Establishing a Common Design Language and Process for Unit Development using Miro Template

Abstract

Our Faculty has embarked on an ambitious multi-year project aimed at taking advantage of lessons learned during emergency COVID online learning and teaching, to develop a set of Faculty principles and implement a transformation of unit offerings into a suite of integrated hybrid experiences supporting and connecting students both on campus and online. The challenge we faced was around the traditional way of delivering content and building knowledge as well as how we assess students. To support the transformation process, the teaching staff and the design staff involved, we have developed and continue to refine a collaborative and non-linear design process template in Miro.

The template is designed to guide conversations with academic staff about proposed changes to the unit design. It allows entry into the design process at any point that suits the academic and supports an iterative design thinking approach. Additionally, it enables rapid ‘paper’ prototyping of ideas and establishes a common design language amongst teaching and design staff. This template helps rapidly explain current development thinking to others. The fundamental difference of this template and commonly used design processes is the visualisation of connections between learning outcomes, assessments and sequencing of learning activities. This approach to learning design uses digital mediating artefact in facilitating unit design.

The template currently shows the design of a unit from its place within a course or courses, all the way down to the finer details of lesson planning. At every turn, it unobtrusively buttresses the design process with reference to selected design and educational theory, and university policy, subtly reinforcing good teaching practice.

The following are currently included in the template, and there are plans to incorporate frames that support the development of assessment rubrics, lesson plans and the conceptual development of new units and courses.

• Curriculum Mapping - places the unit within its course context. Course and unit learning outcomes are mapped to unit assessments. Enables a simple and clear visualisation of unit place in multiple courses where applicable.
• Unit Delivery Mode - enables integration of face-to-face and remote learning activities, enables visualisation of connections between activities, and helps track unit student workload.
• Assessment Design - links assessment design to assessment theory - assessment by, for and of learning (Voinea, 2018), enables visualisation of connections between assessments and sequencing of learning activities, marking and feedback. It tracks student workload in assessment preparation.
• Refining Learning & Defining Content - links to Blooms and Solo and University learning outcome writing guide to guide crafting of unit learning outcomes if they need to change
  • Class Lesson Plan - Enables the visualisation of in-class plans and implementation of University active learning guidelines (4As) (Vella & Ashworth, 2007)
  • Semester Map - lays the entire unit out across a semester timeline. It enables a bird-eye view of the sequence of all unit-related activities. It can be used to compare student learning experience and workload over multiple units in any given semester timeframe.