How do you create a quality teaching scenario? One that precisely meets the needs of your future learners? And breaks the video-quiz downward spiral once and for all? Try the ABC Learning Design method. A method based on the learner's needs and the skills to be acquired.

What is a quality teaching scenario?

What I'm going to say here may seem very subjective (I assume so). For me, a quality teaching scenario is :

• A plan that takes into account all the needs of future learnersincluding non-cognitive needs:
  • (socio-affective problems
  • technical problems,
  • administrative difficulties,
  • limiting beliefs,
  • lack of communication,
  • etc.

• A scenario that does more than simply present the material (acquisition activities) but offers future learners opportunities :
  • interact with the new concepts,
  • communicate and work with other learners,
  • use the new skills and knowledge in a different context (creation, recreation, mixing)
  • to think on what they have learned
  • take a step back from their learning strategies (metacognition)

ABC Learning Design: the Made in UCL teaching scenario

Where does this ABC Learning Design teaching scenario come from, and what's so special about it?

This educational scripting method was developed at theUniversity of Central London. It is based on the "Conversational Framework" model by Diana Laurillard, with whom I had the pleasure of following a training course on Blended Learning offered by the University of Leeds.

It is this scripting method that I am now proposing to participants in my training course. Create your online course. Because it fits in particularly well with my concern to meet learners' needs. And it fits in very seamlessly in Design Thinkingwhich is the general training design method I use.

Originally, the ABC Learning Design method consisted of a board game on which teachers placed cards corresponding to the different learning activities. Today, there are various digital tools that can be used to create this type of scenario, including remote collaboration. We talk about it in an article on this blog.

Activities that engage your learners

I often see articles, which sound an awful lot like advertisements, extolling the virtues of this or that 'engaging' tool for your learners. But in reality, are the uses of the tools that will motivate your learners or not.

The acquisition

However, in many courses, particularly distance and hybrid courses, the only activities on offer are really at a low level: that of acquisition. For example :

• documents to read or download
• videos to watch
• podcasts or audio files to listen to
• testimonials from experts
• computer graphics or charts

Far be it from me to denigrate these acquisition activities but they represent only a small part of learning activities that you can implement in a quality training courseThe ABC Learning Design class these activities into 6 categoriesincluding acquisition.

Next in line are :

Practice - exercise or training

These are all the activities that will allow your learners to practise, acquire practical skills :

• MCQs - formative with immediate feedback: can be adapted to many subjects, especially for memorising or understanding
• Stack / CodeRunner: for writing code and immediately checking that it has been corrected
• Online role-playing (forum, virtual classroom)
• Reflective tasks - individual or group (forum)
• Case studies (forum, course) 
• Burst of exam questions (forum)
• Quizzes: fill-in-the-blanks, matching, sorting into categories, etc.
• Field and laboratory activities
• Simulations (Virtual and augmented reality, flight simulators, machine tool simulators, etc.).

Investigation - research

Here, we're talking aboutHere, we're talking abouts, but also select relevant information in view of the price target.

• Web searches using generic search engines (Google, Duckduckgo, Lillo, etc.) or specialist search engines (CC Search, Podchaser, etc.)
• Comparing texts  
• Digital data collection (monitoring, scraping, etc.)
• Evaluation of ideas, proposals for action, etc.
• Action research
• Writing review articles

The discussion

Discussion, of course, concerns all the exchanges between learners, as well as decision-making (on the relevant information to keep, on the form to give to a production or collaboration, etc.).

• Interview with an expert (forum/chat) 
• Webinars (virtual classes)
• Answer / example of a previous job (forum)
• Analysis of a chat (during the course or downloaded)
• Reflection on a job/profession (blog)
• Group discussion on a subject, a problem, a reading (chat, blog, wiki or internal or external social networks)
• Reflective tasks - individual or group (forum) 
• Electronic forums - discussions on a subject
• Managing a group project

Working together

The last three types of activity are sometimes difficult to distinguish from one another, as there are many intersections: it is difficult to collaborate without discussing, to produce a group presentation without discussing or collaborating...

• group work
• exchange and interest groups
• peer review
• collective writing (Framapad or mind map on the wall or floor)
• wiki, resource libraries, virtual walls (Padlet), collaborative glossaries, etc.
• social networks (writing statuses, likes, comments, recommendations, etc.)
• mentoring of other learners (peer tutoring)
• mentoring of other learners (peer tutoring)
• collective creation a Kahoot tournament
• co-construction: production of new knowledge and collective intelligence, of collaborative intellectual creations

The production

I haven't tried to be exhaustive - even less so in this list than in the others - as there are countless possible activities:

• Interview with an expert, witness or peer
• Literature reviews (forum/blog/wiki/RSS)
• Development of a shared library of resources (database/glossary/wiki) 
• Presenting what has been learnt (displays, posters, presentations) 
• Portfolios, training diaries
• Case studies (forum, lesson) 
• Summary (posting texts produced individually or in groups, writing a report or an article, a blog post) 
• Concept mapping, mind maps, computer graphics 
• Video production, audio commentary, podcast
• Managing a group project
• And so on.

An educational scenario that mobilises all skill levels

The major advantage of this scripting method is that it allows you to propose learning activities that mobilise all the skill levels of your learners. I'm thinking of Bloom's taxonomyIn particular, in which acquisition and exercise activities only form the first levels. It has recently been revised by Krathwolh. Here's a mind map I created on the subject during a training course on design in blended learning. You can download it in XMind format from our page Educational design. Or in PDF format using the download link below the mind map.

A cross-disciplinary teaching scenario

In your activities, don't forget that your learners also have a life outside the Web Don't forget: just because you're offering distance learning doesn't mean that everything has to be done online or via digital applications. Suggest that your learners :

• to meet people
• to interview them
• take photos or videos of their surroundings
• draw their ideas or projects
• cutting prototypes out of cardboard
• etc.

Feedback: an opportunity for metacognition

All offline activities also allow you to online feedbackwhich can be the subject of a presentation, a report, a discussion between peers, etc.

That's why I'm asking the participants in our training course to Create your online course for teachers to make a feedback of their project:

• what was the subject of their course?
• what were their educational objectives?
• Have these been achieved?
• have these been achieved?
• etc.

I give them the choice of form for the report: answers to questions formulated on a mind map; dynamic form created with H5P free text; presentation; video, etc.

These reports are discussed in a final virtual class. An approach that appears at the very end of the Gilly Salmon's educational progress.

To thank you for reading all the way through this long article, I'm offering you a Free downloadable infographic on the ABC Learning Design method.

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