LxD Primer Structure - The LxD Primer

What is the Content Structure for the LxD Primer?

The LxD Primer structure will include several primary formats for the contents of the course and book(s):

Modules
Projects
Cases
Interviews
Critiques

Let’s take a brief look at each type of content format.

Modules

Modules are the primary building blocks of the LxD Primer course. In terms of a traditional book, these would either be considered chapters or sections of chapters.

Types of modules currently include Questions, Foundations, and Phases of LxD.

Questions

Each Question module addresses a single issue of LxD, such as “What is Learning?” and “What is an Experience?” and “What is Iteration?” and “What is the Ideal LxD Team Structure?”

Foundations

Foundations are modules that approach more specific theoretical or conceptual issues from an LxD perspective, such as Distorted Automatic Thinking, Theoretical Eclecticism, Ecological Literacy, Data Literacy, Civic Engagement, and Communities of Practice.

Phases

Phases are modules about each specific phase or “activity stream” that happens during any LxD project: Research, Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, Evaluation. These are the most directly procedural and pragmatic modules of the course, and likely the longest.

The catalog of Foundation and Question modules will continue to expand as new foundations are recognized and new questions need to be posed.

The Phase modules will be updated as we continue to learn new best practices as the field of LxD continues to evolve.

Projects

Projects are in-depth explorations and critical analyses of my own LxD projects and conceptual designs, serving as examples to showcase various decisions and activities that may occur within any of the LxD Phase activity streams.

Examples of past projects include my work with the Library of Congress Adventure of the American Mind Homeschool Program, designing School Nutrition Accountancy training for the Alaska Department of Education, building interactive learning modules for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), or building a multimodal transportation simulation, or a municipal development project simulation and immersive science inquiry experience in a virtual watershed (my dissertation research).

I can also discuss attempted educational media startups, nonprofits as learning systems, and corporate-nonprofit hybrids building global employment training programs. From a more conceptual level, I can discuss ongoing designs of more generalizable experiences: driving, gardening, shopping, and day-to-day human existence as learning experiences.

Cases

Cases are similar to projects, except they are explorations of learning experiences with which I have not had any direct involvement in the analysis, design, development, implementation, evaluation, or research. As more and more colleagues connect with the work of the LxD Primer, more and more cases will be made available as examples of LxD best practices: what works, what needs improvement, and why!

Interviews

Interviews are exactly what they sound like. I will conduct conversational interviews with industry stakeholders, subject matter experts, LxD practitioners, academics, theorists, learners, and teachers at various levels of experience to get their thoughts on the concepts covered in the LxD Primer.

Likely these conversations will ask the Questions, discuss the Foundations, and explore the Phases in whatever way may be most relevant to the experience of the interviewee.

Likely these will take the form of podcasts with transcripts.

Critiques

Critiques are critical reviews and discussions of existing learning experiences that may or may not be labeled as learning experiences, per se, regardless of the quality of these experiences. Critiques are quite similar to Cases, except that they are focused on learning experiences for which we may not have access to anyone involved in the Phases of the learning experience design, and thus must take a more external perspective of the experience implementation.

Stay in the know.

The LxD Primer is part of the RESCIV family of projects.