Category: Blog Posts

The difficulty with the learning topic that my group has selected does not have any videos which exactly cover what we are hoping to teach. However, I have found two videos which hold the premise of what we are looking to provide. The first video talks about nurse scheduling and how proper staff scheduling will prevent adverse events. The second video discusses scheduling and its importance in healthcare.

What kind of interaction would the video require from your students? Does it force them to respond in some way (inherent)?

The students would be able to view these videos throughout our ILR as a way to help increase understanding of the material we are teaching. The desired interaction from these videos would be for the students to draw relation to the material through a question such as “think back to a time where scheduling has impacted your life (ie; airline, healthcare, day-to-day, etc). Were these experiences positive or negative?”. This response is not inherent from the videos unfortunately but will be attached as a follow up addendum to each video/section.

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)?

From the videos, students will most likely respond on their own through a couple of mediums. The first would be by creating notes on the material. The second would be drawing connections to their own experiences. The third way would be identifying what from the videos can be used to benefit them in their daily lives.

What activity could you suggest that they do, after they have watched the video (designed)? What type of knowledge or skill would that activity help develop? What medium or technology would students use to do the activity?

The main activity that I can think of associating these videos would be to have them do a self reflection regarding how a schedule has affected them at some point in their life and if it was a positive or negative experience. This activity would help for the students to develop a relation to the subject material making it so they are better able to communicate and engage with the ILR. The medium for this activity would be web based where students can write and submit their reflections directly to the figma platform where we host the ILR.

How could the video have been designed to generate more or better activity from viewers or students?

Considering how these videos are rather tailored to specific demographics with some of the nomenclature and jargon used, one of the ways to help engage more activity would be to increase the use of common language so those not specialized in the field can better follow along.

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

Going into the design of my group’s interactive learning resource, the idea of making it inclusive for all demographics of learners was something we discussed early on. Part of what drove this discussion was from myself being partially color blind. From this after deciding on the direction we wanted to go in for our interactive learning resource we looked to identify which parts could raise potential barriers for atypical learners such as myself. The first part of  that we wanted to allow for learners was the capability to complete the learning resource at their own pace, where they won’t be penalized for taking longer than the estimated time to complete. As for learners who suffer from color blindness, we made it so that no one specific color has an intended meaning which will directly impact how a learner interacts with the resource. However, color is still an important concept that we have taken extra attention to as it can be an important part to the learning process for typical learners (NoraNivel US, 2022). But in regards to this, we have selected a color pallet/ design of our resource which will allow for the same level of comprehension for those with color blindness and those without. Other things that we have decided for our interactive learning resource is breaking up each main task into sections that the learners will be able to learn in chunks of material rather than all at once. To also drive engagement, we have incorporated the use of section quizzes which are designed to test the learners understanding of the section material they have just learned. Attached to these quizzes are helpful addendums which help to point where in the interactive learning resource the question comes from so they are able to refresh their memory on the material. These are all current considerations we have taken into account in regards to designing our ILR to be able to incorporate the needs of all learners equally.

Reference:

The power of color in a learning environment. NorvaNivel US. (2022, February 24). Retrieved from https://norvanivel.com/the-power-of-color-in-a-learning-environment/#:~:text=Understanding%20the%20role%20that%20different,success%20in%20the%20learning%20environment

Prompt: inquiry-based learning

Inquiry-based learning is an approach to create an environment which promotes the role of the student in learning (GradePower Learning, 2019). The characteristics that make up this approach revolves around the students having the opportunity to approach the material rather than being instructed by the teacher on what to do (GradePower Learning, 2019). In addition to this, this approach encourages the foundation that students will learn the material best by doing rather than simply attempting to memorize it (GradePower Learning, 2019). Other factors which make up inquiry-based learning are the use of small group discussions and providing guided learning (GradePower Learning, 2019).

When considering the approach we have taken for my group’s chosen topic, inquiry-based learning does not align with what we have set out to do. The reason that our topic does not align is due to how we designed this to be a self paced learning process which doesn’t have the necessary hands-on portion related to the main characteristic of the inquiry-based approach. In addition to this, while allowing the students to interact with our topic, the idea is more focused on them learning the material by reading and engaging with a quiz at the end of topics.

References:

What is inquiry-based learning (and how is it effective)? GradePower Learning. (2019, May 28). Retrieved June 13, 2022, from https://gradepowerlearning.com/what-is-inquiry-based-learning/

Prompt: Application Exercise Prompt: Based on your reading, would you consider your current instruction style more behaviorist, cognitivist, or constructivist? Elaborate with your specific mindset and examples.

Based on the three styles provided, I feel that my instructing style more closely represents the behaviorist style. The reason that I am a behaviorist is mainly influenced by how my upbringing is closely related to sports and the mentality that the continual practice and repetition of skills/actions is what leads to mastery. The greatest example I have from when I first developed this style stems from my time playing water polo. From this time, I had multiple coaches who while very different people all had the same thing to say about how to grow as a player: Practice, practice, practice. I used to underestimate this statement as it’s hard to see exactly how much you gain without anything to compare it to as it can feel as the practice you do becomes repetitive and meaningless. However, this changes once you’re able to put the practice into action. An example of this is when I played against a team who I felt was completely above me in every degree, there was then a four month span where I went off and just trained and practiced my skills. In this time of just training/practicing I was never sure how much I was actually gaining skill wise, but once I played another game against that particular team I could clearly tell that the time practicing I had put in was paying off. I was no longer lagging behind in skill and had matched their pace if not exceeding some of the players who once overpowered me in every degree. It was from this moment mixed with all my coaches teaching that I truly adopted the behaviorist style for instruction.

Moving forward a couple years, I have long retired from playing water polo/ coordinated sports and have begun to take up rock climbing where I find that I still maintain the behaviorist mentality. Switching from a water to land sport and from team to individual sport had literally made me a “fish out of water” in a sense. I found myself continually falling off the wall and struggling to climb at times. My answer to this was like how my coaches had told me “practice, practice, practice”, recognizing where I am falling and continually working on that part until I am able to surpass the wall I have created for myself. If there comes a time in my life where I take up coaching; be it for whatever sport/activity, I am definitely going to do as my coaches before me and use a behaviorist style of instruction to guide my students to progress further.