Learning Design
&
Learning Design Triangle
What is Learning Design?
Learning design refers to the process of intentionally designing and planning learning experiences and learning environment to achieve specific learning outcome and promote deep understanding and facilitate meaningful learning.
It involves considering factors such as the learning objectives, content, instructional strategies, assessment methods, and the overall learning environment. Learning design considers various factors such as the needs and characteristics of the learners, the subject matter, available resources, and the learning environment. It may involve incorporating various instructional strategies, technologies, and assessment methods to optimize the learning process. (Beetham, H., & Sharpe, R. 2019; Laurillard, D. 2012).
What is Learning Design Triangle?
The Learning Design Triangle (LDT) is a framework that guides teachers on how to start the design of a coherent inquiry-oriented curriculum unit that adheres to an outcome-based learning model. The Learning Design Triangle consists of three key components: Learning outcomes, authentic/disciplinary practice, and pedagogical approach.
By starting the learning design process with a robust LDT, it lays a solid foundation for ensuring the coherence and effectiveness of the learning design in supporting student learning (Law and Liang, 2020).
Learning Outcomes
Authentic/Disciplinary Practice
Pedagogical Approach
These are the specific knowledge, skills, and values /attitudes that learners are expected to acquire through the learning design. Learning outcomes should be clear, measurable, and aligned with the goals of the course or program.
To ensure that students can learn through inquiry-oriented experiences that provide them with opportunities to apply, evaluate and create by adopting the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values in the intended learning outcomes, teachers will need to identify an authentic/disciplinary setting and roles for students to assume to make the learning process meaningful and coherent. Examples include engineering design, scientific investigation, journalistic reporting, developing legislation, drama production, etc.
A pedagogical approach provides a high-level description of how pedagogical beliefs about how students learn within a particular context could be implemented. It does not prescribe concrete actions but provides a description of the sequence of pedagogical focal attention/goal to guide the learning process. For example, self-directed learning as a pedagogical approach could guide the learning design to provide students with experiences for goal setting, self-planning, self-monitoring, self-evaluation, and revision.
The Learning Design Triangle encourages teachers to consider the interrelationships between these three components and ensure that they are integrated in a way that maximizes learning effectiveness. By aligning learning outcomes, disciplinary practice, and pedagogical approach, teachers can create coherent and meaningful learning experiences for learners.