Learning Design: Introduction, Issues and Futures James Dalziel Professor of Learning Technology & Director, Macquarie E-Learning Centre Of Excellence (MELCOE) Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia Presentation Macquarie Learning Technology Research Cluster, April 10 th, 2013

Overview What is Learning Design? “Pedagogically Neutral” Larnaca Declaration on Learning Design Case Study: LAMS

What is Learning Design? Two examples 1.Teaching Psychology Tutorials –Fostering discussion using the “pyramid” technique 2.Transforming Medical Education –Whole of degree adoption of Problem Based Learning

What is Learning Design? Variety of definitions and approaches: –A framework/language for describing the structure of teaching and learning activities –A software system for managing sequences of content and collaborative learning activities –A community of educators sharing ideas on effective teaching A repository of “ready to run” activity sequences & templates –A process that describes how educators make decisions about creating effective teaching and learning experiences

What is Learning Design? Learning Design is not –a traditional educational theory (like, say, constructivism), as it does not put forward a theory about how students learn (aspires to) provide a “pedagogically neutral” framework –a mature field – there is much yet to be considered, developed, and researched –just about technology – despite technological origins of the field, it is really about all of education Technology is just one of many implementation options

“Pedagogically neutral” Learning Design does not propose a theory of how students learn, and therefore how teachers should teach –Its foundational goal is descriptive rather than prescriptive “Pedagogical meta-model” for describing examples of teaching and learning based on many different pedagogical theories –“Arrangement” of teachers and learners in a sequence of activities Learning Design as “pedagogically neutral” –(or… aspires to be….) Music notation as an analogy 16

First page of the manuscript of Bach's lute suite in G Minor. Wikipedia.org Date of manuscript unknown. Held in Florence, Italy. Photo by Asiir 17:00, 13 February 2007, Wikipedia.orgAsiir

Learning Design as Music Notation In ancient times, some believed that music could never be written down – too “unique” / “special” Over time, attempts to write down music evolved, until they reached a stage in the Western tradition where they became standardised in a way that is recognisable today –Recognisable today even if the composer lived hundreds of year ago –NB: It took over a hundred years to standardise! We write down and play written music because it allows “great musical ideas” to be transmitted to many –(few musicians can improvise better than great composers) NB: Music notation is not everything, but it is enough –Still considerable room for interpretation

Learning Design Notation Learning Design offers a vision for “educational notation” analogous to music notation, but we are not “there” yet Various examples of evolving notation to date –LAMS sequences (especially visualisation in Authoring) Role play example over –AUTC Learning Design Project “flow” diagram Predict Observe Explain example over –Learning Designer –Educational patterns –NB: See Larnaca Declaration for other examples and discussion

The Larnaca Declaration on Learning Design Background to Declaration –Years of meetings with experts to discuss core ideas of Learning Design – interesting but no sense of breakthrough –ALTC National Teaching Fellowship on Learning Design December 2011 expert meeting “agreed common ground”, yet not documented - want to avoid repeating same foundational ideas each time we meet Meeting in Larnaca (Sep 2012) to continue discussions; second day discussion reached some key new ideas as foundations for the field of Learning Design –Written up as “Larnaca Declaration” – part of ALTC report –For a quick summary of Larnaca (8 min), listen to OLDS MOOC podcast: 15

Learning Design Conceptual Map In Larnaca we realised that we needed a much wider “map” of the educational landscape beyond just the descriptive framework (“notation”) We re-used the “neutrality” idea to try to build a broad map that could be used to analyse many different approaches to education –A given approach (eg, Laurillard Conversational Framework - blue, SCORM Instructional Design - green) could be analysed as an “overlay” onto the map (see following slides) –Help to draw attention to what aspects are prominent (and less so) across the broader landscape for a given theory, and where the same component of the map is interpreted differently 21

Learning Environment: Characteristics & Values Institution Educator Learner All pedagogical approaches Educational Philosophy A range based on assumptions about the Learning Environment Theories & Methodologies Guidance Representation/ Sharing Visualisation Core Concepts Tools Resources Implementation Program Module Learning Activities Tasks Level of Granularity Preparation Teaching Post-teaching reflection Professional Development Teaching Lifecycle Reaction to teaching Assessment Learner Analytics Evaluation Learner Responses Creating learning experiences aligned to particular pedagogical approaches and learning objectives Challenge 22

Learner Responses Implementation Learning Environment: Characteristics & Values Institution Educator Learner All pedagogical approaches Educational Philosophy A range based on assumptions about the Learning Environment Theories & Methodologies Guidance Representation/ Sharing Visualisation Core Concepts Tools Resources Program Module Learning Activities Tasks Level of Granularity Preparation Teaching Post-teaching reflection Professional Development Teaching Lifecycle Reaction to teaching Assessment Learner Analytics Evaluation Creating learning experiences aligned to particular pedagogical approaches and learning objectives Challenge 23

Tools Resources Implementation Preparation Teaching Post-teaching reflection Professional Development Teaching Lifecycle All pedagogical approaches Educational Philosophy Reaction to teaching Assessment Learner Analytics Evaluation Learner Responses Learning Environment: Characteristics & Values Institution Educator Learner A range based on assumptions about the Learning Environment Theories & Methodologies Guidance Representation/ Sharing Visualisation Core Concepts Program Module Learning Activities Tasks Level of Granularity Creating learning experiences aligned to particular pedagogical approaches and learning objectives Challenge 24

Larnaca Declaration Why develop a “neutral” framework/notation for educational activities? Why develop a “neutral” map for the broader landscape of education? To help educators identify, share and adapt effective teaching and learning activities –What matters for music is using the notation system to convey beautiful music, not the notation system itself –So any Learning Design framework/notation, and the wider conceptual map, is to help lead to greater sharing of effective teaching and learning activities – “Learning Design Practice” 25

Larnaca Declaration Many educators already use the phrase “Learning Design” to mean something like “how I design activities to help my students to learn” Effective doesn’t mean only collaborative or constructivist learning approaches – sometimes “drill and practice” is the most effective method The key issue is how educators use the most effective methods to suit their context and subject matter –More sharing of effective teaching ideas gives educators a wider range of options to foster effective learning 26

Learning Design Learning Design Practice (LDP) “designing effective learning experiences” Learning Design Conceptual Map (LDCM) Learning Design Framework (LDF) The Larnaca Declaration on Learning Design 27

Vittorio Sciosia CC

Case Study: LAMS In 2001, we had a vision of a new approach to e-learning technology where educators could create “sequences” of activities for students to work through step by step –Using a range of content and collaboration tools Most importantly, the created sequences would be shareable, so if one educator creates a great sequence of activities, this can be used (and adapted) by other educators –Hoped to create a community of educators sharing good ideas –Through educator-led innovation and sharing, we’d develop a library of great “teaching ideas” –The ultimate goals was not a new e-learning system, but a new approach to sharing

LAMS Background We created “LAMS” (Learning Activity Management system) to realise this vision –Together with the online LAMS community for sharing –LAMS is freely available as open source software LAMS can be used stand-alone, or integrated with LMSs like Moodle, Blackboard, etc LAMS is now used by thousands of educators in 80+ countries and translated into 33 languages –LAMS community ( has 8600 members and 1400 shared sequences, previewed/downloaded over 50,000 times

Practical eTeaching Strategies While the development of a descriptive framework and software like LAMS are useful steps for Learning Design, the “grand” goal is to share effective teaching strategies In late 2010 I released a short book on three well documented teaching strategies and how these could be implemented in LAMS –Predict – Observe – Explain –Problem-Based Learning –Role Play Focus on creating and sharing templates to aid adoption of effective methods – see

Predict – Observe – Explain: Content example

Predict – Observe – Explain: Preview (student view) of Content Example

Predict – Observe – Explain: Template

Open in LessonLAMS: Sign up (or Login)

LessonLAMS showing copy of Template in your account

LessonLAMS – Simple Editor for content editing, including advice

LessonLAMS – Full Author: Change anything about template

LAMS Community – Repository Summary

Predict – Observe – Explain Template

Using Predict – Observe – Explain template for other topics

LAMS Resources To try out LAMS, visit For general information (and links to other sites), see For teacher user guides & animated walkthroughs, see For all technical details, see