1. PreparationAn area (Cloudscape) will be set up on Cloudworks to provide you with opportunities to prepare for the workshop. It will aggregate links to resources, support documents, visualisation tools, examples, discussion and literature.RegistrationFor this workshop, a team of up to 4 persons will be accepted from each School. Thereafter, the workshop will be scheduled again for more teams.Length of workshopFull-day on 9th November 2009Maximum number of participants32 (participants will work in teams)Intended audienceThe workshop will be of interest to lecturers wanting to create blended learning modules / short courses, and those with an interest in learning design (no specific previous knowledge is necessary). This full-day workshop will focus on learning design in a blended learning context - a combination of conventional face-to-face teaching with technology-enhanced learning (e-learning). The workshop forms part of a JISC funded project on Curriculum Design led by the Open University (OU), and on which Brunel University is one the partners. The other partners are the Universities of Reading, London South Bank and Cambridge.Blended Learning Workshop:New approaches to the design of blended learning Workshop formatThe practical and collaborative format of the workshop will provide opportunities to learn about key tools, resources and approaches which support learning design, and an understanding of the issues and challenges involved in designing blended learning. The workshop will be supported both before and after the event using Cloudworks (http://www.cloudworks.ac.uk), assisting you in transferring the experience gained in the workshop to your own situation.Workshop objectivesAt the end of the workshop, you will have:An awareness of the range of resources, tools and methods which are available to support learning design – including case studies of good practice, learning object repositories and learning design tools/methods. For a quick introduction to learning design read the ‘Learn about Learning Design’ guide (available online at http://ouldi.open.ac.uk/Learn%20about%20learning%20design.pdf )Experience of thinking about the design process from different perspectives; an understanding of the issues and challenges involved in designing blended learning An understanding that will allow you to transfer the experience gained from the design challenge to your own context and the blended learning modules you are involved in designing.Overview“… it’s entirely up to the particular context what kind of blend you have and we’ve just got to get practised at being able to find the right blend for the right course and context.” Diana Laurillard in an interview with Kevin Donovan for ALT (2008) available online at http://www.alt.ac.uk/docs/final_transcript%20_diana_laurillard_interview.pdf The workshop will introduce participants to a new methodology for learning design, which aims to provide support and guidance to lecturers in making decisions about creating blended learning modules and activities. They will be assisted to acquire appropriate new skills.It is evident that no one simple or narrow view of design is likely to be appropriate nor would such an approach meet the needs of the lecturer, because of the inherently creative and unique nature of design. The participants will become familiarised with a range of tools and resources to help them make informed decisions about creating new or adapting existing blended learning modules and activities. The OU-developed methodology adopts an empirically based approach to understanding and representing the design process. This has included a range of evaluation studies (capturing of case studies, interviews with lecturers, in-depth course evaluation and focus groups/workshops), which have helped to develop understanding of how lecturers go about creating new modules and learning activities. Alongside this an extensive set of tools and resources have been collated to support the design process, as well as the development of a new learning design tool, CompendiumLD, that helps lecturers articulate and represent their design ideas, and a social networking site, Cloudworks, for sharing designs.
