Tom Whitford is Head of Learning Design at Curio, a global learning consultancy, and he has a research background in designing social online learning experiences and communities. He also has a lot of experience of working with clients to solve problems arising from poor learning design. In this episode, Tom shares his advice and tips for ensuring that online learning design is not only student-centred, but also meets the needs of tutors too.
If you design any kind of online learning experience, there’ll be more than a few Ding moments for you in this episode including:
- The absolute necessity for online learning spaces to be designed for visible participation to enable enthusiasm and accountability
- The need to think purposefully about every aspect of the online learning environment, just as you would do in a physical teaching space
- The value of thinking about the visible contract between teacher and learner in order to inform the expectations of the learning design
- And the importance of pushing back against established conceptions of curriculum design and delivery. These might be things like the number of contact hours, or the need to use a specific learning management system, and by pushing against these we’re more able to tailor the learning experience more closely to the specific needs of a specific group of students.
Enjoy the episode, and please share your thoughts and questions in the comments!
P.S. if you do enjoy this episode, you might also like the episode where we talked with Tom’s colleague, Paul Hoskins, about opportunities for global higher education.
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