Recommendations for Policy Makers in Learning Design & Enactment

The EU-funded Lifelong Learning Programme project METIS is concluding this week. To help sustain and exploit project outcomes, the consortium has created a brief guide for policy makers, which is shared here with the EA-TEL community.

Context

The current gap between research and practice in TEL (Technology Enhanced Learning) highlights the need for a shift in attention from the development of specific tools and resources to the support for the design of ICT-based learning activities. Engaging teachers in learning design is also recognized as a key component of their professional development. Previous work shows clear gains but also highlights areas, such as collaborative reflection by teacher communities or considering the role of context, which require further efforts. You can find more information on Learning Design in the video “What is Learning Design”.

The innovative character of the METIS project is based on the practitioner-centred support for covering the integrated lifecycle of learning design and the creation of a series of ready-to-use workshop packages. The integration of existing tools for (co-) design and deployment covers the whole lifecycle of designing ICT-based learning activities. This includes their deployment in different VLEs and the use of external learning tools. The workshops also provide practical examples from the use of the ILDE in authentic design environments involving ICT-based innovative pedagogical approaches.

Learning Design Workshops

The METIS learning design workshops are designed to guide educators in applying a critical and inquisitive approach to issues and concerns that matter the most to them and their students. We begin by exploring the context in which educators work and the challenges that they are faced with, then provide methods and tools to help them identify solutions for these challenges. Finally, educators will be able to deploy the designs you produce to a VLE at the click of a button. These workshops are supported by the Integrated Learning Design Environment (ILDE), a bespoke environment for co-design of learning, developed by the METIS project.

Integrated Learning Design Environment

The aim of the ILDE (http://ilde.upf.edu/about/) is to support the complete “learning design” lifecycle: from authoring the designs to deploying them in VLEs for enactment and eventual redesign, all in the context of teacher communities. The support for this whole lifecycle is addressed from the perspective of the “user experience” in the flow of completing the various tasks involved in the lifecycle. Also, ILDE provides the opportunity to the educators to share their learning designs so as that other educators can be aware of them, reuse them, or even participate in their co-creation.

ILDE is published as open source software and can be used, installed and improved by anyone free of charge. During the project, partners created several manuals regarding the ILDE which are available in all partners’ languages (Spanish, Catalan, Italian, Greek, German) and for different users (end users, admins, developers).

Please find more information on the ILDE in this short video.

Pilot Workshops and Enactments

During the lifecycle of the project, 2 rounds of ILDE supported training workshops were organized by different partners in higher education, adult education, and vocational training sectors. In total almost 200 people have participated in these workshops. Results from the evaluation of the workshops and the enactments show that the workshops and the enactments, as well as the ILDE were very much appreciated in all the contexts. The sharing functions are certainly one of the most appreciated aspects of the ILDE and this confirms the existing need to share and exchange ideas with others and in general a willingness of people to be part of a community, where to find support and inspiration.

Recommendations to Policy Makers

Here are some recommendations for policy makers on how to use the METIS outcomes:

1. Preparation of integration/implementation plans regarding the organization and development of workshops and the use of the ILDE during the regular activities of the institution/organization.
2. Design and deliver workshops or/and hand-on demos in order to communicate the features and usefulness of ILDE on learning design to those interested.
3. Organize or participate at dissemination events (in collaboration with your country’s project partner) to present the project, its outcomes and the cases of the workshops developed in the context of the METIS project to the interested parties.
4. Trying out the ILDE on a pilot basis and collect feedback from those using it, in order to identify if the tool is successful in this specific context.
5. Provision of technical support and assistance to teachers, trainers or anyone who is interested in implementing the project outcomes to their daily activities, in order to be able to use the ILDE to the daily courses/trainings of the organization/institution.