Project

TLL Staff Spotlight: Michael Oliveri, Senior Media Producer

The Teaching and Learning Lab (TLL) team includes expert practitioners with experience in classroom and online teaching, multi-modal course design, product and media development, and educational research. This expertise allows the TLL to support the holistic development of learning experiences and assets, from discovery to debrief. In our Staff Spotlight blog series, we are interviewing the TLL staff about the career trajectory that brought them to HGSE, and what they’ve been working on lately. 

What is it about multimedia work generally that compels you...

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The Making of a Learning Designer: Part 1

by: Bonnie Anderson

One of the questions we ask prospective learning designers is, “If you get this job, how will you describe your new role to your friends and family?” The way a candidate answers this question can reveal much about their understanding of and approach to the work of learning design.

What does a learning designer do, exactly? What makes this role distinct from that of an instructor, program developer, learning technologist, or media producer? How does a person become a dedicated learning designer….and why might they want to do so?  In this series of posts, I will explore these questions with the aim of helping both prospective designers and those who collaborate with designers to understand the work, approach, and skills of those in this role. Specifically, I will look at the most common roles and responsibilities of learning designers (also known as instructional designers), the attributes and competencies of effective learning designers, the art and science of learning design as a collaborative process, and developmental paths toward becoming a learning designer.... Read more about The Making of a Learning Designer: Part 1

Principle-Driven Design: The Certificate in Advanced Educational Leadership

by: Bonnie Anderson

CAEL Project Poster

As described in an earlier post, the TLL’s work on the Certificate in Advanced Educational Leadership (CAEL) has yielded fruitful lessons for all involved. In particular, we are seeing the importance of infusing evidence-based design principles and our own team’s guiding principles into every aspect of this project. In this post, I will focus on the influence of three specific design principles on the creation of the CAEL program.... Read more about Principle-Driven Design: The Certificate in Advanced Educational Leadership

Online Learning: Accessibility and Fulfilling the Promise of Diversity

by: Andrea Flores

Online Accessibility LogoConversations about Diversity In 2014, HGSE launched the Fulfilling the Promise of Diversity (FPD) initiative to foster and sustain community-wide conversations and learning experiences around the topics of equity, diversity, and inclusion. Most often the conversation centers around face-to-face learning environments through the lens of race and socioeconomic status (SES).... Read more about Online Learning: Accessibility and Fulfilling the Promise of Diversity

Lessons in Course Design

By Megan Brown

How can a course be planned in a short time frame while harnessing the creative power of a team? How do you develop a consistent experience across multiple courses planned by different faculty members? And how do you keep track of the multitude of ideas and to-dos that emerge out of highly creative, learner-driven lesson planning discussions?

These were some of the challenges the TLL tackled while planning the structure of Leading Learning...

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Facing the Challenge to Design Quality Online Learning Experiences

by: Bonnie Anderson

Ask anyone who has taken an online course what they thought of the experience, and you are likely to hear words like “impersonal”, “boring”, “tedious”, “ineffective”, or “monotonous”. The modality has unfortunately earned itself a poor reputation due to a plethora of such examples.  Unfortunately, the majority of online courses available today embody a passive approach to learning in that they provide lecture-style videos followed by multiple-choice quizzes with automated grading. This “talk and test” strategy is reflective of some of the least effective face-to-face classrooms, with the only potential advantage being that learners can access material in their own space and at their own pace.... Read more about Facing the Challenge to Design Quality Online Learning Experiences

Creating the 'Fulfilling the Promise of Diversity' Video

by: Elias Polcheira

In 2014, the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) launched the Fulfilling the Promise of Diversity Initiative. The School held a series of events, conversations and lectures around the theme. This effort was received well by our community and led to its continuation to a second year. The Teaching and Learning Lab (TLL) produced a video to launch the extension of the initiative in 2015-16.... Read more about Creating the 'Fulfilling the Promise of Diversity' Video