Learning design in diverse institutional and cultural contexts: suggestions from a participatory workshop with higher education professionals in Africa

Abstract

Learning design approaches, such as those adopted by the Open University, provide a set of tools and resources for purposefullydesigning modules with a focus on student experiences. However, many of the current learning design strategies have been situated within specific institutions in Europe and North America. This means that there are several issues worth considering around if and how established learning design approaches make sense in diverse institutional and cultural contexts. To critically assess the relevance and appropriateness of learning design strategies in new contexts, this article describes an in-depth participatory workshop with 34 education professionals from five African countries. Altogether, 10 suggestions for learning design practices were derived from the consensus of workshop participants, which provide a foundation for the development of learning design practices moving forward.

Effective usage of learning analytics: what do practitioners want and where should distance learning institutions be going?

“…In other words, learning design has a fundamental importance on how students learn, and learning analytics approaches can benefit by incorporating learning design proxies into their algorithms and visualisation. As highlighted elsewhere in this journal (Mittelmeier et al, 2018), there is some evidence to support that the OULDI approach can be transformative to other institutions, such as in Africa, and more recently in China.…”

“…Teachers are one of the key stakeholders who will access and interpret learning analytics data, draw conclusions about students' performance, take actions to support students, and improve the design of the curriculum. Distance learning institutions need to empower teachers further by introducing appropriate professional development activities to improve teachers skills in effectively using technology and learning analytics dashboards (Mittelmeier et al, 2018;Rienties, Herodotou, Olney, Schencks, & Boroowa, 2018).…”

“…As evidenced by several reviews and policy documents (e.g., Ferguson & Clow, 2017;Higher Education Commission, 2016;Hoel, Griffiths, & Chen, 2017;Raths, 2016), one of the front-runners in learning analytics in higher education, and distance learning in particular, is the Open University UK (OU). The OU was the first institution to implement an institutional ethics policy in learning analytics (Slade & Boroowa, 2014), has a university-wide implementation of predictive learning analytics for its 170,000+ students (Calvert, 2014;Herodotou et al, 2017;Wolff et al, 2013), and has worked extensively with teachers to use real-time and near real-time data of students to inform their teaching and learning practice (e.g., Hidalgo, 2018;Mittelmeier et al, 2018;Olney, Rienties, & Toetenel, 2018;Rienties, Boroowa, et al, 2016;Rienties, Cross, Marsh, & Ullmann, 2017). Since 2014 there has been a strong strategic drive from OU senior management to use some of the powers of learning analytics to improve the provision of learning and teaching i , while at the same time there is an increasing groundswell of interest from the "shop floor" by diverse groups of individuals, and semiorganised groups of researchers, instructional designers and academics who are piloting and small projects and initiatives that look to explore how learning analytics could be used on a day-to-day basis.…”

Improving distance learning mathematics modules in South Africa: A learning design perspective

“…Since earlier studies had found that there are disciplinary and contextual differences in the ways that learning designs are viewed and labelled, the project team also evaluated the suitability of the OU learning design tools and approaches for use in an African ODL context (Mittelmeier et al 2018) and sought feedback on what adjustments might be needed. An evaluation of two workshops held at Unisa in April 2018, with around 60 participants in total, showed that while large-scale changes to practice might not be envisaged, academic course designers felt that they would take a more systematic, structured and intentional approach to design or revision of their modules.…”

Editorial

“…In some ways, the final paper for this issue, 'Learning design in diverse institutional and cultural contexts: Suggestions from a participatory workshop with higher education professionals in Africa' by Mittelmeier et al (2018) connect all the themes from this issue together. Mittelmeier et.…”