Lesson

Content Management in e-Learning vs. Learning Design in e -Learning

   e-Learning has a well developed approach to the creation and sequencing of content-based, single learner, self-paced learning objects. However, there is little understanding of how to create sequences of learning activities wh ich involve groups of learners interacting within a structured set of collaborative environments, or how teachers can make these sequences easily re-usable (making national fund of re-usable learning sequences).

    Given that a key dimension of Bulgarian higher education is learning which arises from interacting with teachers and peers (rather than simply interacting with content), the lack of a mature approach to sequencing of multi-learner activities is a significant blind spot in e-Learning today. This is surprising given that "lesson planning" – the process of determining the sequence of activities to be followed by a lecturer and learners when studying a topic – is well understood in education, but is mainly absent from e -Learning.

    However, there is a growing body of work addressing this topic, based on the concept of "Learning Design". Learning Design provides a first glimpse at the ways of describing multilearner activity sequences and the tools required to support these.

    Learning Design has the potentia l to revolutionize e-Learning by capturing the "process" of education, rather than simply content management as it in Moodle. By describing sequences of collaborative learning processes in Bulgarian universities, Learning Design offers new pedagogical approaches to re -use in e-Learning. This article describes our joint Learning Design approach, a detailed example, and its implementation.