Learning number sense through digital games with intrinsic feedback

The paper proposes a new interdisciplinary approach to helping low attaining learners in basic mathematics. It reports on the research-informed design and user testing of an adaptive digital game based on constructionist tasks with intrinsic feedback. The approach uses findings from the neuroscience of dyscalculia, cognitive science research on conceptual understanding in mathematics, and mathematical education research to inform the detailed pedagogic design. It is interdisciplinary in the sense that it synthesises the results from multiple disciplines in the design principles. It then exploits the new capabilities of digital technologies to develop the design for testing with learners, and capturing appropriate data. The initial pilot has shown that the game supports learners age 5-7 years for independent learning of the kind that low attaining learners will need in order to keep pace with mainstream learners. The experimental work will evaluate this and similar games for learners of all ages who have low numeracy. In general, the approach is to (i) focus on a problem at the intersection of robust evidence in both education and neursocience; and (ii) use this data to design and test a digital intervention that fully exploits the adaptive and interactive features of learning technology

The role of higher education in upscaling global professional development through open, online collaboration

This chapter focuses on the way digital interventions are opening up new roles for universities. In particular we report on the potential of MOOCs (massive open online courses) as a powerful form of digital intervention transforming the University’s relationship to professional development and knowledge exchange, and helping to deliver on the UN’s (United Nations, 2015) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Creating and sharing information literacy learning designs

This workshop illustrates how a digital tool, the Learning Designer, facilitates a new way of designing teaching and learning. It enables teachers to: build on the work of others, adopt and adapt learning designs, analyse and test their designs, and then share their own teaching ideas and experience using the tool. The Learning Designer is one of the outputs of a three-year research project*, which investigated how to support teachers developing their design skills and knowledge in order to profit from the creative possibilities opened up by digital technologies. Evaluations from teachers using the learning design tool demonstrated that it helps teachers in all sectors of education. The Learning Designer tool is used across the world in the exchange of knowledge when delivering formal and informal “teaching.” It is underpinned by a theoretically-informed model of learning and by empirical work with teaching practitioners, and uses Semantic Web technologies for developing this knowledge further (Charlton, Magoulas, & Laurillard, 2012; Zazani, 2012). The tool builds on the idea of teaching as a ‘design science’ and a wide range of research on learning design (Laurillard, 2012). *Funded by the ESRC/EPSRC TLRP Technology-Enhanced Learning programm

Making meaningful decisions about time, workload and pedagogy in the digital age: the Course Resource Appraisal Model

This article reports on a design-based research project to create a modelling tool to analyse the costs and learning benefits involved in different modes of study. The Course Resource Appraisal Model (CRAM) provides accurate cost-benefit information so that institutions are able to make more meaningful decisions about which kind of courses—online, blended or traditional face-to-face—make sense for them to provide. The tool calculates the difference between expenses and income over three iterations of the course and presents a pedagogical analysis of the learning experience provided. The article draws on a CRAM analysis of the costs and learning benefits of a massive open online course to show how the tool can illuminate the pedagogical and financial viability of a course of this kind

The potential of MOOCs for large-scale teacher professional development in contexts of mass displacemen

The mass displacement of people across the world, currently estimated at 65 million, creates a massive demand for new forms of education for children, young people and adults. However, this cannot be addressed without attending to what this means for teachers and other professionals involved in education and training. Clearly, there is a need for large-scale teacher professional development (TPD). Digital technology has the potential to meet this demand, but challenges are presented by the poor digital infrastructure in contexts of mass displacement. Data from two projects are analysed to explore the viability of scaling up TPD in the form of co-designed massive open online courses (MOOCs). The first data set is from a co-designed TPD MOOC project Blended Learning Essentials, to show that digital technology can be effective for scaling up TPD, but that a sustainability plan must be in place from the outset. The second data set is from a project that built on the first to run stakeholder co-design workshops in Lebanon, as a way of developing large-scale TPD in this most challenging context. Lebanon has the highest proportion of refugee to host communities in the world. This case study indicates that MOOCs could be viable in such a context, but also highlights the need to balance the generic principles being offered with a focus on localized practice. A theory of change is presented to outline a method of meeting these challenges by employing a co-design methodology to create self-sustaining digital TPD in the context of Lebanon, and to test this model with the contexts of mass displacement experienced by other participants in the MOOC