ABC Learning Design travels to Kenya

Two weeks ago I had an opportunity to deliver an ABC Learning Design workshop in Nairobi, Kenya together with my colleagues Irma Mänty and Virve Pekkarinen. It formed part of a training of trainers project within the HEI-ICI framework (TOTEMK project), financed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland. You can find more information of the project here.

The ABC workshop was one part of a 4-day workshop focused on the use of modern technologies to enhance learning. The event was hosted by the University of Nairobi, which is one of the three Kenyan partners of the project. The others are Strathmore University and Pwani University. The Finnish partners are Helsinki University and Laurea University of Applied Sciences (my employer).

As part of the training, we explored together the various ways of applying digital pedagogy in higher education. Learning design approach and methodologies was among the core topics of this 4-day event. Before the ABC_LD workshop we felt it necessary to familiarize the participants with the concept and process of learning design as well as with Diana Laurillard’s Conversational Framework.
Once the participants were familiar with the learning types, we asked them to fill in the “spider web” indicating how they perceived their own course with respect to the different ways of learning. You can find a template for the spider web here.
You may notice that we have added a 7^th dimension in the picture (also in our modified ABC cards): orientation and motivation. It is not a learning type but important to consider when planning a course.

The ABC -LD workshop was carried out in a hybrid modality: we had 22 participants in the plenary and 39 participants online. Our trainer combo was hybrid as well: one trainer online attending the groups online and delivering sessions from there, one in the plenary room and one travelling between online and F2F groups.

For the participants attending the workshop physically a flipchart paper was used as a template for the storyboard. It serves well the purpose.  For the online teams we used a word template which the participants downloaded to their computers. You can find the template here.
Below you can find some pictures from the workshop at UoN.

Some lessons learnt:

– The participants found the method useful and will employ it with their colleagues (the training includes a distance period during which the university teams from 21 Kenyan universities will design an ongoing course by using ABC LD method)

– It was a good idea to reserve plenty of time for the participants to get to know the concept of learning design and the different learning types before the actual ABC LD workshop. In this case it was possible but I know that normally one needs to minimize the duration of the workshop to get the teachers to attend the workshop.

– If you need to run the workshop in a hybrid modality, then try get as many participants as possible to participate physically in order to have a minimum amount of them online. In our case we had 13 groups of three participants online 22 in the plenary room. Thus, it was challenging to be able to visit all online groups.

– The group work at the campus site proceeded well and there was an atmosphere of enthusiasm. I really like the way how the physical ABC cards act as an instrument of interaction.

Avainsanat: ABC_LD, digital pedagogy, higher education, kenya, learning design, TOTEMK