e-Design Template

This template is a tool to help online learning designers describe and reflect on their blended or distance learning designs. Does your design engage learners? Does it include a balance of content and activity? Does your design enable continuous feedback? Does your design develop online learning skills and self-organised learners? See the guide to using this template below.

Course/module:

Tools/resources/technology:

Specific activity tasks / Timing / Phase 1-4 / Interaction 1-3 / Feedback 1-4 / Other?
Reflect and review: Does your design include a balance of content and activity? Does your design enable continuous feedback? Does your design develop online learning skills and self-organised learners?

Guide to using the e-Design Template:

  1. Add a separate activity on each line above
  2. Add the minutes allowed for each activity (or part activity)
  3. Add the phase for each activity (see the key below and the Best Practice models for eDesign for more detail)
  4. For each activity identify if interaction is present. Add a 1-3 depending on type (see key below)
  5. For each activity identify if feedback is present. Add a 1-4 depending on type (see key below)
  6. If no interaction or feedback for an activity, add a 1 to the Other column.
  7. Review your learning design. An Excel chart, the eDAT Calculator, can also be downloaded from here:

Phases:

  1. Active Induction – closed tasks + tutor managed
  2. Guided Exploration = closed tasks + student managed
  3. Facilitated Investigation = open tasks + tutor managed
  4. Self-organised learner = open tasks + student managed

Interaction types:

  1. With the tutor, e.g. online webinar/ lecture, 1-1 tutorial, coaching session, email, phone etc.
  2. With other students, e.g. forum discussion (may include tutor), group work, peer assessment, adding comments to peer wikis/blogs etc.
  3. With interactive content, e.g. computer simulation, multimedia interactions etc. NB, don’t include interaction with text/video

Feedback types:

  1. From the tutor, e.g. formative or summative feedback or grades etc.
  2. From peers, e.g. structured peer-assessment exercise, grading activity etc.
  3. As self-feedback e.g. using model answers, self-reflection, trial and error exercises etc.
  4. Automatic feedback e.g. from computer simulation, computer-marked test etc.

Other:

  • If no interaction or feedback - is the activity another type? Reading/watching, research, creating etc. Add 1

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Helen Walmsley-Smith, Staffordshire University 2017.