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Interactive learning is often dismissed as mere engagement without instructional depth, but Interactive Techniques for Learning (BookBaby, 2024) by Thiagarajan, Richter, and Richter challenges this notion by grounding interactive strategies in cognitive science. The book explores the principles behind effective interactive learning, debunking myths such as learning styles and emphasizing research-backed techniques for retention and comprehension. It provides actionable strategies for structuring activities, managing cognitive load, and conducting meaningful debriefs to ensure learning extends beyond momentary engagement. The highlight of the book is a collection of 89 practical, adaptable activities designed for various educational settings.
» [Full Article]
REVIEW: LITERATURE,
TYPE: DESIGN FOR LEARNING
This article introduces a comprehensive open-access online toolkit as a resource for online educators, seeking to engage in continuous improvement of their inclusive teaching practices. The toolkit was created as an output following participation in a three-semester Faculty Institute for Inclusive Excellence. Two of the developers who focus on inclusivity, equity, and culturally responsive teaching acted as mentors, contributing to the creation of the toolkit and ultimately the professional development of the primary creators. All authors have extensive experience teaching online with a minimum of 10 years facilitating online learning in adult and higher education.
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TYPE: DESIGN FOR LEARNING, HIGHER EDUCATION
Student groups coexist on individual and team levels toward learning symmetry within two zones: the zone of proximal development (ZPD) for new knowledge co-construction and the zone of proximal flow (ZPF), which occurs once a balance between the learner's skill and challenge of the task emerges. Thus, each group functions within the ZPF, especially for K-12 students engaging in social behavior and collaborative learning activities.
» [Full Article]
TYPE: DESIGN FOR LEARNING, K-12 BLENDED AND ONLINE LEARNING
Educational technologies are now an integral part of the educational milieu. All educators are expected to be able to use technologies and design courses using these technologies. One framework that can guide the course design process using various technologies is the Learning Ecology Matrix (LEM). The LEM, focusing on learner autonomy and instructor guidance, aids in tailoring courses to be learner-centered or teacher-centered. This article reviews the LEM and explores how the LEM can be used in practice to design courses.
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TYPE: DESIGN FOR LEARNING
Providing opportunities for students to lead and shape class, alongside an instructor, takes into account the unique cultures, needs, and experiences of each student. A co-leading model was used during a blended Instructional Technology course and findings revealed that this model was engaging and gave students an opportunity to share their own experience. Student reflections also indicated some challenges, such as group collaboration and technical issues.
» [Full Article]
TYPE: DESIGN FOR LEARNING, HIGHER EDUCATION
This article focuses on learning experience design (LXD) as an emergent concept and professional practice in need of greater clarity. At a 2023 national learning and development conference three prominent learning leaders were interviewed and asked to share their unique perspectives on LXD (Michael Allen, David Kelly, and Megan Torrance). Excerpts from these interviews are featured throughout the article. The author also provides background information on LXD, an analysis of perspectives, and a concluding synthesis on the current state of LXD where it is approached within the context of digital transformation as an emergent new form of learning design.
» [Full Article]
TYPE: INTERVIEW, DESIGN FOR LEARNING
To enhance student engagement and learning in the online classroom, instructional videos need to be thoughtfully created, curated, and integrated. Key considerations include making the videos learner-centered and relevant, ensuring easy access, keeping video length short, focusing on clarity over perfection, providing alternative means of accessing the information, fostering student interaction, and personalizing videos to enhance the sense of class participation and connection.
» [Full Article]
TYPE: OPINION, DESIGN FOR LEARNING, HIGHER EDUCATION
A common challenge for instructional designers and administrators of online programs is ensuring that projects are completed within the development timeframe and course content meets high standards for quality. This article describes a training course that was developed to meet those challenges. The course prepares subject matter experts (SMEs) to work with a design team made up of instructional designers and instructional technologists so that SMEs can plan their course content using a backward design framework. SMEs participate in a fully asynchronous online course with other SMEs where they can collaborate and brainstorm ideas. Having SMEs take an online course that resembles the online course they will later be designing allows them to gain insight from a learner perspective, which can help them design a learner-centered course.
» [Full Article]
TYPE: DESIGN FOR LEARNING, HIGHER EDUCATION
Gamification has been dismissed by some as a passing fad and buzzword in education; however, if approached as part of mindful course design, gamification can enhance student learning and engagement. This article introduces a gamified redesign of a technology-based graduate course using Yu-Kai Chou?s ?actionable gamification.? Chou?s Octalysis Framework defines eight-core drives that describe the psychological motivators found in common gaming mechanics. Adding elements of ?white hat gamification? to the course?which focused on building a sense of accomplishment, empowerment, and meaning making?created an environment that allowed students to overcome their anxieties related to technologies, build digital literacies, and overcome the fear of failure in the classroom.
» [Full Article]
TYPE: DESIGN FOR LEARNING, HIGHER EDUCATION
Gamification, the application of game elements in non-game contexts, is being embraced in higher education, particularly in online classrooms, to foster engagement, participation, and satisfaction. As a quick and effective way to gamify, digital badges serve as virtual rewards for accomplishing specific tasks or goals, stimulating student motivation, promoting community, encouraging critical thinking, developing skills, and bolstering incremental learning, thus making learning tangible and shareable, and driving competition.
» [Full Article]
TYPE: OPINION, DESIGN FOR LEARNING, HIGHER EDUCATION
Profound Learning (PL) can result from online interactions that support practices for deep, lifelong learning. Distance educators can initiate, facilitate, and maintain PL by encouraging thoughtful rather than superficial learning using Universal Design for Learning (UDL). The inclusive nature of UDL provides multiple mechanisms to find that deeper meaning. In this article, concepts and practices drawn from Profound Learning Theory are integrated into UDL guidelines and connected to distance learning to support the development of deep, meaningful, and robust online learning.
» [Full Article]
TYPE: DESIGN FOR LEARNING
This article provides a summary and review of "Make It Meaningful: Taking Learning Design from Instructional to Transformational" by Dr. Clark Quinn. The book consists of a section on principles and a section on practices for designing learning experiences that engage learners intellectually and emotionally. The book provides a primer and a playbook for educators to reflect upon and improve their personal practice.
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REVIEW: LITERATURE,
TYPE: DESIGN FOR LEARNING
There is a multitude of terminologies in the field of learning and training to refer to how we design and approach learning experiences: two of them being instructional design and learning design. Online searches and forum discussions among practitioners and researchers reveal the confusion surrounding the use of these terms. Both terms have sometimes been used interchangeably, but the fact that there is more than one term implies that both terms might be used to encompass different aspects of the learning and training discipline. The term instructional design has been a commonly used term until recently, but now learning design made its way to the literature and to our practices.
» [Full Article]
REVIEW: LITERATURE,
TYPE: DESIGN FOR LEARNING
