A presentation on Learning Design and Medica Education to accompany the more general workshop presentation on Learning Design for the ALTC National Teaching Fellowship

1. Learning Design and
Medical Education
James Dalziel
Professor of Learning Technology &
Director, Macquarie E-Learning Centre Of Excellence (MELCOE)
Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia
james@melcoe.mq.edu.au
www.melcoe.mq.edu.au
Recorded presentation for ALTC National Teaching Fellowship

2. Background
• Recorded presentation to accompany main Learning
Design workshop recordings for ALTC National
Teaching Fellowship
– See 3 Workshop recordings, and 2 Larnaca Declaration
recordings at http://www.slideshare.net/jdalziel71
– Learning Design context and Larnaca Declaration
• Reflections on Medical Education issues in Learning
Design
– Problem Based Learning as a Learning Design
– PBL as a “meta-template” vs actual examples
– “E-Storyboard” for activity advice and quality assurance

3. Learning Design
Learning Design
Learning
Design
Conceptual
Map
(LD-CM)
Learning
Design
Framework
(LD-F)
Learning
Design
Practice
(LD-P)
The Larnaca Declaration on Learning Design:
New Definitions for the future of the field
See www.larnacadeclaration.org for document

4. PBL as a LAMS Learning Design template (single research phase)

5. Challenge
Creating learning experiences aligned to particular pedagogical approaches and learning objectives
Teaching Cycle
Educational Philosophy
Level of Granularity
All pedagogical approaches
All disciplines
Program
Theories & Methodologies
Module
A range based on assumptions
about the Learning Environment
Session
Learning Environment:
Characteristics & Values
Learning Activities
External Agencies Institution
Educator Learner
Core Concepts of Learning Design
Guidance
Representation
Sharing
Implementation
Tools
Resources
Learner Responses
Feedback
Assessment
Learner Analytics
Evaluation

6. PBL as a Learning Design
• The adoption of Problem-Based Learning in Medicine is
a key example for illustrating the ideas of Learning
Design
– Not just the sequence of teaching and learning activities (eg,
LAMS example), but also all the issues of guidance and
sharing around this, and the wider issues noted in the Learning
Design Conceptual Map
– Medicine is also a key example of large scale discipline
transformation of teaching approaches
– PBL instantiates a student-centric pedagogical approach, so it
is useful for illustrating alternatives to traditional lecture
approaches

7. PBL as a Learning Design
• One of the lessons of our 2008-2010 Learning Design
project in Medical Education was the way that a “PBL
template” worked in practice (with Bronwen Dalziel)
– PBL template created and shared with academics prior to
content creation
– Academics didn’t use actual template – built their own
sequences from scratch
– But subsequent investigation showed that academics had
valued the ideas of PBL and the PBL template, but they used
them for “inspiration” rather than “direct re-use”
– Hence, PBL acted as a sort of “meta-template”
– For further discussion & project website, see:
http://lamsfoundation.org/lams2011sydney/docs/RP/Dalziel.pdf
http://lamsfoundation.org/lams2009sydney/CD/pdfs/06_Dalziel.pdf
& http://www.melcoe.mq.edu.au/altcmedical/Welcome.html

8. PBL Learning Design example from UWS project

9. Another PBL Learning Design example from UWS project

10. PBL as a Learning Design
• A second lesson was the importance of documenting
activities within the PBL Learning Designs, and using
this documentation for quality assurance and
improvement
– Development of the “e-storyboard” to assist academics with
pedagogical advice on improving each activity in a sequence
– Reminiscent of parallel general work on “pedagogic
descriptors” by Laurillard and Conole

11. Example of E-storyboard for individual LD activity
For further details see:
http://lamsfoundation.org/lams2009sydney/CD/pdfs/06_Dalziel.pdf

12. Conclusion
• In summary, Learning Design has been useful for PBL
in medicine, but there are a wide range of
accompanying issues that also need to be taken into
account during implementation
– Re-use vs inspiration
– Accompanying pedagogical advice/quality assurance
• These findings align well with the Larnaca “LD-CM” &
“Guidance” aspect of the core Learning Design ideas