Instructional Design

St. Petersburg College Teams with private Partner To Launch Free Learning Design Kit

• By Joshua Bolkan
• 03/08/16

St. Petersburg College and Smart Sparrow have partnered to launch the Learning Design Starter Kit, a free tool designed to help faculty create their own digital learning resources.

"Smart use of adaptive learning has to start with faculty-led planning and instructional design," said Dawn Joyce, professor of communications at St. Petersburg College, in a prepared statement. "The Learning Design Starter Kit is an important resource because it gives faculty an opportunity to see how engaging adaptive learning technology is for students. Change is always intimidating, but the Learning Design Starter Kit helps faculty in this transitional phase by providing resources and support every step of the way."

"With the toolkit, faculty will learn how to design online resources rooted in cutting-edge learning science, capture user data to evaluate student engagement, and create rich, interactive, and adaptive courseware," according to a news release.

Features of the toolkit include:

• Resources on learning design;
• Adaptive lessons focused on planning and designing for each student;
• Case studies from faculty and instructional designers;
• The opportunity to create rich, adaptive and interactive courseware; and
• Other tools and support.

"Today's teaching and learning technologies often cut academics out of the design process, and make it difficult to customize content or pedagogy," said Dror Ben-Naim, founder and CEO of Smart Sparrow, in a prepared statement. "Faculty have a profound understanding of the types of tools and learning experiences needed to motivate and engage students in a digital age — our job is to help them to make their vision a reality, and receive real-time data to improve the teaching and learning process over time."