DeSILA Designing and Sharing Inquiry-based Learning Activities

1. DeSILA Designing and Sharing Inquiry-based Learning Activities JISC Design for Learning Programme Dr Philippa Levy & Dr Sabine Little (CILASS) John Stratford, Adrian Powell, Gabi Diercks-O’Brien, Graham McElearney (LDMU)

2. Overview • Introduction • Educational context • Evaluation/research questions • Evaluation approach • Deliverables • Project plan • Dissemination

3. Introduction • DeSILA: implementing and evaluating LAMS for development and innovation in inquiry-based learning (IBL) in the arts and social sciences • Does a tool such as LAMS offer ‘added value’ to the process and impact of designing for IBL and to the dissemination of IBL pedagogy? • The project is led by CILASS in close collaboration with LDMU, University of Sheffield

4. Educational context • CILASS - Centre for Inquiry-based Learning in the Arts and Social Sciences - a CETL • IBL - student-directed inquiry/research drives the learning experience • Case and problem scenarios, projects • CILASS promotes blended and fully on-line forms of IBL; is creating new ‘collaboratory’ learning spaces • Activity-centred design thinking is fundamental to IBL development and innovation • CILASS has strong interest in sharing and reuse of IBL expertise

5. Research questions • Effectiveness and impact of LAMS assessed in relation to: acceptability to practitioners; learner outcomes; organisational effectiveness and capacity-building • Evaluation will include exploration of: a) fit between LAMS and practitioners’ purposes, values and approaches in designing for IBL; b) requirements for effective reuse of LAMS designs and facilitating/constraining factors on sharing/reuse; c) issues related to LAMS/WebCT integration – can VLE be enhanced by open source tools?

6. Evaluation approach • Based on CILASS’s existing methodology • Impact-focused, participatory, inquiry-based • Primarily qualitative • ‘Theories of Change’ combined with EPO approach to performance indicators • ToCs – often implicit (pedagogical) ‘theories’ about how and why development/innovation will be effected (e.g. student engagement with, and learning through, inquiry process) • EPOs - ‘Enabling, Process and Outcome’ Performance Indicators

7. Evaluation approach • Involves project-level evaluation (ToC & EPOs for DeSILA) and application-level evaluation (ToC and EPOs for each developmental application of LAMS) • Tools adapted from previous JISC learning design evaluations will also be used where appropriate • Monthly formative review + formative evaluation consultancy (Dr Martin Oliver)

8. Deliverables • Report on impact of using LAMS for designing for IBL • Recommendations for: academic practice, educational development and support, technical support, institutional policy and strategy, development of learning design systems and standards • Portfolio of 25 LAMS learning designs + 20 in-depth case studies, distilled into short case studies where appropriate (JISC templates?) • Conceptual framework for sharing and reuse of IBL designs (LAMS and other) - representations of practice within a specific community of practice framework

9. Project Plan • Early LAMS demo and stakeholder focus group discussion (incl. students) • Participant recruitment in 3 ‘waves’ • Pre-use interviews and questionnaires (academic staff) • LAMS training workshop and feedback (T0Cs, EPOs) • Design-in-action logs • Student induction • Observation of implementations • Follow-up questionnaires all students + 1 focus group per ‘wave’ • Follow-up interviews with academic staff (ToCs, EPOs) • Analysis of learning designs • Re-use workshops/focus groups (internal and external participants)

10. Dissemination • Website, conference presentations, journal publications • Closing dissemination workshop (incl. student involvement) • Audiences: institutional; national (JISC, CETIS, CETLs, HEA); international (UNFOLD) • Designs made available to other Design for Learning projects and JORUM

11. 100 Years Of Excellence.