ELearning/Course design/Learning activities/Follow-through
Preinstruction | Content | Application | Assessment | Follow-through
Once the final test or activity is complete, most learners assume that the course is over. However, it is important to help them apply their knowledge to areas outside of the course. To do so, it is a good idea to provide learners with meaningful context in which to use this new knowledge (Gagné, 1965). Here are some ideas for encouraging learners to take their newly acquired knowledge and skills forward in their lives.
Hackathons
Student programmers work in teams as they code in daylong competitions to build usable applications from scratch, usually around a theme. "Universities don't necessarily provide the right skill set for the workplace. Even at the top schools, we're not taught the latest technologies or how to work in a team. Companies are looking for that." (Chronicle, 10/26/12 pg. A17). "Coding events give students an opportunity to engage their sense of technical mastery and social purpose. They're solving problems they like, which engages their autonomy." (Chris Wiggins, associate professor of applied physics and applied mathematics at Columbia University and founder of HackNY). Hackathons are a bridge between computer science theory and practical programming skills.
Joining and participating in organizations, groups
Researching, applying for, joining, and participating in relevant professional organizations associated with a profession serving as a gateway to real-life experience, exposure to working professionals, and associated activities.
Performance aids
According to Rossett and Gauier-Downes (1991), a performance aid, also 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. Most valuable as take-aways when used during instruction. See performance aids under Content presentation.
Portfolio
E-portfolios offer a framework within which students can personalize their learning experiences (student ownership of the e-portfolio and its contents leads to greater responsibility for learning), develop multimedia capabilities, and create representations of their learning experiences for different audiences, often future employers. Moreover, e-portfolios enable students to represent their own learning as well as their interpretations of what Kathleen Yancey calls the "multiple curricula" within higher education:
- the delivered curriculum, which is defined by the faculty and described in the syllabus;
- the experienced curriculum, which is represented by what is actually practiced by the student; and
- the lived curriculum, which is based on the individual student's cumulative learning.
At least potentially, e-portfolios provide insight into the curriculum as students have both lived and experienced it (Chen & Light, 2010).
Resource list
Creating original resource lists, centered on a particular topic, for use and critique by other course students. Provides excellent practice for correctly formatting sources.
Social media: Professional networks
Few people have failed to notice the growing presence of social media in our lives (Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter, Redit, Pinterest, etc.). While there are a multitude of formulations, the essence of social media is that content is authored, critiqued, and reconfigured (produsage, the production and reusage of knowledge) by a mass of users (Selwyn, 2012). Its communication model is many-to-many as opposed to the one-to-many of publishing and broadcast media. Social media users go online to share and rate, mash-up and remix, friend and trend. It is an increasingly important context in which individuals live their everyday lives. Selwyn and others ask if using this new media in education is essential to connect or reconnect with students to reach students where they are.
Preinstruction | Content | Application | Assessment | Follow-through
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