Adventures in Learning Design

Martin Bloomfield joins us again for yet another fascinating foray into neurodiversity and learning design. We discuss the differences between learning ‘input’ and what ‘output’ is expected from learners, why it’s so important to identify neurodivergence early in a learner’s life, and who’s responsible for ensuring learning is more inclusive. Martin also introduces us to a new acronym – PERDISOMOLO – and invites us to imagine we were wombats! (Stick with it – he’s making a very important point!) This episode is the last in our Season 2 mini-series focusing on inclusive learning design (ILXD). Download the ILXD Dimensions framework at www.learnjam.com/resources and find out more about our inclusive approach to learning design at www.learnjam.com/inclusive-online-learning

Michelle Mangal talks to LearnJam about why representation matters in learning resources, how to do justice to learners’ complex identities, and how good teachers can make learning materials interesting and relevant to young people. This episode is part of our Season 2 mini-series focusing on inclusive learning design (ILXD). Download the ILXD Dimensions framework at www.learnjam.com/resources and find out more about our inclusive approach to learning design at www.learnjam.com/inclusive-online-learning

How can a learner's environment – physical or digital – affect the inclusivity of learning design (ILXD)? Special guest Runna Badwan talks to us about the need to adapt techniques and approaches for learners in different contexts, the risk of making assumptions about learners' knowledge of digital technologies and how teachers and learners can thrive even in particularly challenging environments.

Download the ILXD Dimensions framework at www.learnjam.com/resources

Find out more about our inclusive approach to learning design at www.learnjam.com/inclusive-online-learning

In this episode, we explore one very important factor in inclusive learning design (ILXD) – the learners themselves.

Special guest Martin Bloomfield talks to us about the unspoken norms and assumptions that influence how we conceptualize learning, why assessment fails to capture what all learners can really do, and how someone's early experiences of school can affect their sense of self-efficacy and motivation to learn throughout their life.

Download the ILXD Dimensions framework at www.learnjam.com/resources

Find out more about our inclusive approach to learning design at www.learnjam.com/inclusive-online-learning

We reflect on some highlights from the first year of the Adventures in Learning Design podcast and look ahead to what's coming up in Season 2. Plus, Tim has an announcement to make...

Find out more about our inclusive approach to learning design at www.learnjam.com/inclusive-online-learning/

In this episode we have a scintillating conversation with Rachel Nemeth, CEO of New York-based startup Opus. Opus is a digital platform that delivers text message courses to deskless workers, and LearnJam has been working with them recently to develop the learning design and content for some of those courses.

We talked about where the inspiration for Opus came from, what exactly it is and how it works. We also hear Rachel's take on what makes for effective SMS-based learning and why she thinks it's so valuable and important for deskless or frontline workers.

LINKS

Find out more about Opus: https://www.opus.so/

One of the key tools we use to design online courses is storyboarding. It involves getting all of the people who are involved in the development of the online course together to create a visual map of the flow of a course. We use this storyboard to identify gaps, opportunities to do interesting things, and to make sure the whole thing is actually helping learners to achieve their goals.

In this episode, Tim and Laurie speak to Lucy Williams from the LearnJam team about how we use this process and why it works so well. We also share some tips and ideas for how to storyboard remotely.

Tim and Laurie talk to fellow LearnJammers Laura Patsko and Lucy Williams about an Innovate UK project we are working on to develop and share best practices in inclusive online learning.

In our conversation, we covered:

• how the rush to online learning in response to the pandemic has exacerbated pre-existing exclusion issues
• how we've developed our understanding of what exclusion means
• our approach to developing a framework and set of tools to help raise awareness of inclusive learning design
• how the project has had an impact on LearnJam as an organisation

In this episode, Tim and Laurie speak to Jo Sayers, fellow co-founder of LearnJam, about how (and why) he uses Agile product development methodologies to develop digital learning products and solutions.

We thought it'd be great to have a chat with Jo to find out a bit more about his approach and to see what advice he has for anyone looking to learn more about Agile and how it can be put into practice.

In our conversation, we covered:

• What Agile actually is and what an Agile project looks like.
• How to manage a backlog and why it's important.
• What makes a good user story and how to write one.
• Why we use Agile in our Learning Design projects.
• The challenges of applying Agile, and some pro tips.

LINKS

The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time - Jeff Sutherland

In this episode Tim and Laurie talk to Laura Patsko about how she carried out the research that led to the creation of our evidence-informed learning design principles.

Laura is a language and pedagogy consultant and an exceptional researcher. In our conversation, we covered:

• Laura's circuitous route to became a learning experience designer.
• How we worked together in 2019 to share our understanding and unearth questions about what really works in learning; and how Laura used that as a launchpad to dive into an ocean of learning science research, with the goal of helping us to identify and synthesise practical insights that could inform the work we do as learning designers.
• Laura's specific process for working through mountains of research in a way that's both effective and manageable.
• How Laura is able to maintain energy and stay productive while doing research work.
• How bringing in external reviewers took the process to the next level, and uncovered a major gap in our thinking about how learning works.
• How we can apply the insights from the research in practical ways on learning projects.
• How we see our learning design principles evolving over time.