To assist staff in thinking about the design of their module teaching, we advocated the ABC Learning Design process (Young and Perović, 2016) which is derived from Diana Laurillard’s Conversational Framework (2012). During the ABC design process learning activities are planned and pinned to teaching sessions; from this the overall shape of taught interactions then becomes clear in terms of six learning types – acquisition (read/watch/listen), inquiry, practice, production, discussion and collaboration.

In the original form this process is typically used for new module construction – for our move to a hybrid learning style almost all our modules pre-existed with learning outcomes, module content and assessment strategy already designed.

In this context we offered customised CPD sessions showing our variant of the ABC process – taking existing modules and thinking about how they could be delivered online and in class in new ways, with the underlying Community of Inquiry and Networked Learning approach.

The customised version of the ABC modeller (an Excel spreadsheet) is available, along with a video demonstrating its use

References and links

• ABC Learning Design https://abc-ld.org
• Laurillard, D. (2012). Teaching as a Design Science. Oxford: Routledge.
• Young, C., & Perović, N. (2016). Rapid and Creative Course Design: As Easy as ABC? Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, 228, 390–395.

The case studies at the ABC Learning design site are particularly useful, as are the many videos demonstrating the process https://abc-ld.org/download-abc/

The ABC planner we customised was derived from work from Jessica Gramp, Inclusive Web Ltd, Licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Original resources available at abc-ld.org.