A pattern language based learning design studio for an analytics informed inter-professional design community

Abstract

Over the past ten years, a lot of advances have been made in both the learning design and learning analytics research communities in terms of research outputs. On the other hand, these advances have not made visible impact on the everyday practices of the key stakeholders they aim to serve: teachers and learners. This paper argues that to advance both fields and to connect them into an iterative cycle of continuous improvement, we need a learning design pattern language in the Alexandrian tradition to guide learning design practice, and to connect designers' intuitive formulation of questions about learning processes and outcomes with evidence-based questions and operationalizable questions. It further describes the pattern language and the online tool, Learning Design Studio that the authors have developed to serve as an organically extensible language and a technology platform to support learning design, and inter-professional collaboration among learning designer and learning analytics communities.