eLearning Design and Development: a journey through murky waters (475)

Denise Mary Sweeney
University of Leicester, GB

Does the proliferation of accredited programmes in university teaching demonstrate that university teaching and learning is now a legitimate field of study that possesses a body of knowledge that can be taught and researched (Ramsden, 1992; Prosser & Trigwell, 1999; Kandlebinder & Peseta,2009)? If so, what are the key concepts that inform this body of knowledge? And how do these ideas and concepts translate to accredited modules that deal with e-learning design and development?

This paper will report on the educational design of the optional 20 CATS module on e-learning resource design and development that is part of the Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice in Higher Education at the University of Leicester.

The design of the module has been informed by the three most cited key concepts about higher education teaching and learning (Kandlebinder & Peseta, 2009) (1) Reflective practice elaborated by Stephen Brookfield; (2) Constructive alignment expanded by John Biggs; and (3) Student approaches to learning interpreted by Paul Ramsden.

The paper will report on how each of these concepts have been incorporated into the design of both the face-to-face and online tasks completed during the teaching of the module as well as the three assessment tasks that culiminate in an e-portfolio.

The module focuses on ‘what students do’ as an enabler to support the participants to re-envisage their conceptions and approaches to teaching when confronted with the murky waters of e-learning design and development. It also addresses where conceptual change is required in the way they approach their university teaching and how they design their modules.

The paper will report on preliminary findings from student evaluation of the module and participants' reflection on their learning experiences.

References:

Biggs, J. and Tang, C. (2011). Teaching for Quality Learning at University, (4th Ed) Maidenhead: Open University Press McGraw Hill Education

Brookfield, S. (1995) Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher, San-Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Kandlebinder, P. & Peseta, T. (2009) ‘Key concepts in postgraduate certificates in higher education teaching and learning in Australasia and the United Kingdom’, International Journal for Academic Development, (14)1, 19 -31.

Prosser, M., & Trigwell, K. (1999) Understanding Learning and Teaching: The Experience in Higher Education(Society for Research into Higher Education), Buckingham: Open University Press.

Ramsden, P. (1992) Learning to teach in higher education, London: Routledge.

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