Balanced Learning Design Planning

Abstract

We present a comprehensive learning design (LD) concept and tool, motivated by theneeds identified by higher education (HE) practitioners. The concept and tool aim atimplementing contemporary research findings and theory to support balanced LDplanning (BDP). The student-centered BDP concept and tool provide innovation to LDplanning by strongly focusing on learning outcomes (LOs) and student workload,aligning study program and course level LOs, ensuring constructive alignment andassessment validity, enhancing LD by using learning analytics, and enabling flexibleuse in different contexts and pedagogical approaches. The ongoing work has been doneaccording to design science methodology, with positive first feedback from HEpractitioners. We identify areas for further research and improvement, including testingthe BDP tool in real-world HE contexts and its integration with learning managementsystems. This could help close the gap between intended (often innovative) LDs andtheir implementation in real teaching and learning environments.