new methods for new times
This time last year (July 2019) we were preparing to run a workshop with the Faculty Fellows of the Center for Innovative Learning at LAU. We had been invited to work with LAU colleagues on ways of moving teaching from traditional mode to blended or online modes, including MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses). We have been co-designing MOOCs with colleagues from LAU, so this was a great opportunity to share our projects, pedagogies and co-design methodology more widely. The Faculty Fellows agreed to help us with our research by refining the co-design tools we were developing.
In the RELIEF Centre, we have a highly participatory approach to co-designing MOOCs. With communities in Lebanon, we co-create collaborative learning opportunities that are embedded in the excellent practice that is already happening. We then scale up this practice through the MOOCs, which recruits tens of thousands of participants who exchange ideas and learn from each other through discussions and collaborative activities. This is part of our Theory of Change which involves 5 stages: Engage, Develop, Extend, Embed and Self-sustain.
In the Develop stage, we often have limited time with stakeholders to co-design the digital approach we will use in a MOOC which is based on Laurillard’s Conversational Framework. So, we have to make the time we have in our co-design workshops really count. To facilitate this, we have been using popular hands-on storyboard methods such as the ABC workshop. The ABC workshop uses the six learning types developed for the Learning Designer tool to help teachers apply the Conversational Framework to designing their teaching, so this approach has potential for us. However, the aims that we have for our workshops are more challenging than helping teachers reimagine their existing course in a technology enhanced format. We want to help participants to understand the design needs for a collaborative MOOC and make concrete suggestions for MOOC activities in the short time we have available. So we have been experimenting with storyboards and learning types cards that facilitate this major conceptual shift and produce a concrete output within the few hours we often have with them.
At the workshop in 2019, we used our MOOC design storyboard and MOOC learning design cards with the CIL Faculty Fellows. We then showed them how to move from the storyboard to the Learning Designer, which is an online tool we have developed to help teachers embed the learning types in their teaching.
Then we held a group interview with the participants to share what was successful and what we could improve. A surprising outcome, was a request for the workshop to be wholly online.
Fastforward twelve months, and we were delighted to accept an invitation back to run the workshop with a new set of CIL Faculty Fellows. This time we had no choice but to run the workshop online, but we wanted anyway to see how well this mode would work.
We designed the workshop in three parts. You can see the session learning design here.
Before the session, we invited the participants to register with the Learning Designer tool (learningdesigner.org) and watch a video about the Conversational Framework in English or Arabic. Then, in the video conference, we used a poll as a light-hearted way to help participants match learning types with digital tools. We underlined this with a tour of the digital methods we use in our RELIEF MOOCs to create social and collaborative learning experiences. Then we demonstrated an interactive whiteboard activity using Miro to enable participants to storyboard their learning designs.
The Miro storyboard helps support the first stage of idea generation for co-designing online or blended courses. The storyboard is composed of learning types cards, digital methods cards and an expandable grid featuring 3 sets of TLAs or Teaching and Learning Activities. You can introduce a team to the six learning types (there is an embedded video) and then work through 3 steps to create initial ideas for online or blended courses using the storyboard:
Step 1: start your learning design by dragging learning types cards to the storyboard to represent the learning experiences you want to combine to create your online/blended Teaching and Learning Activities.
Step 2: drag digital methods that correspond to the learning type (identifiable by colour) to the storyboard.
Step 3: adjust the timings (set by default at 15 minutes for each activity).
You can try out the storyboard template we used here.
We grouped workshop participants into breakout rooms with a copy of the board to create ideas for their learning design. Then, we took a break while they watched a video tutorial about the Learning Designer and we transferred their designs to the Learning Designer tool. Finally, we returned to the video conference, and to break out rooms where participants edited their design this time using the Learning Designer.
Feedback from participants indicated that the online workshop worked well. Participants said that they found the learning types, the Miro board and the Learning Designer tool useful and they would implement these when designing their teaching sessions. However, some participants pointed to the extra time this would take since they had already used different approaches for their designs, wishing they had been introduced to these tools earlier. This is frustrating for us, but also a validation of our approach with those new to learning design.
We would, however, like to share the tools we have developed in case they are useful to others at a time when teachers around the world are moving their teaching online. If you have any feedback please let us know!