Last year we announced an initiative to develop and share design patterns for Connected Learning at Scale. To accommodate the number of patterns we now have to share, we have a new home!
Design Patterns for Connected Learning at Scale – New Website
Ready to explore? Here’s what you’ll find…
Patterns are like tools for a designer. They can be used to create an endless variety of designs.
Erik Spiekermann
On the website you’ll find a range of educational design patterns to foster connected learning at scale. Design patterns are reusable evidence-based solutions to common design problems, providing you with practical design ideas to implement in your teaching. They contain clear descriptions of an educational problem and a solution for addressing it and can be adapted to suit your particular needs and context.
Find out how we have used these patterns to help students in large classes stay connected with each other, their teachers, industry and society.
Why the move?
In design, a pattern is not just a decoration, it is a language.
Louise Fili
Our new site allows you to find patterns related to particular challenges of teaching and learning at scale more easily. Each pattern includes some brief stats to explain the characteristic of the pattern context, including which other patterns it’s connected to. Combining a series of patterns can be an effective way to address common challenges.
If you’re curious about how patterns are being used in education, the site also discusses the interesting world of design patterns and pattern languages, and explains how our patterns emerged from a large strategic educational project, Connected Learning at Scale (CLaS).
Sharing the patterns
In addition to the website, we have been running a series of pattern workshops at The University of Sydney featuring particular patterns for participants to explore and discuss.
A recent presentation at the MOBTS conference allowed us to share and workshop patterns with management educators more broadly.
Coming up…
New patterns will continue to be added to the site on a rolling basis over the coming weeks and months. We aim to build up a living repository of useful solutions to common problems of teaching at scale.
Recent patterns include those that address Reflection at Scale, Peer Feedback on Group Work, and Immediate Feedback Online. Stay tuned for upcoming patterns that provide solutions for: Large Scale Immersive Events, Industry Partner Projects at Scale, Designing Shared Learning and Teaching Assets, and Narrative Navigation.
If you try out a pattern in your practice, we would love to know how it went! Your feedback through the site will allow us to collectively make the patterns stronger, more reliable and importantly, more useful for ensuring connected learning experiences for students at scale.
We look forward to extending our new home. Thank you to all who have engaged with our patterns so far!
About the author
Stephanie is a Senior Lecturer and Deputy Director (CLaS) with the Business Co-design team at Sydney University and Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA). She enjoys working with others to explore new approaches to learning and teaching inspired by design practice and the arts.