Learning design: my current understanding

Activity 1.1 asks that I descibe my current understanding of learning design, based on my experience: potentially including theories or philosophies that guide my practice; my role as a learning designer for education and training programs; and describing the field of learning design to a colleague who is not a designer.

Background

In the early 1990s I was the first enrolled student at the Joondalup Campus of the North Metropolitan College of TAFE (now West Coast Institute of Training) in Western Australia. The college was purpose-built by the state government as a proof-of-concept institution dedicated to the introduction of open learning in WA. Within a few months of study I was offered a casual and then part-time staff position as an "open learning facilitator", the exciting new evolution of the traditional lecturer. Within six months I was 'facilitating' as a full time member of staff while studying higher qualifications.

An early tenet of the program was that of 'facilitated learning' - as opposed to traditional transmission models of teaching - in which facilitators did not present themselves as the source of all knowing, but instead guided the learner to appropriate resources with which they constructed their own learning as they journeyed along self-defined pathways.

The project was a spectacular failure on a number of fronts, the reasons for which are beyond the scope of this discussion.

What is of interest, though, is that I commenced my teaching career in an environment dedicated to learning design rather than transmission-based learning, while most of my learning colleagues were 'trained for transmission' and are now struggling to overcome their hardwiring to be able to embrace learning design.

However, when I reflect on my professional journey I realise I was trained in an environment created on instructional design rather than learning design, and I now wonder about the distinctions between the two, and how the differences might limit or impact on my effectiveness as a good teacher. Is there a distinction between the two? If there is, is it important and should I consider it while I aim at continuous improvement?

My previous studies in the Masters of Education program suggests there are critical differences, and that I should be able to define these differences if I intend to address skills and knowledge shortages in my own praxis.

Instructional design vs. learning design

It would seem to me that instructional design is rigid and linear in nature, 'focused on fixed, pre-packaged solutions' (Goodyear, 2005). It is inflexibly hierarchicial and sequential, lending itself solely to transmission models of learning, in which neither the instructor nor the instructed has the core focus, but instead the learning objects and artifacts themselves are of the highest importance. Perhaps this in itself suggests that instructional design is a transitional form of learning and teaching between archaic transmission models and proper learning design.

Instructional design tends to be situated in the realism paradigm, in that it is based on the epistemological assumption that the 'truth' of the matter to be learned is separate to the cognitive processes of the learner, that the 'reality' of the matter can be determined by collecting the relevant information. It is a mechanistic, or teleological process.

Learning design, however, is creative and heuristic, in that it provides the learner with processes and opportunities for discovery and problem solving, leading to learning that is based in informed judgement based on experience rather than rote learning or systematic analysis of data. It is situated in a relativist paradigm in that it allows for 'truth' to be contextualised to the individual learner, it is constructivist and often best when it is co-constructive, and is reflective in nature.

Describing learning design to a lay colleague

Learning design is a constructivist approach that 'focuses on the pedagogy and the activity of the student rather than ... the content' (Cross & Conole, 2009, p. 2). That is, the focus is on the activity of the student rather than a prescription of learning content and transmission-based (passive, 'learn-and-regurgitate') delivery. Design is focussed on the 'active process involved in building knowledge rather than assuming knowledge is a set of unchanging propositions which merely need to be understood and memorised' (Somekh & Lewin, 2011, p. 321).

As practitioners we are told that we are equipping our learners to solve problems that have not yet been defined, and for roles that have not yet been considered. Increasingly, learning design is about equipping the learner to learn, providing the tools for life-long learning and self-mediated learning, as opposed to predefined curricula and content.

References

Cross, C. and Conole, G. (2009). Learn about learning design. UK: Institute of Educational Technology, the Open University. Retrieved from http://www.open.ac.uk/blogs/OULDI/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Learn-about-learning-design_v7.doc

Conole, G. et al (2009). Learning Design Vs. Instructional Design [Electronic mailing list]. Retrieved from http://cloudworks.ac.uk/cloud/view/2536

Goodyear, P. (2005). Educational design and networked learning: Patterns, pattern languages and design practice. Australasian Joural of Educational Technology, 21(1), 82-101. Retrieved from http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet21/goodyear.html

Somekh, B. and Lewin, C. (eds) (2011). Theory and methods in social research 2e. London: Sage