This week I have been reflecting on the online course design we have been tasked to do for #EDUC90970. Specifically it has got me wondering whether we apply principles of learning design well in any course. Having been involved in at least one major course design during my time there was a lot of discussion of learning objectives and learning activities but little around learning theories or frameworks. I (and I know many others) have reflected before that medical students seem to want information in certain ways, that reflect more traditional formats, but perhaps we are driving this behaviour through our expectations of knowledge and approaches to assessment. Could we take a step back? Redesign with purpose? As easy as ABC, right?

…sorry wrong ABC. This one.

If I have this right, Professor Diana Laurillard’s Conversational Framework, incorporating 6 learning types – Acquisition, Collaboration, Discussion, Investigation, Practice and Production – was incorporated into the ABC Learning Design approach developed by Clive Young and Nataša Perović at UCL. The original ABC approach was a 90 minute workshop which took participants from a module/course concept, to a “spider diagram” reflecting the amount of “learning types” they want wanted in their course, followed by sequencing these along with specified activities.

• Acquisition – well there are always lectures. But I think these should be chunked and curated with other materials the students already lean to…podcasts, videos, online websites with medical information and resources.
• Collaboration – this is probably where a problem based learning approach comes in. Students given a case that they work on and solve together. But ideally I would add an interprofessional element to better reflect what happens in the clinical world.
• Discussion – a case reflection, beyond the medical where the challenges of the clinical environment, the interprofessional relationships and identities and personal reflections. Or maybe this should just be reflections on anything that has occurred that week in the clinical placement – so students have a chance to take time out and process with peers and an expert.
• Investigation – looking for the evidence of what to do with a clinical problem they are presented with.
• Practice – seeing and presenting patients to the team, participating in the ward round and clinics, writing notes. The usual business of a clinical placement but perhaps better prepared when scaffolded on the rest.
• Production – Doctors produce lots of things (notes, referrals, investigation requests) but we rarely deliberately practice. A virtual or simulated WR give students a chance to produce these in a safe environment with feedback OR COVID saw many students producing evidence syntheses to support busy clinicians, while learning themselves how to navigate and interpret literature. Could we not do this routinely for paediatric evidence?

None of this is particularly new, but somehow helpful to reframe…and think about deliberately.

References

Laurillard, D. (2012) Rethinking University Teaching: A conversational framework for the effective use of learning technologies. London: Routledge Falmer.

Evers, K. (2018) Breaking Barriers with Building Blocks: Attitudes towards Learning Technologies and Curriculum Design in the ABC Curriculum Design Workshop. Erudito. Volume 2. Issue 4 http://eruditio.worldacademy.org/volume-2/issue-4