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Designing Impactful Learning Experiences: The Need For a Standardized Content Framework
1 May 2024
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mins to learn this perspective
Written by Yuvraj Mahagaonkar and Samiksha Neroorkar
Leadership For Equity empowers system leaders and strengthens teacher education to revolutionise the public education system in India. One of the ways in which we achieve this is by creating strong training content in the form of blended learning courses and in-person training sessions for systems leaders and teachers on diverse topics like pedagogy, leadership, management, and technology.
Understanding Adult Learner Engagement
Interest plays a critical role in learning and motivation (Thurston 2018). To stimulate the interest of adult learners, that LFE works with, the content should be engaging and systematic. An instructional design framework is an essential guide to help content developers create systematic learning material. It helps developers understand instructional components entities; adult learners, methods, modes, materials, and instructional environments and use the most appropriate combination of those to achieve desired learning outcomes (Chyung 2008).
Introducing the Kaushalika Instructional Design Framework
Taking cognizance of this, we developed the Kaushalika Instructional Design Framework in 2023. This framework integrates insights from renowned instructional design models, including ARCS by John Keller, ADDIE Model by the University of Florida, Backward Design by Wiggins and McTighe, Design Thinking by Tim Brown, and Gagne’s Nine Steps of Instructional Design. Additionally, we incorporated learnings from LFE’s work in content development and training during the past 7 years into creating this framework. The process of development involved extensive research, multiple brainstorming sessions across the content team, and four iterations. Each component of Kaushalika serves a unique purpose, contributing to a comprehensive approach for developing superior quality systematic content while aligning with the practical needs of the Indian educational landscape.
Implementation and Impact of Kaushalika
Currently, the framework is being applied to all the blended courses being developed by LFE. The teacher professional development courses on Social Studies, Mathematics, and Science under the AP SALT project, the courses on Parent Engagement being developed in partnership with the Brookings Centre For Universal Education and Technology Courses under the Amazon Future Engineer Program follow the Kaushalika framework. The scripts of the courses are sectioned into parts as per each stage of the framework and learning activities are provided accordingly.
Key Benefits of Kaushalika
The use of Kaushalika is helping to achieve the following:
Standardisation: Ensuring a unified framework for content creation at LFE to maintain consistency across diverse learning modules.
Quality Enhancement: Elevating the quality of content creation by incorporating proven instructional design principles and methodologies.
Logical Sequence: Establishing a harmonious sequence of content flow by aligning research studies with real-world feedback from the field.
Conclusion
The Kaushalika Instructional Design Framework represents a significant milestone in our efforts to design impactful learning experiences. By integrating various instructional design models and leveraging insights from our extensive experience, we have developed a versatile framework that not only enhances the quality of content creation but also ensures standardization and logically organized learning experiences. As we continue to apply Kaushalika across our projects, we remain committed to revolutionizing the public education system in India and empowering both system leaders and teachers to deliver future-ready education to all children.
The full framework will be published soon; subscribe to our newsletter to get notified. Meanwhile, if you want to know more about the framework, you can also write to us at samiksha.n@leadershipforequity.org.
References
Thurston, Travis N. (2018) "Design Case: Implementing Gamification with ARCS to Engage Digital Natives," Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence, 2(1), Article 5. DOI: https://doi.org/10.26077/vsk5-5613
Chyung, S. Y. (2008). Foundations of instructional and performance technology. Human Resource Development. HRD Press, Inc.: Amherst, Massachusetts