Learning Centric Design is a process of course design that goes beyond presenting the course content. It also considers how, when, where, and why students will interact with the course material as well as with their peers and you. Instructors and instructional designers can work together to create effective learner-centric experiences, focusing on issues like compassion, engagement, and application.
Learner-centric design is about:
- including compassionate classroom policies
- scaffolding the learning
- interacting with real people
- engaging the students
- connecting course content to students’ experiences
- using formative assessment and feedback
- producing activities that require students to practice, apply, and reflect
Characteristics of learner-centric design
Including compassionate classroom policies
Students have complex lives beyond the classroom. Many students work long hours or must provide care for a family member. Rigid classroom policies about absences and late work can overlook the students’ obligations, sometimes forcing students to make difficult decisions that may lead to academic struggles. Flexible classroom policies can help students succeed.
Less Learner Centric
Refusing to accept late work.
Concerns
A zero-tolerance approach to late work ignores students’ complex lives, often punishing them for the important responsibilities they have beyond the classroom.
More Learner Centric
If a student will not meet a deadline, they may request an extension of up to 48 hours. However, the student must communicate with you or the teaching assistant in order to identify a new deadline.
Scaffolding the learning
A key consideration in creating learner-centric designs is matching the learning outcomes to the course level. For example, an introductory course may have foundational skills that students need to develop before they continue to a more advanced course. A learner-centric design uses scaffolding and formative assessment to help students manage large assignments and build upon their skills in a sequential manner in order to achieve mastery.
Less Learner Centric
You assign a major project or essay and only provide the students a rubric and a due date.
Concerns
Some students, especially those who struggle with executive functioning skills, may experience difficulty knowing how and when to begin the major project or essay.
More Learner Centric
Break down large assignments into more manageable deadlines, providing feedback to students along the way.
Interacting with real people
Most students don’t want to learn on an island by themselves. Instead, they want opportunities to get to know their classmates as well as their professors. If you are creating an online class, consider increasing your presence in the course via videos and pictures. Your thoughtful presence can humanize you and help students feel a sense of belonging.
Less Learner Centric
An “About Me” page that does not include your photograph and provides biographical information copied from your department’s website.
Concerns
While your biographical information on your department’s website is appropriate given the context and intended audience, that same information may lack the kind of humanizing details that can help your students connect with you.
More Learner Centric
An “About Me” page that includes your photograph and provides information about your favorite movie, food, and your pet iguana Iggy.
Engaging the students
Instructional designers can help you develop a student journey map for your course, identifying opportunities to increase students’ engagement through consistent course architecture, authentic learning assignments, and gamification.
Less Learner Centric
Placing all your course files only in the “Files” folder in CarmenCanvas and not using a consistent naming convention for the files.
Concerns
If you build it, they won’t (necessarily) come. Students can feel confused or overwhelmed when they see all course material in a single folder with little-to-no direction on what to complete when
More Learner Centric
Place readings and other course content in modules with explanations of what students need to do with the material.
Connecting course content to students’ experiences
Students cannot help but bring their own interests and expertise into the course. You can leverage students’ experience by asking them to connect the week’s reading to their own lives when posting on a discussion board or asking them to lead a portion of a class.
Less Learner Centric
After completing this week’s reading, students post one observation about the author’s argument and reply to two of their peers’ comments.
Concerns
The reliance on the post-once-and-reply-twice discussion board structure can quickly become tedious and rote.
More Learner Centric
Give the students choice. One option may be to connect the reading to the students’ lives; another option may be to connect the week’s reading to previous weeks; and a third option may be to connect the week’s reading to pop culture or current events.
Using formative assessment and feedback
Formative assessments provide real-time information about students’ learning during a lesson or unit in progress. The purpose is to gain insight into what and how students are learning, understand their misconceptions in order to provide them timely feedback, and then adjust your instruction as needed. Summative assessment, on the other hand, tends to happen at the end of a unit or semester, and it often does not allow students to improve upon their mistakes or misperceptions.
Less Learner Centric
Only using high-stakes, summative exams
Concerns
Some students might cram for the exam, and if they do not use the information again, they may forget it. In addition, students may experience potentially unhealthy levels of anxiety due to the increased pressure to succeed on only two or three exams.
More Learner Centric
Use frequent, low-stakes assessments and provide ongoing feedback throughout the semester.
Producing activities that require students to practice, apply, and reflect
Remember when you learned how to ride a bicycle? You likely had a few falls before you took off down the street. Consider adding low-stakes activities where your students are encouraged to fail and learn more about a topic. This can be added to a course by knowledge checks that are graded for participation points instead of letter grades.
Less Learner Centric
Failure means you don’t know the content.
Concerns
Failure could mean that a student didn’t understand the expectations of the assignment, they found a question’s wording to be confusing, or they couldn’t appropriately articulate what you were looking for. Approach a student’s failure as an opportunity to explore different reasons the student may have failed.
More Learner Centric
Create self-checks or other reflective activities that give students participation grades instead of letter grades.
Why the student experience is so important
An effective learning experience fosters students’ autonomy, feelings of accomplishment, and a sense that the people who created the course understand the student and their challenges. If you can connect with students by helping them see how what they’re learning relates to their lived experience or career aspirations, getting them to linger in the learning environment, and encouraging them to share ideas, then students will be more likely to engage. They’ll want to return because they know they will gain from the experience. For assistance with your learner-centric design, submit a service request for a Distance Education Consultation with an instructional designer.
