My experience of using the design tool Learning Designer (Dimakopoulos,
2019), an ‘open access authoring tool’ supporting the
representation of learning activities (Zalavra & Papanikolaou, 2019) was
both helpful and challenging. As Bower (2017) points out, for learning designs
to be shared there must be a means by which they can be described. Learning Designer provides such a means
and further to that a platform for the storage and sharing of such designs.
 |
| Fig 1 - The main interface of Learning Designer |
For the purpose of exploring the
functions of Learning Designer I decided to map out a lesson on managing and
protecting landscapes that I recently prepared and taught to a Year 7 Geography
class. This was not an uncomplicated process as the tool’s main interface (Fig
1) has several input boxes as selection possibilities that took time to become
familiar with. However, I found that the strength of the interface was in the
way it facilitated the sequencing of activities in my lesson. Indeed, the tool
allowed for a substantial consideration of the components involved in each
activity at a granular level, focusing on areas such as aims, learning
outcomes, curriculum topics as well as teaching and learning activities (Laurillard,
Kennedy, Charlton, Wild, & Dimakopoulos 2018). The tool also had a feature
that organised the content into a linear summary of the lesson, a feature that
made the design ‘lesson- ready’ and easier to share with colleagues (Fig 2).
 |
| Fig 2 - Learning Designer's Lesson Summary |
A feature I found to be of great value was the ‘analysis tool’
that provided a range of visualisation of the design. One chart represented
the proportions of the different learning types used (Fig 3) in the teaching
and learning activities. As expressed by Zalavra & Papanikolaou (2019) this
was extremely helpful as it allowed for the consideration my lesson from a range
of perspectives such as the social and collaborative dimensions. Another chart
(Fig 4) provided a representation of the amount of time spent on each activity and
stimulated reflection from the point of view of student and correction where
necessary.
 |
| Fig 3 - Pie -Chart showing summary of lesson features. |
While providing a helpful support in structuring the
teaching and learning activities for my lesson, my experience with using the tool
did highlight some limitations. The lack of collaboration features for example,
made it difficult for me to share the lesson design with colleagues and acquire
their feedback. Also, while I have not yet taught the lesson after mapping it
using Learning Designer, there are no features that allow for the enacting
of the design with my students. This was noted by Karga & Satratzemi (2019)
who pointed out that teachers could well be burdened with the extra effort of
deploying their Learning Designs using a learning management system such as
Moodle.
 |
| Fig 4 Visualisation of time spent on activites |
In review, my experience with Learning Designer was more positive than challenging. The
challenges were only short term issues like difficulty in learning to use the
tool and frustrating peripheral limitations on collaboration and ease of
deployment. The positives could well be seen in the long term with the
facilitation of more considered lesson design and reflection.
References
Bower, M. (2017). Design of
Technology-Enhanced Learning: Integrating Research and Practice. Bingley, UK:
Emerald Publishing.
Dimakopoulos, D. (2019). Learning
Designer. Retrieved 23 September 2019, from
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/learning-designer/index.php
Karga S., Satratzemi M., (2019).
Evaluating Teachers’ Perceptions of Learning Design Recommender Systems. In:
Scheffel M., Broisin J., Pammer-Schindler V., Ioannou A., Schneider J. (eds) Transforming
Learning with Meaningful Technologies. EC-TEL 2019. Lecture Notes in Computer
Science, vol 11722. Springer, Cham
Laurillard, D., Kennedy, E.,
Charlton, P., Wild, J., & Dimakopoulos, D. (2018). Using technology to
develop teachers as designers of TEL: Evaluating the learning designer. British
Journal of Educational Technology, 49(6), 1044-1058. DOI: 10.1111/bjet.12697
Zalavra, E., Papanikolaou, K., (2019).
Exploring the Potential of the Learning Designer as a Teacher Support Tool. The
Electronic Journal of e-Learning, 17(2), pp. 107-117. DOI: 10.34190/JEL.17.2.04
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