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Alexandra Mihai Profile picture
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27 Oct, 4 tweets, 1 min read
One thought has been on my mind lately🤔: what is the line between carefully designing your (online) course and over-designing it? If someone follows all my suggestions as a learning designer will they not end up overwhelming the students... and themselves? 1/
We need to be very careful. While thinking & rethinking the content & sequence of learning activities is important, the *bigger picture* is equally crucial. It has to do with the cognitive load. Also, remember these are not *normal* times... 2/
So, every time you create an activity: try to estimate the time it will take, think of the feedback you will provide, reflect whether it needs to be graded or not and most importantly, if/ how it contributes to the learning process. If it's superfluous, leave it out. 3/
Quantifying learning is definitely no easy task but it can prove to be a useful exercise that enables us to focus on designing *for* learning. Here I've put together some ideas and resources on how to estimate time when designing your courses:
educationalist.eu/its-about-time…
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More from @Anda19

Alexandra Mihai Profile picture
26 Oct
💡Having taught fully online for many years, I hardly ever think in terms of sync/async. Live sessions = exception, used for clear purposes. Working w/ faculty that comes from teaching f2f, I need to put myself in their shoes & approach teaching online from a very different angle
As a learning designer, *empathy* is very important. Everyone comes with a different "luggage" of previous experiences & teaching philosophies. I try to listen to their stories & work out together smth that *makes sense to them*. Teaching a course well can be done is so many ways
@leohavemann thanks for the inspiring chat and the first (hopefully) aha moment of the week ;)
Read 4 tweets
Alexandra Mihai Profile picture
15 Oct
Here's a quick "Learning Design Essentials" guide. It builds on threads I've written in the past months and because content on twitter can be so elusive, I thought it's worth trying to capture it in one place. Thanks to all of you who contributed & will contribute :) Image
1. This is about designing *asynchronous* online learning by using a storyboarding approach. Think about the narrative of your course and find ways to express it through a sequence of engaging learning activities.
2. Here are some thoughts about planning *synchronous* sessions. It's all about scaffolding students' learning by using the benefit of immediacy and creating community learning spaces.
Read 8 tweets
Alexandra Mihai Profile picture
14 Oct
🧵Ok, so I'm a big fan of asynchronous online learning, but if you really want to use live sessions as a part of your online course, here are five things I think can help you create a consistent and enjoyable learning experience. 1/ Image
1. Take a moment to zoom out on your course. From this bird's eye perspective, think about which learning goals can be *best* achieved through sync interaction. Be honest & resist the temptation to answer "all". Conversely, think of what parts of your course could be async. 2/
2. An efective live sessions has clear objectives. It can be a regular checkin/ community building, a feedback session or a deeper exploration of a complex topic. Something that benefits from immediacy. Communicate this to students clearly, incl. any required preparation time 3/
Read 7 tweets
Alexandra Mihai Profile picture
7 Oct
Let's talk about time ⏰
Time is a crucial element in planning teaching and learning. So why are we so bad at estimating it? 1/ Image
Teaching and learning have a different temporal dimension online. As the time units that guide our f2f course planning have become irrelevant, we're struggling to estimate how long certain tasks will take in the online environment, both for us & for our students. 2/
Because we operate in a new learning space, we run two risks:
1) to spend too little time both for planning & teaching, leaving students with little guidance & support
2) to spend too much time, over-design the course, overwhelming students with a myriad of resources & tasks

3/
Read 8 tweets
Alexandra Mihai Profile picture
16 Sep
Teaching online is about *communication* at least as much as it is about content, tools or methods. While we're busy designing online courses, we tend to take communication for granted. But unlike f2f, online we need to deliberately plan our communication strategy. Some ideas. 1/
Our communication channels with students are essential in an online course. In fact they can be seen as the glue that gives the learning experience meaning & coherence. Find your voice, be as authentic as possible and open to dialogue. Knowing your students will help. 2/
Decide what channels you want to use (if you can offer a variety of methods, do it!) and make it clear early on to your students. Try to provide information in various formats and in different spaces, it will help you reach out to more of your students. 3/
Read 9 tweets
Alexandra Mihai Profile picture
14 Sep
With learning being most often visually represented as an activity that takes place when learners & teachers are simultaneously in one space (f2f or online), it's no wonder a mental model of synchrounous teaching as the norm is being built. But it does not have to be this way. 1/
Learning also happens when we're not around. Learning happens individually & collectively, formally & informally. Technology allows us to let go of space and time constraints, but are we mentally ready to let go of the idea we as teachers can (and should) control learning? 2/
There is still an entrenched belief that asynchronous learning is not as valuable as synchronous learning. In the absence of visual cues, presence & participation are more difficult to gauge. But async learning is all about active listening, reflecting & engaging flexibly. 3/
Read 6 tweets

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