Course designs in Meebook’s course builder: analysis of 102 course designs

In this article, we present the first systematic study of how teachers design courses in the newly implemented digital learning platforms in Denmark. The study is based on the collection and double coding of the 102 most downloaded course designs in the learning platform Meebook. The descriptive data is analysed in the light of Meebook’s affordances, previous research and didactical theory. Our analysis focusses on the three main intentions of the introduction of learning platforms for K9-schools. This concerns firstly the use of learning objectives and their assessment, secondly the use of the platform in relation to the intention of sharing teacher-created course designs and thirdly the question of how teachers deal with the integration of multimodal learning materials in the course design. On one hand, the course builder in Meebook seems to affect teachers’ course designs strongly, and on the other hand, the course builder does not facilitate didactical reasoning and coherence. The results of the study have potential implications for platform designers, local school authorities and headmasters who deal with the implementation of platforms as well as teachers that daily use such course builders for teaching and the students’ learning.