ELearning/Course design/Learning activities/Content

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Preinstruction | Content | Application | Assessment | Follow-through


As stated earlier, essential content can be presented to learners in a "packaged" form, it can be located and summarized by learners themselves, or through a combination of the two. Searching for relevant material not only serves to acquire necessary content, but also provides skill practice in locating and evaluating information. It makes learning more active and promotes a sense of ownership. However, learners enroll in courses to gain specialized knowledge from subject matter experts, and assistance in making sense of available information. Consider, then, that a combination of presenting content and asking learners to locate content provides the best learning opportunity.

This list of ideas mixes presentation and acquisition together into one group.

Blog

Asking students to blog for an audience of their classmates instead of writing an essay for a professor can bring out different qualities in their writing (Straumsheim, 2015). "Students appear to be overall more likely to take greater intellectual risks in blogs, which they know will be read and commented upon by their peers. Maybe they are writing more high-quality stuff when they’re writing in this kind of open format and they know their peers are going to be reading their stuff” (Foster, 2015). Intellectual risks might include taking a position on an issue, and forming a personal theory.

Cinema, Documentary

Professionally produced movies and documentaries used to communicate important course concepts. Viewing such works is a passive activity, so it is important to instruct students in what to look for while watching and, perhaps, writing down what they observe.

Contextualizing content

Contextualization is a general term with multiple applications to content.

  • Contextualizing basic skills (reading, writing, speaking, math) instruction by integrating it within content discipline area courses. For example, teaching writing skills within a history class or math skills within an auto mechanics course. Generally, basic skills instruction is specific to the discipline such as documenting behaviors and incidents, and writing reports within a criminal justice curriculum or solving relevant math problems for medical laboratory settings. An alternative approach is to use discipline-based problems and scenarios within English, math and other skill-building courses. Both approaches are a departure from traditional basic skills instruction, where they are taught in the abstract with little or no reference to authentic applications (Jurmo, 2004). Beyond cognitive benefits, there are also motivational benefits when learners a drawn to engage in tasks because they perceive it as interesting, enjoyable, and useful (Ryan & Deci, 2000). Perrin (2011) cites evidence that this contextualization significantly improves learning and the likelihood of retaining high school students, academically unprepared college students, and adult learners.

  • Discipline specific courses that help learners "think like a . . ." (psychologist, teacher, lawyer, etc.) by applying content to authentic scenarios and problems serve to place the content into the context of the profession. Arriving at solutions and comparing them to expert solutions is one approach. Any time you use authentic case studies, problems, or methods you are contextualizing content.

  • Content can also be contextualized through the use of technology by using location-based (augmented reality) and device-based instruction, and by tagging content with multiple relevant categories and providing search capabilities for learner use.

Correspondence

Students corresponding with and gaining information from experts, employees within an industry, students in other countries and the like. The information gained can then be used in producing written papers, reproducing experiments, etc.

Demonstration

Modeling or showing a physical or interpersonal activity, which may or may not be accompanied by explanation. Procedures, processes, and methods are performed live, on video, or via multimedia. As with other forms of viewing, it is important to instruct students on what they are looking for while viewing a demonstration. Research tells us that "watching to learn" rather than casual viewing activates the mirror neuron system, essential for observational learning (Vanderbilt, 2016). It also tells us that observing a mix of both experts performing the task effortlessly, and the error-filled efforts of novices is more effective than observing either in isolation ( Andrieux & Proteau, 2016). Fading worked examples incorporate multiple demonstrations (see Fading in Part 3 ).

Feedback

1. Graphic organizer

Information about (1) the consequences of actions, and (2) the state of a system, product, or process compared to an ideal state as defined by standards, guidelines, and other criteria. Refer to the Feedback article under Teaching Online. See also Feedback and Peer review below.

Feed forward

Instruction, guidance, and suggestions for correcting or improving student-created work for the next iteration or version.

Graphic organizer

A visual representation of knowledge that structures information into a pattern using labels, a form of mental model. Their primary function is to help assemble (or for instructors, to present) information in concise ways that highlight the organization and relationships of items, concepts, analysis, etc. They are useful tools for critical and creative thinking, organizing information, and understanding relationships. Venn diagrams, pie charts, process diagrams, and timelines are examples. (link to GraphicOrganizers.pdf)

Interview

Dialogues increase interest in information delivery by adding an interpersonal dynamic between people. One person serves as host and interviewer, asking pre-selected or spontaneous questions of the interviewees, clarifying and summarizing answers, and asking follow-up questions to probe for additional or more in depth information.

Journaling

Journaling has long been a common course requirement in the humanities, especially in courses heavy on reading assignments. Requiring students to reflect on assigned texts -- either for the students’ own benefit or to ensure that they actually did their homework -- gives instructors another method of helping students retain knowledge. Foster (2015) found that journals, which do not incorporate peer readership, appear to compel students to take more personal risks and engage in emotional labor to process assigned materials. Personal risk may involve explaining misconceptions they had and linking material to personal experience.

Lecture/Presentation

The lecture is a special form of communication in which voice, gesture, movement, facial expression, and eye contact (looking into the camera) can either complement or detract from the content. When we consider audio-only lectures (podcasts), we have only aspects of voice to work with: inflection, pauses, pace, and volume. Because you're not just recording a lecture for the current class, but also several semesters into the future, you want to do it successfully. Refer to #Video for a more complete picture.

General guidelines

Here are the most important guidelines for successful online lectures and presentations.

Accommodate short attention spans.

Blame it on cellphones, the internet, and the rise of multitasking. Implication:

  • “Chunking” content accommodates shorter attention spans. This means 5-10 minutes video lectures.
  • If you need more time, chunk it into shorter segments. This also has the advantage of encouraging learners to revisit your lectures.

Vision is dominate for humans. There is a built-in bias toward visual information. Text, though seemingly visual, is auditory and must be interpreted by the brain, which slows comprehension. Implication:

  • We must accommodate the visual sense while speaking; otherwise the eyes will lead attention elsewhere.
  • Because the main ingredient of lectures is auditory, the visual must support it. Neutral or conflicting visual elements drag attention away from the audio message.
  • Create supporting visuals to reinforce the audio with relevant photos, illustrations, line drawings, charts, diagrams, tables.
  • Following along with the audio message, change visuals regularly. Obvious change (visual and audio) is the single most effective attention grabber.

Use your voice.

Rate of speech

  • People who read books for radio or podcasts are asked to speak at 150-160 wpm. Consider this the ideal rate of speech.
  • Conversational speech generally falls between 120 wpm at the slow end, to 160 - 200 wpm in the fast range.
  • Auctioneers or commentators who practice speed speech are usually in the 250 to 400 wpm range.

Research suggests that there is a relationship between rate of speech and the content we convey and structure we use (Priva, 2016). Fast speech tends to be associated with simpler language, active voice, and less information density. Slower speech, on the other hand, is associated with more complex language and higher information density. The net result is an approximate parity of information conveyed by fast and slower talkers. The best approach is to speak slower when you are conveying complex concepts, use visuals to support the spoken word, repeat yourself, and subdivide longer lectures into shorter segments. Your learners will appreciate it.

Clarity. Perhaps the best reason for scripting and practicing your lectures is for clarity of expression and clarity of speech. Long pauses, "uhms" and "ahs" all indicate searching for the right words. Beginning strong and gradually speaking softer until it becomes a mumble interrupts flow and adds unnecessary cognitively load.

Confidence: Pitch and Inflection. As important as clarity and rate of speech is the manner in which the speaker presents her or himself. Research tells us that human brains are geared for placing added value to the words and opinions of confident people (Campbell-Meiklejohn, et al., 2016). Watching and listening to confident people increases activity in the reward system of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. "This ... effect seems likely to be the mechanism by which the confidence of others can give us reassurance in our understanding and action." Confidence is communicated using body language and voice. Verbally, confidence is communicated through pitch and inflection. Lower pitch conveys social status while higher pitch communicates subordination and approval seeking (Leongómez et al., 2017). Additionally, inflection toward a higher pitch at the end of sentences communicates lack of confidence and approval seeking.

The power of questions

Prequestions before and intermittent questions during lectures help guide attention and enhance learning. Questions are the essence of the Socratic method. Impromptu questions in the classroom are a natural way to engage students. We can’t do this online, so we must use a different tact.

  • Use prequestions (questions that anticipate the lecture content) to begin your lecture and ask questions intermittently during the lecture.
  • Do this by using one or more question slides, a one-second pause, and an answer slide.
  • You don’t always need to present the answer, using the question as entree’ to the content.
  • Tools like Camtasia, Adobe Presenter, and Articulate Storyline provide specific tools for adding questions.

Presentation software

PowerPoint and other software used to create the visual portion of lectures and presentations is ubiquitous. Just as the chalkboard and flip charts provided the visual backup for presentations in the past (and present), slide decks accompany most online lectures. Unfortunately, as in the past, most lecturers use text rather than actual visuals to support the verbal presentation. Since text is actually verbal in our minds, we end up with competing verbal messages rather than complementary verbal and visual messages. It doesn't have to be that way. There are literally hundreds of online resources telling you how to create better presentations. We share one you probably have not encountered, a 45-minute presentation by Diane Elkin, titled Beyond Bullet Points: 7 Tips for Better eLearning, in which she demonstrates the following guidelines:

  • Show, don’t tell. Let the audio tell while the visual shows.
  • Use only key words in bullets. Sentences require reading and distract from the audio.
  • Turn words into diagrams. Create a visual model of your concepts to support the audio.
  • Direct attention. Progressive disclosure, zoom, and animations are useful methods.
  • Integrate words and visuals. Use labels, pointers and other cues to direct attention.
  • Put your content into a realistic context. Start with the story first. “You’ve just received a massive assignment and you don’t know what to do first.”
  • Use bullets only when they are the best choice. Bullets have their uses (e.g., checklists), but should never be the default.

PowerPoint and other presentation software include many tools for adding visual interest to your slides. The following are included in PowerPoint 2016.

  1. SmartArt
  2. Shapes
  3. Inserting images
  4. Recording and inserting audio
  5. Slide transitions
  6. Animations
  7. Timing animations, transitions and other changes
  8. Screen capture
  9. Convert PPTX to mp4 video
  10. Access the full two-hour PowerPoint Tutorial

2. Learning map

Learning map

Similar in execution to graphic organizer and concept mapping, a visual approach to organizing learning resources. It is non-linear, allows for and encourages exploration and access to material at the point of need, and supports curation for the instructor/content provider. See Learning Maps Characteristics for more.

Metaphor

A figure of speech, using a label or phrase not literally applicable, to describe someone or something in order to make the description "come alive". Metaphors are powerful devices for communicating abstract or complex phenomenon. They provide a concrete "picture" to aid in communicating and understanding. They also trigger emotions in a way no literal description can (Citron, 2016). Compare:

  • "The U.S. lost 750,000 jobs last year to foreign countries."
  • "Our jobs are fleeing the country."

  • "I had a stressful meeting today."
  • "I felt pretty beat up after that meeting today."

  • "The atom contains a very small and dense central nucleus holding protons and neutrons, surrounded by one or more shells of orbiting electrons."
  • "Think of the atom as an incredibly small solar system with the nucleus, containing protons and neutrons, at the center like our sun, and a number of electrons flying in orbit around the nucleus, like the planets."

Keeping control over the way we says things allows us to choose our expressions more carefully, and to therefore be more persuasive and informative. While stories activate brain regions associated with emotional responses (limbic system), stories that use figurative expressions have much stronger effects on certain regions, particularly the amygdala. That this is where the figurative language hits home indicates that it elicits very automatic emotional responses when compared to literal language. There is also evidence of stronger activation in the prefrontal cortex by metaphor-heavy stories.

Peer instruction

Peer instruction reflects the social view of learning. Lieberman (2014) cites two studies on peer instruction. The first involved two groups, one instructed to study material for a test (learn for testing) and the other instructed to study with the intention of teaching others (learn for teaching). Although the "learn for teaching" group never actually taught anyone else, they significantly outscored the "learn for testing" group. To investigate possible causes for this difference, he instructed a new set of participants to read a television show description, while in a fMRI scanner, with the intention of summarizing and evaluating the show for their boss. The fMRI revealed strong activity in brain regions involved in social cognition (i.e., amygdala and prefrontal cortex). His conclusion was that "this social view invokes a brain network to support learning when social motivation is present."

"When I was a graduate student, the comprehensive exam was the most daunting task on the way to a degree. Rather than setting about to memorize endless content, my colleagues and I shared the load. We divided the topics and were each responsible for teaching our topics to the others. Using this peer-teaching strategy, we all passed the exam. It was the single best learning experience of my life." (Lieberman, 2014).

Performance

Essentially the same as demonstration except that a performance is focused more on artistic endeavors such as music, plays, and other works of art and entertainment.

Performance Aids

A performance aid (job aid) is a repository for information, processes, or perspectives that supports work and activity by directing, guiding, and enlightening performance. Performance aids take the form of manuals, laminated cards, posters, online documents, software, and more (Allison & Gauier-Downes, 1991). Common performance aids include step-by-step instructions, forms and worksheets, checklists, decision tables, flowcharts, and reference documents such as parts catalogs. Two useful resources for viewing and creating job aids:

Reading (required, optional)

Reading remains a primary means by which people gain information, and it is difficult to imagine a college course without reading assignments (Lowman, 1995). According to a 2014 Carnegie Mellon study, reading fiction activates the same regions of the brain as real-life experience. Reading fictional characters' speech uses the same systems as does hearing other people's voices (Fernyhough, 2017). A 2013 study found that people scored higher on tests of empathy and social intelligence after reading literary fiction. A primary criticism of the current direction of higher education is that there is so little reading in most college courses (Arum & Roksa, 2011), and then there is the student perspective:

"I hate classes with a lot of reading that is tested on. Any class where a teacher is just gonna give us notes and a worksheet or something like that is better. Something I can study and just learn from in five minutes I'll usually do pretty good in. Whereas, if I'm expected to read, you know, a 150-page book and then write a three-page essay on it, you know, on a test let's say. I'll probably do worse on the test because I probably wouldn't have read it."

How much reading? Unfortunately there is no good answer to this question. It depends on the subject, the course level, and the amount of information that needs to be digested. In their study of freshman and sophomore learning, Arum & Roksa describe "more than 40 pages per week" as a modest requirement. The answer to the question, then, centers on what constitutes a "reasonable" amount of reading for a particular course.

  • Consider how the readings contribute to the objectives around which they are assigned. You might try assigning a "high, medium, and low" contribution label to each article and then weed appropriately.
  • Select for interest as well as content. Is the reading current? Does it connect with students' lives, or the times? How does the reading hold your interest? Is it an adventure or a slog?
  • Assign reading at least a week before it will be discussed or otherwise addressed. This gives even slow students the time to actually read.
  • Pique their interest. If appropriate, add a hook to garner attention: "This article is one of my favorites, and I'll be interested to see what you think."
  • Use self-tests or short quizzes over the reading to help students assess their comprehension. The emphasis here needs to be on learning, not assessment.
  • Create a set of pre-reading questions for students to answer and submit as an assignment or post in a discussion.
  • Ask students to summarize their reading. Especially when reading is a central source of important information, ask students to summarize their reading in some fashion and assign participation points for their effort. Use the journal feature within learning management systems and describe it as a student's exam notes. A variation would be to ask students to summarize the reading in one word, and then write a page or less explaining or justifying their word choice.

Reading comprehension can be problematic for many students. You can help them by providing instructions for better comprehension and learning. The simplest approach is preview, read, and recall. Preview consists of reading the title, headers and subheaders, and graphics while forming questions that arise from this overview. Reading includes highlighting, note taking, taking breaks, and monitoring understanding. Recall can include tactics like turning the headers into questions and then answering them, summarizing what you have read by speaking aloud or writing a paragraph. A more sophisticated approach is SQ3R: Survey the chapter, Question while surveying, Read, Recite after each section, and Review on a daily basis.

Paper or screen? There are many factors that can come into play, such as the reader, the material, the purpose and the technology (Torheim, 2017). The length of the text seems to be the most critical. If the text is long, needs to be read carefully and perhaps involves note taking, studies show that many people, including young people, still often prefer a printed book, even if it is available as both an e-book and in electronic formats with options for making notes and highlighting. When reading long, linear, continuous texts over multiple pages that require a certain amount of concentration, referred to as "Deep Reading," the reader often experiences better concentration and a greater overview when reading from a printed medium compared to a screen. When we are reading from a screen, only one section can be seen at a time and the available reading surface area is limited. If you read a printed medium such as a book, several text areas are available simultaneously and it feels easier to form an overview and make notes in the margins.

An interesting finding in some studies is that we tend to overestimate our reading comprehension when we read on screen compared to on paper. Some studies have shown that we believe we have understood the text better, when we read from a screen. However, it has been found that we tend to read faster on screen and consequently understand less compared to when reading from paper. For example, Li et al. (in Swayne, 2017) found that adult readers who frequently used electronic devices were significantly less successful on a reading comprehension test after reading several scientific articles compared to those who used those devices less frequently. "The more time the participants reported on using e-devices per day — for instance, reading texts on their iPhone, watching TV, playing internet games, texting, or reading an eBook — the less well they did when they tried to understand scientific texts."

Reading to students

Reading aloud to young children has long been associated with language development and literacy (Beck & McKeown, 2001). Reading aloud to adult students can also be useful for several purposes:

  • Reading aloud for pronunciation and comprehension. Can be especially effective for teaching foreign languages or English as a second language.
  • Reading and thinking aloud can be a form of modeling in which the instructor expresses her thinking about the reading in real time. Useful for demonstrating thinking analytically, critically, and creatively.
  • Reading literature and poetry aloud to demonstrate dialect, sound, pattern, or rhythm.
  • Reading for pleasure as a way of introducing students to differing genre of literature.

Social media

Using social media to deliver content and manage the learning process takes the learning outside the classroom space and into student's lives. As such, the learning process becomes more integrated with daily life as opposed to an isolated experience. A faculty survey revealed multiples uses for Twitter, Facebook, and other social media (Magna, 2009):

  • Language instruction. Tweet on every day activities in the language and ask students to respond in kind. Instructor corrects mistakes. This gives students daily practice.
  • Post reminders and extra credit assignments.
  • Share links to related articles, websites, etc.
  • Share pieces of information centered on the topic or discipline.
  • Encourage students to participate.
  • Capture real-time feedback from students on assignments while they are completing them; while watching an assigned movie, etc.
  • Prepare students to become citizen journalists by reporting events they witness.
  • Keep students updated on the passage of legislative bills or budgets.

Storytelling

For over 27,000 years, since the first cave paintings were discovered, telling stories has been one of our most fundamental communication methods. If we listen to a PowerPoint presentation with boring bullet points, the Broca's and Wernicke's areas are activated, where we encode and decode words into meaning. When we are being told a story, things change dramatically. Not only are the language processing parts in our brain activated, but any other area in our brain that we would use when experiencing the events of the story are too (Grebow, 2013). Stories appear to be a fundamental way in which the brain organizes information in a practical and memorable manner (Kaplan et al., 2016). If someone tells us about how delicious certain foods were, our sensory cortex lights up. If it’s about motion, our motor cortex gets active. "Pablo swept the ball into his hand and gave it a mighty pitch." As we noted in the Physical basis of learning, the result is more widespread neuron firing with the resulting "neurons that fire together wire together". See Why Storytelling Works and Rules for Storytelling for guidance.

Marketing research by Gordon et al. (2017) concluded that, in order for campaigns to have a lasting influence on consumers, marketers need to create content that:

  • Gains their audience's attention, engages working memory and invokes an emotional response
  • Reflects a typical story structure with a beginning, middle and end
  • Enables the consumer to identify with the subject
  • Provokes the consumer to care about the subject

Similarly, educational messages containing these same elements will impact learners more than those with a more typical lecture format.

Student research

Ask students to conduct their own research to find answers to questions, rather than providing the information directly. The level of guidance and coaching can be adjusted to current student research skills. The results can then be used as instruction for all students, in the form of group presentations or other format.

Student-conducted interview

In the same vein as students conducting their own research, ask them to interview subject matter experts, employees within an industry, students from other countries, etc. seeking out specific information you specify.

Timelines

Timeline2.jpg
9. A simple timeline of Middle American civilizations

Timelines constitute a specific form of graphical organizer, and are excellent for illustrating the chronology of historical events, civilizations, technology, and a host of other phenomena. They can be bare-boned with simple lines and text, illustrated to add visual interest, or animated to add impact.

Keep in mind that these sophisticated timelines are becoming more common in the news media and that a web search can uncover these gems for use in your instruction.

Tours and fieldtrips (live, virtual, self-guided)

Learning about many subjects can best be accomplished by viewing and interacting with physical objects. Field trips to museums, exhibits, and other physical localities such as downtowns, parks, or zoos bring to life the subjects of study. Although impossible to do as a group in the online world, instructors can create "tour agendas" for students to use individually in their locale. Create lists of things to observe for, questions to consider, and guidelines for summarizing their experiences.

Fieldtrips can also be used to engage students in reading and writing literacy. Rather than relying solely on textbooks, assigning students to visit local museums, select a piece to examine and then write and read about it. See Writing activities in the Application article.

Virtual is the next-best thing to being there. Whenever a physical place (museum, factory, archeological or historical site, commercial kitchen, etc.) is an important element of learning, produce your own video and still photography to show and tell, or link up with a wide variety of tours on the internet.

Video

We include video here as a generic tool for communicating content to learners. According to Leonard (2015), 79% of college students voluntarily watch videos to enhance their understanding of a variety of learning challenges, especially practical how-to and those that explain theoretical concepts. Sixty-eight percent are assigned videos as part of their course. The most popular formats included documentaries, experts speaking (e.g., TED Talks), tutorials, and case studies. Further, millions of adults watch educational videos (NOVA, The Great Courses, EdX) as part of their lifelong learning (Beato, 2015).

What makes for good video?

“I think that if it’s a really complex topic, I would prefer it to be broken down into short segments. That works well, I think, for adult learning theory, in that, if you have something that’s really complicated you want to let the learner approach it at their own speed. So let’s say that if you have a really complex idea you want to break it down into five parts and then maybe a video for each part. And then at the end, that learner can pause it and sort of think and reflect back on it or re-watch before moving on to the next one. Not everyone is going to sit once. They might, but, they might watch it in chunks, then stop and pause, and get up and do something else.”

in Leonard, 2015

Why they watch

When searching for appropriate videos, learners quickly decide if each will meet their needs and if it keeps their attention. They will stay longer with charismatic speakers than boring ones, but will watch most for less than 10 minutes and often multitask while a video plays. Leonard's survey (2015) of 1,673 undergrad and graduate students uncovered the following reasons for watching educational video. Keep these in mind as you consider what videos to produce and include in your courses.

Question: Why do you watch educational videos? Select all that apply.
Answer Options Percent
Professor plays it during class 63%
For help in understanding course material 59%
Assigned as homework prior to class 43%
Assigned as supplemental material 41%
To see the steps necessary to do something successfully 34%
To see a practical example of a theoretical concept 32%
To get another perspective 29%
As part of a research assignment 25%
To illustrate a point in a presentation you are making 18%
Never had to watch a video for class and don't look for it independently 5%

Impact

Multiple studies have demonstrated the positive impact video can provide, including higher assessment scores (Holland et al., 2013) and higher satisfaction (Park et al., 2014). Much of the satisfaction derives from convenience and the ability to control their viewing (watching less than the full video, repeated viewing). Greenberg and Zanetis (2012) state that the impact of educational video on the learner can be explained by three factors:

  • Interactivity with content—the learner relates to visual content, whether verbally, by note taking or thinking, or by applying concepts.
  • Engagement—the learner connects to the visual content, drawn in by video whether on demand or in real time.
  • Knowledge transfer and memory—the learner may remember and retain concepts better than with other instructional media (multiple congruent sensory pathways).

Designing videos

Schwartz & Hartman (2007) offer a useful model for using video for different learning objectives. Figure 10 summarizes their model, a designed video framework for achieving specific objectives. Note the assessments portion (ring 3) is in gray here and addressed separately under Part 4: Assessment.

"Designed video" describes the process of deciding, before videotaping begins, on the components and features of the video. For example, deciding to create a video of a person solving a math problem to demonstrate and model the problem solving process, including the steps and thought processes involved. Or, using video for assessment, the person in the video solves the problem incorrectly and the learner is asked to describe where the person erred and how to correct it. The authors note that video is more forgiving (e.g., high production values are not as essential) and more powerful when it is embedded within a larger context of learning.

10. Designing video for specific learning objectives (Schwartz & Hartman, 2011)

The inner circle (1) describes four general learning outcomes and their rough alignment with Bloom's taxonomy: engaging (interest, motivation), saying (declarative knowledge), seeing (perceptual learning), and doing (interpersonal and skill learning). From Bloom's perspective, motivation and attitudes are based in the affective domain.

  • Engagement is characterized as the pull that brings people to a situation and keeps them involved.
  • Saying is associated with declarative knowledge like facts and concepts.
  • Seeing is about perceiving phenomena along a continuum from familiarity to discernment. Familiarity introduces people to phenomena they have not been exposed to - exotic animals, the deep sea, world heritage sites. Discernment focuses people on the details and nuances of phenomena, developing an "enlightened eye." This type of learning is what expertise is all about.
  • Doing is associated with human behavior involving attitudes and skills. Attitudes can be directed to other people, objects, ideas, and concepts (e.g., democracy). Skills may include cognitive, interpersonal, and psychomotor performance.

From circle 1, we move outward within each quadrant, looking at specific objectives we seek to achieve and video genres that can be used to meet them. Using video for assessment is addressed in Part 4: Assessment.

Engaging

Developing learner interest and contextualizing issues so learners become involved and persevere. Developing interest answers the question of "why should I learn this" and can appeal to extrinsic and intrinsic motivations. We could, for example, show that people who learn differential equations are more likely to make more money. However, we know that intrinsic motivation is more powerful and sustaining. Here we pique people's curiosity and/or show relevance to their lives. "Have you ever . . . ?" and "Did you know. . . ?" types of questions grab learners' attention while contextualizing issues in terms of their lives, occupation, or interests. Ways to do this include providing background information, activating prior knowledge, or embedding concepts in real-life situations. With this relevant knowledge, learners feel more prepared to follow along and do the work. Video strategies to achieve engagement include:

  • Prequestions, asking learners to answer a few questions before they watch the video. Carpenter & Toftness (2017) found that the use of prequestions significantly raised quiz scores following the video, compared to students who did not answer prequestions. Not only did students score better on the repeated prequestions, but on the entire quiz. The same approach has not worked with reading assignments.
  • Promotions in a similar vein as TV commercials declaring the need that needs fulfilling and how the following content will do that.
  • Previews that sample coming content.
  • Description of an issue, setting the stage for subsequent discussion.
  • Narratives or vignettes with challenges in need of resolution, with information needed to solve the challenge. Video makes it possible to present problems with a level of complexity and detail that word problems cannot achieve.

Saying

While the other outcomes tap into the strength of video, facts and explanations can be communicated in multiple ways. Nonetheless, video can make facts and explanations more interesting by embedding them in larger narratives like finding a solution to a problem, tying facts together, and associating facts with images. Video strategies for communicating facts and explanations:

  • Creating associations by displaying photos, graphics, and charts while the facts are recited and explained.
  • Narratives like a news broadcast or people conversing, delivering facts within the context of a larger story.
  • Using analogies to describe and illustrate concepts, such as "trade winds are like rivers in an ocean of air" or "pathways through the turbulent environment". Multiple analogies are generally better than one because people tend to focus on the surface features of single analogies (e.g., rivers and oceans?!).
  • Commentaries or interpretations are useful ways to supplement demonstrations, movies, and the like. Think of commentators discussing football plays, or interpreting the interactions of animals at a watering hole.
  • Explanatory or expository videos explicitly develop sustained accounts of phenomena, history, current events, and more. Think Nova on PBS and other documentaries

Seeing

"A signature quality of video is that it can help people see things they could not see before." Most of us will never see the bottom of the ocean or ancient ruins in exotic locations. We will never experience history-changing events from the past. Video takes us there so we can learn and understand vicariously. Likewise, many physical phenomena are of tiny scale or happen so quickly that we cannot see them. Video can magnify the physical and slow down the action, allowing us that view we need to understand what we are seeing. Thus video can help learners become familiar with places and events outside their immediate experience and discern details they would otherwise overlook.

  • Tour videos take us to the Hermitage, the Serengeti, CERN and a million other places. Without these videos, our visual world and our understanding of it is restricted to direct experience.
  • Portrayals of persons and events, King Ferdinand or the Civil War, bring history alive and allow a deeper appreciation of their subject.
  • Point-of-view videos use camera angles, closeups, distance shots and other tools along with commentary and interviews to provide new perspectives on familiar subjects. Seeing slavery from the master's and slave's points of view or seeing a painting from the artist's perspective, for example.
  • Simulations, or simulated experiences, make the viewer the center of the action, and are useful for demonstrating extreme experiences like space flight, viewing the mouth of a volcano, or performing heart surgery.
  • Highlighting techniques like slow- or stop-motion, circles and arrows, digital pens, zooming, and instant replay all serve to direct learner attention to subtle, ephemeral, and diminutive details essential for deep learning.

Doing

Video is ideal for presenting human behavior, especially those involving attitude and skill. For attitudes, people readily learn by modeling other people’s behaviors (see observational learning). People can model other people so well that learning can be unintentional, as when children adopt their parents' table manners or thinking style.

"Skill acquisition involves intentional effort and practice on the learner’s part. The number of skills, or procedural knowledge, an adult possesses is hard to fathom – brushing teeth, riding a bike, taking conversational turns, computing best buys, and so on. As with attitudes, people can learn skills by imitating behaviors shown in a video."

"Sometimes skills are quite complex so that replaying, zooming, and slowing the motion can be quite helpful. Other times, when it is too much to expect a learner to imitate an expert’s fully integrated performance, it makes sense to decompose a task into sub-skills that are learned separately. Additionally, for some skills it is important to help people see the critical components of the behavior. For example, novice tennis players may not see the key moves of the professional, in which case, they cannot possibly imitate it. Good procedural instruction makes sure that students can discern the behaviors of significance." In this case, the instruction also needs to include the goal of perception.

Video strategies for demonstrating attitudes and skills:

  • Modeling does not necessarily seek to teach specific behaviors, but rather global mannerisms and practices that make up the targeted behavioral pattern. Examples include exuding confidence, showing respect, or making people feel welcomed.
  • Identification seeks to help learners emulate models, often movie stars and other famous people, to invoke attitudinal learning.
  • Demonstrations are straightforward recordings of a person performing a particular skill like assembling or repairing a piece of equipment. As mentioned above, complex skills often need to be broken into sub-skills taught separately then integrated into a complete performance.
  • Step-by-step instruction breaks down tasks into single bits of performance.

An important element of teaching behavior is to include why a skill or procedure is structured the way it is. Without this knowledge, learners may be able to perform, but may lack the motivation or flexibility to perform under varying circumstances.

See Video production for guidelines.


Preinstruction | Content | Application | Assessment | Follow-through


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