Presented at the ASLA XXII conference in October 2011 Riverview

1. Designing engaging learning for
digital delivery
June Wall
Head of Digital Learning & Information Services
Saint Ignatius’ College, Riverview

2. http:/www.scribbal.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/60-seconds-infographic.jpg;

3. Problem solving ....
How to think outside the square or
put more in our bucket 

4. Alvin Toffler
The illiterate of the 21st century will
not be those who cannot read and
write, but those who cannot learn,
unlearn and relearn

5. Outline of workshop
 What makes engaging learning?
 What is digital learning?
 Designing learning
 Visual learning design
 Backward design
 Workshop
 Feedback
 My aim is for you to take away a 1 page plan of a
digital learning activity

6. Learning in a Changing World

7. How do you become engaged in
learning?
Inquiring
Interesting
Challenging
Reflective

8. Engaged students
 They face some type of challenge
 They must make decisions
 They are allowed to explore
 They are allowed to make mistakes without being
disciplined
 They have fun

9. “engagement comes from
"interactivity" and "embeddedness,"
and that the elements that constitute
these two components match with
good learning design “
Quinn, Clark (1997?)Engaged learning Retrieved from
http://it.coe.uga.edu/itforum/paper18/paper18.html 1st Oct 2011

10. Engagement in learning
Embeddedness Interactivity
 “includes thematic  “includes having an
appropriate level of
coherence, challenge through a
meaningfulness of variety of choices of
action, effected through
action to the domain direct manipulation of the
of representation, and world of interest, with
quick and clear feedback
meaningfulness of the from those actions in
problem in the domain ways that reflect the
semantics of the world
to the learner” and afford further action
choices, and the presence
of novel information and
“the challenge required to maintain that contribute to
events engagement is
those choices.”
just the zone of difficulty where learning occurs”

11. What do you need to do?
 Have students draw on their previous learning;
 Use latest research findings, professional examples and
interesting scenarios to take students beyond the textbook;
 Include periods of reflection for students to work alone and
solve problems;
 Give them a quick quiz and ask them to explain their answers
to their neighbour before supplying them with the correct
responses;
 Ask them to brainstorm examples of real‐life situations;
 Ask them to role‐play a scenario in pairs;
 Ask them to define or explain a concept to their neighbour;
 Ask them to construct a mind‐map showing the links between
ideas.
 Take one minute to summarise the main ideas in the lecture;
 Write questions about concepts that are still unclear.
Office of Assessment, Teaching and Learning. (2010). Creating engaging learning
experiences. In Teaching and Learning at Curtin 2010. (pp.52-58). Curtin University:
Perth.

12. What is digital learning?
 Its not using a website in a class activity....
 Its not using an application for an assessment
task
It is – designing learning in a way that
CANNOT be done easily in a classroom – and
includes interactivity, immediate feedback, focus
more on the processes of learning rather than the
content of learning.

13. Designing learning
 Backward design
 Start with the end in mind
 Determine purpose BEFORE you start deciding on
activities or even assessment
 Consider – how can the learning be fun? How can it
be real? How can it be more game like?
 Visual learning design sample

14. Resources
 Learning in a Changing World series
 O’Connell, Judy and Groom, Dean Connect,
communicate, collaborate
 O’Connell, Judy and Groom, Dean Virtual Worlds
 Todd, Ross J Curriculum integration
 Wall, June and Ryan, Sandra Resourcing for curriculum
innovation
 La Marca, Susan Designing the learning environment
 Agostinho, Shirley; Harper, Barry M.; Oliver, Ron;
Hedberg, John; and Wills, Sandra, 2008, A visual
learning design representation to facilitate
dissemination and reuse of innovative pedagogical
strategies in university teaching, In L. Botturi & S.
Todd. Stubbs (Eds.), Handbook of Visual Languages
for Instructional Design: Theories and Practices,
Hershey PA: Information Science Reference, IGI
Global, 380-393. Also see
http://www.learningdesigns.uow.edu.au/