SAUCES Design Principles

I am a post-secondary professor at Humber College in Toronto, teaching a television-broadcasting course. Due to its collaborative and practical nature, the course adopts a social constructivist and experiential learning approach. In Assignment 2A: Design Thinking Project, our team used the design thinking process to address gaps and limitations within the course’s current design. Participating in the design thinking process and hearing the perspectives of my classmates enabled me to see the course through another lens. Moreover, I developed six design principles that could help guide the design of the television-broadcasting course.

Simple Design

It is essential to create course materials that are easy for students to comprehend and do not cause cognitive overload. Cognitive load theory suggests that learning failure happens when learning material places an excessive burden on the working memory (Huh et al., 2019). For example, the students in the television-broadcast course often refer to course documents that contain pictures and text while operating in their complex roles. Kalyuga (2012) claims that if the pictures in the diagram are intelligible on their own, there is no need to include text, as this may lead to cognitive overload. Since the students are already facing the challenge of learning complex skills, the documents they are referring to while operating in their roles must be simplistic.

Authentic Design

In preparing students for the television-broadcast industry, providing them with an authentic learning experience is important. Authentic learning is an approach that focuses on complex, real-world issues and their solutions (Lombardi & Oblinger, 2007). Having the students operate in various complex broadcast roles and produce live news shows allows them to participate in a realistic broadcast setting and face the common challenges that may arise in a live production. Lombardi and Oblinger (2007) state that authentic learning improves how learners “absorb, retain, and transfer knowledge” (p. 4).

User-Centred Design

It is essential that the design of the television-broadcast course be user-centred. Incorporating elements of the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) model into the instructional design allows for an inclusive, accessible, and flexible learning experience for all students. Takacs et al. (2021) state that instructors must evaluate their pedagogical strategies and implement user-centred strategies for the planning and delivery of their courses in order to effectively teach “students with diverse cultural backgrounds, skills, abilities, interests, experiences, and social-economic status” (p. 11). In the broadcast course, this may include the addition of closed-captioning within the live productions and providing multiple means of course content, such as video tutorials, HTML5 formatted documents, and printed documents posted around the studio and control room.

Collaborative Design

The course’s design must prioritize student collaboration, as professional live broadcasts rely on the collaboration of a team working together to create a live production. Since teamwork is vital to a live production, providing students with that same collaboration in their learning environment is important. Laal and Ghodsi (2011) suggest that collaborative learning leads to greater achievement and productivity, supportive learning environments, and can improve a student’s self-esteem.

Empowering Design

Empowering students may help them gain the self-efficacy necessary when entering the television-broadcast industry. Hewitt and Wright (2018) explain that providing opportunities for students to increase their capabilities, gain confidence, and shape decisions are all essential components of empowering processes. In the broadcast course, this may include enabling students to focus on roles that interests them so that they can build on their skills and confidence. Confidence is fundamental in the broadcast industry; therefore, we must empower the students.

Supportive Design

Providing students support while they learn complex skills is essential. Frerejean et al. (2019) suggest a scaffolding process that gradually withdraws direction and support until students can complete complex tasks independently. For the television-broadcast course, this could mean teaching students only a few broadcast roles each class, providing ample support when producing their first few live productions, and slowly allowing them to run their own productions. McLoughlin and Marshall (2000) claim, “scaffolding is intended to motivate the learner, reduce task complexity, provide structure and reduce learner frustration” (para. 5).

References

Hewitt, D., & Wright, B. (2018). Engaging, motivating and empowering learners in schools. SAGE Publications, Limited. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/royalroads-ebooks/detail.action?docID=6408535

Huh, D., Kim, J., & Jo, l. (2019). A novel method to monitoring changes in cognitive load in video-based learning. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 35(6), 721-730. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcal.12378

Kalyuga, S. (2012). Instructional benefits of spoken words: A review of cognitive load factors. Educational Research Review, 7(2), 145-159. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2011.12.002

Laal, M., & Ghodsi, S. M. (2012). Benefits of collaborative learning. Procedia-social and behavioral sciences, 31, 486-490. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.12.091

Lombardi, M. M., & Oblinger, D. G. (2007). Authentic learning for the 21st century: An overview. Educause learning initiative, 1(2007), 1-12. http://alicechristie.org/classes/530/EduCause.pdf

McLoughlin, C., & Marshall, L. (2000). Scaffolding: A model for learner support in an online teaching environment. In Flexible futures in tertiary teaching. Proceedings of the 9th Annual Teaching Learning Forum, 2(4). http://cleo.murdoch.edu.au/confs/tlf/tlf2000/mcloughlin2.html

Takacs, S., Zhang, J., Lee, H., Truong, L., & Smulders, D. (2021). A comprehensive guide to applying Universal Design for Learning. Justice Institute of British Columbia. https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/jibcudl/