1: Answer question, then reflect on others’ answers Step 2: Vote on a list of qualities, consider collated votes Step 3: Discuss responses to Steps 1 & 2 (Stop) Step 4: Read an expert’s view on the topic Step 5: Discuss expert’s view compared to class view (Stop) Step 6: Personal reflection (or essay if assessment) on initial question, based on initial views, class discussion & expert view

Example 1c: Inquiry Based Learning “What are the qualities of an effective e-learning system?” Step 1: Answer question, then reflect on others’ answers Step 2: Vote on a list of qualities, consider collated votes Step 3: Discuss responses to Steps 1 & 2 (Stop) Step 4: Read an expert’s view on the topic Step 5: Discuss expert’s view compared to class view (Stop) Step 6: Personal reflection (or essay if assessment) on initial question, based on initial views, class discussion & expert view

Example 2: Role Play “Should a K-12 school roll out interactive whiteboards?” Step 1-4: Introduce role play; scenario; tasks; roles Step 5: Break students into role groups (pro teachers, con teachers, school management, students) Step 6: Reflect on own role in private journal Step 7: Shared Q&A about ideas within role group Step 8: Forum about ideas within role group (Stop) Step 9: Main role play (all roles together in Forum to discuss) (Stop) Step 10: Vote on whether roll out should proceed or not Step 11-13: Reflect on role play experience & strengths/weaknesses

Example 2: Role Play - Adoption of Interactive Whiteboards

Example 2a: Role Play “Should the US Federal Reserve cut interest rates to 1%?” Step 1-4: Introduce role play; scenario; tasks; roles Step 5: Break students into role groups (Federal Reserve Chair; US President; Mortgage Insurer; Investment Bank) Step 6: Reflect on own role in private journal Step 7: Shared Q&A about ideas within role group Step 8: Forum about ideas within role group (Stop) Step 9: Main role play (all roles together in Forum to discuss) (Stop) Step 10: Vote on whether to cut interest rates or not Step 11-13: Reflect on role play experience & strengths/weaknesses

Example 2b: Role Play “How could peace be achieved after WW2?” Step 1-4: Introduce role play; scenario; tasks; roles Step 5: Break students into role groups (US, Russia, Germany, France) Step 6: Reflect on own role in private journal Step 7: Shared Q&A about ideas within role group Step 8: Forum about ideas within role group (Stop) Step 9: Main role play (all roles together in Forum to discuss) (Stop) Step 10: Vote on whether to accept peace proposal or not Step 11-13: Reflect on role play experience & strengths/weaknesses

Sharing Learning Designs LAMS Community ( –Community sharing, adaptation and improvement of Open Education Learning Designs –Approximately 3600 members, 86 countries, 300 shared sequences downloaded 8000 times, 3800 discussion postings –Sequences shared under Creative Commons licenses (usually BY SA NC)

LAMS Community – View of various communities & forums

LAMS Community – Repository Summary

LAMS Community – Detailed view of individual sequence

Conclusion Teaching and learning can be more effective if educational materials, software, lessons plans, etc, are freely shared among educators to use and adapt Learning Design applies these concepts to teaching and learning processes (“pedagogical know-how”) The challenge now is to co-ordinate open education projects and communities towards a global approach

Further LAMS Information Introduction to LAMS – walkthroughs, videos, case studies General demonstration accounts for LAMS General information about LAMS LAMS Community Qualities of an Effective Teacher – download sequence from sresearchdevelopment/lams-seq//sequence?seq%5fid= sresearchdevelopment/lams-seq//sequence?seq%5fid=256078