Design stage

Goals and deliverables

During this stage we are turning the big questions, learning objectives and week-by-week planner into a step overview. This overview contains step types, step intention and learner types. This phase takes roughly 6 weeks to complete.

Deliverable 2: the step-by-step design

The second deliverable we are going to work on is the step-by-step design. This document will outline which steps the learner is going to take during your course. The focus during this phase is on a sound narrative, scaffolding in the learning and diversity in the learner tasks. This phase will contain a workshop and several design sessions, where we co-create the weeks and steps. Please download the step-by-step design and add it to your project folder. Then read the instructions below to get an idea of the elements that need to be included.

You are also invited to check out the examples for Religion & Conflict and Scientific Revolution.

Step-by-step design template.docx

FutureLearn design principles to keep in mind

Step Type overview

Step types

You can choose between different types of steps, including text, video and audio steps to share content and tell stories, discussions and polls to stimulate conversation and quizzes, tests and peer reviews to celebrate progress. All steps add to the development of skills learned in the course. Use the overview to learn more about the step types you can use.

Video inspiration

To get some idea of the types of videos that can be produced, have a look at these examples below. These were produced by the UMCG video team, University of Groningen Audio Visual Services Arts/Law Faculty, CIT and Orange Media.

Talking head with visual support

Recording on location or in a studio (with or without autocue) with footage or images added during editing. These are 3-5 minutes long and are about one topic.

Interview video

Interviews are easy to record, but they are hardly ever visually supported, Therefore, they should not be longer than 2-3 minutes.

Showing real-life situations

Demonstrating how something works in real life is great for stimulating learning. Also right and wrong approaches can be shown. We have experienced amateur actors who can play roles. 2-4 minutes is usually long enough. Can be part of talking head videos.

Vox populi

Great way to combine soundbites from the general public or a line-up of experts who have their say about the topic in short quotes. Good for introducing a topic. 1-2 minutes in length is advised.

Animation

Animations can be produced by our Center of Information Technology. Great way to demonstrate more abstract topics, but slightly more costly than regular videos.

Storyline

Actual narratives where we follow someone going over the same steps as the learner, or someone we can relate to, is great to have accompanying the learning process.

Learning types

Diana Laurillard's (2012) Learning types help you describe the actions that the learner is going to do. These include the following types:

  • Read Watch Listen

  • Discuss

  • Investigate

  • Practise

  • Collaborate

  • Produce

  • Assessment

This will stimulate focussing on the learner and creating a diverse set of learning activities during the course.

During the workshop we will make use of the set of learning type cards on the right to design the course.


We can create the course with the help of Google Drive, or go for the Learning Designer tool from UCL Knowledge Lab.


The materials are adapted from ABC (Arena Blended Connected) Curriculum Design, UCL (1) which itself is built upon curriculum design research from the JISC Viewpoints Project (2) and Diana Laurillard’s learning types (3) and Learning Designer tool [4].

Learning type cards (2).pdf

Inspiration

If you want to see how FutureLearn and University of Leeds set up an Activity (group of steps) for their Digital Skills Collection, have a look at this page.

References

[1] ABC (Arena, Blended, Connected) Curriculum Design, Clive Young and Natasa Perovic, UCL https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/abc-ld/

[2] Viewpoints project, University of Ulster (2008-2013), http://viewpointsproject.blogspot.co.uk/

[3] Laurillard, D. (2012). Teaching as a Design Science: Building Pedagogical Patterns for Learning and Technology. New York and London: Routledge.

[4] Learning Designer – Learning design online tool. https://www.ucl.ac.uk/learning-designer/