Combining the best of online and in-person learning experiences

DSA offers e-learning consulting for organisations looking at big challenges. Process and critical engagement are at the heart of this. We frame our consulting around three core tenet’s:

• People (service users and providers affected by design);
• Technology (the enabler); and
• Organisation (the framework to get it out in the world)

This is delivered through a blend of established enterprise-level design process and Adaptive Leadership, which has four dimensions commonly referred to as the 4As: Anticipation of likely future needs, trends and options; Articulation of these needs to build collective understanding and support for action; Adaptation so that there is continuous learning and the adjustment of responses as necessary; and Accountability, including maximum transparency in decision making processes and openness to challenges and feedback.

How might pedagogy (learning) change in a digital world?

The answer is that the fundamentals need not change but digital methodologies enhance all types of pedagogy. We can give students more time, we can embrace diversity more easily, we can be more flexible, we can allow everybody, both teachers and students, to be more productive.

Here’s how we suggest it’s done: by splitting the lower and upper dimensions of Bloom’s Taxonomy. The lower dimensions are delivered online, the upper dimensions face to face. Bloom’s Taxonomy is a classification of the different objectives and skills that educators set for their learners. These are widely referred to as ‘learning outcomes’.

Here’s our blended learning instance of the taxonomy specific to the professional practice of design. 

Adapted from: Anderson, Lorin W., and David R. Krathwohl, eds. (2001). A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing: A Revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. New York: Addison Wesley Longman, Inc.