A BOLD proposition: �Designing for radical flexibility and inclusivity in a PGDip on Blended and Online Learning Design

Daniela Gachago (Presenting), Shanali Govender (Presenting online), Tabisa Mayisela, Glenda Cox, Cheng-Wen Huang, Tefo Mosienyane

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November 2024

History of BOLD

• BOLD started as an "ordinary" PG Dip in Blended and Online Learning Design in 2019, before COVID (4 30-credit courses over one year).
• Planning: Interrupted by and shaped by the COVID experience of a fully online experience.
• BOLD: Underpinned by how we could "open up" the course – To whom? What content? What experiences? What assessment? Time? Inside and outside the institution? 

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Current design

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• Fully online
• 12 10-credit courses
• Over 2 years (part-time)
• Currently being reviewed by SAQA/HEQC

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Strategies for enabling access to BOLD

Leverage changes to the Continuing Education Policy (under review)

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Formal courses and short courses

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• Key strategy for enabling access: Connect short courses and formal courses
• Students can take any three courses before registering for the PG Dip: Gateway to formal qualification
• Transfer of credits to the PG Dip (per Continuing Ed Policy)
• Do not have to meet PG Dip criteria to register for a short course.
• Increases access for non-traditional students

Recognition of prior learning: A short course route

• PG Dip Ed Tech Experience – Lots of NQF 6 applicants from HDIs & TVETs
• Applicants who want to register for the PG Dip, but who lack the appropriate qualification (NQF 7), can complete BOLD 2.3 as a short course, and if successful, can use this as their portfolio to apply for Recognition of Prior Learning and enter the PG Dip.
• Enhances access for applicants with a NQF6 e.g. A National Diploma, active strategy for redressing historical access imbalances

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Micro courses (10 credits) - Choose your own journey

• 12 courses, at least three from each cluster.
• Cluster 4 is only available as part of the PG Dip Ed Tech
• Goal is to add micro courses over time, allowing for "streams" within the programme.

Three strategies for enabling epistemic access and belonging

PERSONA 1: K12

• NAME: Faith Williams
• AGE: 35
• LOCATION: Plumstead South
• LANGUAGE: Afrikaans / English

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What does LD look like for this participant?

Being able to create a website with free software and create tests and quizzes for her Grade 11 and 12 pupils to answer to help them with revision.

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What are their academic and digital literacies?

Hasn’t studied for 10 years and can use Word and works on a hand-me down computer. Uses Google on her cell phone often and has access to connectivity via fibre at her school, but the school is closed at 17:00 each day and over weekends.

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What kinds of learning support needs will your participant have? How will you address these?

Academic literacy support.

What is this participants past educational background and learning context?

Southfield Secondary School for 10 years where the Principal is not very supportive.

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What strengths and experiences does this student bring to the course that will support their success?

She is a good face-to-face teacher and has successfully completed one online course. She is highly motivated, but is hard of hearing which is mostly mitigated by two hearing aids.

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What is this participant's living situation?

• Home situation? Technically able husband who is a manager in a security company. She had two primary-school going children
• Work situation? She is a teacher
• Discretionary time? Not very much time between preparing for her own classes, supervising the homework of her own children
• Access to devices? Hand-me-down computer
• Access to data? Currently using mobile data, but planning to be connected to fibre soon.

Designing for diverse cohorts: Personas

Why is this participant doing this course?

Wants to create a website for her own students, but also sees the course as a possible career change out of teaching into learning design for an educational company where she can earn more money.

• Based on previous classes
• Based on applicants we had to exclude
• Based on personas activity in classes
• Determine activities, resources, timing in the course, pacing etc

Making diversity visible: From personas to course buddies

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• Course buddies act as companions to students.
• Reflect the realities of students' experiences – sectors, job roles, socio-economic positioning, racial and linguistic diversity
• A little aspirational – imagine someone who has successfully completed the course before.
• Connect students to sector-specific resources. Eg Unathi is always somewhere near material that those working in schools are likely to find  relevant.

Interview with industry/ sector experts

• Identify experts from a variety of sectors
• Makes all sectors relevant – reflects students' experiences
• Connects existing practice with theory and differently located practices - "cross pollination"
• Most recent course had experts from higher education, schools ed tech companies, consultants and previous students

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Experts across sectors

Strategies for enhancing likelihood of success

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Structure of the programme: �Parallel and "open" assessment

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Structure of the programme: Orientation course

• Supports access to the programme and to higher education context practices
• Consistently available, at the students' convenience
• Must be completed prior to formal registration for PG Dip.
• Course buddy narratives
• Policy documents
• Digital literacy assessment and resources
• Academic assessment resources
• Cohort gallery

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Structure of the programme: Coaching

• Compulsory activity
• Focuses on digital literacies and academic literacies
• Develops learning practices & community
• Focus on metacognition

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Context of the Article

African Journal of Inter / Multidisciplinary Studies (AJIMS)

Journal is looking for articles that address:

• The impact of Generative AI on higher education, particularly in the last 10 months.
• Sustainable solutions for adapting to AI while examining its effects on higher education.
• Ethical and transparency concerns related to AI in education.
• Challenges posed by AI in education, including:
• Changes in knowledge creation and dissemination
• Shifts in how meaning is made in educational contexts
• Widening digital divides
• Methods for creating meaningful learning experiences that incorporate AI.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Vn1RGNVH56ko2iJBa7qdj0h9gUg2E_OW/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=106350483961258145451&rtpof=true&sd=true

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Collective autoethnography

BOLD Project Team

Designing with AI

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Research Design

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Interview

(focused on narrative about learning design experiences)

What kinds of course design experience have you had previously?

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What has the course design process for Designing with AI been like?

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Emergent Design

How do you design for uncertainty?

Uncertain contexts

Uncertain knowledge / content

Uncertainty of field

Uncertain of structure

Co-creation

Epistemological Project

Challenges traditional notions of fixed, expert knowledge in learning design. It recognises knowledge as contingent, contextual, and constantly evolving, especially in rapidly changing fields like AI in education.

Co-creation as a:

Ontological Project

Disrupts established roles and responsibilities in learning design, while blurring boundaries between designers, developers, and facilitators. It questions the nature of learning design itself, moving towards a more fluid, iterative, and collaborative process (Ashwin, 2022; DeRosa, 2022).

Political Project

Serves as a means to address social justice and equity issues in education by intentionally including and amplifying marginalised voices. It challenges dominant narratives and knowledge systems, particularly those privileging Global North perspectives

Gachago et al (in press). Designing in the times of AI: Co-creation as a strategy towards emergent learning design. Special Issue. African Journal of Inter / Multidisciplinary Studies (AJIMS).

Principles

(co-creation in �emergent learning design)

Affirm multiple knowledges

Embrace entangled processes

Take on different tempi

Facilitate for relationality & coherence

Make space for affect

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Consider AI

Recognise Power

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Create Receptive Ground

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Thank You

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For more information, contact PGBold@uct.ac.za or visit cilt.uct.ac.za/bold

Funded by UCT Formal Online Education Project (UFO)

Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching (CILT). (2024). Introduction to Generative AI. (CC-BY-NC 4.0)