Introduction

In this chapter, the underlying principles of the design process which were considered in Chapter 7 are applied to a number of different learning and teaching situations – face-to-face learning, flipped classrooms, blended learning and online learning. As a reminder, these are the basic ideas that inform the programme or course design and development process:

Selected learning and teaching activities, described in Chapter 6, may be used within the course structure to enable students to achieve their learning outcomes.

Traditionally, programmes are designed on the assumption that students will work through them in a linear manner and this chapter provides guidance on typical structures for short courses (lasting for 15 minutes or more) or longer courses, e.g. one or two day events, which are delivered 100% face to face. The development of blended learning and online programmes enables individual learners to follow their own route through a series of learning and teaching activities. Consequently, their development and implementation is more complex.

Designing face-to-face sessions

The 4MAT approach described in Chapter 7 may be applied to workshops and teaching sessions which may last from half an hour through to a five-day intensive course. Figure 8.1 presents an overview structure for learning and teaching events; as explained in Chapter 7 the same structure is applied to individual learning and teaching activities. Thus students can go through the 4MAT cycle a number of times on the same course. One of the advantages of maintaining the same inner structure to a course and individual activities is that students soon learn it and it helps to guide them through their learning process.

Example: Introduction to referencing

This example session plan presented in Figure 8.2 opposite demonstrates my application of the 4MAT design method to a one-hour lecture on referencing which I delivered to 500 students.