Designing effective learning with digital technologies; a look at the Conversational Framework
As an E-Learning Technical Officer at Munster Technological University, I regularly work with lecturers who are delivering new programmes. It’s my job to guide lecturers on what technologies they can use to deliver module content to their students. I also create media-rich e-learning content with input from lecturers and subject matter experts.
There is a wide range of digital technologies and types of e-learning content that lecturers can use with their students. Preparing these technologies and designing and creating e-learning content can involve significant time and effort both for me and for the lecturer. I work with lecturers who are time-poor, as most are, and they often cannot allocate much time to developing digital content beyond what they are already doing. If lecturers do manage to devote some time to digital content, they need to know that their efforts are grounded in learning theory and that every method they use helps students achieve the learning outcomes of the curriculum.
In order to better understand how to design effective teaching and learning with digital technologies, it’s helpful to have a framework that you can use to inform your choices. For that, I decided to look at something called the Conversational Framework and see if it would be useful to both myself and lecturers in MTU.
The Conversational Framework
The Conversational Framework was introduced by Diana Laurilliard in her book Rethinking University Teaching: A Conversational Framework for the Effective Use of Learning Technologies. The Conversational Framework describes the learning process, with different cycles that make up the entire framework. The teacher and learner are represented in the framework, showing the different roles that they have in the teaching and learning process. It’s called the Conversational Framework because the cycles are in the form of a dialogue between teachers, learners, and peers. The framework aims to be applicable for any subject area so that anyone can evaluate whether their choice of digital technologies and e-learning support the framework, and thus supports learning.
The learning processes in the Conversational Framework are split into four types:
Discursive process: The teacher introduces a new concept to the student, a dialogue begins between the teacher and the student, where each participant describes and redescribes their understanding of the concept.
Adaptive process: Students modify and adapt their actions based on the goal, feedback, and what they have learned through the discursive process. Similarly, teachers modify and adapt the task based on the discursive process with their students.
Interactive process: The teacher gives the student a task, the student completes the task and receives feedback on their performance. The student then modifies their actions to complete the task goal.
Reflective process: Both the teacher and student reflect on the interaction. They adjust their thinking on the concept and consider future actions.
These processes are not to be confused with the notion of styles of learning for different learners. They simply show that the learning process is discursive, adaptive, interactive, and reflective.
The following image shows the learning process where the teacher and student are interacting. The arrows represent learning and teaching activities that show the back and forth dialogue between the teacher and students.
The Conversational Framework identifying the activities necessary to complete the learning process
According to Laurillard, for learning to take place, the core structure of the Conversational Framework must remain intact in some form. This means that when choosing teaching methods and technologies, you need to consider the extent to which that method supports the Conversational Framework.
Laurillard further discusses the Conversational Framework in her book Teaching As a Design Science: Building Pedagogical Patterns for Learning and Technology. In this book, Laurillard summarizes research relating to teaching, technology, and instructional design.
The following representation shows all of the components of the framework.
The Conversational Framework Source: Laurillard, Diana. Teaching As a Design Science: Building Pedagogical Patterns for Learning and Technology, Taylor & Francis Group, 2012.
The Conversational Framework as shown in the image was derived from a wide range of learning theories, including; conceptual learning, experiential learning, social constructivism, constructionism, and collaborative learning.
The image shows cycles within the framework. The words “Generate” and “Modulate” are used throughout the framework.
Generation and modulation happens with every cycle in the framework. For example, when teachers explain a topic to students, they are generating that explanation in order to modulate (adjust) their student’s understanding of the topic. The students then generate their own understanding of the topic and inform the teacher, who then generates a new explanation, which again modulates their student’s understanding.
Laurillard states in the book that
“learning is a process of using concepts and practice to generate articulations and actions that elicit communication from the teacher and information from the environment to modulate those concepts and practice.”
The different cycles in the framework are:
Teacher communication cycle
Teacher practice cycle
Teacher modelling cycle
Peer communication cycle
Peer modelling cycle
These cycles all relate to different learning types.
The six learning types
There are six learning types that arise from the framework; acquisition, collaboration, discussion, inquiry, practice, and production.
Acquisition
When students are listening to a lecture or podcast, reading from books or websites, and watching videos, they are acquiring knowledge through that medium.
Collaboration
When students work with their peers to produce a shared output. Students negotiate their ideas and practice and have to come to agreements. Collaboration involves discussion, practice, and production.
Digital technology that can facilitate collaboration includes online forums and groups, video conferencing tools, and whiteboarding tools.
Discussion
When students communicate their ideas and questions and challenge and respond to others’ ideas and questions.
Digital technology that can facilitate discussion includes email threads, discussion groups and forums, and breakout rooms in video conferencing tools.
Inquiry/Investigation
When students explore, compare, and critique content that reflects the concepts and ideas that are being taught, they are gaining knowledge through inquiry.
Students can research and compare digital resources such as websites and shared files on an LMS.
Practice
When students adapt their actions to a task, using feedback to improve. Feedback may come from self-reflection, peers, teachers, or from the activity itself.
Digital technology that can facilitate practice includes simulations, quizzes, and reflective tasks.
Production
When students show their current understanding of something by producing an output.
Digital technology that can facilitate production includes online assignments with digital outputs, quizzes, and online assessments.
Learning types mapped to their cycles in the Conversational Framework
It’s recommended to use as many learning types in your teaching as possible to prompt the learning cycles that improve learner concepts and practice.
ABC Learning Design
University College London used the Conversation Framework as the basis of a curriculum development workshop called ABC Learning Design (https://abc-ld.org/ ). In the workshop, teaching teams create a storyboard using the six learning types that sequences learning activities for whatever they’re teaching.
What next?
To understand the cycles and learning types in greater detail, I will research each learning type and create a blog post for each one. I will also try and see if the learning types are reflected in my work, and in the work of my colleagues in MTU.
I’d like to see examples of how lecturers or other e-learning professionals have used the framework in their work.
I also have some questions:
Is using the Conversational Framework and ABC Learning Design more suited to already existing programmes that need updating?
Is there a way for the time-poor lecturer to still benefit from ABC Learning Design?
Do instructional designers/learning technologists use the framework for their own content development?
Is the framework actually equally applicable to all disciplines?
If you have used the Conversational Framework or ABC Learning Design, please leave a comment about your experience. I’d love to have your insight. I’d also love to hear from people who haven’t used the framework but think it might be useful for them in future. You can also reach out to me if you have any questions.
