Remixing as a creative and social approach to learning design

This paper discusses the concepts of remixing and morphing in learning design. In particular, it focuses on how the authors used approaches and findings from a high school action research study to inform their work in higher education. This was done in an attempt to build authentic and active student learning experiences that align with the needs of the 21st Century, and they argue that remixing offers a creative and social approach to the designing of learning. The high school study embedded social and participatory media into the face-to-face classroom. This opened up opportunities for students to interact and share user-generated content. The authors discuss how they have used the approaches and findings from this high school study in their work in teacher education and pre-service teacher education, as well in as learning design in the Business and Law Faculty. The authors' university has a strategic plan that identifies the world as globally connected, with new ideas available at the touch of a button and innovation 'anywhere' and at 'any time' and this paper supports that agenda. Using the concept of remixing the authors build on their previous work in learning design and make explicit the sharing nature within a remix approach. The use of the concept of remix is demonstrated within a bigger picture of what is sometimes called 'course-wide' thinking. The authors argue that this work contributes evidence and analysis that can inform course designers, practitioner-researchers and the work of academics, from across disciplines, to design courses that recognise and support active student learning.