Learning Design team at the Open University
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ou-ld-social.bsky.social
Learning Design team at the Open University
@ou-ld-social.bsky.social
520 followers 560 following 110 posts
Sharing the @OpenUniversity Learning Design team’s approach to designing for student success. Using evidence and #StudentVoice to enhance the learning experience.
#HigherEd #LearningDesign #EdTech #DigitalInclusion #EDIA
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ou-ld-social.bsky.social
🌱 Want to know more about our #Sustainability work? 🌱

Follow the linked article on our LinkedIn page to see more about our work in this space.

#LearningDesign #HigherEd #GreenFutures

🔗 lnkd.in/e2SFqysi
The Learning Design Sustainability logo with the additional text: Sustainability in Learning Design at The Open University.
November 19, 2025 at 4:57 PM
ou-ld-social.bsky.social
🧵 It’s Student Voice Week at the @openuniversity.bsky.social! Two of the ways #OU_LD works with students during module production and during the module run are our Real Time Student Feedback ( #RTSF) programme and the use of the all-volunteer Curriculum Design Student Panel ( #CDSP). #LearningDesign
Graphic image showing a variety of Higher Ed students. Above their heads are 3 megaphones, representing student voice.
November 18, 2025 at 5:32 PM
ou-ld-social.bsky.social
🌟 🤩 We’re positively thrilled to share that our Learning Design #AI group has won* the @altuk.bsky.social Ethical EdTech Award 2025 for our #ResponsibleByDesign (RBD) Framework! Big congrats to Joanna, Eleanor, Paul, and James! 🙌 🏆[ drive.google.com/file/d/1foYM... ]
#OU_LD
Eleanor shows off the award. The certificate and the award (a disc shaped piece of wood with a plaque on it). Images of the team members and the text: “The Responsible by Design (RBD) Framework is our pioneering response to the ethical challenges of Generative Al in education. Rooted in student voice and aligned with institutional strategy, the framework enables staff and students to critically examine Al through four pillars: Environmental Impact, Encoded Bias, Exploitation, and the Digital Divide. A practical, values-driven and easy to use framework, it provides reflective prompts and actionable solutions. The aim is to empower educators to make informed choices about how to use Al responsibly. The solutions bank offers a practical starting point for exploring complex ethical issues, and a way to put suitable actions into practice when designing courses. Already influencing learning design within the OU and beyond, the framework demonstrates how values-led innovation can shape responsible Al adoption across the sector. By building on ALT's existing ethical framework, this approach guides what responsible Al in education can look like.”
October 24, 2025 at 12:10 PM
ou-ld-social.bsky.social
📻 The Digital Sustainability SIG hosted by ALTc will be broadcasting from 2-3pm tomorrow, 24 October, during the Association for Learning Technology conference 2025 via the hashtag #ALTCradio 🔗 lnkd.in/eK5uZhy9.
Poster with the schedule for ALTc Radio. See LinkedIn link in post for full details.
October 23, 2025 at 2:29 PM
ou-ld-social.bsky.social
For many online learners, use of #DigitalTools is part of their strategy for managing emotions while studying. Read our latest #OU_LD blog article from Jake on why #EmotionRegulation matters for students. 😌
www.open.ac.uk/blogs/learni...
Graphic illustration representing calmness and balance. A woman is sitting at a desk with a laptop open in front of her. Lines from the laptop lead to three symbols floating above: a music note, a calm smiling face emoji, and a heart with a line representing the heart rhythm going across it. The woman is wearing headphones and has her hands pressed together in front of her, indicating a peaceful state of mind.
October 23, 2025 at 12:22 PM
ou-ld-social.bsky.social
It's also #DyslexiaAwarenessWeek this week. Which prompts us to share a blog article from last year by Courtney Ince that shares tips and resources for inclusive module design in consideration of dyslexic students' needs.
#LearningDesign

www.open.ac.uk/blogs/learni...
A jumble of brightly painted wooden letters.
October 10, 2025 at 11:13 AM
ou-ld-social.bsky.social
With a spotlight on celebrating hidden narratives from within the Black community this #BlackHistoryMonth, diverse representation in learning materials and activities seems more important than ever.
Graphic showing two black faces in silhouette against a coloured background in red, yellow and green.
October 8, 2025 at 2:35 PM
ou-ld-social.bsky.social
🤔 Ever wondered what it takes to update a #LearningDesign framework? Well wonder no more! Our latest blog post explores the long but rewarding process of updating the #ICEBERG learning design Principles and Design Tips for supporting #StudentRetention. www.open.ac.uk/blogs/learni...
Ice cave at Jokulsarlon glacier in Iceland. A man can be seen in the distance at the mouth of the cave.
September 25, 2025 at 3:59 PM
ou-ld-social.bsky.social
📢 ATTN! There's a new article on our blog! Read how members of the #OU_LD team & @ietatou.bsky.social represented the @openuniversity.bsky.social on the Innovating Learning Design in Higher Education (iLED) project, along with a team of international collaborators.
www.open.ac.uk/blogs/learni...
A bronze miniature relief of the city of Zagreb. The map shows buildings, trees, roads, a river, and a compass rose marking North. The centre of the compass rose has the words ‘welcome’ engraved in several languages.
September 10, 2025 at 3:33 PM
ou-ld-social.bsky.social
For more information about our #ResponsibleByDesign framework and to vote for us, follow the links in this flyer:
openuniv-my.sharepoint.com/personal/pa4... Remember - voting closes on Sunday, 14 September!
A portion of the flyer that shows the ALT Awards 2025 logo and reads: your vote matters. ALT Community Choice Awards. Voting closes Sunday, 14 September 2025. Also show the OU Learning Design logo.
September 5, 2025 at 2:31 PM
ou-ld-social.bsky.social
Ahead of the new academic year it’s more important than ever to consider what students think & feel about their learning. Our latest resource explores '7 Top Tips' students told us can impact on how they feel about the workload associated to their #LearningJourney.

#StudentVoice #LearningDesign
Title: Designing to positively impact student workload. Text: Heading: 7 top tips from Open University students. What did we do? We asked our Curriculum Design Student Panel how they perceived workload in their studies e.g. what might make workload feel higher or lower than the actual time they spend on it. Here are the factors students said helped to reduce both actual and perceived workload. Sub-Heading: Multiple formats. • Provide activity and assessment guidance in multiple formats. • Use video and/or audio to break up large blocks of text. Sub-Heading: Estimated timings. • Provide estimated activity timings to help students to manage and prioritise their study time. Sub-Heading: Clear signposting. • Indicate where activities and content contribute to specific assessment tasks. Sub-Heading: Set expectations. • Provide guidance to help students structure independent study time. • Outline the intended purpose to help set task boundaries. Sub-Heading: Vary activities. • Include a variety of activity types to support engagement. Sub-Heading: Chunking instructions. • Break up instructions / module materials into small sections. This provides break points and supports time management. Sub-Heading: Assessment workload. • Keep assessment submission weeks free of additional course material to help students catch up where required. The tips here encompass aspects of the Open University's ICEBERG Learning Design for retention principles. You can find more design tips and resources relating to ICEBERG on the Learning Design blog (https://www.open.ac.uk/blogs/learning-design/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/ICEBERG-booklet-compressed.pdf).
August 22, 2025 at 2:16 PM
ou-ld-social.bsky.social
📢 How does Learning Design Support Assessment?

The OU Learning Design Team is currently supporting assessment design in several areas, including:

⚙️ Authentic tasks
✨ Inclusive design,
🤖 The impact of GenAI
🌍 Sustainability
🧩 Building empathy through gamification
How does Learning Design Support Assessment?
July 29, 2025 at 8:49 AM
ou-ld-social.bsky.social
Two members of the #OU_LD team presented on their ‘Words of Wisdom’ project at the #EAUC25 conference recently. Read Paul and Cat's thoughts on their experience in our latest blog post: www.open.ac.uk/blogs/learni...
Sheffield Town Hall buildings at dusk.
July 28, 2025 at 3:27 PM
ou-ld-social.bsky.social
📣 Project Spotlight 📣
In #OU_LD we’re working to develop a suite of #sustainability focused digital badges. These will help students showcase skills they’ve gained from their learning that align with #UNESCO’s #KeyCompetencies. We’re looking at how badging could work at different levels of study.
Graphic showing four columns: Column one: Ways of being; Ways of practicing; and Ways of thinking. Column two: Three of UNESCO's Key Competencies. Column three: Specific skills that students can gain that link to the competencies. Column four: Examples of how the skills can be linked to educational activities at three levels of study at the Open University to achieve a digital badge.
July 17, 2025 at 12:10 PM
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Big congrats to Paul & Cat from #OU_LD, now published authors, on the release of their chapter on #sustainability and #LearningDesign which is included in the book Education for Sustainable Development: The Contribution of Universities. 🌟🙌
Read their contribution here: doi.org/10.1007/978-...
July 16, 2025 at 2:10 PM
ou-ld-social.bsky.social
Hot off the presses! 🔥 Kathleen shares some great reflections from the 2025 AdvanceHE Sustainability Symposium in our latest blog post. Look out for our poster on ‘Learning design as a catalyst for embedding sustainability' (downloadable via the link in the article).
www.open.ac.uk/blogs/learni...
A view looking up through a building atrium, clad in green tinted glass, with green, leafy trees and sunshine over the top of the atrium.
May 23, 2025 at 3:35 PM
ou-ld-social.bsky.social
A short thread on the great THRIVES concept...
"THRIVES is an acronym designed to highlight some key digital accessibility practices that all staff could use in their everyday work and to act as a memorable way to promote accessibility across the university."

#GlobalAccessibilityAwarenessDay
The Accessibility THRIVES graphic. See final post in this thread for a pdf version of this graphic.
May 15, 2025 at 3:26 PM
ou-ld-social.bsky.social
Another share from the #OU_LD resources archive for #GlobalAccessibilityAwarenessDay. Here's a sheet with guidance for helping students who have #dyspraxia.

www.open.ac.uk/blogs/learni...
Tip sheet for helping students with dyspraxia. Text reads: Tips for helping students who have Dyspraxia / Developmental co-ordination disorder (DCD). Visual Processing: Provide information in a variety of formats such as: videos, audio, images, and text backed up with transcripts or summaries. Learning new tools: When adding a new, or sparsely used tool for an activity, consider also adding: - An introduction to the tool. - A chance to practice the tool. - A reminder or recap if it’s been introduced before. Organisation & Prioritisation. Be clear on what you expect a student to get out of any activity, and what they need to do. Wherever possible, break this down into steps. Note Taking: Provide tutorial slides and recordings to reduce the pressure of note taking while listening. Fine Motor Skills: Avoid use of “fiddly” software that requires students to have a good degree of accuracy of mouse clicks.
May 15, 2025 at 2:42 PM
ou-ld-social.bsky.social
Today is #GlobalAccessibilityAwarenessDay so we're sharing an #OU_LD blog post from a few months back which has some advice for creating good learning materials for people with #dyslexia. There's a handy tips graphic included in the post too!
www.open.ac.uk/blogs/learni...
A jumble of brightly painted wooden letters.
May 15, 2025 at 11:18 AM
ou-ld-social.bsky.social
It's #MentalHealthAwarenessWeek! In addition to all the great things we do to consider and boost students' #wellbeing, we also need to take care of ourselves as Learning Designers. This article from our blog looks at how those who are more introverted can do just that.
www.open.ac.uk/blogs/learni...
A small hedgehog.
May 14, 2025 at 3:18 PM
ou-ld-social.bsky.social
Paul Astles from our #OU_LD team was recently a guest on a recent episode of @liverpooluni.bsky.social's Treasure Island Pedagogies podcast. Listen to him talking about Climate Action Pedagogy here:

www.liverpool.ac.uk/centre-for-i...
Plants and moss grow out of the holes in, and around the cables of, an extension lead.
April 30, 2025 at 3:53 PM
ou-ld-social.bsky.social
Are you flummoxed by #GenAI use in #HigherEd and looking for some tips or info? We've added some new items to our suite of GenAI resources. Check them out here: www.open.ac.uk/blogs/learni...

#OER #HE #LearningDesign
A cute, blue cartoon cat with question marks over his head indicating confusion and/or pondering.
April 9, 2025 at 12:48 PM
ou-ld-social.bsky.social
How can we design courses that better support our students? Our latest #OU_LD blog post shares the newly updated ICEBERG principles for #StudentRetention and some nifty #resources that you can use to apply them.

www.open.ac.uk/blogs/learni...

#LearningDesign #ICEBERGPrinciples #OER
An iceberg floating in the ocean. There is a flag planted in the top of it with the Learning Design logo on it.
April 3, 2025 at 10:33 AM
ou-ld-social.bsky.social
Spot the names of OU Learning Design colleagues on this paper exploring the prioritisation of learning outcomes! The paper is one of the outputs from the #iLEDProject, a European project exploring innovation in #LearningDesign and the use of online tools.
archive.ceciis.foi.hr/public/confe...
Screenshot of the first page of the paper titled Prioritizing Learning Outcomes in Different Learning Design Contexts.
March 20, 2025 at 5:34 PM
ou-ld-social.bsky.social
New blog post alert! 🌟 This new article covers two OU frameworks: Critical AI Literacy Skills, and Responsible by Design. Dive in for a flavour of what we're tackling in the AI sphere. #CriticalAILiteracy #AIEthics #LearningDesign #EdTech @openuniversity.bsky.social

www.open.ac.uk/blogs/learni...
An array of colorful, fossil-like data imprints representing the static nature of AI models, laden with outdated contexts and biases, gathered in a heap. To the sides are two pick axes. A hand holding a mobile phone rises from the top of the pile.
March 18, 2025 at 12:57 PM