Educational design patterns for academic developers

Sharing evidence-based approaches is increasingly regarded as a crucial aspect of quality learning and teaching in higher education and central to the practice of academic development. Academic developers and educators are expected to continually innovate and improve their practice to meet evolving challenges. Yet, the sector lacks systematic methods to share best practice and implement solutions tested by others. Design knowledge is often tacit, difficult to distil and codify. Design patterns offer a method to systematically capture and share tested solutions to common problems in education. While existing literature documents some aspects of pattern development processes, comparisons across design pattern projects, and examinations of key considerations in the development of such projects are scarce. Using collaborative practitioner inquiry, this study provides a contextualised account of a project in which educational design patterns are developed based on a large-scale educational innovation initiative. Synthesising our experience with the literature, we uncover five dimensions that shape the formulation of design pattern projects and outline their characteristics. We show how these dimensions support academic developers and educators in planning, executing and evaluating their own design pattern development projects, and link this to broader considerations of knowledge sharing relating to educational practice.