Metis project worskhop design

Metis Learning Design Workshop, v 0.8
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METIS Learning Design Workshop (version 0.8)
Several decades of research produced an extensive body of scientific knowledge of effective
ways to use technology to support learning. Yet, if we want to have a scalable impact on
teaching and learning, we need to break out of the academic sphere and make this knowledge
available, accessible and relevant to educational practitioners. We see learning design as the
key to empowering educational practitioners to connect their experience with a wide body of
professional knowledge and provide effective and engaging learning experiences. The METIS
project (http://metis-project.org/) aims to promote a professional culture of learning design, by
providing educators with an Integrated Learning Design Environment (ILDE) and a workshop
package for training educators in using the ILDE to support effective learning design.
Learning design is the act of devising new practices, plans of activity, resources and tools aimed
at achieving particular educational aims in a given situation. Learning design breaches the divide
between research and practice by projecting theoretical insights into concrete contexts, and
abstracting transferable knowledge from practical experience.
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 you work and the challenges you are faced with, then
provide methods and tools to help you identify solutions for these challenges. Finally, you will be
able to deploy the designs you produce to a VLE at the click of a button. These workshops are
supported by the ILDE, a bespoke environment for co-design of learning, developed by the Metis
project.
This document describes the aims, organisational requirements and activity structure for METIS
learning design workshops. The aims are specified in terms of outcomes for participants and the
METIS project. The organisational requirements describe the human and other resources
required to run a workshop. The activity structure describes a reusable structure of activities to
enable participants to reach the learning outcomes specified. It includes a description of the
tools and the information resources for both participants and facilitators for each activity.
Andrew Brasher
Patrick McAndrew
Christopher Walsh
Yishay Mor
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-
ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Contents
METIS workshop structure version 0.6........................................................................................ 1
Summary.................................................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.
Workshop aims and organisation ................................................................................................ 3
1 Learning and other outcomes............................................................................................... 3
2 Workshop organisation ........................................................................................................ 4
2.1 Duration ........................................................................................................................ 4
2.2 People: Participants, facilitators and others................................................................... 4
2.3 Resources..................................................................................................................... 5
Workshop activity structure ......................................................................................................... 5
1 Introduction (0.30 hour)........................................................................................................ 6
2 How to ruin a course (0.33 hour).......................................................................................... 7
3 Personas (0.5 hour) ............................................................................................................. 7
4 Barriers and challenges (0.5 hour) ....................................................................................... 7
5 Active tasks and examples of ‘X’ (0.5 hour).......................................................................... 8
6 Initiate, Ideate, Investigate: produce your Vision (1.5 hours) ................................................ 8
7 Connect: gather tools and resources (0.75 hour) ................................................................. 9
8 Prototype (1.5 hour) ........................................................................................................... 10
9 Evaluate (0.5 hour) ............................................................................................................ 10
10 Reflect (0.5 hour)............................................................................................................ 10
11 Wrap up (0.5 hour) ......................................................................................................... 10
Next steps for WP3 to move towards D3.3................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
References ............................................................................................................................... 11

Workshop aims and organisation
1 Learning and other outcomes
Our research of user concerns suggests that practitioners have limited interest in training on
learning design in general, but are have much higher interest in learning design for specific
themes, such as collaborative learning, formative assessment or project based learning. Hence,
the workshop design presented here is a meta-design that is flexible and can be customised to a
specific theme. In this document, this theme is noted as ‘X’.
The intended learning and other outcomes for a METIS workshop on learning design for ‘X’ are
shown in figure 1. The learning design is intended to be applicable across a range of topics.
Figure 1: Learning and other outcomes of the workshop

2 Workshop organisation
2.1 Duration
The total duration of the activities in the workshop(s) is 7.5 hours (Table 1). The activities need to
run in the order they are presented in the ‘Workshop activity structure’ section, but they can be
split into two sessions (e.g.one 4 hour workshop including activities 1 to 6 followed by one 3.5
hour workshop consisting of activities 7 to 11).
Activity Hours
1 Introduction 0.25
2 How to ruin a course 0.33
3 Personas 0.5
4 Barriers and challenges 0.5
5 Evidence and examples of X 0.5
6 Initiate, Ideate, Investigate: produce your Vision 1.5
7 Connect: gather tools and resources 0.75
8 Prototype 1.5
9 Evaluate 0.5
10 Reflect 0.5
11 Wrap up 0.25
Total 7.08
Activities 1 to 6 (half day workshop 1: Context and vision, plus
wrap up) 3.58
Activities 7 to 11 (half day workshop 2: Prototype and evaluate,
plus intro and ice breaker) 3.5
Table 1: activity durations
2.2 People: Participants, facilitators and others
Participants work in teams composed of 3 to 6 members. This team size encourages and
facilitates each team member to be fully involved in design discussions throughout the
workshop. A team size of 3 to 6 members is optimal because it allows for a diverse range of
views to be debated. Teams of more than 6 often split up into smaller teams and lose focus; this
should be avoided if possible.
It is highly advisable to allocate a ‘critical friend’ to each team to challenge design thinking and
stimulate focused and informed discussion (Cross, et al., 2012, p. 28). This ‘critical friend’ role
could be played by the workshop facilitators circulating amongst the teams, but if there are many
more teams than facilitators it is advisable to recruit additional ‘critical friends’ to ensure that
each team can benefit from their input and challenges. A learning design workshop facilitator
must have detailed knowledge of the both the workshop topic and the Integrated Learning
Design Environment (ILDE) so he/she can answer any question that might arise during the
workshop. A distinction needs to be made between a critical friend and a facilitator. A critical
friend is required to have knowledge of the topic in order to prompt and encourage a focused
and robust discussion. Obviously, some awareness of the ILDE will be useful for critical friends.
A learning design workshop facilitator is an expert on both the topic and the ILDE.

2.3 Resources
Each team needs access to one or more laptop or desktop computers with internet access to
interact with the ILDE and other online resources. Prior to the workshop starting, an empty
learning design for each team will be created in the ILDE, and all team members will be given
editing rights for that learning design. If other resources such as printed material and specific
online resources are required for a particular activity, they are described within the relevant
activity in the activity structure that follows.
Workshop activity structure
A diagram of the structure of the participants’ activities during the workshop is shown in Figure 2.
This illustrates the relationships between the activities, the tools to be used, the resources to be
produced.

Figure 2: Participants activities, tools used, and resources produced
1 Introduction (0.30 hour)
Facilitators introduce themselves, describe the structure of workshop, the organisation in terms
of the available human resources, tools and information and the intended learning outcomes.
They also introduce the critical friends and explain their role in workshop.
Facilitators’ resource: slideshow with notes, ILDE.

2 How to ruin a learning experience (0.33 hour)
(Reuse of OULDI activity http://cloudworks.ac.uk/cloud/view/2597).
This icebreaker activity will focus on the key issues and strategies that impact on the success (or
otherwise) of learning and teaching within their context. The output of this activity will be a
design checklist which can be used as one of the design evaluation tools in a mid-way design
review and at the end of the workshop.
Resources (all to be available online and in printed form at the workshop)
Participants’ resources:
 Instructions
1. List the 10 best ways to ensure your module or short course will fail!
2. Share these with the others by uploading your lists to the ILDE.
3. What are the key themes?
Output
A first version of a design checklist which can be used as one of the design evaluation tools in a
mid-way design review and at the end of the workshop. The checklist will be uploaded to the
ILDE.
3 Personas (0.5 hour)
“Personas are a tool for sharing our understanding of our expected users, as a starting point for
design” (Mor, 2013). In this activity the participants will create descriptions of 2 or 3 personas
relevant to the context in which they teach. This activity is a first step towards a detailed
specification of the context in which the “X” learning activity will occur.
Resources
 Printed and online versions of the Personas template will be provided for participants.
(The online version will be in the ILDE).
Output
The personas created will be uploaded or linked to the ILDE.
4 Barriers and challenges (0.66 hour)
20 minutes team work, 20 minutes plenary (assuming 3 or 4 teams)
In this activity the participants are asked to describe what they see as the barriers and
challenges with respect to designing and running ‘X’ learning activities in their context.
Facilitators refer to the activity “How to ruin a course”, where they will have already created a list
that is likely to be applicable to any type of course or activity. This activity prompts participants to
relate their current understanding of the workshop topic (X) to the context in which they teach. It
also allows the facilitators and critical friends to gain an understanding of each team’s context.
The participants will use the personas created in the “Personas” activity to discuss and answer
the following questions for a learning activity on ‘X’ (e.g. collaborative learning)
a) What are the barriers and challenges from a learners’ perspective of ‘X’?
b) What are the barriers and challenges in implementing ‘X’ in your course or topic area?
This will be a collaborative mapping exercise:
 Each participant writes down 3-4 barriers and 3-4 motivations, each one on a separate
post-it (5 minutes).
 Participants place their post-its on an A1 paper and arrange them in some order or map
(15 minutes).
 Each group presents its map to the whole workshop (10 minutes)

 Each participant thinks about their own view, discusses them with one other member and
works collaboratively towards a team list of at least 5 barriers/challenges for learners and
5 for barriers/challenges for implementation. (20 minutes)
Each team shares their list with the wider group. These will be shared with the other teams by
displaying them in the workshop and each team will describe one from the learners’ perspective
and on from the implementation perspective in the plenary (one only to limit the time spent on
sharing). Facilitators foster focused discussion of remaining barriers/challenges between
different teams to occur during breaks.
Resources (all to be available online and in printed form at the workshop)
 Facilitators’ resources: slideshow of questions (as above).
 Participants’ resources: slideshow with questions as above with notes indicating themes
that they might discuss (e.g. technical, motivational, temporal challenges). (As an
alternative to post-its, participants can use a concept mapping tool of their choice.)
 Instructions
1. As individuals, write down 3-4 barriers and 3-4 motivations, each one on a separate
post-it. Use green post it notes for barriers/challenges from learners’ perspective,
yellow post-it notes for barriers/challenges for implementation (5 minutes).
2. Share these with the others in your team by placing your post-its on an A1 paper and
collaborate to arrange them in some order or map (15 minutes)
3. Each team should present its map to the whole workshop; focus on describing up to
5 barriers/challenges for learners, and up to 5 barriers/challenges to implementation
from the map (20 minutes)
 Critical friends’ resources: document describing suggestions for questions to ask.
Output
Each team should produce a list of up to 5 barriers/challenges for learners, and a list of up to 5
barriers/challenges to implementation. These will be added to the output produced in the first
activity ‘How to ruin a course’ to produce a new version of the team’s evaluation checklist
5 Evidence and examples of ‘X’ (0.5 hour)
The facilitators present a few examples of X that are chosen so as to be relevant to the
participants. (four or five examples should be sufficient). Evidence demonstrating that each
example is effective is also presented.
Each team selects one or two for review, and notes design features that may be transferred to
their context.
Facilitators and critical friends will support the discussion by pointing out particular aspects of the
example designs critical to the success of the example.
Resources
 Slides showing the example designs, descriptions of their use, and evidence of their
success.
 Copies of academic papers will also be provided. The focus of the presentation will vary
depending on the participants, and will vary from workshop to workshop.
Output
Notes on potentially useful design features added to the ILDE.
6 Initiate, Ideate, Investigate: produce your Vision (1.5 hours)
In this activity each team will describe their vision for a ‘X’ activity. This is a first draft, and it may
be modified during the workshop. This vision should focus on describing the effects the activity is
intended to have on the learners (not on how these effects will be achieved which is the focus of
activity 8 ‘Prototype’).

Resources
 Printed templates for the Course Map need to be provided to participants and they will be
able to complete this within the ILDE.
 For the Learning Outcomes View (Galley, R., 2010) A3 sheets of paper and
CompendiumLD icon post-it notes need to be provided, along with a guide showing
participants how to create a Learning Outcomes View in CompendiumLD should
participants wish to produce a digital version..
Output
The vision should be described in terms of
 Learning outcomes
Other outcomes (e.g. affective outcomes such as individual motivation, confidence, team
building)
 Leaners’ outputs
An initial description of the evidence required to indicate that the learners have reached
the learning outcomes. Examples include a written piece of work, and an observable
behaviour.
Participants will produce representations such as Course Map and Learning Outcomes View.
The Learning Outcomes View is probably most appropriate as that view is very simple to
produce, and gives a specification that a single activity can be evaluated heuristically against. In
contrast the Course Map is intended to describe complete courses as a whole such as a course
of 100 or more hours of study time. The Course Map could still be applied to show the context
for the ‘X’ learning activity that the participants will design. Other representations of context
could also be introduced (e.g. factors and concerns table) to help focus participants’ attention on
consideration of the context where the design will be run.
7 Connect: gather tools and resources (0.75 hour)
By this stage of the workshop participants will have an idea of the kind of behaviours they want
their learners to demonstrate, as well as the kind of products/competencies they desire learners
to produce/become proficient in during the learning activity they are collaboratively designing.
These need to be described in the learning outcomes view.
In this activity the learners are shown a set of ‘X’ learning patterns. The examples used in the “5
Evidence and examples of ‘X’” activity will provide concrete examples of some or all of the
patterns that are now made available to the participants.
Each team will select one or more patterns which best suit their articulated Vision as defined by
the Course Map, Learning Outcomes view, Personas and the barriers and challenges that they
developed during the preceding activities. If more than one pattern is chosen it could be
because there are alternatives, or because the team thinks that a sequence of ‘X’ activities is
necessary.
They now begin the detailed design. Questions that should be used as prompts for this session
include:
 Which parts of the activity should be synchronous, and which should be asynchronous?
 Which tools have the right affordances for your activity?
This could be carried out further using a Think-Pair-Share activity.
Resources
 A set of design patterns for X. These should be provided both online and in printed form.
Output

The selected pattern(s), a set of resources that are to be used within the activity and an
annotated diagram of the pattern(s) showing:
 asynchronous and synchronous stages within the design
 where particular tools and resources are used.
8 Prototype (1.5 hour)
Participants work together to produce a prototype of an ‘X’ activity. The prototypes illustrate
tasks the facilitator and learners may choose to undertake. Prototyping would use a suitable
ILDE tool or be carried out using the technology of the team’s choice (including paper).
Resources
Participants’ resources: a guide to the affordances of the ILDE instantiation and deployment
tools which explains which tools may be best suited to instantiate and run patterns of type X.
9 Evaluate (0.75 hour)
An appropriate summary view of each team’s design is selected by the team to be shared and
evaluated. The summary view to be used will depend on ‘X’ (e.g. if ‘X’ is Collaborative Learning
the appropriate summary view will be generated by Web Collage).
Designs are swapped amongst each group and evaluated heuristically (http://www.ld-
grid.org/resources/methods-and-methodologies/heuristic-evaluation).
Facilitators and critical friends advise on how to apply the teams’ evaluation checklist to the
design in question.
The final step is to share the result of the evaluation back to group as a whole.
Resources
Participants’ resources: the design of another team, along with the same team’s evaluation
checklist (i.e. the output from Activity 4).
10 Reflect (0.5 hour)
In the last activity (‘Evaluate’), each group’s design was evaluated by another group, and the
results of the evaluation shared. Now everyone should have an understanding of all the designs.
Participant groups should now reflect on if and how their activity design could be connected to
other groups’ designs to produce a course.
11 Wrap up (0.25 hour)
The facilitators conclude by describing how participants can find out more about learning design
in general, and the ILDE in particular.
Resources
Facilitators’ resource: slideshow with notes, ILDE.

References
Cross, S., Galley, R., Brasher, A., & Weller, M. (2012). OULDI-JISC Project Evaluation Report.
Retrieved 3/8/2012, from http://oro.open.ac.uk/34140/1/OULDI_Evaluation_Report_Final.pdf
Mor, Y. (2013). Personas - The Learning Design Grid, Retrieved 9/5/2013, from
http://www.ld-grid.org/resources/representations-and-languages/personas

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