{"id":7540,"date":"2022-05-10T09:10:00","date_gmt":"2022-05-10T07:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.twillo.de\/blog\/open-teaching-why-didactic-templates-and-lms-make-a-good-team\/"},"modified":"2025-11-14T13:35:29","modified_gmt":"2025-11-14T12:35:29","slug":"open-teaching-why-didactic-templates-and-lms-make-a-good-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.twillo.de\/en\/blog\/open-teaching-why-didactic-templates-and-lms-make-a-good-team\/","title":{"rendered":"Open teaching: why didactic templates and LMS make a good team"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Didac\u00adtic tem\u00adplates make a fun\u00adda\u00admen\u00adtal con\u00adtri\u00adbu\u00adtion to mak\u00ading learn\u00ading man\u00adage\u00adment sys\u00adtems (LMS) more open by enabling teach\u00aders to make their course designs avail\u00adable to each other and share them \u2014 in the spirit of OER. Two added val\u00adues <\/strong>result from the com\u00adbi\u00adna\u00adtion of didac\u00adtic tem\u00adplates and LMS. That is why we at twillo have decided to pro\u00advide our own tem\u00adplates for didac\u00adtic teach\u00ading-learn\u00ading con\u00adcepts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before we come to the added value of using didac\u00adtic tem\u00adplates in learn\u00ading man\u00adage\u00adment sys\u00adtems (LMS), we will take a closer look at the rel\u00ade\u00advant terms OER, didac\u00adtic tem\u00adplates and LMS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

OER<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Open Edu\u00adca\u00adtional Resources (OER) are edu\u00adca\u00adtional mate\u00adri\u00adals whose key fea\u00adture is their open licens\u00ading<\/strong>, which invites re-use and usu\u00adally also adap\u00adta\u00adtion and fur\u00adther devel\u00adop\u00adment. Openly licens\u00ading mate\u00adri\u00adals with a high level of gran\u00adu\u00adlar\u00adity, such as entire courses, does not mean mak\u00ading access to courses and thus the course con\u00adtent (from per\u00adsonal data to com\u00admu\u00adni\u00adca\u00adtion con\u00adtent) pub\u00adlic. Unless the course is delib\u00ader\u00adately offered as a MOOC<\/a>. Rather, open pro\u00advi\u00adsion refers to the learn\u00ading units. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Didactic templates<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Unlike con\u00adcrete course tem\u00adplates, which are tai\u00adlored to spe\u00adcific top\u00adics and tar\u00adget groups, didac\u00adtic course tem\u00adplates are purely method\u00adi\u00adcal and didac\u00adtic course struc\u00adtures<\/strong> that fol\u00adlow selected spe\u00adcific teach\u00ading and learn\u00ading con\u00adcepts. They can be imple\u00admented in the dig\u00adi\u00adtal course envi\u00adron\u00adments of a learn\u00ading man\u00adage\u00adment sys\u00adtem using the import func\u00adtion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While most LMSs offer a weekly struc\u00adture or a topic struc\u00adture, the tem\u00adplates map the respec\u00adtive didac\u00adtic con\u00adcepts, which are usu\u00adally struc\u00adtured in phases or step sequences and have been cre\u00adated accord\u00adingly in the LMS course envi\u00adron\u00adment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The course tem\u00adplates con\u00adtain pre\u00adced\u00ading sec\u00adtions. In the research-based learn\u00ading teach\u00ading con\u00adcept<\/a>, the research process is divided into eight phases, for each of which a sec\u00adtion is pro\u00advided in the course area of the LMS. The same applies to the seven steps of prob\u00adlem pro\u00adcess\u00ading in the Prob\u00adlem-based learn\u00ading course tem\u00adplate<\/a>. These course tem\u00adplates help to struc\u00adture the course area method\u00adi\u00adcally, but still need to be filled with con\u00adtent by teach\u00aders. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cre\u00adated course tem\u00adplates do not have to be used 1:1<\/strong>, but can be indi\u00advid\u00adu\u00adally adapted accord\u00ading to con\u00adtent require\u00adments or by using spe\u00adcific func\u00adtions of the respec\u00adtive LMS and sup\u00adple\u00admented with inter\u00adac\u00adtive ele\u00adments, media or tasks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pos\u00adsi\u00adble uses are just as var\u00adied as the con\u00adtent can be designed by the lec\u00adturer. The course tem\u00adplates can either be used for purely online set\u00adtings<\/strong> to pro\u00advide stu\u00addents with con\u00adtent and tasks and to enable col\u00adlab\u00ado\u00adra\u00adtive work among stu\u00addents; how\u00adever, they can also be used as an accom\u00adpa\u00adny\u00ading struc\u00adture for reg\u00adu\u00adlar face-to-face courses, pro\u00advid\u00ading ori\u00aden\u00adta\u00adtion and addi\u00adtion\u00adally guid\u00ading the learn\u00ading process. Tem\u00adplates can also be used in the con\u00adtext of blended learn\u00ading<\/strong> \u2014 here, the learn\u00ading man\u00adage\u00adment sys\u00adtem is trans\u00adformed from a PDF desert into a dig\u00adi\u00adtal learn\u00ading space for asyn\u00adchro\u00adnous and syn\u00adchro\u00adnous phases, thus open\u00ading up a fur\u00adther con\u00adcrete teach\u00ading and learn\u00ading space for learn\u00aders. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Didac\u00adtic course tem\u00adplates com\u00adbine LMS and OER<\/strong>: On the one hand, the tem\u00adplates (pro\u00advided by twillo) are them\u00adselves open mate\u00adri\u00adals that can be adapted to indi\u00advid\u00adual con\u00adcerns and spe\u00adcific cases, i.e. to stu\u00addents. On the other hand, any\u00adone can make courses avail\u00adable to other teach\u00aders them\u00adselves \u2014 not least accord\u00ading to the motto \u201cThe wheel does not always have to be rein\u00advented\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

LMS<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Learn\u00ading man\u00adage\u00adment sys\u00adtems (LMS) have become an inte\u00adgral part of higher edu\u00adca\u00adtion and teach\u00ading. As an inter\u00adface between teach\u00ading and admin\u00adis\u00adtra\u00adtion<\/strong>, they bun\u00addle essen\u00adtial func\u00adtions of the teach\u00ading-learn\u00ading process: from the pro\u00advi\u00adsion of learn\u00ading mate\u00adri\u00adals to com\u00admu\u00adni\u00adca\u00adtion between teach\u00aders and stu\u00addents as well as between stu\u00addents them\u00adselves and the orga\u00adni\u00adza\u00adtion of teach\u00ading. In teach\u00ading-learn\u00ading sce\u00adnar\u00adios such as the flipped class\u00adroom, they can be used to pro\u00advide stu\u00addents with mate\u00adri\u00adals for the learn\u00ading phase pre\u00adced\u00ading the con\u00adtact phase. And this self-learn\u00ading can be strength\u00adened in a didac\u00adtic sense by using inter\u00adac\u00adtive facets of LMS (such as tasks and quizzes) in addi\u00adtion to mere PDFs. In short: LMSs have become indis\u00adpens\u00adable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most uni\u00adver\u00adsi\u00adties use one of the most com\u00admon LMS such as Moo\u00addle, ILIAS or Stud.IP. With regard to open edu\u00adca\u00adtion<\/a> and open edu\u00adca\u00adtional mate\u00adri\u00adals, it is regret\u00adtable that LMSs are still largely closed<\/strong> (closed in terms of 1. a lack of or lim\u00adited access options for peo\u00adple who are not mem\u00adbers of the uni\u00adver\u00adsity and 2. inad\u00ade\u00adquate options for import\u00ading and export\u00ading edu\u00adca\u00adtional mate\u00adri\u00adals). The rea\u00adsons for this are likely to be of a tech\u00adni\u00adcal and social nature. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tech\u00adni\u00adcally<\/strong>: Only a small pro\u00adpor\u00adtion of Moo\u00addle, ILIAS and Stud.IP instances allow their teach\u00aders to make their mate\u00adri\u00adals openly avail\u00adable \u2014 espe\u00adcially with pub\u00adlic areas or, in the case of Stud.IP, now with the con\u00adnec\u00adtion to twillo. This is regret\u00adtable, as teach\u00aders can openly license their teach\u00ading and learn\u00ading mate\u00adri\u00adals within the LMS in the sense out\u00adlined above and noth\u00ading would actu\u00adally stand in the way of pub\u00adlish\u00ading them as OER. How\u00adever, in a closed LMS, even mate\u00adri\u00adals with an open license can still only be accessed by peo\u00adple who are enrolled in the course or are at least mem\u00adbers of the respec\u00adtive uni\u00adver\u00adsity. Data pro\u00adtec\u00adtion issues undoubt\u00adedly play a role here, but solu\u00adtions are being found, for exam\u00adple by link\u00ading to OER por\u00adtals. For\u00adtu\u00adnately, there have recently been increas\u00ading efforts to achieve greater open\u00adness<\/strong> in terms of access and reusabil\u00adity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Social<\/strong>: Expe\u00adri\u00adence has shown that lec\u00adtur\u00aders at uni\u00adver\u00adsi\u00adties who enable the option of mak\u00ading mate\u00adri\u00adals pub\u00adlicly avail\u00adable in their LMS have so far only used this option to a very lim\u00adited extent. In addi\u00adtion to the effort<\/strong> involved in mak\u00ading mate\u00adri\u00adals pub\u00adlicly avail\u00adable, another rea\u00adson is cer\u00adtainly that cul\u00adtures of shar\u00ading<\/strong> still do not unite a large pro\u00adpor\u00adtion of teach\u00ading staff. Often a quasi-mate\u00adr\u00adial under\u00adstand\u00ading of edu\u00adca\u00adtion still seems to pre\u00advail, accord\u00ading to which access to mate\u00adr\u00adial is made more dif\u00adfi\u00adcult so that no one can adorn them\u00adselves with \u2018other peo\u00adple\u2019s feath\u00aders\u2019. How\u00adever, the idea of Open Edu\u00adca\u00adtional Resources does pro\u00advide for the pos\u00adsi\u00adbil\u00adity of cit\u00ading authors and thus fol\u00adlow\u00ading famil\u00adiar cita\u00adtion pro\u00adce\u00addures. The great advan\u00adtage of OER is rather that the cor\u00adre\u00adspond\u00ading mate\u00adri\u00adals can be edited directly, adapted to your own needs and fur\u00adther devel\u00adoped \u2014 ide\u00adally quite sim\u00adply, as they are pro\u00advided in open file for\u00admats, e.g. .docx in addi\u00adtion to PDF. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Added value<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Against this back\u00adground, we at twillo see two good rea\u00adsons <\/strong>for pro\u00advid\u00ading didac\u00adtic course tem\u00adplates for teach\u00aders:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. Inform teach\u00aders about teach\u00ading oppor\u00adtu\u00adni\u00adties and encour\u00adage them to explore new or didac\u00adti\u00adcally use\u00adful approaches<\/strong>
    With the didac\u00adtic tem\u00adplates we have cre\u00adated for tried and tested teach\u00ading and learn\u00ading con\u00adcepts (includ\u00ading research-based learn\u00ading and prob\u00adlem-based learn\u00ading)<\/a>, which con\u00adtain a vari\u00adety of didac\u00adtic tips on struc\u00adture, meth\u00adods and mate\u00adri\u00adals, we first want to draw atten\u00adtion to the pos\u00adsi\u00adbil\u00adity of mak\u00ading course tem\u00adplates cre\u00adated in the LMS pub\u00adlicly avail\u00adable. Many teach\u00aders are prob\u00ada\u00adbly unaware of this option or have not looked into it in detail due to their con\u00adstant high work\u00adload.
    We share our tem\u00adplates, which have been devel\u00adoped to the best of our knowl\u00adedge but are undoubt\u00adedly not per\u00adfect, in the spirit of a pos\u00adi\u00adtive error cul\u00adture and are con\u00advinced that they will ben\u00ade\u00adfit greatly from con\u00adstruc\u00adtive feed\u00adback and sug\u00adges\u00adtions for opti\u00admiza\u00adtion. Per\u00adhaps they will go some way to encour\u00adag\u00ading unde\u00adcided teach\u00aders who have not yet been able to bring them\u00adselves to put mate\u00adri\u00adals \u201cout into the world\u201d to do just that.
    <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Mak\u00ading work eas\u00adier for lec\u00adtur\u00aders
    <\/strong>Each LMS offers lec\u00adtur\u00aders cer\u00adtain mod\u00adules (con\u00adtent ele\u00adments) to sup\u00adport them in design\u00ading their courses. The actual design is the respon\u00adsi\u00adbil\u00adity of the teach\u00aders them\u00adselves. So far, there are no tem\u00adplates for entire teach\u00ading-learn\u00ading con\u00adcepts that con\u00adtain sug\u00adges\u00adtions for struc\u00adtur\u00ading, meth\u00adods and tasks, for exam\u00adple, and thus offer a didac\u00adti\u00adcally mean\u00ading\u00adful basic frame\u00adwork for course design, espe\u00adcially for begin\u00adners, or at least pro\u00advide ori\u00aden\u00adta\u00adtion.
    Twillo wants to take a first step towards fill\u00ading this gap with the didac\u00adtic tem\u00adplates. In line with both the OER con\u00adcept and spe\u00adcific teaching\/learning sit\u00adu\u00ada\u00adtions, the didac\u00adtic tem\u00adplates can be indi\u00advid\u00adu\u00adally adapted (e.g. the sequence and scope can be eas\u00adily changed and the tem\u00adplate explic\u00aditly pro\u00advides for the inser\u00adtion of your own spe\u00adcial\u00adist con\u00adtent). <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    If not only indi\u00advid\u00adual mate\u00adri\u00adals but entire courses are to be shared openly under license, sub\u00adse\u00adquent users are faced with spe\u00adcific ques\u00adtions about the assess\u00adabil\u00adity and reusabil\u00adity <\/strong>of the courses: How can teach\u00aders inter\u00adested in the course get a pre\u00adview of the course<\/strong> so that they can more accu\u00adrately assess whether it is suit\u00adable for their needs? Because the process of hav\u00ading to save the course and upload it to your own course in order to make an assess\u00adment is very cum\u00adber\u00adsome. Some Moo\u00addle and ILIAS instances make it pos\u00adsi\u00adble to make courses pub\u00adlic for this pur\u00adpose, among oth\u00aders. For the vast major\u00adity, we at twillo offer a prag\u00admatic alter\u00adna\u00adtive with our tem\u00adplates: We also pro\u00advide a view file of the essen\u00adtial con\u00adtent for each tem\u00adplate (here using the exam\u00adple of the Research-based Learn\u00ading course tem\u00adplate).<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The idea of cross-uni\u00adver\u00adsity reuse and fur\u00adther devel\u00adop\u00adment of didac\u00adtic tem\u00adplates faces another tech\u00adni\u00adcal prob\u00adlem, namely the lack of com\u00adpat\u00adi\u00adbil\u00adity of the file for\u00admats <\/strong>mbz (Moo\u00addle), SCORM (ILIAS) and XML (Stud.IP) gen\u00ader\u00adated in the respec\u00adtive LMS <\/strong>. Unfor\u00adtu\u00adnately, we can\u00adnot solve this prob\u00adlem in prin\u00adci\u00adple, but at least we can solve it for the tem\u00adplates we pro\u00advide by offer\u00ading each tem\u00adplate for all three sys\u00adtems (plus LiaScript). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Our conclusion<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    Didac\u00adtic tem\u00adplates com\u00adbine LMS and OER: LMS are an indis\u00adpens\u00adable tool for the teach\u00ading con\u00adtext. Didac\u00adtic tem\u00adplates are didac\u00adti\u00adcally struc\u00adtured course tem\u00adplates for learn\u00ading envi\u00adron\u00adments that depict didac\u00adtic mod\u00adels or teach\u00ading and learn\u00ading sce\u00adnar\u00adios. OER are edu\u00adca\u00adtional mate\u00adri\u00adals that are avail\u00adable under an open license and explic\u00aditly allow adap\u00adta\u00adtions under cer\u00adtain con\u00addi\u00adtions (CC 0, CC BY). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Didac\u00adtic tem\u00adplates pub\u00adlished as OER, i.e. not only acces\u00adsi\u00adble within the LMS, can help to relieve the bur\u00adden on teach\u00aders, inspire them, bring them even more into the exchange and thus make teach\u00ading a lit\u00adtle bet\u00adter.
    The course tem\u00adplates can also be used as sup\u00adport when cre\u00adat\u00ading your own OER. Newly cre\u00adated courses can of course be pub\u00adlished on twillo as OER. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Feel like shar\u00ading? If you have any ques\u00adtions about OER and the pro\u00advi\u00adsion of LMS courses, you are wel\u00adcome to con\u00adtact our sup\u00adport<\/a> team or come to our open con\u00adsul\u00adta\u00adtion hours, the twillo-thurs\u00adday<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Before we come to the added value of using didac\u00adtic tem\u00adplates in learn\u00ading man\u00adage\u00adment sys\u00adtems (LMS), we will take a closer look at the rel\u00ade\u00advant terms OER, didac\u00adtic tem\u00adplates and LMS. OER Open Edu\u00adca\u00adtional Resources (OER) are edu\u00adca\u00adtional mate\u00adri\u00adals whose key fea\u00adture is their open licens\u00ading, which invites re-use and usu\u00adally also adap\u00adta\u00adtion and fur\u00adther [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2968,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[151],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hands-on"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.twillo.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.twillo.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.twillo.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.twillo.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.twillo.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.twillo.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7540\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.twillo.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.twillo.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.twillo.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.twillo.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}