Day: June 23, 2020

Blend your module – an introduction

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Welcome

Welcome to our latest Learning X series, Blend your Module. As you work through this series we’ll present you with some core information to think about and review. You’ll then be encouraged to think about the points raised, to investigate and research a little more deeply and to reflect and apply the information to you own practice. To support this process you can share comments on each activity or you might want to keep a reflective notebook of your thoughts. If you use Twitter you can also share thoughts and any useful resources you find there using the hashtag #UoDLearnX.

Over the course of Blend your Module we’ll be encouraging you to review your current modules and the teaching and learning approaches you use. As you work through this process we hope that by the end of this series you’ll have the outline of a learning design for your module that can help inform an action plan to support the transition to blended learning in 20/21.

Getting started

When moving to a blended learning approach that includes a higher proportion of online learning there can be a temptation to try and reproduce what you’ve traditionally done in the classroom where the focus can often be on the transmission of information. This tends to be because we use technology to do what we’ve always done rather than thinking about how we can use the digital space to enhance student learning and encourage students to take more responsibility for of their learning. This approach was typified in some of the early massive open online courses which were effectively video lecture, multiple choice quiz sandwiches, something we hope to avoid!

Over to you

Have you had any experience of blended or online learning from the perspective of a student or learner? For example have you taken part in online distance learning programmes, online CPD or completed some of the online training packages on cyber security and equality and diversity? What approaches have you found particularly helpful? What have you not liked?

To broaden your perspectives of online and blended learning sign up for a free FutureLearn or OpenLearn course on a topic in your own discipline or that’s of general interest to you. As you explore the course you sign up for think about the types of activities and teaching approaches that are adopted. What strikes you as being particularly effective? Are there any ideas that you can take and apply to your own modules? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Other resources

As we make the transition to blended learning in 20/21 there is likely to be some wariness of how this impacts on our teaching. To finish off this section have a read of this piece by Kevin Gannon on how, ‘Teaching Online Will Make You a Better Teacher in Any Setting‘.

All posts in Blend your module

2: The Bigger Picture

A triangle, with the points labelled Learning Outcomes, Assessment Tasks and Learning Activities. Double headed arrows link them. In the centre, there's a circle labelled Constructive Alignment
Reading Time: 3 minutes

Introduction

Before we start to take a closer look at the ABC approach to learning design let’s first take some time to think about some of the activities you will be assessing either formatively or summatively as part of your module’s formal assessment and how your students will access and engage with their learning.

By thinking about the outcomes you want your students to achieve first, you can then start to think how the ABC approach can be used to design learning approaches that will help ensure that your students are properly prepared for their final assessment.

We also need to consider the environment and circumstances that your students will be studying in can help to ensure that all students have an accessible learning experience.

Constructive Alignment

You have probably heard of Constructive alignment, as described by Biggs (2003) – though he was drawing on work done by Tyler in 1949. The basic premise is that the assessment tasks you set should allow the learning outcomes to be met, and that the learning activities you design should appropriately prepare the students for those outcomes.
This is an iterative process, that’s often visualised as a triangle. “Constructive” refers to the student – they should be able to construct their knowledge and understanding of the subject, while the instructor is responsible for the “alignment”, setting up the tasks to ensure that the learning activities can support the learning outcomes.

A triangle, with the points labelled Learning Outcomes, Assessment Tasks and Learning Activities. Double headed arrows link them. In the centre, there's a circle labelled Constructive AlignmentOver to you

Use the comments area to discuss these points.

  • Can you think of a course that you did when you got to the exam and thought “but we haven’t done that…”?
  • How did you feel?

There’s a lot of research into constructive alignment – what can you find about it?

  • Are you able to find those critical of it, as well as those who support it?

What challenges do you think you could face trying to ensure that your modules are aligned as much as they can be?

Universal Design for Learning

Universal design for learning has grown from the general approach for Universal Design – that everyone should be able to use a product. Extending that to learning, it covers 3 main aspects

  • Representation: Offer your content in multiple formats – Blackboard Ally helps a lot with this, you don’t need to create multiple versions of information yourself.
  • Action and Expression: Offer multiple ways of allowing students to express their ideas. This doesn’t always mean a choice every time, rather ensuring that over the course of the whole module, students can experience a range of different ways to express themselves.
  • Engagement: Can you find multiple ways to motivate and enthuse your learners. As you work through the ABC design you’ll be able to make sure you’ve covered a range of different learning types.

These principles of universal design have always been important but there is perhaps a growing appreciation for them as we prepare to teach against the back drop of the Covid-19 pandemic and better consider some of the challenging situations and environments that our students may be studying in.

You’ll find more about Universal Design for learning on the CAST website. The Centre for Extended learning at Waterloo University uses Peter Morville’s Honeycomb for User Experience to look at Online Learning Experiences, which could give you more ideas to ensure that students get a range of different experiences.

Over to you

In the comments area think about these ideas.

  • What do you know about Universal design generally?
  • What about Universal Design for learning? What are your initial thoughts?
  • Build from scratch, or retrofit your learning activities?
  • Can you find useful URLs that might help you and/or others?

References

Biggs, J. (2003). Aligning teaching and assessment to curriculum objectives. Imaginative Curriculum Project, LTSN Generic Centre, 12.

Additional resources

  • Backward Design Backward design adopts a similar approach to constructive alignment. This resource from City University of New York looks at this a little further. It looks at designing your module in a way that will ensure that the assessments will help students achieve the intended outcomes and that the teaching sessions and module resources will help students to build and develop their knowledge and understanding to achieve those outcomes.
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