The Art of the Designer: creating an effective learning experience

HEA ConferenceUniversity of Manchester4 July 2012

Rebecca Galley and Vilinda Ross

Introduction to Viewpoints 

Typical walkthrough of the workshop approach

Sharing resources

Viewpoints

Viewpoints is a JISC funded curriculum design project

Remit to create a series of reflective tools to promote & enhance effective curriculum design

The tools use a learner timeline with established pedagogical principles and ideas as prompts to help staff consider areas of their curriculum while considering the learner perspective

Viewpoints 3 Part Framework

4 Viewpoints Themes 2 Views (Course and Module) Benefits

Assessment and Feedback ThemeREAP (http://www.reap.ac.uk/)

1. Clarify good performance2. Encourage time and effort on task3. Deliver high quality feedback4. Provide opportunities to act on feedback5. Encourage interaction and dialogue6. Develop self-assessment and reflection7. Give assessment choice8. Encourage positive motivational beliefs9. Inform and shape your teaching

*Implementation ideas for each principle on back of cards

Learner Engagement Theme Principles are based upon the 8 Learning Events Model, LabSET, University

of Liège, Belgium 

1. Receive

2. Create

3. Debate

4. Explore

5. Imitate

6. Experiment

7. Practice8. Meta-Learn

*Implementation ideas for each principle on back of cards

Information Skills ThemeSCONUL 7 Pillars (http://www.sconul.ac.uk)

1. Define the task and understand the topic

2. Identify appropriate resources

3. Search effectively

4. Find and extract information

5. Compare and analyse information

6. Organise and share information ethically

7. Interpret information and create new content

*Implementation ideas for each principle on back of cards

Creativity and Innovation Theme

*Implementation ideas for each principle – work in progress

CHEP Creativity Working Group (http://www.ulster.ac.uk/centrehep/creativity_curriculum.html)

A typical Viewpoints workshop walkthrough

Learner timeline worksheet & resources

Discussing the objective The team agree the objective and write it at the top of the A0

timeline worksheet

Reading the front of the cards The team read the principles on the front of the cards,

choosing ones appropriate to their objective

Mapping cards to the learner timeline The team take selected cards and map them to the timeline

(e.g. induction phase, during first few weeks of course)

Reading examples on cards The course team turn the cards over and read the examples/

ideas on the back

Choosing relevant examples The team select any examples that would fit with their course objective and their teaching practice

Adding in own ideas/comments The team write on any of their own ideas or comments, in

order to tailor the examples to their own module

Sample finished worksheets

Photos

Typed up Worksheets

Course Teams Benefits

“Provides a focus for discussion”

“Used Viewpoints to design new curriculum”

“Used the cards as a starting point to plan induction classes, helped in organising lesson plans”

“Awareness of how valuable Viewpoints cards/timeline are when planning a module, in particular in relation to assessment and feedback”

“Greater understanding of what we are looking for collectively”

“Visualisation of course in a holistic manner”

“Common language that everyone can agree with due to the sound pedagogical principles upon which it is based”

Individual Benefits

“Shaping and organising thoughts and ideas”

“Provide new ideas on enhancing effective learning and feedback”

“Learning how to align my module and come up with alternative ideas for teaching and learning”

“Clarity around purpose of module and assessment – appropriate challenges that have a secondary impact on marketing and induction processes”

“Become more confident and knowledgeable concerning my approach to assessment and module design”

“The approach embodied in Viewpoints has increased my understanding of staff experience of supporting students (both academic and support/professional services)”

Learner Benefits

“Good resources to stimulate discussion”

“Scaffolded learning”

“To be implemented next academic term”

“Opportunity to see things from the learner’s perspective in terms of building in regular feedback”

“Identifying what learners should be doing at every stage of lesson”

“…early engagement and formative assessment/feedback made the students more independent in their learning and allowed them to process what assessment was measuring and how”

“…early engagement of the student in their learning”

Learner Benefits

“Since the Viewpoints approach…has been adapted to develop a tool for retention and transition strategies and embedded into my University’s regular programme of staff development, I believe there has been a clear improvement in the support for new students in their teaching and learning as well as their wider university experience. Evidence from students provided in our New Arrivals Survey shows increased levels of satisfaction and feelings of belonging and the approach we have taken (thanks in part to Viewpoints) is a factor in this improvement”

External Participant

In the Viewpoints workshop… Agreement Disagreement/Don’t Know

We articulated better as a team 86% 14%

Our team developed good action plans 93% 7%

We were more creative about course design 79% 21%

I was more confident about sharing ideas 83% 17%

Course Teams (Follow-up Survey)

“It assisted a successful validation”

“My practice has changed in that I promote every opportunity I can for colleagues to take part in cross-institutional collaboration”

“Different modes of assessment considered and implemented”

Created at www.wordle.net

Viewpoints resources site: http://viewpoints.ulster.ac.uk/resources

Viewpoints project blog: http://viewpoints.ulster.ac.uk

http://www.flickr.com/photos/viewpointsproject/

Viewpoints Team

Dr Alan Masson, Project Director - aj.masson@ulster.ac.uk

Catherine O’Donnell, Academic E-Learning Consultant - c.odonnell@ulster.ac.uk

Dr Vilinda Ross, Research Fellow - v.ross@ulster.ac.uk