Week 1: Initiate

10 - 16 January 2013

Twitter hashtag: #oldsmooc_w1

Welcome to the first week of the OLDS-MOOC! This week will be led by Dr Yishay Mor of the Open University and Simon Walker and Peter Bryant from the University of Greenwich. In this first week we will focus on getting to know each other, and forming ideas and study groups around those ideas. During this week, committed participants will also initiate their own learning or curriculum design project in their domain of practice. This project will provide an opportunity to apply and use principles, representations and methodologies that they encounter through the MOOC. In the spirit of constructionism (learning by doing/ learning by design) we will not tell you what learning design is, instead you will explore definitions of learning design and begin to identify how it relates to other fields of educational research. You will explore the links and distinctions between Curriculum Design, Learning Design, Instructional Design, and Educational Design Research, and begin to identify some of the grand challenges of using a learning design approach to the design of learning in the 21st century.

Learning outcomes

Explore a variety of definitions of learning design
Initiate own learning/curriculum design project
Define learning design, as a field of research and a practice
Identify some of the grand challenges of using a learning design approach to the design of learning in the 21st Century
Identify specific topics of interest for further exploration

Thursday activities

1. Begin by watching the video introduction to this week (on this page) (5 mins) (Download the video transcript)

2. Introduce yourself and say what you want to get out of this MOOC

3. Set up your personal workspace

4. Set your personal learning objectives for the week.
Think about what you aim to achieve this week in the MOOC. Post an item to your learning journal, listing your objectives, and noting how you will know that you achieved them.

Friday activities

5a. View and discuss the presentation introducing learning design for the OLDS MOOC

5b. Dreambazaar: share your ideas for a learning design project, and review your peer's ideas.

Weekend activities

6. Team up! form a team for your learning design project.

7. Find (or start) a study circle. Look at other group projects, find similarities, and form study groups of 2-3 projects. You could set up a Study Group Cloudscape to collate your activity, or use another tool like Google Groups or Facebook - it's up to you!

Monday activities

8. Complete your team and your study circle. Only when you are done, go to the next activity.

9. Learning design brainstorm. In this activity you will begin to explore the scope of what is meant by learning design. Seek out descriptions and examples and bring them back to share with others on the learning design Mind Map by adding nodes, links and comments.

Tuesday activities
10. Converge. An open google hangout session to discuss and reflect on the first week of the MOOC will take place at 12.00 GMT. If you have a question that you would like to raise, please post it on the Week 1 'convergence' live session or tweet it using #oldsmooc_conv.

Wednesday activities
11. Reflect. Post an entry to your learning journal, reflecting on the first week, identifying progress and next steps (15 mins). Refer to the objectives you set for yourself in the beginning of the week. Share your post to the "reflect" couldscape, review others', and apply for your first badge! You can also give the course team and facilitators feedback using the course feedback form.

By completing Week 1 you should be eligible for the '1 Week' OLDS MOOC Badge. Click the badge for more information.