Design Thinking is a human-centred approach to problem solving, meaning that it revolves around meeting the needs of the people who require solutions. The process consists of five phases (Dam & Teo, 2024):
Empathize – At this stage, the designer collects quantitative and qualitative data and considers both to gain a robust understanding of target users’ needs.
Define – Once user needs are established, the designer can define the problem. In real life, problems are not always well-defined. For this reason, this stage may be revisited at any time, as user needs are better understood, to revise the problem.
Ideate – The designer generates ideas to solve the problem.
Prototype – A solution is fleshed out.
Test – The prototype is tested for efficacy.
This process is non-linear and iterative. Rather than follow the steps sequentially, any phase can be revisited to improve upon the solution (Dam & Teo, 2024). However, the intent is to create working protypes early so that they can be tested and learned from (Belling, 2020). The approach encourages the designer to understand users, challenge assumptions, and redefine problems with the end goal of improving products (Dam & Teo, 2024).
Alignment
The Big Ideas of our Design unit are “variety and balance are vital to healthy eating” and “fad diets can negatively impact physical and mental health.” In Health Promot J Austral, Romero & Donaldson (2024) include many examples of design thinking in public health education, which suggests that design thinking would align with our health topic as well. We currently have planned an activity in which students learn to evaluate the healthfulness of a meal and create healthy meals to apply the understanding of healthful eating to make personal choices. We could alter this assignment to involve design thinking by asking students to help a fellow student make improvements to their diet.
First, they would interview the other student in order to understand their current diet. Next, they would define the problem by choosing something in the diet to improve. They would then ideate by coming up with some ideas of changes to make in order to improve the diet, and prototype by creating a plan to make those changes. They would propose the plan and seek feedback from the other student to test the prototype. Is this a plan that the other student could realistically follow? Does it seem consistent with food guidelines as they understand it? The student would use this feedback to improve their suggested plan.
This process would require the learner to understand both the target user and guidelines around healthy food choices, addressing the first Big Idea of the unit.
Romero, V. and Donaldson H. Human-centred design thinking and public health education: A scoping review. Health Promot J Austral. 2024; 35(3): 688–700. https://doi.org/10.1002/hpja.802
Elena, I enjoyed reading your first blog post. It was well-organized and easy to folllow, and I liked having the photograph to dress up the text and make the post more appealing.
Your insight about the accessibility of distributed learning I think is an important one. People who can’t attend classes, whether because of transportation or time constraints, can access education that is online and asynchronous. At the same time, I agree that there is nothing like meeting in person to foster human connection and build friendships. I think of all of the non-verbal and proximity cues we unconciously give which can’t be seen or felt when we are sitting in front of a camera, and the connections we make when we make conversation as we wait for a class to begin. These are very difficult to replicate online. Perhaps the difficulty connecting in natural ways is the reason that, during the Covid years, people got “Zoomed out,” feeling stress with greater time in online connections even though in-person social connection generally tends to reduce stress.
Overall, I felt that your descriptions of different educational options and digital literacy were clear and detailed. It sounds like you have a good handle on the digital world and manage your online presence in a way which allows you to show your professional side while being safe with personal information.
Blog prompt: Reflect on the role of the instructor in an online course. What qualities do you think are essential for an instructor to be effective in a digital space? How have instructors you’ve had in the past successfully (or unsuccessfully) fulfilled this role?
In any course, the instructor is central to learning, not necessarily because the instructor is the centre of attention or knowledge, but because it is he/she/they who leads the class, plans the activities, sets the tone, and evaluates learning. To maximize the value of a course for learners, the instructor must put thought and effort into their work. They must employ a consistently effective pedagogy.
Pedagogy – The study of teaching and its methods. This includes strategies teachers use to create a learning environment, instructional activities, learner engagement, and assessment. (Hotchin, 2025)
Pedagogy
What does it mean to employ an effective pedagogy? Beginning with the end in mind, let us first consider what the instructor brings to the job before students enter the picture.
In my experience, first, an instructor must be knowledgeable in the content area of the course. Without this foundation of expertise, the teacher is not so much a guide as a project manager, helpful with getting things done, but not so much in furthering understanding. Not only do they need to know the course content, but they must know how to help students learn it.
Perhaps they have studied learning theories, or maybe their understanding comes purely from experience and intuition. Either way, a successful instructor has designed the course and lessons with intention.
I have also found effective teachers to be interested in cultivating relationships with and between students, creating a safe and welcoming environment in which to learn. As well, they employ strong communication skills, clear in their verbal and written expression, transparent with expectations, and good listeners and observers. Finally, and particularly with online courses, I have found effective instructors to be organized, able to create a navigable learning environment and lesson or course structure, and offer timely feedback.
Behaviourism – Teaching based on behaviourist theories focus on helping students change their behaviour based on what they are taught. For example, a behaviourist would consider a student to be successful at learning 3 x 8 if the student can consistently respond to the question with 24.
Cognitivism – Cognitivist teaching is concerned less with what students can observably do and more concerned with students’ thinking processes. A teacher using cognitivist strategies strives to help students develop skills for problem solving, reasoning, language, and mathematical thinking. For example, knowing that 3 x 8 is 3 groups of 8 or 8 groups of 3, and being able use that idea to solve problems is more important than simply knowing the result, 24.
Constructivism – Constructivism considers that learners make their own meaning from personal experience and reasoning. A teacher using a constructivist lens attempts to create authentic situations, similar to those in which the learners will apply the new knowledge, and guides learners to construct meaning and check themselves for accuracy, as in an apprenticeship.
Social Learning Theory – Social learning theory emphasizes external motivators in learning, namely observation of others’ behaviour and its consequences. For example, a student who sees another get praised for participating in a discussion may be more likely to participate in discussion themself.
Connectivism – Connectivism focuses on learning as connecting information sources to form networks. For example, a student who has learned about chess at home, from some websites, and in a local club connects with other players in an online forum, expanding their learning by increasing their network.
Major Learning Theories (Ertmer and Newby, 2018), (Bandura, 1971), and (Hotchin, 2025)
Pedagogy in an Online Context
In an online space, the learning theories and aims underlying the pedagogy are much the same, though the strategies may differ. Teachers still need to design courses and lessons thoughtfully, with learners in mind, whether they are teaching facts with behaviourist stimulus-response-style lessons, helping students learn problem solving strategies using cognitivist approaches, or planning group activities that will support constructivist learning. Additionally, teachers can use Social Learning Theory (Bandura, 1971) to effectively take charge of the social environment in order to ensure students are learning desired beliefs and behaviours from one another.
If teaching strategies are different in an online environment, what do essential teaching qualities look like?
Expertise
In an online course, I have found teachers to create access to their knowledge and understanding less in real-time lecture and conversation, and more through the resources they curate and questions they pose. Their expertise is essential to design and facilitation, described in Garrison, Anderson, and Archer’s Community of Inquiry (CoI) as key functions of teaching presence, an essential component to teaching (Garrison & Archer, 2000).
For example, during a course in Investigations in Mathematics, our instructor taught a class from online. He provided carefully designed problems, gave background information, organized us into groups, and allowed us time to work, breaking in only briefly to lead discussions.
His understanding of how people learn allowed him to plan a lesson that accessed our prior knowledge, engaged us with well-paced problems, allowed us to learn from one another, and scaffolded our retention through review. He had familiarized himself with the technology platform we were to use (Google Jamboard), enabling him to support us with the use of space so we could focus on learning the content of the course. Meanwhile, his background in Mathematics allowed him to flexibly create more difficult problems when we needed more than had been planned.
Organization
Teaching online also increases the importance of organizational skills in an instructor. In order for students to be able to navigate the course, they need to understand the environment, including course structure and community, and have an ability to find resources (Hotchin, 2025). I have found digital organization to be very challenging as compared to organization of physical materials. No longer are we, as students, able to use memory based on place to find and organize our materials. Nor is visual memory as effective when content is published with the help of templates. We must also hold onto the thoughts of what we are seeking amidst the myriad distractions of websites and links that come to our attention as we hunt through notes, readings, and emails. In my experience, a well-organized virtual space is essential to support students effectively.
In an online French course that I supported my daughter through, the teacher designed a well-balanced course of open sourced readings and videos, learning activities, and formative assessments. All activities, assignments, and deadlines were laid out in a readily accessible course outline. Upon logging into the Learning Management System (LMS), the student could see what tasks had been completed, what percentage of the course was left to do, and suggested target dates of completion for each unit. This organization was very helpful, allowing my daughter to concentrate on improving their French.
Additionally, the instructor must themself be organized. The principles of CoI (Barnes, 2016) include giving prompt feedback and emphasizing time on task. This can be done if the instructor has managed their own time to regularly attend to their marking and planning tasks.
Communication
As Hotchin (2025) reminds us, effective communication is a crucial part of online teaching. This begins with frequent student-faculty contact, which is one of Chickering and Gamson’s seven principles of online teaching, as referenced in Barnes (2016). For example, in my EDCI 335 course, the class is set up in a social chat on the Mattermost platform, and the instructor is a participant in the whole-class channel. This allows her to connect with us both formally, such as when she posts the week’s tasks or answers questions, and informally, such as when she uses reactions or posts a quick welcome message. In this way, she encourages an active learning community in the class and maintains a strong teacher presence.
Another principle of online teaching is giving prompt feedback (Barnes, 2016), important to letting students know whether they are “on the right track” and give them a sense of being guided. This timely communication helps students feel engaged and know they are learning. Similarly, students benefit from effective communication of the course structure, expectations, and time parameters. In the previously discussed French course, my daughter was able to self-assess her progress and manage her time because she understood where she was in relation to the course structure and expectations. At the same time, the teacher sent emails if she was falling behind, helping her to keep on track when she was struggling. The teacher’s “checking in” when concerned about my daughter’s progress is similar to the initiative a classroom teacher takes when a student is idle in class and, in my teaching experience, a valuable way to offer support when it might be needed.
As well, an effective online instructor values relationships. Barnes (2016) points out the importance of a student’s ability to feel present in a learning community, supporting their sense of trust and belonging. Social Learning Theory also highlights the learning that students do by observing one another (Bandura, 1971). The stronger the connections between students, the more they can learn from one another. The instructor facilitates social presence by building strong relationships with students, modeling respectful social behaviour, and encouraging interdependence between students.
In my EDCI 335 course, this is demonstrated in both the course design, in which students complete group projects throughout the course, and in the Mattermost social chat room, where students discuss readings and videos, and ask and answer questions among one another. We are also expected to read and respond to blog posts from other students, allowing us to support and learn from others in the class.
Networked Pedagogy
In my experience over the years, local educational practice has evolved to better appreciate the unique knowledge and life experiences brought to a learning community by each student. This is especially true in an online context. In The Manifesto for Teaching Online, Bayne et al. (2020) point out the vastly different lives that may be being lived by students who might come from all over the world. Not only does a teacher need to consider the geographic distances students traverse by accessing a course online, but also the different political, educational, and cultural backgrounds they bring to the community (Bayne et al., 2020). Networked pedagogy mines the richness of this diversity by emphasizing the connections between people and the resources and ideas they bring using technology (Hotchin, 2025).
Networked Pedagogy – An approach to teaching that conceptualizes learners, resources, and ideas as nodes in a digital network and emphasizes the connections between them. (Hotchin, 2025)
One example of this approach is in EDCI 339, in which we use blogs to write about our learning and its connections with our personal knowledge and experiences, and then read and respond to one another’s blog posts. This allows us to connect to other ideas and see from other perspectives. We are expected to meet with people in groups to discuss readings and work on projects using whatever digital spaces work for us.
In our group, because we all have good digital literacy skills, we are able to interact effectively, making and changing plans, contributing ideas, and responding to one another. We quickly chose a social media platform for communication and a different one for collaboration. Had we had trouble, we knew we could reach out to our instructor for help.
Digitally Literate
Finally, all of an instructor’s teaching skills and understanding of student perspectives will not help in running an online course if the teacher is not digitally literate. Not only must the instructor be familiar with relevant technology – LMS’s, social media, collaboration software, etc. – but they must have a good understanding of the social space in a digital environment. They must understand privacy and security issues when asking students to put information online, and indeed, when posting their own information online. And, they need to have enough experience to be able to guide students when they have trouble.
Read more thoughts about digital literacy and digital identity in my Blog Post #1!
Conclusion
The role of the instructor in an online space is not different than their role in a physical space. An effective instructor still attempts to leverage all of the tools at their disposal to maximize learning. They bring expertise, organization, and leadership to the community, and they bring people together to allow students to benefit socially and educationally from one another. The difference in an online space is the strategies we must use to achieve these goals. Because the digital world is relatively new and evolving quickly, teachers today cannot bring to bear the benefit of thousands of years of human experience in communicating with groups and building community. Instead, online teachers today must thoughtfully consider how to organize materials usefully, connect effectively, and read students’ needs. Additionally, we must consider how much broader is the world encompassed by “the classroom” when teaching online. When we understand this, we find ways to embrace and celebrate diversity, be sensitive to differing environments, and encourage students to learn from one another.
Ertmer, P. A., & Newby, T. (2018). Chapter 11 Behaviorism, Cognitivism, Constructivism. In Foundations of Learning and Instructional Design Technology West, R. E. (Ed.). EdTech Books.
Concise Description and citing of at least 2 academic articles:
Health education is vital to everyone’s success. Education on what an appropriate diet consists of is necessary to see an overall growth of healthy relationships with food. Through social media and scientifically unsupported sources, there has been an unprecedented amount of encouragement towards dangerous dieting and fads. Oklahoma State University (Cena, H., & Calder, P. C., 2020) explains how fad diets contribute to increased body dissatisfaction, lower self-esteem, and lead to an increased risk of mortality, the development of eating disorders, impaired bone health, and infertility. Healthy food habits refer to well-balanced food intake and creating meals that emphasize proper diet, a comprehension of what you’re eating, and adaptability. These habits show massive health benefits. Research done by Cena, H., & Calder, P. C. (2020) helps link these dietary patterns to health “Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, chronic respiratory diseases, diabetes, obesity, and cognitive impairment are among the leading causes of death; indeed, the marked rise in chronic NCDs has a causal link to global dietary patterns.” The increased prevalence surrounding fad diets highlights the need for a balanced, evidence based approach to educating the population about nutrition. Lot’s of individuals are falling into this trap Canada’s Food Guide (2024) explains that a proper diet is not about eliminating specific foods but rather focusing on variety, balance, and moderation. By focusing on nourishment and not repression, individuals can create lifelong healthy habits that support both physical and mental health, reducing the risks with non-communicable diseases and disordered eating patterns.
This learning plan will equip students with the knowledge to make informed dietary choices, be able to debunk fad diets, and understand the nutritional benefits for long term health – understanding that is grounded in academic research and Canada’s food guides. This plan combines quizzes, meal plans, and a media presentation to reinforce learning. By fostering critical thinking and practical application, this resource promotes lifelong healthy habits and combats misinformation.
1-2 misconceptions about your topic. What do people usually misunderstand about it? What mistakes do they often make?:
One of the most prevalent misconceptions about living a healthy lifestyle is that fad diets offer a quick fix to health issues such as obesity, acne, and mood problems (Kumar & Docter, 2023). These claims are often not supported by research and generally have an extremist approach, meaning they tend to involve eating plenty of one thing or restricting too much of another. The issues with these approaches are that they are often not sustainable because they cut too many calories to support daily activities, create weight loss and weight gain cycles, and may create too much focus on food which interferes with enjoyment of other activities (Dixon & Doctor, 2023). Additionally, fad diets pose many potential health risks such as energy deprivation, inadequate nutrients, and a poor relationship with food. Another common misconception about achieving a healthy diet is eliminating ‘unhealthy’ foods entirely. Unfortunately, this often leads to many adverse health effects and cycles of guilt, overeating, and general stress about food. Again, this extreme approach does not promote long-term health or sustainability (Kumar & Docter, 2023).
Rather than these restrictive and extreme methods for creating a healthy lifestyle, Canada’s Food Guide (2024) recommends striving for balance and aiming to prioritize whole, nutrient-dense foods. An important consideration is that there is no “one-size-fits-all”; and rather, individuals have different goals, preferences, and lifestyles. Therefore, one should focus on enjoying their food, forming good habits, and maintaining overall health to achieve what works for them.
A rationale for developing your learning resource based on this topic. What is it about this topic in particular that is of interest to you?:
The rise of fad diets, often promoted through social media and other non-expert sources, has become a significant concern in today’s society. These diets claim to provide quick fixes for weight loss or health improvement but are rarely sustainable and can even be harmful (Sciarrillo et al., 2020). Many individuals, particularly younger people who are more engaged with social media, struggle to critically assess dietary information, making them vulnerable to these misleading claims. This is why the development of this learning resource is essential. It addresses a critical gap in nutritional literacy, equipping learners with the skills to recognize the dangers of fad diets and make evidence-based decisions about their diet.
The topic is particularly important because unqualified sources often promote restrictive eating practices that prioritize short-term results over long-term health. Inadequate understanding of nutrition can lead to unhealthy relationships with food and increase the risk of chronic health conditions. By promoting the importance of balanced and sustainable eating habits, this resource aims to counter these harmful trends and encourage a more mindful approach to food. Canada’s Food Guide (2024) underscores the importance of eating habits that are not only nutritious but also enjoyable and sustainable. It challenges the notion of careless restriction, emphasizing that long-term well-being is best supported through balanced eating. This learning resource aligns with that approach, helping learners apply credible knowledge in practical ways, such as through meal planning activities. By teaching critical thinking and providing tools to assess nutritional information, it empowers individuals to make decisions that foster long-term health and well-being.
Learning Design
Time to complete: 2 hours
Format: asynchronous online, with synchronous group activities
Target Learner: general public
Big Ideas
Variety and balance are vital to healthy eating.
Fad diets can negatively impact physical and mental health.
Essential questions:
1) How should one eat to attain optimal health?
2) Why should one be concerned about what we eat?
3) How can we change from unhealthy eating habits to healthy ones?
4) How can I recognize diet messages that are harmful to me?
Guidelines for meal correction assignment, meal planning, and presentation assignment
Access to Internet
Moodle
Zoom Meetings or other online meeting software
Optional: Video capture technology, such as a smart phone.
References
Canada’s Food Guide. (2024, January 4). Diets and food trends. https://food- guide.canada.ca/en/tips-for-healthy-eating/diets-food-trends/
Cena, H., & Calder, P. C. (2020). Defining a healthy diet: Evidence for the role of contemporary dietary patterns in health and disease. Nutrients, 12(2), 334. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12020334
Kumar, M. M., & Dixon Docter, A. (Eds.). (2023). Fad diets and adolescents: A guide for clinicians, educators, coaches and trainers. Springer Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-10565-4
Sciarrillo, C., Joyce, J., Hildebrand, D., & Emerson, S. (2020, November). The health risks of fad diets. Oklahoma State University Extension. https://extension.okstate.edu/fact-sheets/the-health-risk-of-fad-diets.html
Thank you for sharing your thoughts on your blog post, Percy! I enjoyed reading it. The graphics were informative and engaging, and I found the post well-organized and easy to read.
Your observations about the accessibility benefits of Distributed Learning were insightful. I think your point about remote and underserved areas is true because cities often have better services since many people can pool their money to build school structures and acquire resources. Yet, those who live in rural and remote areas also should have equal access to education. Likewise, I agree that people may find it hard to enroll in schools due to geographical distance, work commitments, or lack of funding. The access afforded through Distributed Education and Open Learning breaks down those geographic and financial barriers.
As you pointed out, these alternative types of learning may still be difficult if people struggle to access reliable Internet or lack technological skills. In your final paragraph, you talk about accommodating more needs by blending face-to-face with online modalities. I wonder how geographic and financial barriers would affect people who need to access online content and also participate in in-person sessions. I like your idea of providing digital resources (such as devices?) to ensure everyone can access online education.
I enjoyed the connections you made in this blog post, Kate. Your journey of learning Spanish illustrates very well the different lenses of behaviourism, cognitivism, and constructivism. I can see how memorization of vocabulary and rules would be limiting. It sounds like the lack of support for learning beyond facts contributed to your lack of confidence at the time. I’m curious if your search for more engaging ways to learn influenced your teacher’s cognitive approach or if their approach and your need was a happy coincidence? Or perhaps, this evolution of need is anticipated by teachers as learners reach a particular point in language learning? In any case, it is clear that the move to cognitive and constructivist approaches allowed you to take your learning to a level where the language was useful for communication. How brave you have to be to put yourself into these situations where you must make many mistakes in order to learn from them.
Integration of the approaches as you describe it for your high school social studies class makes a great deal of sense. As you found from your experience, the foundational knowledge gives a student knowledge and ideas to connect and apply, but the opportunity to make those real world and personal connections is so important to engagement. Would you use a similar structure for an elementary class? Does the level of learning affect how you would balance the approaches?
Your blog post is really well laid-out, with headers and formatting that chunk and highlight your ideas, making them very easy to understand. I enjoyed the way you have used a variety of media to underscore what you’re saying and add more information – very engaging! I appreciated the emphasis you have put on accessibility, which is a key way in which our education systems are striving to improve.
In your discussion of Distributed Education, my interest was piqued by your observation that Distributed Education can “improve the diversity of educational contexts,” by “account(ing) for multiple perspectives.” It is true that having people from very different geographical locations can enrich discussions as they learn together. The differences in culture and personal experience that students can bring really add to opportunities for understanding a topic. I imagine the tricky part is ensuring these discussions remain respectful when differences in viewpoints are vast.
Overall, I found your blog post informative and comprehensive. I appreciated the additional references and video for further investigation. I can feel your enthusiasm for the learning that is to come in this course. I look forward to learning alongside you!
In the blog post, “Overcoming Challenges in a New Professional Role,” Conrad describes his experience adapting to his first job requiring his training in first aid and CPR. He talks about the power of learning with the constructivist approach, in which he performs in real situations, gets feedback from a colleague, and applies the learning to new situations. He also talks about applying information he has learned from studying principles and procedures using behaviourist and constructivist approaches of learning.
I can really see the progression of learning through this description of your experience, Conrad. As in the class readings, you note the difference in approaches, from behaviourist during practice and with repeated exposure, to constructivist, where you utilize higher thinking skills as you solve unique problems in real situations. I think you made an important observation when you drew on the things you learned with behaviourist and cognitivist approaches in order to support your ability to learn more in a constructivist approach. We really cannot rely on one approach for everything, can we? I am curious, because you mention both behaviourism and cognitivism, but give an example only for behaviourist learning, in what ways did cognitivist learning play a part in your training?
It sounds like the learning in your constructivist phase of this experience was more challenging and a bit disquieting. Having those answers or solutions that we, as learners, can identify as definitely right or wrong makes us feel safe. But, as you said, exploring the grey areas where we look at things we can do better or worse allows us to gain deeper understanding and a different kind of confidence. Now that you have that richer understanding, do you still find yourself ever going back to relying on the memorized knowledge you gained?
What are some other examples of situations where you think combining learning strategies is applicable?
Blog Post Prompt: Based on your reading, would you consider your current instruction style more behavioralist, cognitivist, or constructivist? Elaborate with your specific mindset and examples.
Many teachers develop their instructional style intuitively, based on how they themselves learned and how they believe people learn. In order to gain more instructional tools, it is useful to reflect upon the ways in which people learn and make connections with one’s own teaching style. In EDCI 335’s course reading, Learning Theories (2025), three major theories of learning are described: behaviourism, cognitivism, and constructivism.
Behaviourism
Teaching based on behaviourist theories focus on helping students change their behaviour based on what they are taught. For example, a behaviourist would consider a student to be successful at learning 3 x 8 if the student can consistently respond to the question with 24.
Cognitivism
Cognitivist teaching is concerned less with what students can observably do and more concerned with students’ thinking processes. A teacher using cognitivist strategies strives to help students develop skills for problem solving, reasoning, language, and mathematical thinking. For example, knowing that 3 x 8 is 3 groups of 8 or 8 groups of 3, and being able use that idea to solve problems is more important than simply knowing the result, 24.
Constructivism
Constructivism considers that learners make their own meaning from personal experience and reasoning. A teacher using a constructivist lens attempts to create authentic situations, similar to those in which the learners will apply the new knowledge, and guides learners to construct meaning and check themselves for accuracy, as in an apprenticeship.
(Ertmer and Newby, 2018)
Where Do I Fit?
When I consider my own current instructional style, I think I lean towards cognitivism. I like to present students with novel problems which allow them to show me their current understanding of concepts and the lines of reasoning they use as they attempt to solve them. As well, part of my explicit instruction is to point out similarities between the strategies they have used to solve problems with new strategies that can be useful. As a Math teacher, I feel that helping students be aware of ways of visualizing concepts and applying this understanding in their reasoning and problem solving is an important part of my job. Additionally, I include in my lesson planning plenty of time for practice with immediate feedback to help students effectively assimilate new concepts and processes.
Although cognitivism is a large part of my teaching, I also feel that behaviourist and constructivist lenses play an important role in my instructional design. As more students arrive in my high school classes not knowing facts such as multiplication tables, I have begun to incorporate behaviourist strategies like asking for fact recall during instruction and reviewing periodically so that less information is forgotten.
I have also heard from many people who say that they struggled with learning Math because the problems were so different from how they might apply it outside of the classroom. I try to construct authentic problems for my students to help them make those connections. As well, to allow students to create more personal meaning to their learning, I encourage them to work together on the problems and identify things they learn during the process, and I create opportunities for them to apply concepts and strategies in creative ways. I coach them in learning to validate their own solutions and make judgements about the quality of their solutions.
Overall, I feel that it is important not to subscribe to a single theory of learning, but to use the lens most appropriate to designing for what we hope our students will learn. In the BC Curriculum, we want our mathematics students not only to be able to calculate using established algorithms, but also to develop their reasoning, demonstrate understanding, make personal decisions, and reflect upon connections. Teaching each of these Curricular Competencies needs a distinct approach and requires us as teachers to be well versed in all three of the major theories of learning.
Ertmer, P. A., & Newby, T. (2018). Chapter 11 Behaviorism, Cognitivism, Constructivism. In Foundations of Learning and Instructional Design Technology West, R. E. (Ed.). EdTech Books.
Hello, welcome to Learning with Technology! I am EverythingSoup, which is a lot like something I make for my family at the end of the week. The soup has a little of this and a little of that, using things that aren’t necessarily often cooked together, but combines to make a dish that works.
Professionally, I am a secondary school Math (and, technically, Science) teacher. Having moved to “The Island” from the Lower Mainland a couple of summers ago, I find myself working in part-time contracts, and thought that the time I have spent not working could be put to good use in upgrading my teaching skills. I hope that I will learn a great deal in EDCI 339: Distributed and Open Learning.
My interest in alternative environments for learning comes primarily from personal experience in supporting my children in a variety of Distributed Learning programs, now known in BC as Online Learning. I am also interested in Open Education, which has made learning a wide variety of information and skills accessible to most people, increasing opportunity for all and improving equity in education. At the same time, the prevalance of the digital spaces and communities which make learning more accessible also influences the type of learning that is emphasized, impacts learners’ abilities to make strong social connections, and complicates the world that learners must manage.
What is Distributed Education?
Distributed Education, a type of school program where resources are accessible from online, sent through the mail, or picked up from a central location, allows students to learn from home, in the community, outdoors, or while travelling, while teachers support through email, learning management systems (LMS’s), and/or online or in-person meetings. The geographic flexibility of this way of learning means that programs can be accessed even if they are based far from their students, allowing families to more easily select programs that best suit their own needs. Because students are not confined to classrooms, they have a great deal of freedom to learn, not only in anywhere in their own communities, but in the ways which work best for them. Students with high movement needs, who are homebound, have sensory differences, or become anxious in school buildings benefit from the flexible nature of Distributed Education schools.
Photo by Vicki Loh, 2018.
These programs also allow students to learn asynchronously, at times that suit them, increasing the flexibility of pacing for learners. Those who learn faster can move on to other tasks or dive more deeply into areas of interest without creating complexity in classroom management or instructional planning for a teacher. Likewise, those who struggle with a skill or topic have the opportunity to revisit content, spend more time working on something, or get one-on-one time with a teacher without falling behind or feeling out-of-sync with a class.
The asynchronous nature of Distributed Education programs also allows students to work at any time of day. As a result, teenagers who naturally sleep later can work on learning tasks in the afternoon or evening. Volunteer (or paid!) work can be scheduled during hours that traditionally would have students in a classroom. Sport or performing arts training can take place without conflicting with learning time. Those who struggle with health issues can attend to learning anywhere, at any time.
Although learning can happen individually, technology also allows groups to meet remotely for projects, discussion, or synchronous learning. Collaborative work with learners who are geographically far away is made possible through video calls and web based apps like Google Docs. This means that learning can be fully online, and some Distributed Learning programs are designed to be so. Others include (optionally, in the case of hybrid programs) face-to-face time in regular meetings with teachers, synchronous learning, or occassional field trips and activities.
Photo by Antoni Shkraba: https://www.pexels.com/photo/a-woman-using-a-smartphone-6267047/
Open Education
Many Distributed Education programs make use of Open Education resources to enrich learner experiences. These are textbooks, slides, videos, and other resources that grant users the license to freely use, adapt, and share at no cost. Without a teacher and peers present, and without a great deal of time and money for a program to create many engaging ways to learn, a Distributed Education student’s learning environment might be reduced to textbooks and worksheets but for the myriad of free educational videos, games, and courses available. These resources can be embedded into structured courses, allowing teachers to engage students with variety and strengthen understanding by providing multiple perspectives. Learning becomes more equitable when students are also given a choice in the resources with which to engage, allowing students to explore topics of interest, control pacing and depth, and work with the types of resources that help them learn best.
Open Education resources are used not only in Distributed Education programs, but also in traditional K-12 settings, in post-secondary arenas, to further business and professional training, and by curious individuals. From structured programs such as Khan Academy and MOOCs (massive open online courses), to single topic productions like Crash Course, to open textbooks, these free materials can be used by anyone with access to the Internet. No longer do people necessarily need to pay for classes or find a teacher when a YouTube video might enable them to learn what they need.
More About Modes of Learning
Modes of learning describe how learners engage with content and learning activities. These include face-to-face, online (synchronous and asynchronous), blended, and hybrid modes (Hotchin, 2025). Whether education is Distributed or Traditional, formal or informal, people may learn in an assortment of ways.
Face-to-Face
Photo by Naomi Shi: https://www.pexels.com/photo/three-toddler-eating-on-white-table-1001914/
Most of us are familiar with face-to-face learning, where teachers and students come together in the same space, at the same time, to interact and engage in learning activities. This happens synchronously, meaning teaching and learning happen at the same time, and anyone in a learning group will participate simultaneously. While traditional classrooms and courses are entirely face-to-face except, perhaps, for homework, some distributed learning programs also have a face-to-face component.
I, myself, completed almost all of my formal learning face-to-face. The benefits of this mode of learning for me lay in psychological motivation. I enjoyed the relationships I built with teachers and other students, and the immediate feedback I got during in-class activity was important to my learning. However, I also found that the pacing was often unsuitable to my learning needs, which I frequently found frustrating enough to cause me to disengage from instruction.
Photo by Katerina Holmes: https://www.pexels.com/photo/black-female-teacher-looking-at-schoolgirl-raising-hand-5905458/
The balance between the need for a live teacher and the focus on content and skill perhaps explains the decrease in opportunity for face-to-face interaction in Distributed Learning programs as students grow older. Younger children learn much more in relationship with others, especially their teachers. As students grow, they are better able to engage with text and video, and they are better able to connect with teachers and other learners in a virtual world.
Online
Online learning describes any learning that can be done by accessing resources on the Internet. Also known as virtual or e-learning, this mode appeals to those who cannot travel to class. It allows working people to attend classes without needing to spend time traveling; resources can be accessed from around the world and translated into other languages; those who are ill do not need to miss class to protect others from infection. For example, EDCI 339 is an online course. As well, shorter-form resources may be embedded into formal courses or accessed on their own. Some online resources are Open Education and, thus, free. Others are accessed through payment to institutions or companies.
I have experienced a lot of more control over my learning in online modalities. In asynchronous modes, such as online articles and videos, or programs such as Duolingo, I am usually highly engaged. In part, this is because I have chosen to participate in this learning to execute a particular task or because I have an interest. I can easily obtain relevant resources to learn more about a topic, find specific information, or gain deeper understanding. I also like that I can speed up videos and return to moments as needed. Educational games provide rewards and immediate feedback, and sometimes they even have a community of people learning alongside.
Photo by SHVETS production: https://www.pexels.com/photo/young-lady-learning-sign-language-during-online-lesson-with-female-tutor-7516363/
In synchronous online modes, I experience less engagement than either asynchronous online or face-to-face learning. The large amount of talking that live sessions usually include makes me restless and distractable. These are better for me when they involve more collaborative problem solving and discussion, rather than listening and/or following steps.
Blended or Hybrid
Some Distributed Learning programs or other courses involve a mixture of face-to-face and online aspects. For example, Apex in Coquitlam, BC is a Blended Learning program in which students attend one morning a week for art, music, PE, and ADST activities, and the remainder of the learning happens outside the school building. Coquitlam Open Learning 10 – 12, on the other hand, offers optional times for students to attend for support from teachers in their flexibly paced online coursework, making it a Hybrid program rather than Blended.
As an adult, I can imagine that a Blended or Hybrid learning mode would work best for me. Portions of the course that could be self-paced would be online, while face-to-face portions could include discussions, debates, coversation, or creative problem solving. As a child, too, I would have benefited from the flexibility of online modes of learning, allowing me to learn in ways similar to individual projects for a large part of the time, while still having time with other children to participate in activities whose effectiveness was less dependent upon a group having similar interests and abilities.
Learning in a Digital World
In today’s world, being digitally literate is essential to one’s ability to access learning and navigate the workplace. Basic skills include working with word processors, spreadsheets, and email. Most people today are also able to effectively use search engines, online meeting technology, and web-based software for collaborative work.
Photo by RF._.studio: https://www.pexels.com/photo/unrecognizable-african-american-scientist-studying-anatomy-with-tablet-3825539/
Many people who need to advance their skills for work, want to connect with others from afar, or wish to learn using Distributed and Open Learning resources will seek to learn how to perform tasks using technology. For example, Distributed Learning programs often require learners to navigate online Learning Management Systems (LMS’s) to access resources, submit work, and communicate with teachers and other students. These LMS’s can be complex and unintuitive. To make matters more difficult, different schools may use different LMS’s, necessitating a learner to learn new technology when changing schools. In addition, they may require the learner to access Open Learning resources such as open textbooks and videos, or ask the learner to search for information on the Internet. The more comfortable a learner is with technology platforms, the easier it will be for them to learn to use a new one.
Photo by Google DeepMind: https://www.pexels.com/photo/an-artist-s-illustration-of-artificial-intelligence-ai-this-image-depicts-how-ai-could-be-used-in-the-field-of-sustainability-from-biodiversity-to-climate-it-was-created-by-nidia-dias-17485679/
While the ability to access information is clearly crucial to being able to use it, teachers may not realize that being able to critically evaluate online information and sources is another skill which must be taught. With so much self-published content, we must be able to differentiate between reliable and unreliable authorities using clues in the the content itself and from the surrounding website. Artificial Intelligence (AI), recently experiencing a burst of growth in general use, makes this distinction even more difficult by offering material that seems convincingly written and photos and videos that appear realistic at first glance, but may be full of errors. Accurate comprehension of the content we encounter is directly related to how well we learn any topic or subject area.
Another part of digital literacy concerns what people contribute to the community through self-published work, sharing of information, and conversation. Because online information is not always scrutinized by a trusted body and it is frequently shared as snippets, clips, or quotes, we must be aware of how our messages are supported and received when communicating without facial expression or body language, outside of established relationships, and outside of the immediate context we are experiencing when we make commentary. Social media posts can be viewed not only by those one has specifically selected, and online comments may exist in cyberspace long after the author has deleted them. Being digitally literate means that a person is able not only to employ technology, but also to have a strong understanding of what they are consuming and producing in the context of the digital world.
Photo by ThisIsEngineering: https://www.pexels.com/photo/extreme-close-up-photo-of-codes-on-screen-3861976/
Whether we realize it or not, everything we put onto the Internet becomes part of a digital identity. When people evaluate potential hires, make decisions about business relationships, or decide whether to allow someone to cross a country’s border, they may look at patterns in that person’s online photos, comments, posts, and profiles. Managing one’s digital identity is as important as ensuring their real-world behaviour represents their values and aligns with their goals.
To manage my own personal and professional digital identity, I am mindful that anything I say or do online is in a public space. I am authentic, but as positive and respectful as I would be offline. I also stay away from sarcasm and posting content while emotional. This allows me to show who I am, to have an online presence, while minimizing behaviours that could be misconstrued if taken out of context.
Some Final Thoughts on Distributed and Online Learning in the K-12 System
While Distributed Learning and Online Education has increased the flexibility and accessibility of education, I wonder if regular participation in these learning communities would lead to a decrease in local community engagement and thereby affect students’ mental health and well-being. If a student’s primary communities are online, might they be connected to other people, but more shallowly than is healthy? The need for careful curation of behaviour when working in a digital world must impact how people, particularly young people, learn and collaborate. When a teacher only sees what is carefully presented by a student, when that student feels regulated enough to turn on their device and deliberately connect, how well can they know one another? How well can the teacher support the student? When a student’s friends are all in other cities and can worry when an absence is extended or unusual, but can’t easily walk over to find out if their friend is okay, what does that mean for the depth of relationship that can form?
Distributed and Online Learning have many benefits, including flexibility, increased equity, and more personalized learning. I believe we also need to pay attention to the non-educational needs that have traditionally been met by schools, in order to grow whole and healthy children.
References
Hotchin, J. (2025, January 5). Edci 339 (A01) module 1 – University of Victoria – EdTech. University of Victoria – EdTech. https://connectedlearningpathways.ca/category/edci-339-a01-module-1/
Apex – apex. School District No. 43 (Coquitlam). (n.d.). https://www.sd43.bc.ca/School/Apex/Pages/default.aspx#/=
Programs of choice. School District No. 43 (Coquitlam). (n.d.-b). https://www.sd43.bc.ca/Programs/Pages/default.aspx#/=
Open education. SPARC. (2024, October 18). https://sparcopen.org/open-education/
Recent Comments