Helping educators answer “Why did we do that?”
Decision-tracking tool from MIT Open Learning enhances transparency and continual improvement of learning experiences.
By Katherine Ouellette
With educational technologies and learning science research evolving so rapidly, deciding how to approach teaching might be daunting. How can educators design curricula that balances effective learning methods, the priorities of their institution or setting, time and budget constraints, and individual learners’ diverse needs?
To ensure learners remain the top priority while designing educational innovations, MIT Open Learning’s Residential Education group created a collaborative decision-tracking tool. The Learning Engineering Evidence and Decision (LEED) tracker is a framework for documenting the complex influences on design choices for learning experiences. The LEED tracker uses the principles of learning engineering to help record the rationale, pedagogical research, and various inputs that lead to the finished product.
Lauren Totino, learning engineer, and Aaron Kessler, associate director of learning sciences and teaching at MIT Open Learning, recently published a short paper about the LEED tracker, “Why did we do that?” A Systematic Approach to Tracking Decisions in the Design and Iteration of Learning Experiences, in the Journal of Applied Instructional Design. They took a break from their work to share why LEED’s holistic design enhances transparency, collaboration, and continual improvement.
Q: What influenced the development of the LEED tracker?
A: The idea of tracking decisions is not new, but what’s novel is our development of a practical tool that incorporates an amalgamation of influences. Each piece of the LEED tracker is connected to the learning engineering process. We see this tool bridging design processes, learning theories, and other decisions of varying magnitudes. It’s not just writing down decisions — it’s also paying attention to things like:
- keeping learners at the center;
- instrumenting to collect data; and,
- iterating based on data and feedback.
Q: How does the LEED tracker fit into the education ecosystem? Who might benefit from using it?
A: The LEED tracker can be adapted for any learning solution design. The processes for design decisions are not always linear or independent of one another. When your context grows more complex, it’s even more important to record decisions in a sharable and reusable form.
Whether used by an individual or a team, LEED offers a systematic way to navigate any level of complexity. It captures decisions and feedback from all stakeholders affected by the challenge and its solution. This holistic view helps teams break down silos of expertise to understand the big picture.
Instructors, instructional designers, learning engineers, learning designers, and other educational stakeholders could use the LEED tracker if they’re designing solutions for:
- improving the student experience;
- making learning more effective;
- optimizing instructor time; and
- harnessing and building on students’ prior knowledge.
We provide a few general LEED templates in the paper because there’s not one strict way to use it.
Q: What benefits are there to writing down and justifying implementable design decisions? How does this support learners in real-world experiences?
A: Practitioners designing learning experiences might be tempted to base their decisions on “gut” instinct arising from personal experiences. LEED tracking encourages decisions with concrete justifications, whether that’s learning science principles or insights from the learners themselves. Keeping meticulous records makes it easier to recall how each piece of the design goes together and why it works. We’ve received feedback that LEED enables users so “you don’t have to reverse-engineer your own brain.”
The LEED tracker also guides teams through the iterative learning engineering process so they can understand whether the experience is effective for learning, and then make evidence-based improvements. You don’t just set it and forget it. Ideally, you return with data and feedback to either:
- support the continued implementation of a design element or experience; or
- iterate based on new information.
You can still honor the original justification. You’re not adding all these net-new decisions; you’re checking why you made a certain decision in the first place.
Q: How does LEED tracking help navigate the complexities of designing for teaching and learning?
A: The LEED tracker, and the learning engineering principles informing it, center educational technology choices around the pedagogical benefits to ensure these tools don’t harm the learning process. Stakeholders can be intentional about what they’re implementing and consider all the possible effects on learners.
Q: What are the potential implications of this work? How do you hope LEED will be used?
A: We’re hoping practitioners learn how LEED’s underlying method of recording, revisiting, and iterating upon actionable design decisions and justifications can be a collaborative way to manage various influences while keeping learners at the center.
We also hope teams gain awareness of how the learning engineering process provides a framework for unpacking, interrogating, and navigating the complex systems of design work. You don’t have to have the title of “learning engineer” to do learning engineering — it’s about embracing practices and tools and developing a mindset.
Open Learning’s Residential Education team enhances teaching and learning at MIT through digital technologies.
