Learning Design tools and resources

This briefing paper provides a summary of Learning Design tools that can be used to create learning activities. It also lists a range of resources that are available to provide help and guidance in designing activities. The resources are of four types: repositories of learning objects or open educational resources, repositories of case studies or designs, sites which provide further guidance on technologies and how they can be used in teaching and different approaches to design.

Learning design tools

Learning design tools differ significantly in terms of how they are structured and the way in which they provide support for the design process. Some are based on particular pedagogic models or philosophies; others provide structured templates to guide the user through particular aspects of the design process. They also vary in look and feel – many are predominately text-based, although there are a few which enable the user to visualise their design process. Table 1 provides a summary, with links to further information and a description of the key features of each tool.

Table 1 Learning Design Tools
DialogPlus
DialogPlus is an online toolkit which provides structure guidance for users to create learning activities, which are called ‘nuggets’. The toolkit is underpinned by a taxonomy that attempts to consider all aspects and factors involved in developing a learning activity, from the pedagogical context in which the activity occurs through to the nature and types of tasks undertaken by the learner. The taxonomy is based on the premise that learning activities are achieved through completion of a series of tasks in order to achieve intended learning outcomes. A questionmark indicates that additional information and support is available on a particular topic.
KEEP
The KEEP Toolkit is a set of web-based tools that help teachers, students and institutions quickly create compact and engaging knowledge representations on the Web. Users can: select and organize teaching and learning materials, prompt analysis and reflection by using templates, transform materials and reflections into visually appealing and intellectually engaging representations or share ideas for peer-review, assessment, and collective knowledge building, simplify the technical tasks and facilitate knowledge exchange and dissemination.
LAMS
LAMS is a tool for designing, managing and delivering online collaborative learning activities. It has a visual authoring environment for creating sequences of learning activities. These activities can include a range of individual tasks, small group work and whole class activities based on both content and collaboration.
London Pedagogic Planner
LPP is a structured modelling tool for design. It enables users to map different teaching methods to five types of pedagogy (attention, inquiry, discussion, practice, production. Users can links between aims, outcomes, teaching methods, topics, assessment) and then map topics and associated learning outcomes across blocks of study.
Media adviser toolkit
Media Adviser is a set of software tools designed to help with the planning of pedagogically balanced courses that involve a range of different types of learning technologies and media. Users can input different teaching methods and decide the extent to which they support four types of pedagogy: delivery, discussion, activity and feedback. The tool then gives a visualisation of the methods and pedagogies and their balance across the course; users can then change the mix of teaching methods until they achieve the right balance.Simple but effective.
Microsoft’s Grava
A set of tools to allow users to author, assemble, and present content. In the early stages of development.
Phoebe
Phoebe is an extensive wiki of support and guidance on learning design. Users can: create or modify designs,view shared designs,browse Phoebe’s teaching and technology guidance ormanage a design template. The help system is context specific and users can work with a predefined template of fields for creating a design or create their own.
Reload
An editor for Learning Design, which supports the full IMS Learning Design specifications for Levels A, B and C. Of primary relevance to technical developers rather than teachers.

Learning design resources

There are four different types of resources that can provide further help and information for users when they are creating learning activities.

  • Learning objects and Open Educational Resources
  • Case studies or designs
  • Information about particular technologies
  • Different ways of thinking about the design process

Learning objects and Open Educational Resources

Early e-learning developments tended to focus on the development of content or ‘learning objects’. Definitions range from the notion of ‘learning objects’ as simple, neutral ‘digital assets’ to ‘learning objects’ as whole course courses. More recently there has been increasing interest in the development of Open Educational Resources (OERs). Repositories of learning objects and Open Educational Resources include:

  • Connexions
  • GLOBE repository which is a meta repository of other repositories of learning objects
  • OpenLearn
  • MIT Open courseware
  • MERLOT database of resources and associated support (
  • Reusable Learning ObjectsCETL

Case studies or designs

Case studies describe particular teaching practice. Many describe particular innovations in how different tools have been used to support technology. Case studies vary in the level of detail and what is covered. Some follow a standard template, others – such as those describing pedagogical patterns - are based on a particular philosophical approach. In contrast designs focus on the components of a learning activity. In some cases generic learning designs have been extracted from specific contextual examples and can be used to illustrate the essence of a particular pedagogical approach (for example problem-based learning, role play, collaboration). Case studies or designs include:

  • The AUTC learning design website (
  • The e-Learning centre library of case studies (
  • THE JISC effective practice with e-learning guide
  • The JISC case studies of innovation
  • The TELL pedagogical patterns book (
  • The OTIS repository of case studies (
  • SchoolforEverything (
  • LearnHub (
  • The World Bank Institute has a website which includes a set of tools for learning design, these include tips and hints, a FAQ list and a series of associated resources (

Information about particular technologies

Some sites specialise in providing advice and guidance on how tools and technologies can be used in teaching:

  • The EDUCAUSE 7 things you should know about series (
  • The OU Learn About guides (
  • The Phoebe teaching and technology guidance (

Approaches to design

Design is a complex, messy and creative process and there are many different aspects to it (writing learning outcomes, deciding on content and resources, using different tools to foster communication and collaboration, writing assessments, adopting particular pedagogical approaches, etc.) A number of different ways of thinking about different aspects of design are available. Table 2 provides a summary, with links to further information and a description of the key features of each approach.

Table 2 Approaches to design
8LEM flashcards
( A series of flashcards are used to describe the learner/teacher roles for 8 core learning activities. This provides a simple and transparent method of articulating the interactions and activities of teachers and learners using universal concepts and language to allow dissemination across disciplines and institutions. It describes learning activities as a series of understandable and universal set of learning events where the teachers and students experience and roles are clearly defined at each stage. The strength of this method is its transparency, use of plain English and its potential in breaking down effective complex learning activities into a generic, re-usable format so that good practice can be disseminated, reapplied and evaluated easily.
Interpreting technologies in use (
A nice 3-D visual tool for thinking about the relationship between tools and pedagogy. The tool maps technologies along three dimensions 1) isolated-social, 2) active-passive and 3) formal-informal. Some of the examples he gives include a wiki as a collaborative document, an RSS feed about a course announcement, a blog as a reflective journal. What’s nice about this is the dimensions bringing out the characteristics mapped to the use in situ – i.e. the context will change where something is located on the 3D matrix.
Mapping pedagogies to tools
A 3D-matrix matrix illustrating the key characteristics of learning (individual-social, passive-active, information-based-experience based). Can be used to map tools in use against the three dimensions or as a means of mapping different pedagogical approaches.
Conole, G., Dyke, M., Oliver, M. and Seale, J. (2004), ‘Mapping pedagogy and tools for effective learning design’, Computers and Education. Volume 43, Issues 1-2, August-September 2004, Pages 17-33

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