Investigating University Educators’ Design Thinking and the Implications for Design Support Tools

Sue Bennett ,Shirley Agostinho ,Lori Lockyer

doi:10.5334/jime.404

Sue Bennett , Shirley Agostinho + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.5334/jime.404

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Abstract

All university educators perform design work as they prepare and plan learning experiences for their students. How such design work is undertaken, conceptualised, and optimally supported is the focus of ongoing research for the authors. The purpose of this article is to present the results of a research study that sought to gain a richer understanding of university educators’ design work; investigate how the idea of Learning Design could support design work; and examine how learning designs could be made available within a Learning Management System (LMS) as a design support tool. An overview of the outcomes from the entire research project is presented. The project’s aims and outcomes and what was achieved are explained and potential future directions for this area of research are discussed.

Highlights

The routine design work that all educators perform when preparing and planning learning experiences for students is an important part of their role
The idea for this study developed from research conducted by the authors between 2002 and 2005, and prior to that from their involvement in the Australian University Teaching Committee (AUTC) project, Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and Their Role in Flexible Learning (2000–2002)
As a result of this investigation refinements were made to the format for learning design representations and the six exemplars identified as containing the information required were adapted to the revised format

Summary

Introduction

The routine design work that all educators perform when preparing and planning learning experiences for students is an important part of their role. One of the most significant contributions of the AUTC Learning Design project was the method developed to represent each exemplar, which combined graphical notations of the sequence of tasks, resources and supports, with a textual description of the features of the design, the pedagogical reasoning underpinning it, the context in which it had been applied, and any evaluation/research outcomes (see Agostinho et al (2008) for a detailed explanation of this learning design representation). The development of this approach to systematically documenting a learning design was not the first attempt at this goal and was one of a number of alternative approaches developed at the time (Agostinho, 2009)

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Conclusion