BRAC Institute of Languages hosts the 5th session of the BIL Webinar Series

BRAC Institute of Languages (BIL) hosted its 5th webinar of the BIL Webinar Series on "Instructional Design and University Education" on 12 May 2022. The speaker of the webinar was Dr. Patrick Dougherty is the Dean of the Faculty of International Liberal Arts, Head of the English for Academic Purposes Program, Director of the Active Learning Center, and a professor of International Liberal Arts at Akita International University in Akita, Japan.  He has been an educator for thirty-four years, active in the United States, Japan, and the United Arab Emirates at the secondary, undergraduate, and graduate levels.  

Instructional design, also known as instructional system design, is something that educators do almost every day when they create and deliver lessons. The presentation gave the historical background of instructional design along with its theoretical underpinnings with examples of design in practice at the university level, and offered participants an opportunity to reflect on their own processes of instructional design and how they might be improved.

The webinar was a great success with the enthusiastic participation of educators from diverse fields of different institutions home and abroad. 

Workshop on Design-Based Research

BRAC Institute of Languages organized a workshop titled “A Talk on Designed-Based Research (DBR)” conducted by Mohammad Shams Ud Duha, a doctoral researcher at Purdue University, USA. This workshop took place on 26 May 2022 and enlightened its audience with DBR, a systematic approach with flexible methodology catering to educational practices through iterative analysis, design, development, and implementation. In the workshop, language teachers and TESOL students from BIL participated in an insightful discussion on the application of a theory through practice that fits a real-life situation. 

Initially, Mr Duha talked about different approaches to making frameworks aiming at enhancing solution implementation in research. He also focuses on the different characteristics of DBR and how the interaction between researcher and practitioner leads to a final solution in the end. There are a few principles that support design with research from the outset. This design-based research sets goals for theory development and develops an initial plan. Then, collaborating closely with the participants in a real-world setting analyzes data continuously and retrospectively. After going through a continual refinement, it validates the generalizability of the design. 

“Anything can be turned into a DBR”- with this quote, Mr Duha concluded his talk on Design-Based Research. The talk was followed by a group activity based on any educational problems that teachers or students face daily. Based on the problem, participants were asked to prepare a rough blueprint for a DBR. Problems like lack of students' participation and motivation in class, lack of creativity among students, giving and receiving feedback, hi-flex learning and the psychological aspect of the students as they shift from online to offline classes were discussed and innovative solutions were proposed a very interactive discussion session.