Postgraduate Course: Digital Education: Design (EDUA11468)
Course Outline
| School | Moray House School of Education and Sport |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
| Course type | Online Distance Learning |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | Creating an online course involves navigating a complex landscape where media, curriculum, ideology, context, and resources must be balanced and negotiated. This course offers both practical and theoretical insights into managing this process.
We will begin by exploring the concept of 'design thinking' and how we, as educators, can make use of design thinking approaches. We will then reflect on our own beliefs and values about teaching and learning as we consider the theoretical and philosophical basis of a range of pedagogical approaches. We then turn to many and varied design frameworks that can inform our design thinking with a collaborative activity that will help compares and contrast their usefulness for your context. Later topics in the course will be tailored to the cohort¿s interests (past examples include inclusivity, assessment and deconstructive nonalignment).
The main course assessment is an opportunity to design and part-build your own course. This is supported by formative tasks throughout the semester. |
| Course description |
Why does design matter? How do you design a course for students in your context? What design frameworks or pedagogical approaches should you use when designing a course? How can you account for the social, the technological and the material in your design choices?
This course will provide you with an overview of a fascinating range of design contexts and challenges. You will be supported to develop your own understanding of design and pedagogy, and to create a course design tailored for your professional context and your learners' needs.
This course takes a design-led perspective on digitally-mediated courses in a range of settings, including formal, informal, workplace and other learning contexts. On this course, you will explore how to approach course design in a designerly, well-theorised and critical way. There will be opportunities to:
- Understand and analyse design challenges.
- Discuss and question what makes a course, and what makes it 'digital'.
- Explore your own design needs and aspirations, and those of your learners and colleagues.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2025/26, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: 0 |
| Course Start |
Semester 1 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
196 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Written Exam 0 %, Coursework 100 %, Practical Exam 0 %
There are two assessments:
Reflection (20%):
You will write a short, critical reflection on your choice of design framework. When writing this reflection, you will draw on the group activity you participated in during the design frameworks weeks. The activities, resources and critiques your group developed during those weeks can be used to help you develop your critical reflection (equivalent to 1000 words).
Course design (80%):
Course design. The main part of the assessment will involve students designing a course for delivery, or part delivery, online. This will require them to: i) write a course descriptor, ii) write a rationale for the design approach they have taken, iii) build or part-build the course in a learning environment of their choice. (equivalent to 3000 words).
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| Feedback |
Not entered |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Understand and apply a range of approaches to the design of online and offline courses
- Critically evaluate these approaches via an understanding of their philosophical and theoretical bases
- Select and design media, learning activities and assessment tasks appropriate to each approach
- Design and build course components appropriate to your own institutional and educational context
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Reading List
Indicative readings are:
Bower, M. and Vlachopoulos, P., 2018. A critical analysis of technology¿enhanced learning design frameworks. British Journal of Educational Technology, 49(6), pp.981-997.
Fawns, T., 2022. An entangled pedagogy: Looking beyond the pedagogy¿technology dichotomy. Postdigital Science and Education, 4(3), pp.711-728.
Loughlin, C., Lygo-Baker, S. and Lindberg-Sand, Å., 2021. Reclaiming constructive alignment. European Journal of Higher Education, 11(2), pp.119-136.
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Designerly thinking,Pedagogy,Design frameworks,Curriculum design |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Ms Clara O'Shea
Tel: (0131 6)51 6116
Email: clara.oshea@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Ms Annemarijn Huizinga
Tel:
Email: ahuizing@ed.ac.uk |
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