Hi Daniela,

An overlap of design and learning can be quite a powerful combo. Thinking in terms design - it usually highlights those aspects of the 'product'/information' that are centered around perception. A good design usually will be functional, motivates interactions with the design, and is economical in the sense of creating it and using it. These factors are contingent on how humans learn at a short & long term basis. Take, for example, making a user account on a website., People usually have gathered some experience in how accounts are created. Very often, a completely new layout confuses the user instead of helping. Suppose, the designer is creating a printer. From the instructions to how the buttons are laid out, human learning is at the center. Unless a human can, verifiably, use a product successfully, the design is suffering, but not from the point of view of design, from the point of view of learning. This may be an overstatement, but most interactions a human has with objects & people have at least a small component of human learning. It'd be good to have designers who are familiar with the scientific side of how humans learn! 

Learning includes the formation of memories, understanding concepts, procedures, errors, risks, the ability to succeed at something, weighing options, prediction, attention to specific details,  etc. A good design would account for these aspects.

Semper FI,

AS

Dear colleague, 

It's agood question. I believe that get a training period in which he learns how to design it's a good thing and allow the young designer to make a short time to be a professional designer and allow him to make a good experience. So, learning is the best tool to be a professional.

kind regards!

Dear Daniela,

In my own opinion, it is important for designers to learn how to design learning experiences because learning experiences are the "diving board" from which aspiring designers gain confidence in their future endeavors as professional designers. If you, as the expert, afford these aspiring designers fruitful learning experiences now, they'll forever take that into the future with them, all thanks to you :)

Because they will be able to know which learning design principles, techniques and methods are applicable to the learning outcomes they want students to achieve. Without such knowledge, they may design activities that may turn out to be busy work for students that do not help them to fully achieve the learning outcomes of the course. Attached is a sample of a debating strategy for developing students' critical thinking skills that I hope would be helpful

Many thanks,

DFJ.

Conference Paper Debating: A Dynamic Teaching Strategy for Motivating Student...

Hi Daniela,

An overlap of design and learning can be quite a powerful combo. Thinking in terms design - it usually highlights those aspects of the 'product'/information' that are centered around perception. A good design usually will be functional, motivates interactions with the design, and is economical in the sense of creating it and using it. These factors are contingent on how humans learn at a short & long term basis. Take, for example, making a user account on a website., People usually have gathered some experience in how accounts are created. Very often, a completely new layout confuses the user instead of helping. Suppose, the designer is creating a printer. From the instructions to how the buttons are laid out, human learning is at the center. Unless a human can, verifiably, use a product successfully, the design is suffering, but not from the point of view of design, from the point of view of learning. This may be an overstatement, but most interactions a human has with objects & people have at least a small component of human learning. It'd be good to have designers who are familiar with the scientific side of how humans learn! 

Learning includes the formation of memories, understanding concepts, procedures, errors, risks, the ability to succeed at something, weighing options, prediction, attention to specific details,  etc. A good design would account for these aspects.

Semper FI,

AS

Esteemed colleague,

There are a number of reasons why this aspect is essential in teaching and learning, out of which I will delineate the most relevant ones:

1. learning to design an educational experience is in itself a process that implies the development of specific skills such as analyzing, organizing, synthesizing information, which is useful in any pedagogical context

2. going through the process implies exercising a certain set of skills and as a result, this makes you more efficient in your teaching (especially, faster)

3. by putting yourself in the shoes of your learners, you obtain a different perspective which might be then used to anticipate problems/blockages in your teaching; you learn by doing and once you've mastered it, you can share knowledge and develop abilities in a manner that is simpler, clearer and more cohesive than before

4. because it teaches you "structure" like nothing else + bonus: enables message consolidation. In my first teaching year, I was quite improvisational because I believed that I could deliver more authenticity and thus relate better to my students, when in fact,  my style was difficult to follow and that it impeded comprehension. Consequently, I started learning how to design my learning experiences and paid more attention to time (the time it took for each desired activity, for instance) and to methods (in terms of appropriateness).

5. this process of learning how to design learning experiences is also an exercise of creativity, imagination, and originality. Although it may seem like a contradiction (because I advocated for being methodical), it's actually a journey with your destination point being the increase of student motivation and implication. How do you achieve that? Simple! By creating a structure of how you'd like your learning experience to look like, you'll see that along the way, new and fresh ideas will come to you on how to achieve your educational objectives (the premise is that the objectives are clear and have already been set). 

This happens because your mind is focused- your brain is "programmed" to find the most innovative and creative routes to get to the finish line because the destination is so clear. It's like a road through the desert- the scenery is up to you to invent.

I hope you find this long post useful :). Also, I encourage you to read about using Neuro Linguistic Programming in designing your learning experiences. It will take them on a whole different level.

Best regards,

Violeta Bischoff

Hi,

It is important to design a persons learning, and to have a clear understanding of what and how to make people learn to think. If the learner is engaged, able to find an answer, or even fix a given situation, they have achieved something, which enhances their confidence. How can we learn to be programmed to critically think about what steps it is going to take to complete the task before the task is rejected. When we think about the world we live in, people need different ways to comprehend or understand what the expectation is before commencing the task. If the task puts up blockers before they commence they will never take the next step to "have a go" it will simply be refused. Living in our world of technology can we just put on the blockers and not proceed, or do we need the confidence to have a go or learn how to ask for help without feeling incompetent.