Stockholm University hosts series of pedagogical course design workshops
By Mauricio Romero, itslearning Posted on
Philip Duffield, Pedagogical Consultant at itslearning November 4th, 2019
Stockholm University held a series of pedagogical design workshops earlier this month, and invited their partner and supplier since 2017, itslearning, to participate. The Centre for the Advancement of University Teaching at Stockholm University (CeUL) hosted a series of workshops on pedagogical course design with the primary focus on the importance of student engagement and learning. The pedagogical support team at itslearning were happy to endorse this workshop and meet the teachers that deliver their courses using the itslearning platform.
Prior to beginning the workshops, a blended learning approach was utilised where participants completed an online self-study course put together by a collaboration between itslearning and the university IT department. The pedagogical course design workshop consisted of a four-hour session conducted in two parts:
Morning session: teachers were challenged to create a visual ‘storyboard’ displaying the type of learning activities students complete in both digital and physical learning environments throughout an entire course plan. This part of the workshop was built on the ABC Learning Design, a process developed and shared by UCL (University College London) to encourage course development based on a blended learning approach.
“It was inspiring to see and support how teachers used the tools integrated in itslearning (Athena) to implement the design patterns provided by CeUL to create such engaging courses.”
Philip Duffield, Pedagogical Consultant at itslearning
Using ABC Learning Design maps to generate ideas and concepts during the workshop.
Designing courses
CeUL has also released a series of design patterns, in both Swedish and English, openly on the internet. These design patterns provide teachers with proposed solutions related to functions in Athena to enhance digital teaching and learning activities offered to students using a range of tools available in itslearning.
The workshop was conducted by Sofie Wennström and Ola Knutsson, who are both a part of Stockholm University’s Centre for University Education at Stockholm University.
Sofie Wennström explained, “We see value and opportunity in using Diana Laurillard’s Conversational Framework and supporting teachers to create a good learning design with a breadth of activities spread across the six learning types to encourage teachers to look at their course design as a whole and from a student perspective”.
“It made sense to involve itslearning, as the supplier of our university’s learning platform, and to support the teachers in implementing their visual storyboard.”
Sofie Wennström, Analyst, Stockholm University’s Centre for University Education
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