2002 Summer Focus Session

Learning Environment Design
May 31, 2002
The Westin Grand Vancouver
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Proceedings

• General Sessions
• Breakout Sessions

Required Pre-conference Reading

Program

While technology has great potential to facilitate interaction and collaboration, and while it may support information transfer, "putting content on a web page is no guarantee of learning" (Foshay and Bergeron). In using instructional technology, the focus too often becomes, "how will I use the technology?" not "how will this technology enhance teaching and learning?" This session was an invitation to think differently: to focus on what is known about learning and cognition; to reflect on the assumptions, norms and conventions of current practice; and finally, to consider how we might go about designing learning environments that are based on current thinking about how learners learn and understand, and make the most effective use of technology while we do so.

This session was co-sponsored by the NLII, University of British Columbia, and WebCT, and took place in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Meeting Purpose

Attendees worked together to find a useful path through the dense learning theories and models that characterize the scholarly work in the field. Together, we attempted to identify key principles that have been, or could and should be used in order to create and support a truly learner center perspective (without getting bogged down in theories and methodologies and pedagogical "camps"). We applied what is known about learning (a permanent change in capability) and cognition (the processes by which we receive information from the outside world, organize, retain and retrieve it) to defining the conditions that support meaningful learning and those in which people learn best. Using these principles, we explored learning environments, some of the teaching and learning strategies that can be used to support them, and how technology can contribute.

Questions Tackled

• What are the key challenges faced by higher education in moving from the transfer model of learning to the design of rich, Web-based learning environments?
• What do we know about learning and cognition that should be applied to the online environment?
• Using these principles, what are some of the most effective design, teaching and learning strategies that have been explored in professional, continuous, and corporate learning, as well as higher education?
• In what ways do they contribute to or change our understanding of learner centeredness?
• What does good design look like?
• What are some models for design?
• How can we use existing technologies to design effective teaching and learning experiences? How can Learning Management Systems/Course Management systems be used effectively?
• What are the indicators that next-generation technologies will further support these goals?
• Who are the learning environment designers and what are the new roles for traditional learning designers, faculty members, instructional technologist, students?
• What are the implications for support and other services?

Audience

Over 60 individuals attended. The focus session was designed to be helpful to:

• Faculty leaders involved in on line design of courses, learning objects and blended learning opportunities.
• Learning designers and other instructional technology professionals who are responsible for instructional design, or who provide support to faculty and to instructional technology projects and programs, and who want to know about applying what is known about learning and cognition to the design of learning environments.
• Directors and managers of teaching/learning resource centers and other units which provide technical support, curriculum development, infrastructure, media support and library support to faculty, and who want to understand the service implications of learning-centered instructional design.
• Administrators responsible for costing and project prioritization.
• Students.