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Consistency is the low-hanging fruit solution to a more complex problem#

post_title='Consistency is the low-hanging fruit solution to a more complex problem'
layout="post"
published=false
id=18140
link="https://djon.es/blog/2021/10/10/consistency-is-the-low-hanging-fruit-solution-to-a-more-complex-problem"
category="casa"
img_base_url="https://djplaner.github.io/memex/share/blog/2021/"

Tweet#

Perhaps the problem isn't freedom. Maybe course site design doesn't vary due to whim, but because no person has all the knowledge necessary for great design for learning. It is hard & our tools & methods suck. Making everything the same gives the illusion of quality but...1/7

Suffers from problems. e.g. the reusability paradox. https://course.oeru.org/ds4oer/learning-pathways/orientation/the-reusability-paradox/ A design that applies to all, is rarely the best for any specific case 2/?

By being unable to respond to design for learnings inherent diversity you get an environment with "...less variety than a bad fast food restaurant" https://drive.google.com/file/d/16_DVNva7q4Jd_sD2Dsl5t29qGAb5QXga/view (Dede, 2008) 3/7

Minimum standards tend to become the maximum standard. If you use the template you can't get in "trouble". You're doing the "right thing". Responding effectively to contextual need by breaking the standard is seen as a "sin". https://djon.es/blog/2009/06/19/why-minimium-standards-probably-wont-work-and-will-probably-become-maximum-standards/ 4/7

Perhaps the problem we face is providing the appropriate knowledge for contextual design for learning sustainably and at scale. Consistency is better than the status quo. But I don't think it's enough. Please don't stop there. 5/7

A couple of designers (i.e. not organisation) are trying one approach that has resulted in an increase in consistency. But, that was a side effect of providing access to appropriate design knowledge that allowed for contextualisation. Early description here https://djon.es/blog/2019/08/08/exploring-knowledge-reuse-in-design-for-digital-learning-tweaks-h5p-constructive-templates-and-casa/ 6/7

Not the solution, but a small project now used voluntarily in hundreds of courses across multiple institutions e.g. https://twitter.com/iainmacl/status/1446219223785672706

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Chances are that your university has had, currently has, or will very soon have a consistency project. A project intended to respond to the problem @neilmosley05 raised in this tweet https://twitter.com/neilmosley5/status/1446167271039242253

The conversation @neilmosley05's tweet generated provides an illustration of the variety of views about consistency. As the title of this post suggests, I'm not a fan. As the title suggests, I think this consistency is a simple to implement "solution" that fails to recognise or engage with the real complexity of the problem.

This post attempts to explain that perspective drawing on perspectives from the Twitter conversation. To identify the limitations of consistency. To explain some alternate conceptualisations of the problem and explore some different ways of responding to the problem.

The limitations of consistency#

One of the standard problems raised to support the need for consistency is that students can't find anything on their course sites. @gamerlearner mentions this very real problem https://twitter.com/gamerlearner/status/1446240667236069388

Sure making every course use the same language in the same place would be one way to improve findability. Another would be to provide an effective search engine. I've yet to work at a University that provide a search engine (effective or not) for content in course sites.

The implicit assumption underpinning the consistency argument appears to be that consistency will generate good quality. A point @econproph makes https://twitter.com/econproph/status/1446221947348606976 Suggesting that a consistent quality of design, rather than consistency might have some value. @todd_conways puts it sucinctly https://twitter.com/Todd_Conaway/status/1446232404654395392

Templates have long been used as an enabler of consistency and as a way to reuse design knowledge. For example, in pre-Web hypermedia (Nanard, Nanard & Khan, 1998). In the context of this discussion, @judith_ekn shares her experience with templates https://twitter.com/Judith_ekn/status/1446523561078890500

Back in the early 1990s, when Australian higher education included large populations of students studying via print-based distance education, there was another method of achieving consistency. Industrial level print-based education organisations would take text provided by teachers and teams of project managers, instructional designers, desktop publishers, copy editors, and printers would transform that text into print-based study material that adhered to strictly consistent design standards. Dekkers and Kemp (1995) provide an example.

The assumption is if every site is consistent - by whatever means - that students will find what they need and their learning experience will be improved.

If that's the case, then what's your experience with University websites? Always able to find what you need? Delighted by what you find?

Over the last decade (or so), Australian University websites have become bastions of marketing enforced consistency. Control of the institutional website resides with marketing. The almight institutional brand defines the standard for consistency. Industrial strength content management systems have been adopted to ensure that consistency. Authoring access is limited to a small number of people who have been initiated into the brand.

The institutional websites of Australian Universities appear to be the best available examples of achieving consistency. But as staff member, parent of prospective students, and occasional researcher I find them to be devoid of specific, timely, and useful content or services. What content and services are provided are the lowest

Consistency and the brand rules all

?? something about templates and their limitations - this is where the unversity website comes in??

??the Dede quote as further highlighting the variability - bad fast food restaruant linked to tmeplate??

Alternate conceptualisations#

@Richards_Edtech asks how much money do Amazon spend? https://twitter.com/Richards_Edtech/status/1446553807387779073

@learningtech nielsen/norman group on quality, but professors aren't UX designers https://twitter.com/learningtech/status/1446258408588554242

Disconnection @chrisekennedy - name of the session different in different systems https://twitter.com/ChrisEKennedy/status/1446241577525972995

Different ways of responding to the problem#

@catspyjamasnz on design systems https://twitter.com/catspyjamasnz/status/1446292575510417413

Attribution#

The banner image. Low-hanging fruit flickr photo by santheo shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC) license

References#

Dekkers, J., & Kemp, N. A. (1995). Contemporary developments in the typographical design of instructional texts for open and distance learning. In F. Lockwood (Ed.), Open and Distance Learning Today (pp. 311--322). Routledge.

Nanard, M., Nanard, J. & Kahn, P. 1998, 'Pushing reuse in hypermedia design: golden rules, design patterns and constructive templates', Proceedings of the 9th ACM Conference on Hypertext and Hypermedia, ACM Press, 11-20.