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Blog #4 – Interaction

March 11, 2023 / / 2 Comments

The video I found related to my group’s Interactive Learning Resource is an introduction to programming video. It fits in well with our learning resource because it provides a good overview of our topic and eases learners into programmatic ideas and some vocabulary used throughout the course.


What kind of interaction would the video require from your students? Does it force them to respond in some way (inherent)?
The video by itself doesn’t contain any inherent activities which are defined by Bates as being “inherently ‘active’ in that they ‘push’ learners to respond” (2019). But our Interactive Learning Resource is behaviourist, so we plan to have an inherently interactive task with each subtopic within our curriculum, which would be in the form of an automated quiz.


In what way are they likely to respond to the video on their own, e.g. make notes, do an activity, think about the topic (learner-generated)?
Depending on each learner’s preferred learning styles and note-taking habits, they would respond to the video differently. Since the learners would know that there is an assessment in the form of a quiz at the end, the hope is that learners would interact with the video by taking notes. This could almost be seen as a form of “deliberate design to encourage reflection” (Bates, 2019). On the other hand, since our learning design is focused on a behavioural approach we don’t expect the learner to have their own independent interpretation of the materials.

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How would students get feedback on the activity that you set? What medium or technology would they and/or you use for getting and giving feedback on their activity?
We plan to use Google Forms to create student assessments, which come after each subtopic. With Google Forms, we can give students automatic feedback on their assessments and analyze trends in student response data to see what is working and what could use improvement (How to use Google Forms, 2023). This fits under the “Learner/Instructor” Assessment for Interaction section of this week’s reading.


How much work for you would that activity cause? Would the work be both manageable and worthwhile? Could the activity be scaled for larger numbers of students?
Using Google Forms for assessments is very straightforward to implement after the initial hurdle of creating the quiz for students. It also scales very well because we can have an almost unlimited amount of students able to participate in the assessments and receive feedback on their progress in the course. Therefore, because of its reusability and scalability, Google Forms is a very worthwhile assessment option.

Sources:
Bates, A. (2019, October 10). 9.6 Interaction. Pressbooks. https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/teachinginadigitalagev2/chapter/pedagogical-roles-for-text-audio-and-video/

How to use Google Forms. (2023). Google Docs Editor Help. Retrieved March 11, 2023, from https://support.google.com/docs/answer/6281888?hl=en

Blog Post #3 – Inclusive Design

March 4, 2023 / / 3 Comments
Photo by UX Indonesia on Unsplash

For this week’s blog post, I would like to focus on the following two questions:

  1. How will your interactive learning resource specifically ensure that the needs of all learners can be met?
  2. Consider the learning environment for your current design. What potential barriers can be reduced or eliminated to provide more pathways for learner success?

How will your interactive learning resource specifically ensure that the needs of all learners can be met?

To ensure that the needs of all learners can be met within my group’s interactive learning resource, we decided it would be good to take a universal design for learning approach.

Within universal learning design (UDL), curriculum designers try to remove barriers from the curriculum rather than trying to create equality for all learners from the learner’s perspective.  As mentioned in this week’s readings, the core tenet of UDL is “what is essential for some is almost always good for all” (Meyer et al. 2014). This statement resonates well with our learning resource because we plan to offer the resource online and asynchronously thus, it is harder for us to adapt to what individual learners might need to best support their learning. Therefore, reducing as many barriers as possible for all different types of learners is one of our goals while we design our resource. 

Photo by Rodion Kutsaiev on Unsplash

Consider the learning environment for your current design. What potential barriers can be reduced or eliminated to provide more pathways for learner success?

The main barriers my group and I identified with our resource included: having only one type of resource for learners to learn from, and having difficulty accessing our resource. 

To address the barrier of having only one type of resource to learn from for each topic, my group and I decided that we should provide the learner with a video and a reading which are essentially equivalent content-wise, for each subtopic within our curriculum. We also plan only to use videos which have closed captioning enabled. Removing this barrier not only supports those who are hearing impaired but also allows those with different learning styles to also have multiple options for the type of medium they would like to learn from. This change fits in the “providing multiple means of representation” (CAST, 2018) aspect of the three core principles of the UDL, specifically within the perception aspect of the learning guidelines.

Photo by David Travis on Unsplash

The other barrier we identified was that our learning resource was heavily web browser-based. It could be difficult for users to access it if they don’t have reliable access to a computer. Our project uses Google Colab, which is compatible with mobile phones, but as another option to the user we also decided we would like to provide a PDF version which the user can print out and work on as a hard copy. This takes away some of the interactive elements (in terms of learner feedback) but allows users without a reliable internet connection to also use our resource. This eliminates the barrier of needing to have access to a computer. This also fits within the “Providing Multiple Means of Action & Expression” (CAST, 2018) core principle of UDL, especially within the access section of the learning guidelines.

Hopefully, by implementing the changes outlined above, our interactive learning resource will be closer to fitting within the UDL guidelines and, as a result, be accessible to a wide variety of learners.

Sources:

CAST (2018). Universal design for learning guidelines version 2.2 [graphic organizer]. Wakefield, MA

Meyer, Anne, et al. Universal Design for Learning: Theory and Practice. CAST Professional Publishing, an Imprint of CAST, Inc., 2014, UDL Theory Practice, retrieved from: udltheorypractice.cast.org/

Blog Post #2 – Inquiry-Based Learning

February 11, 2023 / / 3 Comments
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What is Inquiry-Based Learning?

Put simply, inquiry-based learning is centred around the student investigating a topic on their own. This approach allows the student to come to their own conclusions and understanding about the material they are learning, with some guidance from an instructor. It is often times used in the context of scientific ideas as they are often more suited for open-ended questions, Colburn (2000) defines inquiry-based learning as “inquiry 
 refers to the activities of students in which they develop knowledge and understanding of scientific ideas.” In the case of this blog post, inquiry-based learning not only extends to scientific ideas but to all types of learning. 

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What would an Inquiry-Based Curriculum Look Like?

In a more applied context, an inquiry-based curriculum might have a structure, similar to the one outlined by Wolpert-Gawron (2016). The first step starts with the student developing a question that they want to investigate further. The student researches the topic and then comes back to present what they’ve learned. They then reflect on the process.

Over the past summer, I was able to experience inquiry-based instruction, firsthand. Working as a student researcher in the Computer Science department at UVic. I was tasked with creating and publishing a poster on my research by the end of the summer. The whole research process was an inquiry-based one, in that I would learn and research new things and then iron out any misconceptions and ask follow-up questions in weekly meetings with my advisor. I really enjoyed learning this way and felt that it help strengthen my understanding of the concepts I was researching.

After doing more readings for this blog I actually found that research is one of the main domains that inquiry-based learning is applied to. Inquiry-based learning usually works best for the following topics as outlined by Guido (2017):

  • Case Studies
  • Group Projects
  • Research Projects
  • Field Work

On the other hand it is typically not suited for things like math or procedural subjects as trying to make students figure out a procedure (i.e. subtraction when learning math) on their own would “drain time and cause confusion” (Guido, 2017). Further more when using inquiry-based learning design both the teacher and the student may face challenges. Firstly, teachers face the challenge of having to guide students without explicitly telling them the correct answer or giving them too many hints, as doing so would prevent students from gaining their own understanding of the subject. Second, for students, it can be challenging as they have to stay curious about their topic long enough to explore it and gain an understanding of the material.

Photo by James Harrison on Unsplash

Would Inquiry-Based Align with Our Topic?

My learning pod’s Interactive Learning Resource is based on teaching programming concepts. Therefore, I believe an inquiry-based approach would not be best suited to teach students programming. As mentioned above, inquiry-based learning works best for open-ended research questions or case studies where less structure is required. When it comes to a topic like programming, which is such a broad field with so much information to offer about it, it is often best to have a structured approach and a set curriculum to learn about the concepts. This creates structure for the learner and keeps the content from being too overwhelming.

References:

Colburn, A. (2000). An inquiry primer. Science scope, 23(6), 42-44. https://www.studentachievement.org/wp-content/uploads/An-Inquiry-Primer-1.pdf

Guido, M. (2017, January 19). What Is Inquiry-Based Learning: 7 Benefits & Strategies You Need to Know. Prodigy Education. https://www.prodigygame.com/main-en/blog/inquiry-based-learning-definition-benefits-strategies/

Queens University (n.d.). Inquiry-Based Learning. Queens U Centre for Teaching and Learning. Retrieved February 10, 2023, from https://www.queensu.ca/ctl/resources/instructional-strategies/inquiry-based-learning

Wolpert-Gawron, H. (2016, August 11). What the Heck Is Inquiry-Based Learning? Edutopia. Retrieved February 11, 2023, from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/what-heck-inquiry-based-learning-heather-wolpert-gawron

Blog Post #1 – Learning, Motivation, and Theory

January 27, 2023 / / 2 Comments
  • Describe an example from your life of when you were taught using each method described in this article: behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism.
  • Share a story about your best learning experience (could be a formal course or something more personal). Why did you enjoy it?

In this first blog post, I’d like to share my best learning experience, which also happened to have behaviorism, cognitivism and constructivism incorporated into it.

I vividly remember the excitement I had when I boarded the plane to start my exchange semester in Germany. I had been practicing my German for months to bring it up to speed in preparation for this trip. Upon arriving in Germany, it didn’t take me long to realize that my learning had just begun. 

Photo by Pascal Meier on Unsplash

Thinking back on this experience I found that I had been through what Ertmer and Newby (2013) describe as the “behaviorist-cognitivist-constructivist continuum.” I had been learning German casually for a couple of years before my trip, in more of a behaviorist manner. I used flashcards and Duolingo to learn lots of vocabulary. I really enjoyed Duolingo because I felt that it had enough stimulus to keep me engaged thus creating the association between getting the correct answers and levelling up in the app. At some point though, I felt like I had hit a plateau especially because I had beaten all of the levels on Duolingo. This experience was well stated by Ertmer and Newby (2013) who wrote “behavioral principles cannot adequately explain the acquisition of higher level skills or those that require a greater depth of processing” in other words, I needed to find another way to improve my German further.

This was especially true as the opportunity to go on an exchange to Germany presented itself. I jumped at the offer but knew it was time to get serious about my language learning. This was when I stepped into the cognitivism phase. I found a german tutor who was able to help me realize where I had gaps in my knowledge. As a native german speaker, my tutor was able to provide me with analogies and explanations for certain idioms and phrases that flashcards or Google translate could not explain. She also helped me by guiding me through assessments in order to see where my learning gaps were. This was when I realized I really needed to practice my verb conjugations and she helped me set goals and create a plan in order to improve in this area. I definitely felt the ability of cognitivism to “…allow[] for unfamiliar information to be put within a familiar context”  (Ertmer & Newby 2013) the contextualization of words and phrases, especially being mapped to my native language, greatly helped my understanding.  

Photo by Markus Kröger on Unsplash

The final leg of my learning journey started when I first landed at the airport in Germany. I was greeted by the unfamiliar sounds of chatter, in a language, I didn’t fully understand. Being fully immersed in a new culture while everyone around me was speaking german, brought my overall literacy to the next level. This is where I really found myself “situating in real-world contexts” (Ertmer & Newby 2013) and where most of my fluency in German came from. Thinking back, I now realize that the constructivism approach was at play here; although my trip wasn’t formally structured around a german learning curriculum, I learnt more than I ever had just by playing an active role as the learner. 

Although it was a long process, this was definitely my best learning experience, lasting over months of practice and culminating in a full immersion approach. After doing the readings for this week and reflecting on my own experiences, I realized the power that the constructivist approach has.

 

Citations:

Ertmer, P. A., & Newby, T. J. (2013). Behaviorism, cognitivism, constructivism: Comparing critical features from an instructional design perspective. Performance improvement quarterly, 26(2), 43-71

Photo by ThisIsEngineering from Pexels: https://www.pexels.com/photo/prosthetic-arm-on-blue-background-3913025/

Introduction Post

January 21, 2023 / / 1 Comment

Hi Everyone!

My name is Liam Shatzel, and I am a 3rd-year Computer Science student here at UVic.

I decided to take this class because the intersection of technology and education has been intriguing to me, especially with the recent advances in AI. The impact of tools such as ChatGPT and DALL E 2 has already started to manifest itself, and I think exploring how to incorporate these tools into curriculums would be a beneficial skill for the future.

So, hopefully, I’ll be able to incorporate some form of AI into my interactive learning resource. Overall I hope to gain the knowledge to build effective curriculums, which I also think is a very important skill.

Thanks for reading, and I look forward to reading everyone else’s blogs!

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