LearnViaTech

If you work in Learning Design and wondering about using of AI to do the heavy lifting, then Dr Philippa Hardman‘s latest blog post is essential reading >>

Defining & Navigating the Jagged Frontier in Instructional Design – What we know about where AI helps (and where it hinders) Instructional Design, and how to manage it.

https://lnkd.in/eb7hw8Qm

A good read by Bob Brody reflecting on his long experience as a writer. Now 73 years old, and as he puts it, with 50 years of rejection behind him, he argues that embracing rejection was ultimately a good thing. He goes on to explain why it can be a good thing for you too.

I thought I’d share this as it resonates strongly with those of us working in academia, whether academics writing journal papers, researchers applying for grant bids, or doctoral candidates spending endless hours drafting and redrafting their thesis chapters.

In the article, Bob shares five golden pieces of advice with his daughter that apply far beyond writing:

“First, write as well and as truly as you can. That’s always priority number one.
Second, write about what matters to you and give it the time it needs to ferment.
Third, stay productive – the more you create, the better your prospects. Always have something in development, whether you’re just daydreaming about it, taking notes about it, or actually writing it.
Fourth, keep at it.
Fifth, as long as you have faith in yourself, it will pay off.”

Sounds like a solid recipe for success in any field really:
1️⃣ Do it well.
2️⃣ Do what matters.
3️⃣ Do more.
4️⃣ Do it often.
5️⃣ Keep at it.
6️⃣ Keep the faith.

https://lnkd.in/eRANtR6s

Image attribution: Manchester Metropolitan University

Earlier today I participated in University of London’s Centre for Online Education’s ‘Becoming a Learning Designer‘ webinar. Credit to the organisers for raising an unquestionably hot-topic currently. After all, we have seen the demand of designing and developing digital learning grow exponentially in the last decade, and moreover since the pandemic. The webinar’s registration page says the popular Higher Education jobs site, jobs.ac.uk has reported a sevenfold increase in listings of jobs relating to ‘digital learning’ since 2012, and certainly a topic that me and my colleagues have been trying to define when visioning a soon to be digital learning design/development unit function that will feed into one of the Faculty’s R&I strategic directions.

The hour long webinar was hosted by Senior Instructional Designer, Leonard Houx, who had invited a large interesting and varied mix of people from around the world and the panel discussed the following questions little under one hour. The time of the webinar was set surprisingly at 9am; a tricky time to attend, when there are day job demands, however the webinar generally was interesting watching and the time did go fast. I wondered whether more time should have been allocated with an eight person panel, however, I don’t think as many people (>100 participants) would have signed-up initially if the session was advertised as anything more than 60 mins. Nevertheless, questions that were put to the panel were:

1. What do Learning Designers (LD) do?
2. What skills do they need?
3. How do they get hired?

I will put up a link to the recording here when it becomes available, however below are some brief excerpts, soundbites and notes that I took for myself, but would undoubtedly help folks in my network if they don’t have the time to watch the entire webinar.

What does a LD do?

• A LD partners with subject matter experts to co-create learning.
• The LDs role is diverse, and no catch-all profile. No wonder they complain of not having role clarity. It’s because the role is wide and varied and constantly evolving.
• Edinburgh’s LD Service comprises of Instructional Designers and Learning Technologists.
• LDs simplify the complex. Always thinking of the simplest way of getting ‘there’.
• They bridge the gap [between technology and education] and streamline.
• There is alway an insane amount of stakeholder management, not least with academics, who are used to doing things in a certain way.
• The main attribute of an LD is curiosity.

What skills and attributes does a LD need to have?

• LDs should have an understanding of learning from a theoretic and practical level.
• Be able to influence and form a pitch in how they’re able to help.
• Be willing to collaborate with academics. No one needs a bull in a china shop.
• Should have curiosity, love to learn, and solve different problems everyday.
• LDs should use STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Results) to present a good way to give examples of your impact and demonstrate what you can do for a client.
• LDs should have an appreciation of the interplay between education and technology.
• Become a student of a course, any online course, to experience the rich environment. You will feel the emotions of an online learner. Then critically evaluate.
• You will need to wear lots of hats such as a communicator, consultant, advisor, problem solver, relationship manager.
• Human-centred. Be curious about the way staff teach and the way students learn.
• Trusted and trusting. In deep intimate and creative relationships, trust goes both ways.
• To know how to ask an expert to open up, about what they know and what they might not know, as this can be delicate.

How do they get hired?

• Be open about what work you can do, and what you may need development for, as the aspect of the role is not a settled answer; the Internet has been with us for a generation, but we’re still learning how to contend and get the most from it.
• There are alot of nervous academics, that still lack confidence with using technology. Therefore, LDs need to bring certainty and an open mindedness.
• Show the technical sides (there are 2 parts: digital and education) and the people side (soft skills).
• Have the ability to attention to detail.
• Know that diversity of experience is a strength.
• Be influential without ruffling feathers.
• Be flexible in approach – 1:1s and workshops
• Have demonstrable impact in an institution. Show data/stats of what impact you brought about looks like.

The above was some points that I skimmed from the webinar. If you happen to pick up any points please add them to the comments to these posts.

One of the many aspects of corporate and workplace culture that everyone experiences are meetings. Whilst meetings enhance collaboration, aid in decision making and help to generate ideas, they can be the cause of so, oh so, many hours of wastage of time. Many a time meetings need hours of preparing, and much time in delivering actions that come out from the endeavour, sometimes only an email would have sufficed. I’ll spare you the stats on the sheer volume of time wastage. However, sometimes meetings are very necessary, and I always have felt that people need to be trained to run them effectively. Recently, I came across an absolute gem of a Twitter thread by Jasper Polak (@polak_jasper), and he very succinctly shares some pointers on how to run meetings better from his experience. I liked his guidance so much, I thought I’d not only favourite, but blog about it to refer to at some point in the future, but also share with others who resonate with the same plight.

Towards the end of the thread, Jasper points to a checklist he has created on the web, which is a nice run through, however, I found that his Twitter thread to be more informative and valuable. Below are the salient points in summary…

• Prepare materials beforehand
• Have clear expectations and share them
• Stick to one meeting purpose
• Groom participants beforehand, don’t surprise them.
• Run the meetings like a pro with and agenda
• Agree on outcomes and actions.
• Summarise, close, then follow up with an email.

‘Video lectures with system-paced pauses have been shown to significantly increase learning when compared with lectures without pauses or those that allow learner-paced pauses.’ #onlinelearning #highereducation #learning via Neil Mosley

https://er.educause.edu/articles/2022/2/short-and-sweet-the-educational-benefits-of-microlectures-and-active-learning

The clip below is making its round amongst friends on social media. Unfortunately I don’t have a source to give it’s due copyright attribution. Nevertheless, whilst the clip will be evoking lots of different messages for different people, my thoughts went to its primary message – the traditional vs digital, especially in the context of learning online.

Look theatres didn’t disappear with the advent of film. Nor did radio go away with the arrival of television. In fact, more people are currently listening to radio* than ever, albeit now for a slightly different purpose, maybe in a different place.

Learning face to face too will not be diminished by learning online. If we create it properly, and I can see with the hard efforts of educators around the world due to the pandemic, that things are changing towards this way; digital will not replace the traditional ways of doing things, but it will continue to enhance the way we do the traditional.

Things are not ideal currently with learning online, and we need to iron out as a society, such as universal high speed internet access, ownership of data, accessibility.

However for now, and going back to the clip and the analogy it’s trying to portray – whilst technology will not help when you run out of the loo roll, it will hopefully help you to get hold of one, in time, before that ever occurs!

*https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-52037461