The Five Opportunities framework is a way of conceptualizing engagement and identifying opportunities to increase the engagement level of your designs.
This document provides guidance for creating an online classroom that promotes collaboration. It emphasizes that collaboration requires building a sense of community where students feel comfortable sharing ideas and perspectives. It outlines the key elements of an online community, including all participants, shared purpose, and guidelines. The document also describes the stages of group development and the instructor's role in setting expectations, modeling collaborative processes, guiding discussion, and evaluating progress.
The document provides tips for facilitating effective group work. It recommends using group projects to reduce grading workload, improve work quality, and foster learning and connections. Instructors should use collaboration tools like screen sharing, video chat, wikis and Google docs for papers and presentations. When forming groups, instructors can consider geography, schedules, work styles, topics or majors. Instructors should encourage communication, provide early low-stakes collaboration opportunities, track participation, have a group divorce policy, and allow for anonymous feedback. The presentation links provide additional guidance.
This document discusses the importance and benefits of collaboration in online classrooms. It outlines several key points:
1. Collaboration promotes deeper learning, critical thinking, and co-creation of knowledge through student interaction and reflection.
2. Instructors must build a sense of community with clear guidelines, structure, and opportunities for regular interaction to facilitate successful collaboration.
3. Groups are most effective when roles and expectations are clearly defined, with deadlines and structured activities to keep students accountable and on track.
Presentation I ve done during PMI Global Congress which discuss about Communication Style in Project Management, this is a powerful tool to be perform an effective communication in Project Management
The product management discipline, view point from Wee Khang Teoh a product manager in Malaysia.
More about product management on http://productmatters.blogspot.com/
The document provides tips for motivating a team and discusses an effective team philosophy based on ants. It recommends establishing SMART goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound. It also notes the importance of challenging tasks, growth opportunities, a sense of belonging, responsibility, communication and coordination for motivating team members. The ant philosophy section outlines lessons around never giving up, thinking ahead, staying positive and doing your best.
Improving your staff using coaching and counseling techniquesjbeane7028
The document discusses coaching and counseling employees to improve performance. It states that coaching alone does not guarantee improved performance, but must be accompanied by the employee already possessing the right character. It also outlines several factors for effective coaching, such as an open and trusting environment, empathetic and helpful attitude from managers, establishing dialogue, and focusing on work-related goals. The document provides tips for giving effective feedback and addressing why some employees may not perform well.
The document discusses strategies for conducting a fair performance appraisal of nurses who felt their previous appraisal was unfair. The new appraiser would:
1) Analyze objective and subjective performance data like records and interviews to substantiate any rating changes.
2) Interview staff and the previous appraiser to understand the reasons for grievances like personality clashes or errors in rating.
3) Address any performance issues by determining the root cause such as skills, motivation, or opportunity factors, and taking actions like training, coaching, clarifying expectations.
4) Conduct the re-appraisal with effective communication skills and an understanding of common rater errors to avoid inaccurate assessments. The focus would be on organizational objectives and
This document provides guidance for creating an online classroom that promotes collaboration. It emphasizes that collaboration requires building a sense of community where students feel comfortable sharing ideas and perspectives. It outlines the key elements of an online community, including all participants, shared purpose, and guidelines. The document also describes the stages of group development and the instructor's role in setting expectations, modeling collaborative processes, guiding discussion, and evaluating progress.
The document provides tips for facilitating effective group work. It recommends using group projects to reduce grading workload, improve work quality, and foster learning and connections. Instructors should use collaboration tools like screen sharing, video chat, wikis and Google docs for papers and presentations. When forming groups, instructors can consider geography, schedules, work styles, topics or majors. Instructors should encourage communication, provide early low-stakes collaboration opportunities, track participation, have a group divorce policy, and allow for anonymous feedback. The presentation links provide additional guidance.
This document discusses the importance and benefits of collaboration in online classrooms. It outlines several key points:
1. Collaboration promotes deeper learning, critical thinking, and co-creation of knowledge through student interaction and reflection.
2. Instructors must build a sense of community with clear guidelines, structure, and opportunities for regular interaction to facilitate successful collaboration.
3. Groups are most effective when roles and expectations are clearly defined, with deadlines and structured activities to keep students accountable and on track.
Presentation I ve done during PMI Global Congress which discuss about Communication Style in Project Management, this is a powerful tool to be perform an effective communication in Project Management
The product management discipline, view point from Wee Khang Teoh a product manager in Malaysia.
More about product management on http://productmatters.blogspot.com/
The document provides tips for motivating a team and discusses an effective team philosophy based on ants. It recommends establishing SMART goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound. It also notes the importance of challenging tasks, growth opportunities, a sense of belonging, responsibility, communication and coordination for motivating team members. The ant philosophy section outlines lessons around never giving up, thinking ahead, staying positive and doing your best.
Improving your staff using coaching and counseling techniquesjbeane7028
The document discusses coaching and counseling employees to improve performance. It states that coaching alone does not guarantee improved performance, but must be accompanied by the employee already possessing the right character. It also outlines several factors for effective coaching, such as an open and trusting environment, empathetic and helpful attitude from managers, establishing dialogue, and focusing on work-related goals. The document provides tips for giving effective feedback and addressing why some employees may not perform well.
The document discusses strategies for conducting a fair performance appraisal of nurses who felt their previous appraisal was unfair. The new appraiser would:
1) Analyze objective and subjective performance data like records and interviews to substantiate any rating changes.
2) Interview staff and the previous appraiser to understand the reasons for grievances like personality clashes or errors in rating.
3) Address any performance issues by determining the root cause such as skills, motivation, or opportunity factors, and taking actions like training, coaching, clarifying expectations.
4) Conduct the re-appraisal with effective communication skills and an understanding of common rater errors to avoid inaccurate assessments. The focus would be on organizational objectives and
The document discusses product design and the design thinking process. It describes product design as identifying a market opportunity, defining the problem, developing a solution, and validating it with users. The design thinking process involves five phases - empathizing, defining, ideating, prototyping, and testing. The process ensures solutions are problem-focused and collaboratively designed based on user needs rather than implementing pre-determined features.
The document discusses strategies for fostering social, cognitive, and teaching presence in online learning environments. It provides lists of tips and techniques in each area. For social presence, it suggests creating introductory activities and establishing communication norms. For cognitive presence, it recommends triggering critical thinking through open-ended questions and supporting exploration of multiple perspectives. For teaching presence, it advises providing organization, feedback, and facilitating discourse and inquiry. The overall document offers guidance for instructional designers and educators to enhance the educational experience online.
The document discusses strategies for fostering social, cognitive, and teaching presence in online learning environments. It provides lists of tips and techniques in each area. For social presence, it suggests creating introductory activities and establishing communication norms. For cognitive presence, it recommends triggering critical thinking through open-ended questions and supporting exploration of multiple perspectives. For teaching presence, it advises providing organization, feedback, and facilitating discourse and inquiry. The overall document offers guidance for instructional designers and educators to enhance the educational experience online.
Innovation trends in humanitarian actionShiftbalance
The document discusses leveraging design thinking and human-centered design approaches to innovation in humanitarian action. It outlines three phases of the design process - Empathize, Create, and Deliver. The Empathize phase involves understanding user needs through observation, engagement, and immersion. The goals are to understand who to talk to, how to gain empathy, and how to capture stories. The Create phase takes the insights from research to identify opportunities and brainstorm solutions. The Deliver phase focuses on identifying capabilities, sustainability, piloting solutions, and measuring impact. The overall document provides guidance on applying a human-centered design process to innovation in humanitarian contexts.
8 tips for successful online course facilitationMolly Valdez
The document provides tips for successful online course facilitation based on experiences as students and facilitators. It recommends making students feel welcome, establishing clear goals and expectations, participating actively in discussions, being responsive to students, using group work and collaboration, and getting feedback from students. The tips are meant to engage students socially and address challenges of online learning.
This document provides guidance on course design and syllabus construction. It discusses establishing learning objectives and outcomes, considering different teaching modes like flipped or hybrid, using appropriate media and technology, scaffolding course content, incorporating various learning activities, and constructing an effective syllabus. The goal is to plan lessons from a student-centered perspective and create a well-designed course through a balanced syllabus that is consistent with best practices.
8 Techniques and Tons of Tools for Creating Excellent Engaging LessonsKelly Walsh
This document discusses 8 engaging ways to use technology in the classroom to create lessons that are not boring. It provides examples of tools for each technique: 1) Incorporate student input and gather feedback using tools like Socrative, Plickers, and Twitter. 2) Gamify lessons using techniques like gamifying grading, awarding badges, integrating educational games, and competition. 3) Let students create using tools like Canva, ThingLink, and Blendspace. 4) Get interactive using online whiteboards and Bounceapp. 5) Have students collaborate using Google Drive, MindMeister, and collaborative research. 6) Use project-based learning with resources from TeachThought. 7) Use simulations in subjects like
Online teaching and learning resource guidepabraham8064
The document provides an overview of resources for online teaching and learning from Virginia Commonwealth University. It addresses topics such as faculty readiness for online teaching, course design, online pedagogy, community building, and copyright/academic integrity considerations. Technical support, library services, and assistive technologies for students are also covered. The goal is to equip instructors with knowledge on best practices and tools for delivering high-quality online instruction.
Formative assessment ensures learner engagement by providing feedback to students and staff to help students learn and identify misconceptions. It assesses student progress towards goals through both informal and formal assessment activities integrated with feedback, unlike summative assessment which measures learning through marks. To effectively engage students in formative assessment, it should be student-centered, interesting, and develop their identity and interests in authentically relating their learning to future aspirations through enjoyment and a sense of belonging.
Interactive webinar suggestions and guidanceBecky Russell
The document provides guidance for facilitators of CSL In Session classes. It emphasizes that these classes are interactive and aim to have participants learn from each other in addition to the presented content. Facilitators are advised to present digestible content and facilitate engaging discussions among participants. They should prepare thought-provoking questions, ensure participants have distinct takeaways they can apply, and structure classes to include both content presentation and interactive discussions. A variety of tools are suggested to promote interaction, such as using the chat feature, whiteboard, and polls.
This document discusses methods for teaching computer science concepts and practices. It outlines five core concepts in computer science: computing systems, networks and the internet, data and analytics, algorithms and programming, and impacts of computing. It also describes seven core practices for students, including fostering an inclusive culture and communicating about computing. The document then provides research-based classroom strategies for teaching computer science, such as providing visuals, encouraging students, decoding code through exploration, leveraging peer support, creating real-world relevance, collaboration and sharing work, and cultivating a growth mindset. Finally, it discusses questioning techniques for teachers, such as using open questions, wait time after questions, treating responses as a discussion rather than competition, insisting on complete
Embedding learning from cooperative projects Noel Hatch
How can we collaborate with people to help them build their resilience? Get under the skin of the culture and the lives people live. Identify people’s feelings and experiences of community and understand what people think is shaped by different values and by the environment and infrastructure around them. The future of collaboration could bring many opportunities but people find it more difficult to live and act together than before. How can we help people…and communities build their resilience? Understand people’s different situations and capabilities to develop pathways that help them build resilient relationships. Help people experience and practice change together. Help people grow everyday practices into sustainable projects. Turn people’s everyday motivations into design principles. Support infrastructure that connects different cultures of collaboration. Build relationships with people designing in collaboration for the future…now.
The document discusses the author's goal of enhancing their skills in information design through learning and applying design thinking techniques. It notes the benefits of embracing ideas without judgment, and references resources available through the course and at work that can help generate new ideas and solutions to provide information to customers in a way that delights them. The author plans to create a prototype and checklist incorporating design thinking practices to apply to their work.
This document summarizes a presentation on evaluating engagement activities. The presentation aimed to help participants develop evaluation strategies and make strong cases for engagement. It covered why evaluation is important, how to identify what to evaluate using logic models, who evaluations are for, and making the case for engagement through evaluation. The presentation included activities where participants discussed their experiences with evaluation and worked through examples of logic models and evaluation plans.
Applying Brain Science in Online Learning Design: A Practical Approach; Alan Hiddleston, D2L. Presentation originally prepared by Sarah Nicholl, D2L.
Presentation at the Brightspace London Connection, May 18. 2017. Canada House in Trafalgar Square.
Here are the key aspects of perceiving and processing according to the 4-MAT system:
Perceiving:
- Sensing/Feeling: Taking in information directly through the senses and feelings
- Thinking: Thinking about and conceptualizing experiences in a more abstract, logical way
Processing:
- Reflecting: Reflecting on and integrating new information or experiences
- Acting: Taking action and applying new learning in practical, hands-on ways
The 4-MAT system proposes that all learners cycle through these four stages - sensing/feeling, thinking, reflecting, and acting - to fully learn and internalize new information. By addressing each of the four stages, instruction can be designed to engage all
The document discusses adult learning, including defining adult learning, characteristics of adult learners, principles for teaching adults, differences between children and adults as learners, barriers to learning, and learning styles. Specifically, it defines adult learning as formal, non-formal, and informal learning activities undertaken by adults after initial education. It identifies characteristics such as adults needing to know why they are learning, learning through doing, and wanting to use life experiences. Principles for teaching adults include motivating learners, informing learners in their preferred style, monitoring learners, and engaging learners through experience.
The document discusses product design and the design thinking process. It describes product design as identifying a market opportunity, defining the problem, developing a solution, and validating it with users. The design thinking process involves five phases - empathizing, defining, ideating, prototyping, and testing. The process ensures solutions are problem-focused and collaboratively designed based on user needs rather than implementing pre-determined features.
The document discusses strategies for fostering social, cognitive, and teaching presence in online learning environments. It provides lists of tips and techniques in each area. For social presence, it suggests creating introductory activities and establishing communication norms. For cognitive presence, it recommends triggering critical thinking through open-ended questions and supporting exploration of multiple perspectives. For teaching presence, it advises providing organization, feedback, and facilitating discourse and inquiry. The overall document offers guidance for instructional designers and educators to enhance the educational experience online.
The document discusses strategies for fostering social, cognitive, and teaching presence in online learning environments. It provides lists of tips and techniques in each area. For social presence, it suggests creating introductory activities and establishing communication norms. For cognitive presence, it recommends triggering critical thinking through open-ended questions and supporting exploration of multiple perspectives. For teaching presence, it advises providing organization, feedback, and facilitating discourse and inquiry. The overall document offers guidance for instructional designers and educators to enhance the educational experience online.
Innovation trends in humanitarian actionShiftbalance
The document discusses leveraging design thinking and human-centered design approaches to innovation in humanitarian action. It outlines three phases of the design process - Empathize, Create, and Deliver. The Empathize phase involves understanding user needs through observation, engagement, and immersion. The goals are to understand who to talk to, how to gain empathy, and how to capture stories. The Create phase takes the insights from research to identify opportunities and brainstorm solutions. The Deliver phase focuses on identifying capabilities, sustainability, piloting solutions, and measuring impact. The overall document provides guidance on applying a human-centered design process to innovation in humanitarian contexts.
8 tips for successful online course facilitationMolly Valdez
The document provides tips for successful online course facilitation based on experiences as students and facilitators. It recommends making students feel welcome, establishing clear goals and expectations, participating actively in discussions, being responsive to students, using group work and collaboration, and getting feedback from students. The tips are meant to engage students socially and address challenges of online learning.
This document provides guidance on course design and syllabus construction. It discusses establishing learning objectives and outcomes, considering different teaching modes like flipped or hybrid, using appropriate media and technology, scaffolding course content, incorporating various learning activities, and constructing an effective syllabus. The goal is to plan lessons from a student-centered perspective and create a well-designed course through a balanced syllabus that is consistent with best practices.
8 Techniques and Tons of Tools for Creating Excellent Engaging LessonsKelly Walsh
This document discusses 8 engaging ways to use technology in the classroom to create lessons that are not boring. It provides examples of tools for each technique: 1) Incorporate student input and gather feedback using tools like Socrative, Plickers, and Twitter. 2) Gamify lessons using techniques like gamifying grading, awarding badges, integrating educational games, and competition. 3) Let students create using tools like Canva, ThingLink, and Blendspace. 4) Get interactive using online whiteboards and Bounceapp. 5) Have students collaborate using Google Drive, MindMeister, and collaborative research. 6) Use project-based learning with resources from TeachThought. 7) Use simulations in subjects like
Online teaching and learning resource guidepabraham8064
The document provides an overview of resources for online teaching and learning from Virginia Commonwealth University. It addresses topics such as faculty readiness for online teaching, course design, online pedagogy, community building, and copyright/academic integrity considerations. Technical support, library services, and assistive technologies for students are also covered. The goal is to equip instructors with knowledge on best practices and tools for delivering high-quality online instruction.
Formative assessment ensures learner engagement by providing feedback to students and staff to help students learn and identify misconceptions. It assesses student progress towards goals through both informal and formal assessment activities integrated with feedback, unlike summative assessment which measures learning through marks. To effectively engage students in formative assessment, it should be student-centered, interesting, and develop their identity and interests in authentically relating their learning to future aspirations through enjoyment and a sense of belonging.
Interactive webinar suggestions and guidanceBecky Russell
The document provides guidance for facilitators of CSL In Session classes. It emphasizes that these classes are interactive and aim to have participants learn from each other in addition to the presented content. Facilitators are advised to present digestible content and facilitate engaging discussions among participants. They should prepare thought-provoking questions, ensure participants have distinct takeaways they can apply, and structure classes to include both content presentation and interactive discussions. A variety of tools are suggested to promote interaction, such as using the chat feature, whiteboard, and polls.
This document discusses methods for teaching computer science concepts and practices. It outlines five core concepts in computer science: computing systems, networks and the internet, data and analytics, algorithms and programming, and impacts of computing. It also describes seven core practices for students, including fostering an inclusive culture and communicating about computing. The document then provides research-based classroom strategies for teaching computer science, such as providing visuals, encouraging students, decoding code through exploration, leveraging peer support, creating real-world relevance, collaboration and sharing work, and cultivating a growth mindset. Finally, it discusses questioning techniques for teachers, such as using open questions, wait time after questions, treating responses as a discussion rather than competition, insisting on complete
Embedding learning from cooperative projects Noel Hatch
How can we collaborate with people to help them build their resilience? Get under the skin of the culture and the lives people live. Identify people’s feelings and experiences of community and understand what people think is shaped by different values and by the environment and infrastructure around them. The future of collaboration could bring many opportunities but people find it more difficult to live and act together than before. How can we help people…and communities build their resilience? Understand people’s different situations and capabilities to develop pathways that help them build resilient relationships. Help people experience and practice change together. Help people grow everyday practices into sustainable projects. Turn people’s everyday motivations into design principles. Support infrastructure that connects different cultures of collaboration. Build relationships with people designing in collaboration for the future…now.
The document discusses the author's goal of enhancing their skills in information design through learning and applying design thinking techniques. It notes the benefits of embracing ideas without judgment, and references resources available through the course and at work that can help generate new ideas and solutions to provide information to customers in a way that delights them. The author plans to create a prototype and checklist incorporating design thinking practices to apply to their work.
This document summarizes a presentation on evaluating engagement activities. The presentation aimed to help participants develop evaluation strategies and make strong cases for engagement. It covered why evaluation is important, how to identify what to evaluate using logic models, who evaluations are for, and making the case for engagement through evaluation. The presentation included activities where participants discussed their experiences with evaluation and worked through examples of logic models and evaluation plans.
Applying Brain Science in Online Learning Design: A Practical Approach; Alan Hiddleston, D2L. Presentation originally prepared by Sarah Nicholl, D2L.
Presentation at the Brightspace London Connection, May 18. 2017. Canada House in Trafalgar Square.
Here are the key aspects of perceiving and processing according to the 4-MAT system:
Perceiving:
- Sensing/Feeling: Taking in information directly through the senses and feelings
- Thinking: Thinking about and conceptualizing experiences in a more abstract, logical way
Processing:
- Reflecting: Reflecting on and integrating new information or experiences
- Acting: Taking action and applying new learning in practical, hands-on ways
The 4-MAT system proposes that all learners cycle through these four stages - sensing/feeling, thinking, reflecting, and acting - to fully learn and internalize new information. By addressing each of the four stages, instruction can be designed to engage all
The document discusses adult learning, including defining adult learning, characteristics of adult learners, principles for teaching adults, differences between children and adults as learners, barriers to learning, and learning styles. Specifically, it defines adult learning as formal, non-formal, and informal learning activities undertaken by adults after initial education. It identifies characteristics such as adults needing to know why they are learning, learning through doing, and wanting to use life experiences. Principles for teaching adults include motivating learners, informing learners in their preferred style, monitoring learners, and engaging learners through experience.
1. The Five Opportunities Framework Strategies to support brain-based learning Joe Fournier [email_address] G-Voice Phone #: 8JoeFourni er Twitter: @spotlearning
13. Hashtag: #celd Analyzer Organizer Personalizer Visualizer Assess Identify desired approach to learning how to make sandwich. Introspect Brainstorm benefits of knowing how to make sandwich. Engage Practice making virtual sandwich. Reflect Compare vicarious experience to actual past experiences and projected future opportunities. Share Share sandwich making insights with others via discussion thread.
14. Hashtag: #celd Analyzer Organizer Personalizer Visualizer Assess Approaches to learning how to make sandwich. Review and carefully consider options; choose most efficient approach presented. Produce detailed plan with tracking to progress through instruction. Intuitively choose an approach that leads to interaction with others. Come up with an idea for monetizing plan or solving world hunger. Introspect Benefits of knowing how to make sandwich. Focus on efficiency and rate of sandwich making. Charts benefits and approaches based on bread properties. Engage Practice making virtual sandwich. Come up with new ideas and approaches to making sandwiches while practicing. Reflect Compare vicarious experience to actual experience and projected future opportunities. Share Show sandwich making insights with others via discussion thread. Invite passers-by to view the sandwich-making video as they eat popcorn.
15. Hashtag: #celd Analyzer Organizer Personalizer Visualizer Assess Approaches to learning how to make sandwich. Review and carefully consider options; choose most efficient approach presented. Produce detailed plan with tracking to progress through instruction. Intuitively choose an approach that leads to interaction with others. Come up with an idea for monetizing plan or solving world hunger. Introspect Benefits of knowing how to make sandwich. Focus on efficiency and rate of sandwich making. Charts benefits and approaches based on bread properties. Fantasize about having parties with lots of guests eating PBJ Consider training army of sandwich makers for franchises. Engage Practice making virtual sandwich. Ponder how the virtual sandwich program was designed. Align corners of bread using virtual grid lines. Blaze through the activity in time to go to lunch with friends. Come up with new ideas and approaches to making sandwiches while practicing. Reflect Compare vicarious experience to actual experience and projected future opportunities. Develop sandwich-making job aid to maximize production. Consider requirements for arranging hands-on practice Dream up a study group in order to get hands-on practice with new virtual friends Flesh out plan to monetize sandwich making business. Share Show sandwich making insights with others via discussion thread. Offer up copies of sandwich job aid developed during reflection activity. Distribute tracking grid with guidelines. Invite passers-by to view the sandwich-making video as they eat popcorn. Set up meeting with Analyzer, Organizer, and Personalizer to discuss business plans.
16. For more on the Five Opportunities framework, contact me at: Joe Fournier [email_address] G-Voice Phone #: 8JoeFourni er 856.336.8764 Twitter: @spotlearning
Editor's Notes
Hi, I’m Joe Fournier and just like many of you, I’m a learning junkie. I started out with wooden blocks with letters on them and then I moved on to Dr. Seuss books and comic strips in the Sunday papers. Eventually, someone gave me a free magazine just to get me hooked. I pay for them now…and I’ve been known to read two or three in one day. I even like academic journals and…I’ll admit it: I like e-learning. I hear the gasps now. I’ve been working in the learning industry for 24 years now and I sometimes think I was working with e-learning several years before the letter e was discovered. I’m currently the Head of e-Learning and Performance Support with Aetna’s RBCO Division, but I’m about to transition to a new job at Aetna where I’ll have the opportunity to get my hands back into more development and I’m excited about that opportunity and getting to work with a really awesome team there. Today we’re all here to talk about Creating Engaging Learning Designs. With so many people I think I’m going to be the one doing most of the talking, but I’d encourage you to use the Question interface to ask any questions you have and also to use the hashtag if you want to tweet amongst yourselves.
Essential Opportunities of Autonomous e-Learning I believe these are the “magical” components of successfully engaging learners every time. They are “opportunities” that we provide our learners. The most beautiful part of this is that these opportunities are simple to introduce and you don’t have to be responsible for measuring outcomes from these opportunities. You still provide learners with content, but you also provide these opportunities for autonomy in learning.
In the Assess Opportunity, learners gain an awareness of their autonomy and the opportunity for self-direction. In practice, this might look similar to the question I asked at the beginning of this session, when I asked you to identify what you wanted to learn. Where possible, give learners choices early on and provide suggestions on the various ways they can approach the learning experience. One of the things I did was encourage you to use Twitter and ask questions. These are simple options, but they provide some degree of autonomy. Ideally, give them the map, with all the key points of interest; then let them choose the route through the map. This might simply be a menu learners can use for navigation. You may want or need to impose some navigational constraints, but remember, if they make what you would consider poor navigational choices, they may learn from them. Some people organize information differently and need to approach it in ways you might not predict. My question for you is this: How do you think learners from the various Whole Brain Thinking Styles would respond to opportunities for self-direction presented in the Assess Opportunity.?Do you think they would all plan a route through the learning the same way? For the Assess opportunity, Analyzers would emphasize logical thinking; Organizers would appreciate the chance to plan and review the options; Personalizers would see that they were going to get a chance to share; and Visualizers would look holistically at the opportunity and come up with a plan that was in tune with their life and maybe the grand design of the universe.
For autonomy, learners need opportunities to determine what is important, especially at the beginning of the learning, and to construct complex meaning throughout the learning. Introspection is a powerful device we use to assimilate new learning into our own world view. It’s not something you can do for a learner, they must do it themselves, and you can’t measure it directly. What you can do is give learners opportunities for introspection and guide those opportunities through certain learning devices, such as open-ended questions and scenarios. If you can think of other devices you can use for introspection, jot them down on your scorecard or in Twitter. The e-learning designer does not have to provide the learner with the answers to how the learning will be useful. Given a handful of clues and the instruction to introspect, the learner is far more capable of doing this than the designer. How do you think learners from the various Whole Brain Thinking Styles would respond to opportunities for self-direction presented in the Introspect Opportunity? Wouldn’t all learners would use the filters and styles with which they were most comfortable for this activity? A great benefit of introspection, when you integrate it into e-learning and capture the data is that is gives you new insights into how people are apt to use the learning and how they are progressing. It takes time to go through, but it’s rich. If you do collect this kind of data, be sure to give learners a way to get to their own data and also be sure to let them know if you’re going to share it with others. You want to be respectful of their right to privacy.
Experience-based activities provide the grounds for proof, as well self-validation of competency. Hopefully, we all know how to design activities that approach performance. But I’d caution you not to limit your designs to computer-mediated experiences. Offer the opportunity for learners to create their own learning through scenarios and other devices. Scenarios provide a powerful opportunity for vicarious experience. When you tap into learner creativity with the right kind of guidance, you create opportunities for deeper meaning. Now, one of the risks it that not all types of learners are comfortable with scenarios. In a few minutes, we’ll look at a process where we consider the appropriateness of specific autonomous learning opportunities. This is the kind of thing you need to watch for as you go through that process.
Reconsideration throughout the learning helps learners determine what should be integrated and how. It also helps them decide what to forget. We can’t remember everything, so forgetting is one of the most critical things we do. Sometimes, as in this webinar, a lot of the content is really included to get us to a few key points…and once we get there, we can forget the other stuff. We should help learners get to the point where they understand how they will apply the learning in the future—or at least have some ideas. From there, it’s up to them to do the integration; the designer can’t do it for them. Instead, we can offer opportunities for the learner to identify ways the learning can be applied…and have the *learner* record those ideas. There are multiple benefits to this approach. For one thing, it provides the opportunity for further rehearsal; for another, it provides learning relevance reinforcement from the most trusted voice the learner can hear: their own. Also, if you collect this data through an e-Learning tool, you may get operational insights that aren’t otherwise available. And sometimes learners don’t realize the implications of their ideas for a broader audience. So, if you collect data from the reflect phase, be sure to do two things with it: make sure you share it back with the learner; be sure you review it later. Do you think people with different Thinking Styles would respond to differently to opportunities for self-direction presented in the Reflect Opportunity?
We all are compelled to make contributions and become advocates for the ideas that we share. If you think of the power of word of mouth advertising you can see the parallel. If you can get me to recommend your service to my friends, it’s likely that I’m going to use it myself. After all, every time I propose using your solution, I’m further convincing myself. Give learners the opportunity or option of making contributions to others who will follow. One way of doing this is asking them to identify key take-aways and make those available to others electronically…or ask them to add to the course by identifying ways the learning might be applied. The Share opportunity is really being explored a lot in terms of social media options. For this course, Twitter was the mechanism we proposed, but there are virtually hundreds of options for allowing learners to share and contribute. The Share opportunity may be encompassed in activities you use to address some of the earlier opportunities.
Again, I believe these are the “magical” components of successfully engaging learners every time. These “opportunities” don’t have to be technology-bound, but given our current technological toolboxes, there are plenty of opportunities to introduce these directly into e-learning. One way we have done this in e-learning is to create a simple workbook and have learners use that to record their insights. When e-learning was used as a pre-course module, the learners show up ready to engage and collaborate and we have had some of our best level one scores come back from these courses…simply by adding these opportunities…and doing nothing else specifically to address learning styles.
To start using the Five Opportunities Framework, think about the kinds of learners you’re working with and the dimensions you need to consider. Sometimes you need to consider multiple dimensions. We’ll walk through that option in a minute. Then ask yourself “What do learners need to do with the learning? and How will they apply it? In instructional design parlance, this is the “terminal performance objective” <click> Make a peanut butter sandwich. With the perfomance objective, then ask yourself “ What do learners need to know to get to performance?” This is the scaffolding knowledge or skills, or the enabling objectives. <click> Components of a peanut butter sandwich. Then, you classify the learning as Episodic, Procedural, Semantic, or Automatic. This information is used to consider the relevance of the opportunities in the context of the learning. Now, we’ve focused on a small segment of learning here, but if we were talking about a more complex learning experience with multiple dimensions, we’d list all of the key memory lanes we would use. <click> Procedural After you do this, you look at grid and ask: “What kind of autonomous learning opportunities can we provide that support the learning needs?” then you write a brief description in the first column under the corresponding opportunity you are trying to address.
It doesn’t really matter which learning styles model you use with the Five Opportunities Framework because learning styles are simply ways of conceptualizing learners. In fact, you can switch out styles with job titles or educational background, or dimensions of interest. Remember, this is not a theory, but rather, it is a process. You still have to go through the creative work of defining and building the opportunities, but this framework can help you analyze the effectiveness of your ideas.
So, if we decide that the dimensions we’re going to consider are the early terms for Whole Brain Thinking, our first chart is going to look something like this.
Or generational differences. One of the beautiful things about this model is that you’re looking at ways to give learners more control get them to engage. And even if your predictions of how they will use the Opportunities are a little off, you are opening the door for enhanced engagement by any opportunity for autonomy you add. The intent of this process is to aid your thinking in identifying best choices.
So, once you’ve created the chart with the dimensions against you wish to consider engagement, you consider the other questions. This is thinking time; application of creativity. Our questions were: What do learners need to do with the learning? How will they apply it? What do learners need to know to get to performance? What kind of memory will learners need to access? Episodic, Procedural, Semantic, or Automatic? The other thing I do is I look at the content that I know will be covered in the learning and I look for opportunities to promote higher order thinking…for the learners to produce meaning. “ What kind of autonomous learning opportunities can we provide that support the learning needs?” And then I start brainstorming ideas for autonomous opportunities we can provide and I test them against the dimensions by considering the likely reaction or response of learners in each of these categories.
How would learners in each style relate to the opportunities? From what mindsets might learners in each style access the opportunities? Again, this is a thinking process, and you may need to validate assumptions with others.
Along the way, you may identify a concern or two with your opportunities. At that point, you have to determine if there are ways to mitigate the risk or if it’s acceptable.
If you’d like to learn more about the five opportunities framework, I encourage you to reach out to me. Thank you for your time and attention!