Week two: Transforming Digital Learning

I’m doing a little catch up here – I started the course a considerable amount of time behind the others!

It asks me to consider the terms transformation and innovation; I really think of disruption and change when we talk about those words. Transformation suggests taking something and making it different but innovation might be something entirely new and different. I noticed one comment that said that it was about solving problems in unique ways, and I really liked that definition. Transformation is really about changing everything, redesigning, instead of simply taking the old and patching digital solutions to replace physical aspects.

Outcome-driven curriculum is a new term to me so reading about that really has been interesting; it seems to sit in the same space as constructive alignment does – making sure that the teaching supports the intended outcome, and the assessment measures that outcome. Admittedly some of the writing around this seems to be keyword bingo…

Someone in the comments mentioned Kahoot, which is a new one to me. I think it might be fun to play with – I may direct my daughter there since she is doing a lot of work with my niblings on grammar!

So listening to the design thinking practice video this course offered gave me a few thoughts on digging down and co-design with students. I think sometimes we make assumptons about what they need from us, and perhaps working with the students more on that would be helpful. I like the phrase “failing fast” – it is a nice way of framing the concept of quick and dirty, to get feedback straight away. Thinking in terms of stories is more useful to me – he also talks about developing personas, but he doesn’t expand on that, which is a shame. He goes on to talking about “moments of need”, which is very useful.

In reading some of the notes underneath the course itself, I found someone talking about “pathemata mathemata” – learning through suffering. Certainly I learn more when I am driven to do so to alleviate a need for myself. Bringing empathy into that process is definitely a powerful point, making it possible to continue and reflect on the success as well as the difficulties.

The next video talks about service design – keeping the students at the heart of the course. Keeping the approach human-centred is key here. There is a need for students to feel connected with other students, with staff, and with the course. They need to see their own progress. They provide a toolkit to look through, which I found interesting.

The idea of curators of digital learning is fascinating. I have come across the phrase “sage on the stage” before, and just quoted it in an essay today, but the pleasure in handing over the learning space, becoming a smaller part of their learning is a really powerful thing. As nurses, the concept of MDT is a common one and transferring it to academic life is a natural one. I work really closely with our learning tech and simulation specialists within my role, and this just transfers to digital very well.

I think the above document might become a regular for me – something to compare my online courses to, to benchmark and ensure there are clear ideas.

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