
The Professional Certificate Course on Adaptive Design for Learning (ADL) is an online project-based training for online course design. It is intended not as an esoteric or overly theoretical academic course, but a professional one: It will be very practical in approach given that its primary goal is to equip our faculty with the needed competence to design and deliver effective online learning collaboratively in teams.
It is also our way of getting our community on the same page as far as our vision of what online Jesuit education should look like in Ateneo de Manila University, as we hope will be captured by our concept of the AteneoBlueCloud.
We will learn more about ADL in the course, but just in case you are interested, here is a brief overview of our framework for designing online learning:
WHAT WE MEAN BY “ONLINE LEARNING”
We make a distinction between ONLINE LEARNING on the one hand and Remote Teaching and Distance Learning (or Remote Self-Study) on the other:
* Remote Teaching: Delivery of live online lectures (or pre-recorded talks) with some synchronous class discussion
* Distance Learning: Posting or emailing of assignments (reading materials, activities, assessments) that learners can accomplish at their own time and pace within a period of time.
* Online Learning: Designing an array of online learning activities that include-but is not limited to-Remote Teaching and Distance Learning.
REMOTE TEACHING consists primarily-or only-of delivering real-time online lectures with the additional possibility of: (a) posting content online and (b) conducting Q&As or live discussions among students (Lectures can also be pre-recorded and sent to students). However, especially if sessions are synchronous, there will be questions of access and learner engagement. Remote teaching is far from an ideal response to the situation.
The other extreme, DISTANCE LEARNING (or REMOTE SELF-STUDY)-entails mostly posting online assignments, where all the teacher does is post (or email) readings and tasks (assignments and assessments), expecting the learner to do most, if not, all of the work. MOOCs (“Massive Open Online Course”) would be good examples of Distance Learning.
Proper ONLINE LEARNING offers the learners a wide variety of online experiences and tasks that will engage them not only with the content and the instructor, but with their fellow learners as well. The presentation of content (through text or video, how long, etc.), the intervention of the instructor (when to be present, whether to do Remote Teaching, real-time or not), and interaction with classmates (whether whole-class or in small groups, synchronous or asynchronous)-all these are design decisions that should be made deliberately based primarily on one criterion: Which ones would promote engagement and learning most effectively?
Courses categorized as SPOCs (“Small Private Open Courses”) would be more aligned to what we mean by “Online Learning” as long as the instructor has adequate online presence.
Remote Teaching and Distance Learning are acceptable and respectable practices, but for various reasons, should eventually be more the exception rather than the rule. More importantly, we should not engage in either of them only because we have no other choice. We should employ them deliberately as strategies that we choose in order to promote learning.
That’s why it’s important to expand our repertoire of online skills and tools so that we can make free and informed choices based on the nature of the class we are teaching and even more importantly, based on the needs of our students.
WHAT WE MEAN BY “ADAPTIVE”
Courses are designed adaptively in two senses:
(a) The delivery is adaptive: With minimum revision, the same course can be delivered in different ways: fully online, traditional face-to-face, or blended.
(b) The design itself is adaptive. Faculty can adapt and revise the course depending on their preferred style and strengths, and especially based on the needs of the learners.
To ensure that the kind of education we offer is inclusive, our online courses should be readily printable into Learning Packages for those who have problems with Internet access so that they can pick up their packages when necessary. While some online materials and tasks may not work as optimally when provided in these alternative versions, this form of access is still preferable to a purely online course where those without access are excluded.
Other provisions include (a) making available a low-bandwidth version of the courses (e.g., transcripts of video lectures) online, and (b) offering students in need a supplementary data plan from the university.
HOW WE PROPOSE TO DESIGN ADAPTIVELY
For Adaptive Design, courses are designed in a modular fashion: Courses consist of learning modules.
We propose that every 3-unit course is designed to offer six modules, where each module is estimated to take about 8 to 10 learning hours. Hence, a 3-unit course online is estimated to entail a total of 48 to 60 learning hours (in contrast to the CHED-prescribed taught/contact time).
“Learning hours”—in contrast to “taught/contact time—refers to the projected time for the learner to be “on task” in order to acquire the target competences or learning outcomes for the course. While taught/contact time would vary depending on the mode of delivery, learning time depends on the design of the learning experiences and tasks. To estimate learning time, we should consider all learning relevant to the learning outcomes.
Given this definition, learning hours would include: listening to a live or prerecorded lecture, reading a reference material, participating in a discussion (whether synchronously or asynchronously), working on an individual task or group project, or taking an assessment, etc. In short, it refers not only to the amount of time the learner is in contact with the teacher (taught/contact time which is relevant in traditional face-to-face classes), but to the amount of time the learner is engaged in the prescribed learning experiences and tasks (see table below for a sample calculation).
Modules are competence-based. Competences are higher-level Course Learning Outcomes that are made of a cluster of Knowledge, Skills, and Attitudes acquired from one or several modules (as well as other competences) that can be assessed.
An appropriate form of assessment is given at the end of each module (or set of modules) to test mastery, understanding, and demonstration of competence before moving to the next modules. Modules are revised and adapted based on the feedback and findings gleaned from the assessments.
This competence-based modular approach, which is key to ADL, offers the following benefits:
* it disciplines the instructor/design team to prioritise content by making critical decisions based on the target competences.
* it allows designers to use the modules as building blocks for a course that is delivered, face-to-face, or blended.
* it offers opportunities to various instructional design teams to share content/materials/design or to look for other points of synergy.
* it allows for flexibility in terms of scheduling of courses within the semester: For example, it is possible to offer only half of the courses (e.g., three 3-unit courses out of a regular six courses) for the first half of the semester with a clear cut-off on the 9th week, and offer the second half for the last 9 weeks.
More details-and clarity-will be provided by the Professional Certificate Course. We hope you will register and join it with your designated team of course designers.
Our ADL framework is one way of ensuring that our distinctive AteneoBlueCloud approach to online Jesuit education is embodied in our academic and formation programs.

Do you have questions or comments? Feel free to post them below, and we will try to respond as best as possible.
Quick Links
← Go Home Go Back to ABC Summer of 2020 to read the main article. | ABC Learn more about ABC and AdMU’s philosophy of online Jesuit education. |
Working Teams See how the different units (Schools and Departments) prepare for our big effort this summer. | Departmental Preparations Find out how you and your department can design and deliver online learning. |
An Online Learner’s Guide to Successful Learning Read about how you can prepare to be an online learner. | An Introduction to Online Instructional Design Learn from Kate Daniels, a Senior Instructional Design Coach based in Chicago, who conducted a recent webinar for the AdMU community. |
ADL logo designed by Meg Villena (SALT)
Hello. I have downloaded the Canvas app, then applied for a free teacher account. My application always freezes on step 3. After I hanve inputed all my information (name, email, etc…), when I hit the ‘next’ button, my application process freezes up and it doesn’t proceed to the next portion.
Do you have to give me access or activate me for it to work? Thanks.
Hello Ryan,
This might just be a glitch caused by internet connectivity.
Since you downloaded the app, when a school is asked for, please put canvas.instructor.com.
In case you’re not using the Canvas app, please note that Canvas works best on Google Chrome.
I hope this helps. Thanks.
May I ask if we can still apply for the Adaptive Design for Learning Certificate Course?
Hello!
Kindly send your email address to salt@ateneo.edu. Please indicate what School you belong to (SOH, SOSS, etc.).
Thank you.
Hello. I already registered for the course. What is the link to start the modules? Thanks
Hello!
Kindly send an email to salt@ateneo.edu. It would be easier to track any difficulties regarding this from there.
Thank you.
Good day! I’ve applied for the course last June 4, but still haven’t received the link and other information to the module. 🙂 Thanks!
Hello!
Kindly send an email to salt@ateneo.edu. It would be easier to track any difficulties regarding this from there.
Thank you.
Hello. Where on the website can we find the recorded ADL webinars?
https://ateneosalt.org/weekly-webinars-for-adaptive-design-for-learning/
Good afternoon. One member of our team has been actively participating in our meetings for our formation project but has not been able to access CANVAS. Can he still register at this time?