The move to a 4 year curriculum structure and a new LMS at PolyU represented an ideal opportunity to analyze and reinvigorate our current practices. In particular, it presented opportunities for the integration of blended learning approaches into teaching, learning and assessment at PolyU which can support PolyU staff in dealing with increasing workloads and curriculum demands. To support staff in the use of learning technologies in their teaching a series of LDTs is currently being developed. These templates provide a structured and simplified overview of possible options available to staff through an institutional LMS, (e.g., WebCT, Blackboard, Moodle). This will ultimately save PolyU staff time, ensure greater opportunities for teaching and learning quality, and offer greater learning opportunities to our students.

Initial consultation was conducted with all Departmental, Faculty and School LTC Chairs, the eLAs, representative of all Faculties and Schools and key stakeholders from other support units in PolyU (eg: Library, ITS, SAO, etc). LDTs were then developed to assist staff to implement eLearning in a time and pedagogically effective way. These templates:

• group individual LMS resources (such as those provided in Blackboard 9.0 or Moodle) into templates and sequences which situate the tools within a sound pedagogical framework;
• promote lecturer understanding of the pedagogical principles underpinning the chosen learning designs;
• allow academic staff to select from sequences and templates according to their teaching aims and the context;
• allow flexibility within the templates so that suggested resources can be edited, added or deleted;
• allow re-use of the templates in order to assist staff to effectively share best practice;
• allow options for blended learning, by ensuring academic staff have options for carrying out some aspects face-to-face and others online.

The LDTs were trialed with selected staff in Semester 1, 2010, with a view to making them available to all teaching staff for Semester 2.

Explored at present is the use of a ‘Default’ Learning Design Templates that will be implemented across all subjects at PolyU.

DOWNLOAD the Using your Learning Design Template Document