Within the new Online Learning and Teaching (OLT) team embedded in each college, there is a new service available – the Learning Design Service.

Learning design is a field that is sometimes called instructional design, educational design or a variety of other names. At Flinders, learning designers are specifically part of the OLT team. We work with an emphasis on using the Flinders Learning Online (FLO) interface as an active teaching and learning space, across all study modes, including fully-online, on-campus and blended topics. From 2018, each college has access to a local Learning Designer.

At its core, learning design is a field that is concerned with the approaches, strategies, tools and resources that make good learning experiences, by focussing on how and why students interact with their learning activities.

Whether a student studies on or off-campus, every Flinders student has some sort of online learning experience, particularly through FLO. The online learning experience for a student is not just about being able to access online resources like videos, readings or submitting electronic assignments. It also includes how students participate in online activities, such as engagement in discussions, and how they carry forward feedback into their next activity. The online learning experience can also be the way in which technology can help students to create things together online and how students have meaningful interactions with other students.

How can a learning designer help you?

We can help with strategies and advice about online learning.

Some questions that you might begin with:

• Where do I start when I have to move a topic from face-to-face to online?
• How can I use my FLO site to support a face-to-face topic?
• How can I design a sense of consistency across multiple FLO sites?
• This learning activity has complex stages that I manage in class. How can I manage this online with so many students?
• I have an idea for a new way to do this activity online. Do you know if any other academics have tried this in other topics/colleges?
• Which activity or online tool could I use to achieve this outcome or provide this learning experience?

We are a new service in colleges and have developed a service statement for our first year. We can work in topics, courses and strategic projects. Our work is guided by college priorities, strategic priorities and the questions that we are asked. We work alongside college eLearning & Media Support Officers and have close partnerships with other services like the Library and CILT academic developers.

Through hearing your ideas about the help that you need, we can shape our service.

How to access the learning design service?

The best way to find out how we can help is to talk to us about what we can do. Contact us via your local college-based Online Learning and Teaching team.

Contributed by Angela Brown, Learning Designer