In this article, Anne Walsh from the Professional Development of TAFENSW proposes a 'seven step' approach to the design of online learning.

Seven Steps – a Framework for Developing Online Learning

“The hardest thing for a teacher to say, is nothing. And yet it’s in the silences that learners do their own thinking.

The hardest thing for a teacher to do, is nothing. And yet it’s in the lull that learners do their own learning.

This is equally true online as it is in the classroom.

So, when you are tempted to fill in the ether with your knowledge and experience, remember that it’s in the empty spaces that learning occurs.”

Anne Walsh 2001

So many of us are struggling to create online learning experiences and environments for our students. Some of our efforts are prompted by access or equity issues, some by a need to add value in educational terms, others by economic pressures. Regardless of the reason for going online, the end result is of no value unless it is effective for the learners.

Across the VET sector are debates over platform vs platform free, courses vs learning ‘bits’, content rich vs process rich, teaching vs facilitation, and so on.

I  make no attempt to address these questions. Instead I’d like to take us back to the basics. Back to the things we have known about good education for a long time but which seem to have drifted from our attention recently. Its my belief that by doing so, some of the questions become unnecessary.

In this article I am proposing a ‘seven step’ approach to the design of online learning. It is a simple approach based on the belief that technology should fit education rather than education suit the technology.

Step 1 – Determine the learning outcome

I told you we were going back to basics – and this is as far back as you can get.

The first step in the design of online learning is to determine, in very clear terms, exactly what it is you expect your learners to know, or be able to do, by the time they have completed the learning experience. It’s the same first step that you use when developing your lesson plans for the classroom.

Now, when I use the term “learning outcome” I don’t mean the outcomes that appear in your curriculum (or other) document. These can be too big or not quite specific enough to begin your learning design from. When I use the term learning outcomes I mean a description of exactly what you expect the learner to know or be able to do.

For example “at the end of this learning experience the learner should be able to list, in sequence, the seven steps that make up the framework for designing online learning.”

Step 2 – Choose a range of learning strategies

The key word in this step is “learning”. Learning strategies are not the same as teaching strategies. Teaching strategies are things that teachers do. Learning strategies are things that learners do in order to help them achieve the learning outcomes.

For example, a lecture is something that a teacher does. Listening is something that a learner does. ( I must say that although listening to a lecture is a learning strategy I’m not convinced that its an effective one.) The important thing in this step is to think from a learner’s perspective rather than a teacher’s. The most common error that educationalists make when designing independent learning materials (distance, online, mixed mode or other) is to fall into the trap of “writing” content. In this step you should specifically concentrate on what the learners are going to DO, not what content is going to be provided.

Other examples of learning strategies are debates, term-definition matching exercises, reading (yes, text books do still exist!), group discussions, brainstorming, mind mapping,  research projects, case studies, role plays, practical activities, and all those other things that you are probably doing with your students already.

Take into consideration the type of content to be learnt and the demographics and other characteristics of the students. A range of learning strategies is a good place to start.

Step 3 – Select the appropriate medium

At last we are getting to the technology! In this step you think about what medium would best support the activities you listed in the previous step. For example, if you listed brainstorming, this could be done on paper, whiteboard, electronic bulletin board or even email.  If you listed reading the media might be printed materials or electronic. If you listed group work the media might be face to face with other students, via forum, email, tele-conference or video-conference. In other words, some learning activities are better suited to face-to-face and others to online. Some are able to be adapted to either. The important thing is that you choose the medium to suit the strategies, not the other way around.

Step 4 – Look for available resources

Now that you have an idea of the type of activities and medium your learners might be able to use, its time to see what’s available. Do a search of the ‘net, the library, your colleague’s filing cabinets and cupboards, and any other place you can think of. What you are looking for is anything that might support the learning strategies you have listed using the medium you have decided might be appropriate. If one of the strategies is watching a video then you could be looking for videos or video clips. If a strategy is case study then you could be looking for scenarios, vignettes, or similar items in print, video or electronic text.

If in Step 3 you made a decision to only use the online medium then your search for resources will be limited by that decision. On the other hand, if you made no specific decision about the medium then your search will be wider and result in a larger collection of possible resources.

Step 5 – Adopt – adapt - develop

This is a very important step. This is where you review the resources you have found to decide how appropriate they are for the purpose you have in mind. The ideal resource is one that you can use without any change – one that you can adopt as it is.

 What often happens is that you’ll find a great resource but there’ll be some aspect you don’t quite like. For example, an inappropriate emphasis on a particular area of content, too much or too little content, lack of cultural appropriateness, language too difficult for the learners you have in mind, technically difficult to use, copyright restricted or expensive to obtain. In fact there are many reasons why a particular resource might not meet your needs exactly and that’s when you need to think about adapting them.

In some cases you might not be able to find a usable resource at all. This is when you have to resort to developing your own. Developing your own is the most time consuming (and therefore expensive) way to acquire a resource. It can be a rewarding experience but if something is already around, even if its not quite what you wanted, adopting or adapting is almost always a more time and cost efficient option.

My last comment regarding this step is to be aware of copyright and intellectual property issues. It is your responsibility to make sure you have not breached copyright law when you use existing resources for educational or any other purpose.

Step 6 – Trial and feedback

Now that you have your outcome, activity and resources, its time to try them out on some learners. Many developers wait until a whole subject or course is complete before doing this. I suggest that if there is a problem with the way you’ve designed the learning you are better off knowing about it before you have committed considerable time and resources to the project. As a result I advocate you try out every “chunk” of learning you develop.

For example, if you develop a quiz of some sort – try it out on some learners. If their feedback is good, use the quiz. If the feedback is critical, change it or dump it. Either way its better to know early so that you can continue to create things that work and avoid things that don’t.

Another important consideration when having your work reviewed is whether or not to have your colleagues give feedback. Remember, your fellow teachers and trainers are experienced learners and know the content well (or should do). So, if they are reviewing your materials, be specific about what you want them to give feedback on and take their extensive experience into account.

Always balance their feedback with some from actual learners. Even though we think we know what learners want or need you can’t get better feedback than that from the learners themselves.

Step 7 – Modification and maintenance

As you gain feedback on your newly designed learning experiences, interpret the feedback and use it to make modifications. What works for the learners this year or in this cohort may not be appropriate for the next group. The basics may stay the same but be prepared to have to modify activities and resources fairly regularly. Also be prepared to find spelling and other typographical errors for the next decade or more. No amount of editing will ever eliminate them completely (refer to Murphy’s Law No 17b).

Some notes

By now you may have noticed that I have not mentioned the writing of content. This is because if you follow the Seven Steps you may not ever need to write any content. I believe that when you have decided the learning activity (step 2) and chosen the resources to suit (step 4) the content is probably embedded in that resource.

You may also have noticed an absence of discussion about what a teacher does. This is deliberate but not an attempt to eliminate the teacher from the learning process. On the contrary, the Seven Step approach assumes that the teacher will be integral to learning. However, the Seven Step approach also assumes the teacher will take on a different role.

If the learning activity is such that a teacher's direct input is necessary then you will have listed the teacher as one of the required resources in step 4. Generally though, in online learning the teacher’s primary role is in the initial design of the learning activities and then as a facilitator. By this I mean that the teacher will probably not “teach” in terms of providing content (we used to call it lecturing). Instead the teacher will be ensuring the resources are available to the learners and responding to their questions and comments as they work through the learning activities. A good teacher only needs to “teach” the students who are having trouble learning without direct help.