Conceptualisation
Once the discovery stage is completed, you enter the third step of the backward instructional process. In this step the instructional designer needs to define the content concept map of the learning materials defining the sections, modules, units and learning objects it is going to contain. When the learning materials syllabus is completed, the design continues by creating a blueprint of the complete structure of the learning materials, including additional documents that serve as an instructor facilitator kit promoting reuse by enabling others fully understand the learning content and its delivery.
Learning Objectives
- Compose a content concept map
- Prepare a syllabus
Target Audience
- attendees of the FAIR-by-Design ToT live webinar
Duration
35 mins
Prerequisites
Completed Prepare stage of the FAIR-by-Design methodology training
Learning Tools
- Training BBB room
- Browser
- Menti access or BBB quiz interaction
Content concept map
Concept mapping is a tool for visualising interrelationships between concepts in an integrated, hierarchical manner. Using concept maps helps clarify the relationships among learning concepts when designing or redesigning your learning materials. The main goal of the concept map is to start outlining the specific components of your training, organize the components and make sure that they fit in with the defined learning objectives.
It does not matter which type of concept map you will use (hierarchical, spider, flowchart, etc.), the main focus here is to flesh out the components that you would like to include in your materials.
An example concept map for Open Science is presented in the image below.
Open Science concept map based on a keyword co-occurrence network analysis in the The Uptake of Open Science: Mapping the Results of a Systematic Literature Review by Hanna Shmagun, Charles Oppenheim, Jangsup Shim and Jaesoo Kim available under CC BY license
Activity
Try building a concept map about your upcoming training. You can start with the most simple approach. Use the topic of the training as a core concept in the middle, and then just link the concepts you think are important to cover to it. With this you will get a star shaped concept map design, also known as the spider concept map. You can continue adding layers to the concept map by defining subconcepts of the defined concepts.
Sometimes it is best if you do this exercise on a piece of paper as the process will follow your design thinking more naturally. If you want to work on a digital concept map you can use almost any tool for graphical modelling. An example is draw.io that offers several templates with different concepts maps design (you will find them in the category Maps when choosing to create a new diagram from template).
Your final result may look simple or complicated. This depends on the focus of the training, the length of the training and the level of details that you want to represent.
Another example is presented below.
Open science elements based on UNESCO presentation of 17 February 2021 by RobbieIanMorrison provided under the CC BY 4.0 license
Syllabus
Once you have identified your learning concepts, the next step is to sequence them into an instructional sequence (agenda). This instructional sequence will become your blueprint for the organisation of the learning materials and the definition of the syllabus.
In essence the blueprint takes the input from the creative concept map and organizes it into a more formal outline. Formally, we call this learning materials outline syllabus. Each syllabus should provide information regarding a number of elements (including the ones defined in the step 1 of the backward instructional design):
- clear, descriptive title
- description of the purpose or goal
- target audience
- prerequisites
- duration
- learning objectives
- agenda (instructional sequence)
- resources and materials
- certification information
Remember that:
- The syllabus can present a higher level sequence outline, that can be later broken down into smaller subtopics if necessary.
- The topics sequence should be defined so that the concepts introduced early help with the ones encountered later.
- The defined agenda should not be very rigid thus preventing changing the sequence of topics or adding or deleting topics at a later stage.
- The syllabus is sent to the learners and should provide them with all necessary information to help them decide if they want to follow the training related to the learning materials.
Syllabus Elements
Within this training we recommend the development of a training syllabus that consists of two groups of information:
- typical syllabus information
- additional information related to the RDA minimal metadata schema
The following is a list of all required syllabus fields:
- Clear descriptive Title of the training
- Type (Course/Workshop/Webinar)
- Date/Time: when it will be offered (available from date if it is self-paced)
- Location - where it will be available
- physical location
- URL link to resources (and virtual room if online) should lead to the learning Skills4EOSC platform
- Training Description - what is the main goal/purpose of this training
- Target audience: target audience description
- Expertise Level / Skill Level: Beginner / Intermediate / Advanced
- Primary Language: English
- Access Cost: N
- Prerequisites - if any
- Duration - total training duration
- Training objectives - list of specific training objectives
- Keywords - Keywords or tags used to describe the training
- Agenda: Training Schedule - Training Structure (time, topic)
- Resources and Materials - list with locations of available/required resources for the training
- Certification Information - if any
- Author(s) - Comma separated List of people involved in preparing the training (Name Surname)
- Trainer(s) - Comma separated list of people involved in delivering the training (Name Surname ORCID logo link)
- Contact information - how to reach out to training organizers
- License
- PID
- Accessibility Mission
As syllabus is one of the required documents for the FAIR-by-Design learning materials, you must ensure that your syllabus contains all elements provided in this section. Only in this way you will ensure that your learning materials contain all necessary metadata information together with the traditional syllabus information that is provided.
Activity
Review the FAIR-by-Design Methodology for Learning Materials Training of Trainers syllabus that has been developed based on the provided template as a complete example.
Think how you would change this example to adapt it so that it can become your own syllabus for the Open Science for policy makers training. Use the information you gathered and defined in the previous activities.
Summary
Building a concept map of your training is a creative way of organising your ideas and inspiration gathered from the discovery step. Armed with this knowledge you are able to define the concepts and sub-concepts that you need to provide learners with to ensure achieving their learning objectives.
Once you have a more clear idea of the concepts you wish to cover and how they relate to each other, you are ready to create a high-level outline of the training, i.e. define the syllabus. To ensure that you have covered all essential information in your syllabus we provide a template that you can follow.
Remember that the syllabus contains all of the information you need to share with the potential trainees. Thus, it should be shared with them when sending out the call for training.