Developing Learning Design( Module 3)

Educational design refers to planning and designing a course. It can be undertaken at two levels.

1.      Curriculum Design: It involves the designing of the whole course. It deals with need of the learners, stakeholders and context. It is an overview of the course.

2.      Learning Design: It refers to designing activities, finding resources, deciding method of delivery and formative assessment. The curriculum is divided into unit which are learnt according to a certain learning design.

I have also developed an Open Education Resource for the School of Natural Sciences on Vermiculture. “Open learning is a term used to describe courses flexibly designed to meet individual requirements. It is often applied to provision which tries to remove barriers that prevent attendance at more traditional courses, but it also suggests a learner-centred philosophy.”(Rowntree, 1992, p.4 cited from Lewis & Spencer, 1986) Keeping in mind the different model for designing the OER, I found the most suitable model is ADDIE which is not only suitable to education design but also suits to the needs of businesses and other institutions like Armed forces.

What is ADDIE?

It can be well illustrated with the following figure:

Source: http://www.agiledocs.com/elearning/custom-elearning-solutions/#

 

                  

Developing the wiki site for a diverse range of learner was a challenge for any course designer. Fortunately, the goal of the course that I have designed is suitable to every level of learner. How does this development fit into the ADDIE model?

1.      Analysis:  I have prepared a plan to design the course. The goal of the learning design is to enable the learners to produce vemicompost by constructing the worm farm of their own. The learners can be of any level. They may range from illiterate people to highly qualified people. Accordingly the structure of content, method of delivery and assessment   strategies have been planned.  The content, the nature of assignments are suitable to attract the attention of every learner and they will remain engage in their learning.

2.      Design: Keeping in mind the potential learners, the learning design has been planned.   It begins with an index. Instructions about the course has been given in the beginning. The course has been divided into different units which follows the scaffolding technique.

3.      Development: It is the most important stage of learning design. As mentioned above it will fulfill the needs of every learner at any level. The content includes simple to complex explanation of worm farming. The resources also serve the need of the learners.  On one hand simple video lesson, ppt. slides, flexible format of submitting the assignments, compiling the portfolio and on the other hand scholarly articles, ppt. by teaching specialists, and videos has been included in the design.

4.      Implementation: Although the design of the course is for self directed learning in any corner of the world yet any educator can plan activities to teach by following the content and resources provided or by using his own resources. I have implemented a part of in face to face teaching in which my students learnt the preparation of worm farm. The session was a mix of interaction, reflection and feedback on the learning design.

5.       Evaluation: The implementation helped me to understand that the content and the structure of the course is for learning by doing. So the activities that have been designed guide the learner to learn most of the things by doing. The criteria for assessment also depend on practical and experiential learning.

Reflection:  Quality of learning design can be measured in terms of it learner-centered approach. Clark (2002) states, “A learner-centered approach suggests that we design lessons that accommodate human learning processes regardless of the media involved.”  I have designed the course to meet the need of learners who might possess a wide range of qualifications, culture, age, resources etc. The content and the design ofthe course are completely flexible. It is available to the learners at their convenience. There is no timeline for enrollment, discussion, completing theassignment. It has been kept in mind the use of audio –visual resources which are essential for experiential and deep learning. The following diagram shows the influence of resources in open learning.

          

         Visual and supporting auditory information maximize working memory resources.

The learners in open learning need support at different levels. Rowntree (1992, pp. 74-76) states, “Might your learners need help and support with:

1.      Before they begin: for example what they want from learning

2.      To do with tackling the work: for example planning a timetable

3.      To do with the content of the programme: for example relating the content to their own experience

4.      To do with their jobs: getting their employers to recognize their new competence.

5.      To do with their assessment: learning to assess their own progress realistically

6.      To do with them: coming to terms with new beliefs or values”

They will be supported through discussionforum where they can ask and share for the support required.

Assessment criteria is kept very simple and flexible to meet the nature of learners. There is a balance between formative and summative assessment and both ensure deep learning. Discussion, case studies and construction of worm farm will be counted for assessment.

 Suitability to my learners: Although the design is developed for open learning and it fulfills the requirement of learners at any level. The students in my learner profile mentioned in module 1 are of level 4.  The use of mix of text, audio, video and activity enhances the engagement of the learners. They have been given the opportunity to discuss and interact with others on the Google groups. Experiential learning has been ensured through observing the videos, case study of a farm and a commercial vermiculture industry and deep learning will happen through working and constructing their own worm farm for which instructions have been given in text, and video format. The different options are available to the learners to construct a wide range of worm farms. The option is given to keep the flexibility in learning.

Effectiveness: The effectiveness and evaluation is a continuous process. Discussions with groups of learners and other interested parties is a cost effective way of obtaining a lot of information about the strengths and weaknesses of the programme. So a forum has been kept for discussion on every topic.

References:

Clark, R.( 2002, September 10). Six Principles of Effective e-Learning: What Works and Why retrieved from http://www.learningsolutionsmag.com/articles/384/six-principles-of-effective-e-learning-what-works-and-why

Rowntree (1992), Exploring open and distance learning. Great Britain: Biddles ltd

Critical Thinking

Paul & Elder(2007) state that critical thinking is an art of analyzing and evaluating the learning that takes place in our daily life. It enables a person to formulate purposeful question and gather and assess the relevant information. He comes to conclusions and tests them against preset criteria and rethinks about other alternatives. He communicates with others in finding the solution of complex problems.

A critical thinker always identifies the exact problem or asks for clarity or illustration. He thinks about the accuracy of the statement. He verifies the statement and for precision he seeks the problem to be specific. Relevancy is another issue that always strikes to the mind of critical thinker. He ensures that the quantitative and qualitative aspect of the statement. A statement might look very simple and can be said in a few words like “Say no to smoking.” A critical thinker always considers the complexities of the problem and goes into the breadth and depth of any statement. He evaluates and analyses the statement from others’ view point and ultimately comes to logical conclusion in which different thoughts are combined appropriately.   

Learning is a complex process. It can become long lasting if a learner develops critical thinking. The leaner will gain confidence and get better engaged in the learning process if he knows the answers of three questions:

              1.       What?

              2.       Why?

              3.       How?

Although these questions are equally important in learning but a learner develop critical thinking when he asks himself and the educator “Why.”

References:

Paul, R., & Elder, L. (2007). The miniature guide to critical thinking concepts and tools. Retrieved from

http://www.d.umn.edu/~jetterso/documents/CriticalThinking.pdf

Pedagogical Approaches

A teacher has a number of pedagogical approaches at his hand. The question of choice of approach/es is always debatable. What should a teacher do? The answer lies in the nature of learners. A teacher should understand his learners at the first stage and devise learning strategies accordingly.  

Ten pedagogical approaches suggested by LSIS are

Source: LSIS

As it has already been stated that learner should kept at the centre place while selecting a suitable approach. In general it would be better to say that successful learning process can occur by applying a combination of approaches. It cannot be justifiable to say that one approach is better than the other. But it would be right to say that one approach is better than the other in a particular context with particular learners.

I would like to mention the approaches that could be used with Learners pursuing Engineering Mathematics at Diploma level. The learners are diverse in terms of age, previous experience, numeracy and gender mixed.

Differentiation: Tomlinson (2001) states, “Differentiation allows students multiple options for taking in information, making sense of ideas, and expressing what they have learned.  A differentiated classroom provides different avenues to acquiring content, to processing or making sense of ideas and to developing products so that each student can learn effectively.” This approach considers that individual learners. My learners need individual attention. Some of them face difficulties in basic calculation and on the other hand some are advanced and need challenging questions.

Co-operative Learning : Johnson& Smith (1998)states that it is essential to improve information acquisition and retention, higher level thinking and interpersonal communication skills. In my workplace the students can be divided into small diverse groups. During the assignment they discuss their difficulties in the group and individual members suggest different solution to the problem and as a team they agree on an appropriate solution and shows collaboration.

Learning Conversations: Learning conversation acts as a scaffold to help learners reflect constructively. My learners not only converse with the teacher but also with peers to review their progress and accordingly decide what to do next. When they face difficulty in understanding the complex integration problems, they use to converse with the teacher.

Similarly the other suitable approaches that can be used are multi- sensory learning in which the students use different senses to grasp knowledge and e-learning in which the information and learning is available to the learners conveniently.

References:

Johnson, D.W., Johnson, R. and Smith, K. (1998) Active Learning: cooperation in the College Classroom. Edina, MN: Interaction Book Company. Retrieved from

http://tlp.excellencegateway.org.uk/tlp/pedagogy/assets/documents/qs_cooperative_learning.rtf

 Laurillard, D., Stratford, M., Luckin, R., Plowman, L. and Taylor, J. (2000) Affordances for learning in a non-linear narrative medium. Proceedings of the American Educational Research Association Conference Retrieved from

http://tlp.excellencegateway.org.uk/tlp/pedagogy/assets/documents/qs_learning_conversations.rtf

Tomlinson, C. A. (2001) How to differentiate in mixed-ability classrooms. 2^nd ed. Alexandria, VA. Retrieved from http://tlp.excellencegateway.org.uk/tlp/pedagogy/assets/documents/qs_differentiation.rtf

   

Feedback Model

Feedback is one of the powerful tools in the learning process and right feedback can bring the desired learning outcomes. Hattie & Timperley (2007) emphasize on the instructional aspect of feedback. Most of the teachers consider it for correcting the students’ learning but it is much more than that. Spiller (2009) describes the factors on which effectiveness of feedback depends:

      

      1.      Do students read and use the feedback for improvement?

      2.      The stage at which feedback is given

      3.      The style and difficulty of language used for feedback

Hattie and Timperley (2007) states the four levels of feedback as the following

      1.      Task

      2.      Process

      3.      Self Regulation

      4.      Self Level

I observed the feedback given by the teachers at Otago Polytechnic in the various departments. I would like to mention the feedback model used by Richard Nyhof in his Engineering Mathematics Class.

Task level: The goal of the learning was well known to each of the learner. The goal was to “learn the application of integration to find the length of a curved path or object.” It was well interpreted by the teacher. The facilitator was well aware that he needs to give the feedback at the task level. He knew that the learning outcomes required a deep understanding of the calculus skills. So he was selecting the students randomly to help them to understand the steps to complete the task. Individual feedback was more important in the class due to the great diversity. More than half of the learners are from Saudi Arabia and they used to make mistakes in simple calculus techniques but the teacher was providing the correct information which led them attain the desired goal.

The feedback model proved very useful in Mathematics class as attainment of goal requires a lot of correctional feedback and the direction to achieve the information. The students were facing difficulty in applying the prescribed formula sheet so the teacher has to give the feedback at the surface level to build up their confidence in attaining the desired goal.

  

Hattie, J. and Timperley.H. (2007). The Power of feedback. Review of Educational Research. (pp. 86-90). Retrieved from http://education.qld.gov.au/staff/development/performance/resources/readings/power-feedback.pdf

Spiller, D. (2009). Assessment: Feedback to promote student learning. Retrieved from http://www.waikato.ac.nz/tdu/pdf/booklets/6_AssessmentFeedback.pdf

Literacy and Numeracy

The level of literacy and numeracy of students differs a lot individually at tertiary institutions. Some of them are good in reading but cannot extract the theme of the text they read. The tertiary educators dealing with literacy and numeracy should understand their learners’ skills of literacy and numeracy and accordingly plan their strategy to enable the learner to meet the demand of the course.

I would like to mention the teaching session on reading by Pariya Williams at Language Learning Centre. The learners were diverse in terms of age, gender and understanding. Among the male learners some were mature adults and three of them were young adults. Among the females also two were mature and others were young adults. They were from China and other South East Asian countries.

Rebecca (2011) mentions in her blog the following techniques for reading.

1.      Show and tell

2.      Tap into Prior Knowledge

3.      Give time to talk

4.      Pre-teach Vocabulary

5.      Use visual aids

6.      Pause , ask questions , pause , Review

 I observed some of the techniques in Pariya’s class. She used different scaffolding techniques to develop their reading. She divided the whole text into small pieces and told them to read a small part. She also applied the differentiation technique and facilitated those learners who were struggling with vocabulary. She emphasized on ‘Think Aloud’ technique in which the students discussed in groups the topic sentence and tried to understand the theme of the passage. She started with the topic sentence of the passage and the students understood that the theme of the passage is to find the causative factor of shortage of teachers in the United Kingdom. She gave them time to talk and was taking pauses and asking questions after a little pause.

Similarly the other constituents (writing and speaking) of literacy can be developed through scaffolding and differentiation techniques. The educators should try to develop their lesson plans keeping in mind the context and culture of the adult learners because these are the two essential elements to engage the adult learners.  

The New Zealand Ministry of Education (2010) launched various numeracy projects which provide guidelines for students, parents and facilitators. The online material to learn numeracy is organized.   Numeracy can be best developed in the context. The best way to start with is learning about numbers by counting the objects. The selection of objects to be counted should of their interest for example an adult farmer can be asked to count the number of sheep in the pictures. Gradually they should learn the recognition of number from 0 to 9. This can be done by displaying charts and cards. Initially the number should be written in order. Later on cards with jumbled numbers should be given to them and they should be asked to rewrite them in correct order. In this way using scaffolding and differentiation techniques the facilitator should teach them large numbers, add, and subtract, multiply and numerical word problems. The statements of the word problems should be selected with utmost care. For example: “Martin went to the supermarket. He had $25. He bought a packet of bread for $2, 1 kg. cooking oil for $6, two packets of biscuits for $1.15 each. How much did he spend in all? How much money had he left with?” The problems should be related to their daily life. I would like to give the example of a numeracy project launched by the local govt. for the farmers in my home town. It was held in the grain market in 2006. The facilitators enabled the illiterate farmers to learn about numbers by counting the sacks of wheat. They were practicing numeracy orally. How many sacks were packed each day? How many of them are loaded into the trucks? How many of them are left? After getting oral practice, they were taught to recognize the numbers through cards and feedback was taken by asking them questions about the numbers written on different objects in the market. The next step was to write the numbers and the practice was given through a number chart and they were told to count the number of sacks packed per hour and note down the number on paper by looking at the chart for each hour. They also learnt to prepare a bill for the crop sold in the last two days. The facilitator took the copies of the bill and enabled them to practice. Initially they calculated for small amount and with practice they learnt to prepare the bill for large calculation.

Alber, R. (2011). The six scaffolding strategies to use with your students. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/scaffolding-lessons-six-strategies-rebecca-alber on August 31, 2013.

The New Zealand Ministry of education. (2010). Numeracy Projects. Retrieved from http://nzmaths.co.nz/numeracy-projects on August 31, 2013.

Adult Development Theories

Baumgartner (2000) mentions four lenses through which adult development will be seen are: behavioral or mechanistic, cognitive or psychological, contextual or socio-cultural, and integrative.

1.       Behavioral Approach: According to this approach people learn by responding to stimuli. Instructors provide opportunity for drills and practice to the learners. They use positive and negative reinforcement to develop a certain behavior.

2.       Cognitive Approach: The psychological or cognitive perspective focuses on an individual's "internal developmental processes" in interaction with the environment (Clark & Caffarella,1999,p.5). It emphasizes that adult learner learn through active participation and interaction with their environment.

3.       Contextual Approach: The contextual or socio-cultural perspective on development works from the point of view that adult development cannot be understood apart from the socio-historical context in which it occurs (Miller, 1993). Socio-cultural elements such as race, class, gender, ethnicity, and sexual orientation influence adult development. It is the intersection of these factors rather than a single factor that affects adult development and learning (Baumgartner & Merriam, 2000). The instructors who favor this approach try to blend the different cultural and contextual content into their teaching methods. They keep themselves aware of the diversity of their learners.

4.       Integrated Approach: The integrated approach to adult development takes a holistic view of adult development. This perspective is focused on how the intersections of mind, body, and socio-cultural influences affect development (Clark & Caffarella, 1999). It is believed that there is a connection between mind, body, spirit and socio-cultural factors. Educators believe in the all round development of the learners. The learner should grow intellectually, physically, emotionally, spiritually, aesthetically and morally. (Miller, 1999).

Teaching Philosophy: A good teacher follows one teaching philosophy. A better teacher favors two philosophies. The best teacher always considers his learners to adopt a certain teaching philosophy. I never remain stuck to one teaching philosophy. I believe in alternative and suitable learning model that suits my learners. After examining the above mentioned approaches, I find my teaching philosophy mostly fit into the integrated approach as I always favor the all round development of my learners.  

References:

Baumgartner, L., & Merriam, S. M. (2000). Adult Learning and Development: Multicultural Stories. Malabar, FL: Krieger. Retrieved from http://www.ncsall.net/index.html@id=268.html on 25 August 2013

Clark, M., & Caffarella, R. (eds.) (2000), An Update on Adult Development Theory: New Ways of Thinking about the Life Course. (New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, No. 84.) San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Retrieved from http://www.ncsall.net/index.html@id=268.html on 25 August 2013

Miller, J.  (1999). "Making connections through holistic learning." Educational Leadership, 56 (4), 46-48. Retrieved from http://www.ncsall.net/index.html@id=268.html on 25 August 2013

Pedagogies

Teaching and learning are the most dynamic elements in the world. The education field has observed a number of changes. If we look into the past the face to face teaching was dominating in the learning process. But the advancement of technology and the busy modern life forced the educators to think and find out alternative methods of delivering the course so that it should be accessible to everyone conveniently.

Pedagogies are institutional approaches to create learning environment. The choice of pedagogy depends on many factors like:

     1.       Context

     2.       Content

     3.       Learner

Context refers to the learning environment which includes the infrastructure, stake holders, and state policies. Online or blended pedagogies require well developed means of electronic communication. The nature of the course is also a key point in determining the right pedagogy. The completely theoretical course can be developed as purely online. On the other hand, a course that has a practical content can be delivered through blended pedagogy. The practical content can be delivered through block courses and theoretical component can be completed online. The centre of the whole learning process is the learner. Are they digitally literate? If yes, online pedagogy is suitable for them. If no, the blended pedagogy will serve our purpose in which they can be facilitated to use modern technology in learning.

An electronic portfolio is a platform where a user manages the evidences of his learning by using different online tools like blogs, slide share, wiki spaces, uploading text, videos, images and hyperlinks. Jenny (2005) states, “E-portfolios, like traditional portfolios, can facilitate students' reflection on their own learning, leading to more awareness of learning strategies and needs.” They can be updated conveniently therefore they are very dynamic. Personal learning environment puts the learner at the centre. It allows the learners to manage, modify, arrange the learning material as it suits to them. Personal Learning Environments (PLE’s) are the systems that help learners take control of and manage their own learning. This includes providing support for learners to:

       1.       Set their own learning goals.

       2.       Manage their learning, both content and process.

       3.       Communicate with others in the process of learning.

Nowadays digital portfolios are gaining momentum at all levels of education. They are becoming popular at schools where the record the students’ development is kept updated online which is always available to the parents and the students. Tertiary education which is more self directed helps the learners and the facilitators to reflect on the learning development and plan accordingly the future course of action. 

References:

 Moon, Jenny. (2005). "Guide for Busy Academics No. 4: Learning through reflection" (MSWord). The Higher Education Academy. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_portfolio#cite_note-1 on 25 August 2013.

Van Harmelen, H., "Design trajectories: four experiments in PLE implementation", Interactive Learning Environments, 1744-5191, Volume 16, Issue 1, 2008, Pages 36 – 46 Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_Learning_Environment 25 August 2013.