Humans are at the centre of any course design.

Planning and designing any course, but perhaps especially an online course, can leave you feeling stuck, mired in the swamp of competing design ideas and learning frameworks. You can become so bogged down by the issues involved in organizing the course that you almost lose sight of the whole point of the enterprise.

That’s why Online Course Design for Humans from Trent Online is so refreshing. It’s a short and very simple workbook that asks instructors to take a trip through the course as they imagine it, and from there start mapping out the course they are trying to design. None of this is rocket science, but the simplicity and straightforwardness of the approach can soothe the troubled course designer’s soul.

I know a couple of people at Trent involved in the workbook’s production - Maureen Glynn, its originator, and Terry Greene, who developed the Pressbooks version. Both are dedicated eLearning designers who bring enthusiasm and common sense to everything they do. Glynn wrote a blogpost at the beginning of the workbook’s development, and a passage from that essay struck a chord with me: “I realized that many of the ‘go-to’ tools, resources, and templates I’d encountered in my past practice as an Instructional Designer did not fully or effectively address the vital human elements that can make or break a learning experience, particularly one that is entirely online.” She goes on to remark that it had occurred to her that any discussions that touched on the human elements had happened informally, almost accidentally, as is so often the case on a university or college campus (in the Before Times, at any rate, when humans were able to roam freely across campuses now populated by geese and groundhogs).

Relying on insights afforded by her acquaintance with critical digital pedagogy, Glynn set about to formalize these informal considerations. For me the strongest feature of the workbook is its Guiding Assumptions and Principles, reproduced here:

1. The goal of a course is to promote learning. 

2. A course involves humans in numerous roles: The group of humans in a course is not a homogeneous one. Each member of the group can be and will ideally be both teachers and learners at various points in the course. Taking into account the interests, safety and dignity of all, as part of the course design, will yield the best possible learning outcomes.

3. The learning in a course can take place across a range of  spaces both physical and virtual: Contemplating all of the possible places in which learning will occur for a course, as part of the design for that course, will yield the best possible learning outcomes for the humans involved.

4. A course involves tools and resources of various types and forms: The tools and resources employed in a course should not prejudice the rights, aspirations, or potential for success of any of the humans in the course.

5. All courses involve a range of constraints of various origins and import: The constraints present in a course should be openly tabled, discussed and understood by all in order to promote the best possible learning outcomes.

6. A course will generate work products: The work products generated in a course should have meaning for both those who create them and those who consume or evaluate them, including – when desired and/or appropriate – those beyond the immediate course community.

7. A course involves some form of assessment: Assessment in a course should serve and be understood chiefly as a form of support for and constructive appraisal of genuine learning.

I’m especially fond of the second statement: “a course involves humans in numerous roles.” It’s so obvious, yet it still surprises to be reminded that a course isn’t made up of students and instructors and course designers, but first and foremost humans. Designing with their interests and dignity in mind affirms the very essence of what learning can be about - a human activity that can make everyone involved more fully human. This may sound a bit squishy, a bit idealistic and romantic, but that’s exactly what we need in learning experiences of any kind. Without it all we have left are the processes and approaches that will make learning efficient and effective so that students can acquire skills and get jobs. All worthwhile goals, of that there is no doubt. But humanizing that effort makes it all the more worthwhile.

The other principles above help us to remember the human element in the design process. Creating learning tasks that have meaning and purpose demonstrate that we value the learner’s time. Using tools that provide all course participants with better learning opportunities shows that we understand the need not create unnecessary hindrances to learning. Promoting learning - yes, simply yes! That’s what we’re trying to do. We won’t always get these elements right, but by keeping these principles in mind, it’s less likely that we’ll go far wrong.

For Fall Term 2020 this blog will be exploring issues informing education during a pandemic. It is appearing as part of a graduate seminar on online teaching and learning. You can read more about the seminar or see the other posts.

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