Month: July 2018

Description: Some adult students do not feel prepared or even informed enough to tackle the complexities of going from a traditional face-to-face learning environment to one that is blended with some learning taking place in an online learning management system (LMS). The digital learning resource that I have chosen to create in hopes to assist students is a series of instructional videos on how to navigate and utilize the various facets of the LMS that the adult continuing education students at my school board use. I plan to create one video initially to gauge effectiveness. After considering the literature and feedback from peers, either a series of instructional videos or a preparatory course would be the best options. Given I do not have the resources to create an online course, the videos seemed to be the best path forward.

Learning Goals: The main goal of this digital learning resource to is have a series of multimedia instructional guides that can inform students on how to do various tasks within the LMS. A secondary goal is to help students become more comfortable in using the LMS and by extension other similar online platforms, by seeing how features and functions are properly used. By having online videos, students should be able to access them at any convenient time as many times as they so wish.

Intended Audience: The intended audience of my digital learning resource composes of the adult continuing education students within my school board who are or will be enrolled in a hybrid (blended) course. It is anticipated that students who may not be in continuing education could find some of the material useful as well. Students who are taking fully online courses could also use this resource, but the extent of usefulness may be limited as these students are typically more technically adept if they are choosing to enroll in online courses.

Rationale: Some adult students have voiced their opinions on the fact that they feel there is not enough preparation or resources to help them adjust to learning online. At this point, the majority of support they get is from their teacher which cuts into valuable class time that needs to be used for teaching the course matter. Adult students who are having difficulty navigating online need to be given a resource that is easily absorbed and familiar to them. In the focus groups, the majority of students mentioned having seen videos online (mainly Youtube). They were viewed on both mobile devices and computers. By using a platform that students are already aware of and comfortable with, the learning curve is diminished and students can focus on learning the LMS instead of trying to learn how to access and navigate training modules.

Tools: Time and resources are limited for the purposes of this course, but I will be using a screen capturing program Kaltura to record my actions navigating the LMS. Students will learn by seeing how to perform different tasks and it will be apparent where tools and buttons are with a live course being presented. Editing will be done in Windows Movie Maker as that is what I have access to. This will allow me to emphasize certain points of the video as well as provide captions where necessary. The platform where I will store these videos is Youtube, due to the open accessibility and the existing familiarity with the intended audience.

Assessment Plan: As this is not a formal resource for all learners, there was no formal assessment plan (i.e., not all students may need this). Usage of the digital learning resource can be tracked from the view count on Youtube. In addition, comments can be left to see whether students are finding the videos useful and also suggestions can be made. Even though this is a supplementary resource, teachers could be encouraged to quiz students (e.g., through clicker quizzes) on aspects of the LMS after either referring students to view a video or viewing it together in-class. Students can also be surveyed at the end of their course on whether they used the video series and if they found it useful.

Learning Theories & Instructional Design Principles Used: Two learning theories will primarily inform the design of my digital learning resource. The first is adult learning theory which recognizes that adults learn differently from children. Knowles (1984) made 5 assumptions regarding adult learners: 1) adults are more self-directed, 2) adults are coming from a place of experience, 3) adults are more willing to learn once relevance has been determined, 4) adults learn better by “doing”, 5) adults are more intrinsically motivated to learn. The second learning theory is cognitive load theory which will relate to the length, content and structure of the videos. As the working memory can only process a set amount of information at a time (Sweller, 1988), the length and content of the videos must not cognitively overload the student by either being too long in length or have too much extraneous material.

Instructions for Use: As these videos will be for reference, students should be encouraged to access them whenever they feel they need to learn or brush up on a skill or ability to complete a task. Links should be sent out to each student’s email with the Youtube channel that the videos will be hosted on. The teacher can also go over the videos at the beginning of the first class as part of their orientation. Students should be encouraged to pause the videos and try out for themselves what they see in the videos within their own class shells in the LMS.

Plan for Use: As mentioned earlier, the videos will be on Youtube on a public view setting. At this moment there does not seem to be an issue with having such videos public. Students from outside adult continuing education can access the videos if they so wish, but the content of the videos planned thus far will remain at the basic level. Other educators can also use the videos if they wish, but the content would be very specific to the LMS at my school board so the transferability of the resource may be limited.

As always any feedback on my preliminary design plan would be greatly appreciated.

 

References

Knowles, M. S. (1984). Andragogy in action: Applying modern principles of adult education. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Sweller, J. (1988). Cognitive Load During Problem Solving: Effects on Learning. Cognitive Science, 12, 257-285. doi:10.1207/s15516709cog1202_4

After going through the Ideate phase, there are a number options that I could proceed with in terms of tackling my design challenge: How do we prepare and inform adult continuing education students in transitioning to hybrid learning?

In trying to think outside the box, I tried to have some variety in terms of how best to approach the issue. Training seemed to be at the crux of the problem, so naturally all the options revolved around that factor. An additional course, a video series, a technical manual were some of the thoughts that went through my mind and plotted in my mind map; each one having it’s own pros and cons (see padlet wall). At this juncture, I’m going to examine one of these ideas through a theoretical framework to see if it is up to snuff in serving the needs of the students and my organization. I’ve decided to try the SECTIONS model (Bates, 2015) on my idea of having a video training series. The criteria of the model seems to fit with my organization while remaining simple to assess in terms of my idea.

The first criteria is Students:

• Focus on the students is very important for a school board so this criteria being the first one makes sense. The demographics of adult students comprises of a typically older and potentially less technologically-versed population. In speaking with the students though, the majority of them seemed capable of viewing videos on platforms such as Youtube (usually for non-school related content). Access via at least mobile devices seems to be there.

The second criteria is Ease of Use:

• I think this criteria is very much linked to the Students criteria. As students are already accessing video content, duplicating that process should be method that should be explored. Students should not have to learn another platform or view from a site that they’re not already familiar with.

The third criteria is Cost/Time:

• Creating a video series could potentially be costly and time-consuming, but it all depends on the strategy used towards making it happen. Outsourcing of the videos is an option if the resources allow, but creating them in-house can save on costs and potentially time. In addition, those who use the technology the most (i.e., the teachers) are in-house  and therefore they would know best on what content to include.

The fourth criteria is Teaching:

• Learning can be enhanced by the addition of media, but it must be done right and not just for the sake of adding audio/video. Videos have been used in courses to a high degree of success on teaching various topics. I have not yet decided on how these videos will be structured, but potentially they could be similar to ‘how-to’ videos on completing various tasks.

The fifth criteria is Interaction:

• While videos won’t be very interactive for the students, it will be possible to crudely gauge the interaction between the students and the videos by view count. Also discussions and referencing the videos in class when appropriate could reveal whether the videos are making a difference on student learning.

The sixth criteria is Organizational Issues:

• The method of a video series luckily should not have too many hurdles from an organizational standpoint as the videos could be viewed outside of class time and do not interfere with the regular teaching and learning of the class. A potential organizational issue revolves around branding and proper school board protocol if/when the videos become standardized resources for board usage.

The seventh criteria is Networking:

• I find this criteria to be similar to Interaction as it involves creating connections with others. Videos don’t provide much opportunity for networking as it lacks the student to student connection. Perhaps allowing comments on the videos is something to consider if there is a benefit that students will find in this.

The eighth criteria is Security and Privacy:

• The benefit of online video is that students do not need to provide any information to access videos in a public domain. If the videos do touch upon proprietary information, there may need to be a secure login for students to view them. This can be done via student logins with which they already have access to a range of services such as the Google suite.

By going through this framework, I can see where the strengths of a video series shines and when there can be potential complications. Overall I think SECTIONS has shown that an online video instructional series can accomplish the purpose of preparing students for hybrid learning. Now to consider various learning theories such as adult learning theory and cognitive load theory and see how they would affect an online video instructional series.

 

References

Bates, A. W. (2015). Chapters 6-8. In Teaching in a digital age: Guidelines for designing teaching and learning. Vancouver BC: Tony Bates Associates Ltd.

Completing my composite character profiles has given me some new insight into the adult student population that I often work with. It’s been around 3 years since I’ve started working on the hybrid learning project, but very rarely did anyone stop to think “as” the student. Instead we were thinking what “we” thought the students needed. Drawing from the focus group interviews and survey, I’ve been able to create 5 distinct students who would be taking courses in our adult high schools. Naturally some unexpected information was uncovered from speaking to students. For example, one would think that the reason a student attends a high school is to get a high school diploma, but for the majority of students spoken to (and surveyed), it seems that is not the case. Learning English, along with upgrading courses (already having a high school diploma) were the top reasons. Now that we have this knowledge, hybrid learning should adapt to the goals of our learners and not our perceived goals for the students.

In terms of the Define methods, I believe that the Point-of-View Madlib (Stanford University Institute of Design, 2016) along with finding themes (IDEO, 2015) makes the most sense as I have already been thinking along the lines of what are the needs for what groups. In addition, themes have organically been constructed revolving around access, time, knowledge, etc. I’ve found that many Define methods from the Bootcamp Bootleg and Design Kit are really closely linked together and can be used sequentially, if time allows. This process has really allowed me to step into the lives of our adult students and take a look around. Now for the next step of retreating out, so that I can put that knowledge into good use.

 

References

IDEO. (2015). Design Kit – Methods. Retrieved from http://www.designkit.org/methods

Stanford University Institute of Design. (2016). Bootcamp Bootleg.  Retrieved from http://dschool-old.stanford.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/METHODCARDS-v3-slim.pdf