Category: edci335 (Page 1 of 2)
Group C! We thought your Interactive Learning Resource was very well thought out, engaging, intuitive, and user-friendly. We loved going through your resource and we could tell that you guys put a lot of effort into your project and wanted to make it clear that it was evident when we engaged in your ILR draft. The relevance and universality of your topic really adds an amazing foundation to your learning resource as it’s relevant to anyone and everyone. Below is a more detailed bullet point form of our feedback organized by theme, and hopefully the information below is helpful for your final draft.
General
- The site is well laid out and easy to follow. Menus are very clear.
- We like that the Course Outline lists descriptive titles of “modules” to be covered
- The graphic on landing page is attractive and welcoming
- We couldn’t find the information in your learning context section: Who is the target audience for this course?
- The “Effects of Technology on Sleep” content seems to be missing.
- We like how you guys gave a guide on how to get started cutting out any confusion in taking the course!
- Your topic is very well thought of – we like how it’s something that affects everyone and because of that is pretty universal! We would think almost anyone would benefit from reading and participating.
Lesson Clarity
- On the landing page, should the subtopics be indented?
- In the “Sleep Hygiene” learning activity, the task asks students to reflect on patterns and make changes to improve sleep. This makes us think we should make those changes during the week of tracking. Would it be more clear to make that second sentence a “look ahead”? For example, “After tracking, you will reflect on…”
- Are the pre-assessments and learning activities meant to be submitted for feedback? If so, how should they be submitted?
- For the REM Cycles subtopic, a graphic or video might be useful to help with clarity.
Alignment
- Your explanation of how your course design aligns with cognitivism is clear and easy to understand, as is the rationale behind this approach for this course.
- Pre-assessments and clear strategies to apply align well with cognitivism.
- We’re confused about your explanation of rationale behind your Formative Assessment structure. Shouldn’t assessment be in relation to the intended learning outcomes rather than an additional learning activity?
- We’re curious what big ideas and essential questions are part of your design. We didn’t find them in your overview.
- We don’t quite understand how the submission of the PowerPoint assignment for the REM subtopic is done. Are students supposed to post to the course website?
- There are quite a number of learning activities that include tracking sleep. You could consider increasing support for executive function by making these assignments more consistent in structure.
Interactivity
- Pre-assessment on “Improving Sleep Hygiene” page adds to the interactivity. Should these question responses be submitted for feedback? How should work be submitted?
- Having students use their own sleep data is very engaging and helps students make connections to their own lives.
- Reflection tasks encourage students to think deeply about the content and make connections to their own sleep.
- Requiring students to contribute meaningfully to one another’s learning is very interactive and is an engaging way to promote co-construction of knowledge.
Inclusivity
- Key terms sections are helpful for those who are not familiar with the language.
- Simple “main ideas” list at the end is an effective way to review the content. This is helpful for everyone, but particularly for those who may have difficulty with language.
- To support executive function, you could consider adding a template for tracking sleep habits.
- Grading rubrics are clear and easy to follow. For small assignments, a percentage breakdown could look a little daunting. Consider marks out of 10?
- Are there any choices in means of expression for the summative assessment?
- Generally, the website is simple to navigate and easy to read. This is helpful for technological accessibility as well as accessibility for language disabilities.
- Alt text on pictures would help increase accessibility for those with visual exceptionalities.
- Additional resources like the “Read more about it here” section in “Sleep and Mental Health” increases engagement for students who are interested in digging deeper into the topic.
- The transparent learning outcome on the “REM Cycles” section is helpful for supporting engagement.
Technology Use
- AI images are attractive and make the site more engaging.
- But you may want to consider that they should be carefully used when it’s for educational use, ensuring that any integration of AI tools aligns with educational goals and maintains the integrity of the learning experience.
- Should AI graphics attributions include the prompt used, in addition to the generative tool, which you have included?
- The overview on the front page containing a friendly course outline is a good idea to help with navigation of the course design.
- However, the link to “First, read this page…” is missing
- The first three subtopics are closed to public view (using the link that is in that overview. From the drop down menu, the content links are fine.)
- Discussion forum is a useful tool to encourage collaborative learning construction. You could consider using specific prompts to scaffold interaction.
- Consider using key words to link to rather than showing the actual website address. We think this would improve readability.
- Crafting an effective blog title is crucial for capturing readers’ attention and conveying the main idea succinctly. It would be great if you could make more effective blog name to show your main idea at one glance
References
- There are a good number of references.
- There is a link to information about Inquiry-Based Learning on the Learning Theories and Learning page. It looks like the description of Inquiry-Based Learning in the text might be a statement that might need a citation to that reference?
Overall, this course site is looking good. We appreciate the work you’ve put into it, and we learned some things about the importance of having a good sleep reviewing this!
My interest was captured right away by the brightly coloured AI-generated image of the brain in sleep. What a great way to get a reader’s attention!
I see your point about the way learners will interact with the content by making connections with their own sleep patterns. This would then prime them to engage with more detailed information about sleep stages and functions. Your post-video activity is a good way to encourage students to make even more connections as they reflect upon their own habits. This is a well-thought-out set of activities which are clearly designed to be inclusive of many varying needs. I could see learners benefitting from this set of activities and achieving the goals you have set out for them!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts about the video, “The Crucial Role of Digital Health Literacy in Enhancing Patient Access.” I think you have a good point about the different ways in which viewers could access learning, processing it shallowly by taking notes, or more deeply by making connections, analyzing, or applying their understanding. I like the idea of students working together to participate in a case study analysis. Learners would go far beyond the importance of health literacy to work on real solutions for authentic problems. Having peer reviews would really reduce instructor workload while still being very useful feedback. In this way also, larger numbers of students would be able to access and benefit from the leanring activity.
https://katenelsonstudies.opened.ca/blog-post-3-2/
Hi Kate!
Thank you for sharing your thoughts on reducing barriers to learning success while learning about common species of trees in British Columbia. I can imagine how engaging a nature walk would be to many young learners. At the same time, you are right that some learners might not be able to do a walk due to access or mobility challenges. I also wonder if these same trees would be in all areas of B.C. The alternative accesses to information you describe seem like good options. I particularly like the virtual walk, which would allow students to still observe leaves and cones in the context of a larger environment and give students some control over their point of view, allowing them to turn leaves over, etc.
Along with providing options for access to content, you have created choices for building and demonstrating knowledge. Thank you for sharing your thoughtful design. I enjoyed reading about it.
In this video, students are not forced to respond in any way. However, they are likely to do the things suggested by the video. For example, the video advises viewers to understand and look at nutrition labels. Learners who didn’t understand these lables would then be likely to feel a lack of knowledge and, when presented with an opportunity to learn more about nutrition labels, want to do so. Learners who do understand nutrition labels would be likely to pay more attention to them in the future.
After watching this video, we as instructors could give a small amount of explanation about the meanings of nutrition labels and how to read them. We could then ask students to look at food labels on several products from their homes to compare a variety of specific nutrients. For example, students could find three items that have relatively high amounts of calcium compared ot the daily recommended intake, and three items that have relatively low amounts of calcium. This would help students to develop their ability to understand and apply their understanding of nutrition labels. In an online course, they could submit images of labels with written or video documentation of their findings.
Each student could get feedback by comparing their findings with two others and selecting 2 – 3 foods within the group as generally the most nutritious. They would, as a group, write a few sentences to defend their choices, using information from the nutrition labels. Both the written justification and relevant food labels would be submitted. Online, they could use meeting technology such as Zoom to discuss as a group; they could use Google Docs to collaborate on the written justification; everything could be submitted on a Learning Management System such as Brightspace.
This activity would be manageable in terms of work for us, the instructors. We could check to see that nutrition labels had been understood correctly by the group and the written justification demonstrates that the students have thought about the information. Depending on the level, depth, and length of the course, the work would be manageable and worthwhile for students as well. A shorter course might call for briefer and less time-consuming activities, while something longer would allow enough time to look more closely at nutrition labels. For larger numbers of students, perhaps pre-selected nutrition labels would make less work for the instructor since there could be less variation in information for students to work with.
Thank you for sharing your reflections on Experiential Learning. This is yet another way of giving students the opportunity to actively engage with their learning and make better meaning of the knowledge and skills they acquire.
I agree that there is nothing like experience to really understand the impact of following a bad diet. It seems to me a key idea to experiment with these in a “controlled, reflective context,” as you note in your fourth paragraph. In order to avoid putting students in situations where they are causing their bodies lasting harm, I wonder what kinds of controlled exercises could be proposed to illustrate the the incorrectness and, sometimes, dangers of some of the myths that can be found on social media.
Ethan, thank you for sharing your research and experience with open pedagogy. I am very interested in the structure of your schooling where you got the opportunity to engage deeply in your learning interests. It must have been wonderful to have such strong ownership of your learning. When transitioning to a more traditional high school model, what did you find difficult?
I agree that health and diet is very personal, requiring some trial and error. I like your idea of integrating student-generated content, and developing peer-reviewed meal plans aligns with Design Thinking as well. Let’s talk!
Blog Prompt: Choose one (or more) of your planned learning activities from your Blueprint and identify any barriers to student success. How can you alter or adjust your current plan to reduce those barriers?
Students to any course bring with them unique needs, abilities, and history. This diversity, if not addressed, can lead to a large proportion of students having trouble engaging fully in learning within the course. Universal Design for Learning (UDL), a framework created by CAST to address a diversity of student needs based on what is known about the human brain, offers guidelines to support student learning in a number of ways (CAST, n.d.). Based on these guidelines, we can design multiple options for engagement, representation, and action & expression in order to increase access, support the learning process, and support executive functioning.
One of the planned learning activities we have in our Blueprint is to read an article and a webpage about healthy food choices. Barriers to reading could include difficulty with language, literacy, or vision. To reduce these barriers, we could encourage students to use translation or text-to-speech technology if they choose. We could also offer video or podcast alternatives which cover the same content. If the course is given in person, we might investigate to find out if any student needs alternatives for large print. We could also offer the article and/or webpage in options written for multiple levels of English comprehension. Finally, we could ensure plenty of pictorial support of the text, with captioned descriptions.
Additionally, there may be misunderstandings in the students’ conceptions of healthy eating, which could impact access due to bias and distracting ideas. CAST UDL Guidelines suggest creating a supportive culture by exploring how biases can impact learning (CAST, n.d.). This could be done in a short introduction to the reading, video, or podcast, acknowledging possible preconceptions or myths about healthy eating.
Another barrier could be difficulty in transferring learning from the article, website, video, or podcast, to application in meal planning for themselves. We can support this by including explicit references and connections to this learning in future assignments. We could also survey students ahead of time to learn about the foods they like so that we can use relatable examples to help make sense of the content during instruction.
References
- CAST. (n.d.). Universal Design for learning｜Cast. Universal Design for Learning. https://www.cast.org/what-we-do/universal-design-for-learning/
Conrad, thank you for sharing your thoughts and findings on Inquiry-Based Learning. I agree that inquiry-based learning promotes a deeper understanding since learners are actively engaged in seeking and evaluating answers to their questions, taking information apart, and putting back together into something new. Thank you for sharing external sources to explore as well – so that we can do our own inquiry based learning!
The topic of health and wellness does present an opportunity for students to explore the wealth of misinformation available. Open-ended investigation of diet myths and social media trends, compared with evidence from trustworthy sources, might surprise quite a few learners. This is especially powerful when we think back to the video from a few weeks ago where learners had trouble learning new information about force directions just from being told and really needed to wrestle with the misconceptions they had.
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