Visualizing Course Structure: Using Course Composition Diagrams to Reflect on Design

We explore an innovative approach to learning design representations called course composition diagrams, which consist of interactive digital icons representing course elements, such as videos and quizzes. Course composition diagrams present a visual overview of course structure, including the placement and sequence of individual elements within a course. We hypothesize that providing design teams with such representations creates opportunities for reflection that may not exist otherwise, thereby potentially leading to improved design outcomes. We present a case study where design teams of Massive Open Online Courses used course composition diagrams to reflect on courses they had recently developed. Six themes emerged from our qualitative analysis: 1) affordances of representation, 2) limitations of representation, 3) opportunities for comparison, 4) congruence, 5) reflection on design choices, and 6) utility of representation. We argue that this approach holds promise for providing designers with meaningful opportunities to reflect on learning design.