Now that the ‘paper work’ has been done, what about making it happen? To my mind the most pressing challenge for most leaning models is making it happen, turning the theory into reality. My area of responsibility regarding Topic # 4 has been looking at and making sense of “The 7Cs of Learning Design”. I have found that it’s a rather subjective matter. What works for one course does not mean that its going to work for all courses. Learners personas differ which must be considered when designing a course – don’t forget from a tutors perspective it’s about keeping the student supported and actively engaged.

Application – a general approach

Step 1: Persona audit – consider of the profile of the students; the nature of students, their competences, aspirations and perceptions (needed to feed into the design process). Giving expression to students personas will help guide what kind of teaching intervention is appropriate for those students. Factors to consider include: age, sex, cultural background, discipline, level of technological competence and motivations for doing the learning.

Step 2: Planning – between tutor/facilitator and student. Centered around;

Discussion – the tutor and student concepts must be mutually accessible, and all clear of the learning objectives.

Adaptation – tutors adapt objectives with respect to existing concepts and students need to integrate feedback and link it to their own conceptualization.

Interaction – tutors adapt to learning environment and associated tasks, i.e. create an environment adapted to the students tasks, then focus on support for task and give appropriate feedback to the student.

Reflection – of students performance, the tutor needs to support the students to revise their conceptions and adapt tasks to the learning needs. Students are encouraged to reflect at all stages of the learning process (i.e. the initial concepts, the tasks, the learning objectives and the feedback).

Step 3: Application – Kolb’s experiential learning cycle has four phases (each of which involves using different processes to acquire and use information and skills), concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualisation and activate experimentation. This model would be used in conjunction with the 7C’s of Learning Design model to covering the learning cycle to activities and teaching activities.

https://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/doctoralcollege/training/eresources/teaching/theories/kolb