Learning Engineering

This week we will:

• Explore the process of Instructional Design;

• Unpack the development of Learning Engineering; and

• Examine the concept of a Universal Design for Learning.

While there exists a range of definitions that are constantly evolving, Educational Technology is generally defined "as the use of both physical hardware, software, and educational theory to facilitate learning and improving performance by creating, using, and managing appropriate technological processes and resources." Currently, the field is incorporating the ethical use of technology into definitions of Educational Technology, such as "the study and ethical practice of facilitating learning and improving performance by creating, using and managing appropriate technological processes and resources". The main point is that while the hardware and software are important, the processes of using these are also significant when considering Educational Technology, i.e. the process of writing, while not necessarily involving the use of hardware or software, is still an Educational Technology, and while Educational Technologies are fundamentally just tools, their application or not, give rise to ethical implications. As an example, the use of automated testing may advantage or disadvantage certain students.

What other ethical implications arise from Educational Technologies?

You will be familiar with a wide range of Educational Technologies, but perhaps not their scope. Language, writing, printing, film, photocopiers, etc. are all Educational Technologies when applied to improving the teaching and learning process. Today, we often think of online, web-based tools or mobile devices, but these have only existed for the last 20 years, the application of tools to improve teaching and learning has been part of the human experience for millennia.

During this course, you are going to explore a couple of Educational Technologies in-depth - Educational Computer Games and Artificial Intelligence chatbots, but first, you are going to explore an Educational Technology in depth yourself and report back on this as your first assignment. To provide a structure for this, you are going to create a 2-page guide to how to use this Educational Technology, and you will find more details in the Instructional Guide assessment task.

To assist you in identifying an Educational Technology to develop a guide for, here are some collections:

• http://edutechwiki.unige.ch/en/Category:Educational_technologies

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Educational_technology

• https://tutorful.co.uk/blog/the-82-hottest-edtech-tools-of-2017-according-to-education-experts

• https://library.educause.edu/resources/2019/4/2019-horizon-report

Key Elements

While there are many Learning Design frameworks, the properties required for an operational learning design are generally:

• A sequence of TLAs (Teaching, Learning, Assessment).

• The time expected for each TLA; and

• The tools and resources required by the learners to complete the TLA's.

Elements of learning design can be represented in several ways, e.g. using tables, hypertexted forms, or concept maps such as CompendiumLD, however the vast majority of educators use a wordprocessor to develop their Learning Designs.

While most teachers and academics develop simple Learning Designs as a natural process of planning their teaching, they have become particularly used by Educational Designers in higher education, the military and training organisations, where experts in Educational Technologies are employed to assist in the development of instructional material.

In this context, Learning Designs:

• acts as a means of eliciting designs from academics in a format that can be tested and reviewed by others involved in the design process, i.e. a common vocabulary and understanding of learning activities;

• provides a method by which designs can be reused in other courses and contexts, seperate from sharing content;

• guide individuals through the process of creating new learning activities;

• help create an audit trail of academic (and production) design decisions;

• highlight policy implications for staff development, resource allocation, quality, etc; and

• when provided, aid learners and tutors to understand complex learning activity sequences.

Educational Designers, while generally focused on instructivist processes, do explore other pedagogical approaches, and the process of Learning Design with academics and teachers is commonly used to introduce not just new technologies, but new ways of teaching (pedagogy).

Learning Engineering involves an understanding of:

• Current and historical product trends and the strengths and weaknesses of a variety of learning technology implementations.

• Data standards and regulations around learning data and privacy.

• Best practices in technical project management and in the design of learning technologies and learning ecosystems.

• The factors contributing to success and failure in the design, development, deployment, and outcomes of learning technologies.

Current areas of focus for Learning Engineering include:

• Artificial Intelligence and Adaptive Learning Technologies

• xAPI and Learning Analytics

• Competency Frameworks and Certification

• Learning Technology Data Standards

• Data Governance and Privacy in Learning Contexts

• Learning Experience Design

• Augmented, Virtual, and Mixed Realities from the Learning Perspective

Design-based learning (DBL) or design-based instruction, is an inquiry-based pedagogy, that is based on integration of design thinking and the design process into the classroom at the K-12 and post-secondary levels. Design-based learning environments can be found across many disciplines, including those traditionally associated with design (e.g. art, architecture, engineering, interior design, graphic design), as well as others not normally considered to be design-related (science, technology, business, humanities). DBL, as well as project-based learning and problem-based learning, are commonly used to teach 21st century skills such as communication and collaboration and foster deeper learning.

Deeper learning in this context is supported when students design and create an artifact that requires understanding and application of knowledge. DBL activity supports iteration as students create, assess, and redesign their projects. The work's complexity often requires collaboration and specialized roles, providing students with the opportunity to become “experts” in a particular area. Design projects require students to establish goals and constraints, generate ideas, and create prototypes through storyboarding or other representational practices. Robotics competitions in schools are popular design-based learning activities, wherein student teams design, build and then pilot their robots in competitive challenges.

Educational Technologies can support Design-based Learning, providing a range of tools for students to use in collaboration and communication, but Instructional Design and Learning Engineering struggles with the open nature of inquiry based approaches, that cannot be generally preplanned as students are the main decision-makers in the process.

Learning Engineering has been developed further into the Learning Sciences, which incorporates not just Design processes, but a wider understanding of the underlying systems that occur in any learning environment or experience, and how these many interdisciplinary systems interact. While we will not be examining Learning Sciences further in this course, if you are interested in this, it is explored in the T2 course 7170EDN Innovations in Technologies for Learning and Practice (Transformational Educational Technologies).

Learning sciences (LS) is an interdisciplinary field that works to further scientific, humanistic and critical theoretical understanding of learning as well as to engage in the design and implementation of learning innovations, and the improvement of instructional methodologies. Research in the learning sciences traditionally focuses on cognitive-psychological, social-psychological, cultural-psychological and critical theoretical foundations of human learning, as well as on the design of learning environments. Major contributing fields include cognitive science, computer science, educational psychology, anthropology, and applied linguistics.

By approaching Learning Design from a more complex systems approach, Learning Science has the potential to facilitate the design of inquiry-based learning experiences, particularly when supported by Educational Technologies that individualise support for students such as emerging AI systems that can cope with students dynamically making decisions that could not have been predicted by Instructional Designers.

Meeting the individual needs of learners in inquiry-based approaches has been greatly supported by the development of a Universal Design for Learning (UDL) - an educational framework to guide the development of flexible learning environments and learning spaces that can accommodate individual learning differences.

Recognising that the way individuals learn can be unique, the UDL framework calls for creating curriculum from the outset that provides:

• Multiple means of representation to give learners various ways of acquiring information and knowledge;

• Multiple means of expression to provide learners alternatives for demonstrating what they know; and

• Multiple means of engagement to tap into learners' interests, challenge them appropriately, and motivate them to learn.

The curriculum in this context has four parts: instructional goals, methods, materials, and assessments.

UDL was originally intended to increase access to learning by reducing physical, cognitive, intellectual, and organisational barriers to learning, but the UDL principles also lend themselves to implementing inclusionary practices in all learning environments and facilitating the use of inquiry-based approaches to teaching and learning.

Educational Technology has been a driver of UDL, setting verifiable standards for inclusive instructional material, and a framework to reduce other barriers to learning. The accessible nature of Educational Technologies by other than teachers and students within organisations provides the mechanism by which UDL requirements can be enforced, but also opens up the Instructional Development process to Instructional Designers that can support the development of inclusive learning resources, for example, providing transcriptions of lesson recordings, high contrast diagrams, or translation of resources into other languages. Educational Technologies are also evolving to support these processes, such as automatic transcription of video clips, language translation, and accessibility options for students with disability.