METIS

Overview

Across Europe, pre and in-service training offered to teachers has fostered adoption of innovative learning and assessment methodologies e.g. collaborative learning, project-based learning etc. Alongside this, the use of online technology by educational institutions and society in general continues to grow. The METIS project’s goal was to facilitate the adoption of innovative pedagogies in online teaching, by promoting the benefits of learning design and a variety of learning design tools and practices. In particular, tools that would support teachers through the cycle of learning design – from conception to deployment of techno-educational innovations. Allied to these tools, professional practices that use such tools to ensure the robustness and effectiveness of their innovations and make learning design a daily habit and part of teachers’ professional identity.

The project investigated use of learning design tools in 3 educational contexts: vocational training, higher education and adult education.

The role of IET

The METIS project worked towards its aims by simultaneously developing an online Integrated Learning Design Environment (ILDE) and a workshop package for training educators in using the ILDE to support effective learning design.

The OU team’s work was focused on designing and developing workshop materials, and on running workshops in a Higher Education context (i.e. at the OU). The development of the workshop packages included

• Identifying the constraints and requirements emerging from the specifics of the contexts in which they would be run, and the aspirations of the prospective participants and organising bodies.
• Collating, comparing and evaluating examples of similar workshops from the past so as to inform the design of the METIS workshops by building on existing knowledge.
• Proposing a workshop structure that was used, evaluated and refined within the project.