Module 3: Designing Learning Activities

Now that you have the learning objectives and content resources for the modules, it is time to design the learning activities around them. A learning activity is a specific interaction of learners with others, using specific tools and resources, orientated towards specific outcomes (Beetham, 2008). It provides opportunities for learners to understand a concept or principle, or practice a skill, and to apply these in their own setting and context.

Objectives

After working on this module, you should be able to:

1. Identify the learning tasks for the selected resources to achieve the learning objectives;
2. Design learning scaffolds to support the performance of the learning tasks; and
3. Write the learning activities for each module in your course.

Learning Tasks

Going back to Bloom’s taxonomy and Laurillard’s classification of learning resources based on type of media (see Table 2-1 in Module 2), you can identify the learning tasks that would be appropriate for your selected learning resources and learning objectives. For example, narrative (or expository) types of learning resources require learning tasks where students apprehend and/or assimilate information, such as answering self-assessment questions after reading texts, browsing websites or watching slide presentations; adaptive types of learning resources lend themselves to learning tasks involving experimentation and practice, such as predicting outcomes or consequences in simulations or interactive learning materials.

In the following activity, you will need to look at the learning resources you selected for each module in your course and identify the types of tasks for learners to engage in for them to achieve the target learning outcomes.

Learning Scaffolds

Learning scaffolds facilitate learner’s interaction with the learning resources to enable them to accomplish the learning objectives. Examples of learning scaffolds are study questions, outlines, templates, and graphic organizers for guiding learners in processing the resource.

Asking questions

An essential learning scaffold in resource-based learning is to ask questions that your students should be able to answer after studying a learning resource. There are several types of questions that you may ask:

Comprehension questions

Comprehension questions are designed to check the student’s knowledge and understanding of the learning resource. An example of comprehension question is shown below:

Read Resource #3 – Theory of margin (Hiemstra, 2002).

1. What does the theory of margin say about adult learners and how they persist or resist participating in adult learning activities?
2. Define “power,” “load” and “margin.”
3. What are your “Power” factors?
4. What are your “Load” factors?
5. What is your “Margin?”

Reflection question

Reflection involves describing, analyzing, and evaluating one’s thoughts, assumptions, beliefs, theory base, and actions (Fade, 2005). Reflection is important when you want your students to gain insights from the learning experience and not just be able to recall facts or apply concepts. Some common reflection questions that you can ask depending on the type of reflection activity are listed below:

Reflecting on a reading material

• What are the highlights of the reading material?
• How do these affect you (or your learning context)?

Reflecting on a particular learning experience (e.g. practice placement)

• What did you learn?
• In what ways were you pleased/frustrated with how things went?
• What will you do differently next time?
• What was the highlight of the learning experience for you?
• What have you discovered about yourself as a learner?

A popular technology for reflection activities is the blog. Read more about Using Blogs in Learning and Teaching. This site describes how you can set up a blog and what are the issues and risks in doing so.

Graphic/Visual organizers

To help students be more precise in the way they answer questions, you could provide a graphic organizer where they will write down their answer. Graphic organizers help in brainstorming/generating ideas and organizing them to clarify how they are related. For example, a Venn diagram is useful for identifying similarities and differences between two items (which may be concepts, ideas, or theories).

You may want to check out this website containing interactive graphic organizers: http://www.enchantedlearning.com/graphicorganizers/. An example of graphic/ visual organizer commonly used is shown below:

• Do you find that your level of self-direction varies with different subject areas and skills? How does your level of self-direction now differ from that of five (5) years ago?
• How do you explain the changes in your level of self-direction, if any?
• In which subject areas do you find the need for higher teacher direction?
• In which courses/subject areas/fields do you find the need for higher self-direction?
• Write your answers on the table below: