English   Danish

2020/2021  BA-BPSYV1051U  Designing the Future of Learning

English Title
Designing the Future of Learning

Course information
Language English
Course ECTS 7.5 ECTS
Type Elective
Level Bachelor
Duration One Quarter
Start time of the course First Quarter
Timetable Course schedule will be posted at calendar.cbs.dk
Max. participants 60
Study board
Study Board for BSc/MSc in Business Administration and Psychology, BSc
Course coordinator
  • Kasper Munk - Department of Digitalisation
Main academic disciplines
  • Human resource management
  • Information technology
  • Business psychology
Teaching methods
  • Blended learning
Last updated on 19-06-2020

Relevant links
Learning objectives
Learning is a crucial part of successful organisational change processes, strategy implementation, leadership training, HR initiatives, talent development, onboarding processes, management consulting, employee upskilling and product development. This course focuses on identifying the needs of clients and organisations to design effective and engaging learning processes. The course help participants develop the ability to innovate work by designing learning opportunities for themselves and for those working with them. The course combines knowledge from the learning sciences with insights about new technologies to assist participants in developing competencies for designing the future of learning. The course targets the following learning objectives:
  • Analyse the needs of clients and organisations to design well-reasoned learning processes.
  • Understand and describe fundamental insights about cognitive, motivational and social aspects of learning.
  • Describe current and emerging technologies that hold the potential of shaping a digital future of learning.
  • Identify ways of leveraging the opportunities of new technologies to improve learning processes in corporate and non-corporate settings.
  • Apply key principles from the learning sciences to suggest instructional designs.
  • Analyse advantages and limitations of different designed learning processes in terms of fit between client needs, learning design principles and choice of technologies.
Examination
Designing the Future of Learning:
Exam ECTS 7,5
Examination form Oral exam based on written product

In order to participate in the oral exam, the written product must be handed in before the oral exam; by the set deadline. The grade is based on an overall assessment of the written product and the individual oral performance.
Individual or group exam Individual oral exam based on written group product
Number of people in the group 2-4
Size of written product Max. 10 pages
Assignment type Project
Duration
Written product to be submitted on specified date and time.
20 min. per student, including examiners' discussion of grade, and informing plus explaining the grade
Grading scale 7-point grading scale
Examiner(s) Internal examiner and second internal examiner
Exam period Autumn, Written product to be submitted on specified date and time.
Make-up exam/re-exam
Same examination form as the ordinary exam
Course content, structure and pedagogical approach

The course is structed around a set of questions addressing learning in the digital age:

How do we leverage the possibilities of current and emerging technologies to build state-of-the art learning experiences? How do we help employees, managers and students to be able to do things they previously could not? How do we move from understanding the needs of clients and organisations to well-designed learning experiences? What are the cognitive, motivational and social processes that make learning engaging and effective?

 

Private as well as public organisations call for individuals who are knowledgeable about learning processes and who are able to create high-impact learning processes. Private companies have long recognised the importance of continuous professional development and they are fast adopters of new technologies in their staff- and organisational development processes. A similar development is happening within major professions such as medicine, military, law, science and business; with these professions spearheading new norms for how learning is done. At the same time, combining insights from the learning sciences with functionalities of new technologies presents an important avenue for improving the quality of public and higher education. Rapid changes in competence requirements, demands for lifelong learning and new technological opportunities create a pressing need for individuals that have compentencies within instructional design and learning engineering. 

 

This course focuses on introducing students to the work of designing high-quality learning processes. The course prepares students for helping clients and organisations by combining three key abilities: 

  1. identifying the needs of clients to develop effective learning objectives;
  2. applying key principles from the learning sciences about facilitation of learning; and
  3. awareness of the opportunities presented by current and emerging technologies.

Continuously working to combine these three key abilities, the course progresses through a number of cases where students gain hands-on experience in developing suggestions for learning designs. Cases will be posed by private clients and corporations, edtech companies and educational institutions, and the students will thereby practice their abilities on real-world challenges. 
Description of the teaching methods
The course follows a blended learning format. The face-to-face activities are workshops where students engage with cases, developing designs of learning processes to meet clients’ needs. The workshop sessions are framed by introductions, reflections and continuous facilitation to support the learning process. The first half of the workshop sessions centre on smaller cases where students try out learning design principles, analysis of learning needs and functionalities of different digital and non-digital modes. In the second half of the workshop sessions, student groups choose and work in-depth on one case. Here, students analyse a particular client’s need and they develop a suggestion for a well-reasoned learning design which combines relevant learning principles with technological possibilities. The face-to-face activities are combined with an important online component. Through online modules, students build up the foundational knowledge needed for quality engagement with the cases and the project work. The online modules offer students action-oriented insights into key concepts from the learning sciences. The concepts introduced online provide students with the tools for experimenting with the case challenges.
Feedback during the teaching period
Students will benefit from three main sources of continuous feedback. First, the online modules are designed in such a way as to give students insights into the progression of their understanding of the key concepts. Second, students receive peer-feedback as well as instructor-feedback during the workshop sessions, both on the process of their engagement with the cases and on their suggestions for learning designs. Third, students will receive formative assessment on their project work from relevant external stakeholders, including edtech companies specialised in innovative instructional design.
Student workload
Online modules 12 hours
Workshops 24 hours
Preparation for online modules and workshops 80 hours
Preparation of exam project 90 hours
Expected literature
  • Aleven, V., McLaughlin, E. A., Glenn, R. A., & Koedinger, K. R. (2016). Instruction Based on Adaptive Learning Technologies. In R. E. Mayer & P. A. Alexander (Eds.), Handbook of Research on Learning and Instruction (pp. 522–560). New York, NY, US: Routledge.
  • Collins, A. (2006). Cognitive apprenticeship. In R. K. Sawyer (Ed.), The Cambridge handbook of the learning sciences (pp. 47–60). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
  • Graesser, A. C. (2016). Conversations with AutoTutor help students learn. International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education, 26, 124–132.
  • Saxberg, B. (2015, April 20). Why We Need Learning Engineers. The Cronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved from  http:/​/​www.chronicle.com/​article/​Why-We-Need-Learning-Engineers/​229391
  • Singh, A. (2018, April 19). Understanding the EdTech Product Landscape [+ Infographic]. Medium.Com, Retrieved from  http:/​/​medium.com/​the-edtech-world/​edtech-landscape-743716608675
  • Thompson, I. (2015). Introduction. In I. Thompson (Ed.), Designing tasks in secondary education, enhancing subject understanding and student engagement (pp. 3–12). New York: Routledge.
  • Willcox, K. E., Sarma, S., & Lippel, P. H. (2016). Online Education: A Catalyst for Higher Education Reform [Final report]. Retrieved from Massechusetts Institute of Technology website:  https:/​/​oepi.mit.edu/​files/​2016/​09/​MIT-Online-Education-Policy-Initiative-April-2016.pdf
Last updated on 19-06-2020