Learner In-sight

Month: October 2021

Inclusive Design: Post #3

October 31, 2021 / / 0 Comments

One example of universal design in engineering I can think of is dimmers. After listening to the “Teaching in Higher Ed” podcast episode on supporting ADHD learners, I have learned that individuals with ADHD are often more vulnerable to sensory overwhelm. Bright lighting can create an overstimulating environment, so having the option of using a dimmer could help lower the intensity of such stimulation and make it easier for those individuals to relax and concentrate on their tasks. I believe that dimmers fit within the Universal Design framework because they can benefit all users. For example, when I go to brush my teeth in the morning, using a dimmer can help reduce the pain in my eyes as they are especially sensitive to light after waking up.

We could think of dimmers as a representation for a more manageable workload in education. In the podcast episode, Karen Costa mentions the importance of helping ADHD learners ‘land the plane’ by asking them for ‘do’ in addition to ‘due’ dates and helping them schedule those. She explains that this technique helps reduce the confusion and overwhelm that ADHD learners tend to experience when they struggle with figuring out how to break down tasks in order to complete them by certain deadlines.

This concept of guidance is covered in Kayla’s post that describes ways in which she as a future teacher will support her learners’ needs.

EDCI 335 – Blog Post 3 – Inclusive Design

An example Kayla brings up is side-by-side reading, and I think it is a great demonstration of flexibility that we as educators can show to make learning more accessible in our classrooms. Side-by-side reading is an activity in which both the instructor and learner set the pace and focus. Teachers could use this technique to better connect with their learner, understand which particular areas their learner needs support in, and guide their progress in a more personalized way.

Stachowiak, B. (Host). (2021, October 21). Supporting ADHD Learners, with Karen Costa (No. 384) [Audio podcast episode]. In Teaching in Higher Ed. Innovate Learning. https://teachinginhighered.com/podcast/supporting-adhd-learners/

Interaction: Post #4

October 31, 2021 / / 1 Comment
  • In what way are learners likely to respond to the video on their own, e.g. make notes, do an activity, think about the topic (learner-generated)?
  • What activity could you suggest that they do, after they have watched the video (designed)? What type of knowledge or skill would that activity help develop? What medium or technology would students use to do the activity?

Although “The Five Ways to Wellbeing” video is a bit too simplistic for our Interactive Learning Resource, the reason I selected it for this particular prompt is that it can be used as a learner-generated interactivity medium. Unlike James’ programming language example, this video is not as concise and focuses more on soft rather than hard skills, but both videos encourage rather than push students to engage with the material. For example, James suggests that learners could engage with his video by taking notes to better organize and process information. One way in which learners could engage on a deeper level with mine would be by keeping a diary to keep track of how well they themselves follow the tips introduced in the video such as being active and continuing to learn. The speaker in the video explicitly addresses the viewers by instructing them to follow mental health improvement advice provided in the video. The background music and animation create an atmosphere that promotes reflection.

Post #4 – Making of Good Interactions

In the course my group is creating, videos will be an important part of the material needed for success in both individual and collaborative activities. One of the activities our learners will engage in is keeping a self-care journal. We do not assess it, but it is a great way to promote learner-material interaction and self-analysis. Similar to the tips listed in “The Five Ways to Wellbeing,” we would ask our learners to privately list their personal goals for mental health maintenance and create a plan for how they will apply the strategies we have presented them with to achieve those goals.

  • How would students get feedback on the activity that you set? What medium or technology would they and/or you use for getting and giving feedback on their activity?
  • How much work for you would that activity cause? Would the work be both manageable and worthwhile? Could the activity be scaled for larger numbers of students?

Our collaborative activity, on the other hand, is going to be assessed using the SOLO Taxonomy as a guide for our rubric. The rubric will evaluate the level of insight our learners demonstrate as they work in small groups of 3-4 individuals to create blog posts in response to the course-related prompts we give them and annotate others’ blog posts using hypothes.is. This activity should take about 30 minutes for each group and is meant to promote learner-learner interaction. It would be most suitable for 15-25 people, a number that would give learners enough options when it comes to choosing which post they would like to annotate as a group but would not overwhelm them with those options. This collaboration piece will help expose students to others’ ideas, develop their teamwork skills, and make them feel more connected to their classmates. Therefore, I believe it is worthwhile.

  • How could the video have been designed to generate more or better activity from viewers or students?

The video presented in this post could potentially generate more activity if it consisted more of questions towards viewers rather than just explanations and instructions. For example, asking the viewers “When was the last time you felt you have learned something?” is more personalized and is a more effective way to promote deeper reflection.

Sanctuary. (2020, May 19). The Five Ways to Wellbeing – boosting mental wellbeing [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gJ5V525SCk

UPDATE (Nov 22, 2021): My pod and I have actually decided to go with the interactive Hypothes.is group activity for the formative assessment and with a short-answer quiz for the summative assessment. We came to the conclusion that the Hypothes.is activity would be a more effective way of engaging our learners with the material as well as their peers, while a self-care journal would be a more personal and more difficult exercise to provide instructor feedback for. Both the group activity and quiz will be marked using the SOLO Taxonomy.

Learning Design II: Post #2

October 19, 2021 / / 2 Comments

The purpose behind the inquiry-based approach is to help learners engage with course material beyond sole memorization by encouraging them to demonstrate curiosity and take an active role in exploring their topic of interest by attempting to answer essential questions that could deepen their understanding (legacy posts, 2012). There are several ways in which this can be done. For example, controlled inquiry has the instructor choose a topic and provide learners with resources needed to answer the key questions (MacKenzie, 2018). The guided inquiry, on the other hand, has the teacher select the topic but not the resources. This allows for more flexibility and creativity when it comes to the solution proposed by the learners.

I find Josef’s computer science example, where students are first introduced to the essential question and then get to investigate it throughout the course, to be a great idea for making learning more inquiry based.

Inquiry Learning Prompt Response

When presented with a question that encompasses the goal of the course in the very beginning, the students can already begin to think: “What information would be useful for me to be able to answer that question?”. Along the way, they might come up with their own questions to guide their learning, and that will further increase their level of involvement with the material.

Trevor MacKenzie, an instructional coach in Victoria, BC, mentions the idea of the Four Pillars of Inquiry: “Explore a Passion”, “Aim for a Goal”, “Delve into Your Curiosities”, and “Take on a Challenge” (MacKenzie, 2018). Our group will focus on two of these: “Aim for a Goal” and “Take on a Challenge”. We will utilize a more guided inquiry method by presenting our learners with a type of formative assessment called the self-care journal. That exercise is meant for students to reflect on how the knowledge they gain from our course on mental health maintenance in university can be applied to their own lives. We will ask our learners to come up with SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound) goals in order to help them make positive behavioral changes in their diet, sleep, mindset, and social connections (Boogaard, 2021). By having each individual ask themselves: “What do I personally need to do to better support my mental health?”, we hope to get our learners to push themselves out of their comfort zone and interact with our course material in a more meaningful, memorable way.

Boogaard, K. (2021, October 15). How to write SMART goals. Work Life by Atlassian. https://www.atlassian.com/blog/productivity/how-to-write-smart-goals

legacy posts. (2012). Inquiry-Based Learning In The Classroom. STEM JOBS. https://edu.stemjobs.com/inquiry-based-learning/

Sketchnotes. (2018). Trevor MacKenzie. https://www.trevormackenzie.com/sketchnotes

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