Activity 1 - Successful online learning strategies

Activity 1 - Successful online learning strategies

par Roger Deslandes,
Nombre de réponses : 14

Colleagues,

Welcome to this component of the CALmet online course entitled  "Successful online learning: What strategies do we need?"
We are really interested to hear your thoughts on what strategies enhance learning and especially how we might create interactive, dynamic, online learning environments.

Activity 1 - Also available from course Moodle page

How learning is achieved is complex and a function of many things including culture.
One area of research that has developed strongly over recent years is neuroscience and our increased understanding of how our brains function. Dr John Medina is a developmental molecular biologist who has written a book called "Brain Rules".  A "Brain Rule" is one thing scientists now know for sure about how our brains work.  

View the "Brain Rules" page at: http://www.brainrules.net/about-brain-rules

View the short video and step through the summaries of each "Brain rule" at the bottom of the page (you may want to explore this resource further).

Our forum discussion question is:
Given these 12 brain rules what are the implications for learning? What strategies might you employ to enhance (online) learning in light of this information?

I look forward to your thoughts and comments.

Cheers - Roger :)

 

En réponse à Roger Deslandes

Re: Activity 1 - Successful online learning strategies

par Roro Yuliana Purwanti,

Dear Roger and Bodo

Thank you for such a nice resource on how our brain works. It explains many things happen in my learning experiences, and why in some ways my learning strategies success and in the other ways, they failed.

In term of online leaning, I would like to propose these ideas:

1. Rule of thumb (we will get  3 X better recall for visual information than for oral; and 6X better recall for information that simultanously oral and visual : So, combine audio and visual is proposed to make an effective online session 

2. Active learning styles - memory stability and people not paying attention to boring things. Learning is more effective if there is a participatory and when we are doing a real thing: So, include some activities that involve participant participation should be put as consideration for an online presenter

3. The 10-minutes attention span: we offer our participants something that emotionally relevant each after 10 minutes to regain their attention. 

4. Nap zone at 2 - 3pm. Avoid to conduct online session in that nappy time (in some cases we adjust the role with our needs, especially when the session has participants from some different time zones.

Thank you Roger and Bodo for bring this interesting discussion to CALMet Online 2014.

Cheers,

Roro

En réponse à Roro Yuliana Purwanti

Re: Activity 1 - Successful online learning strategies

par Larissa Timofeyeva,

Hi All

It was nice to refresh some things.

Roro has chosen very important moments 

As for me I would like to add, that besides 10-minutes attention span 

there is so called "Serial position effect" - 

 is the tendency of a person to recall the first and last items in a series best, and the middle items worst (wikipedia).

It means, a session must be carefully planned: the problems should be discussed at the beginning and at the end, but at different levels.

I can't agree with the statement from the presentation (if I have understood correctly)- The more a thing is repeated, the more likely it is to be remembered. This type of memorizing works at certain situations, It is a mechanical activity, usually things  are easily forgotten afterwards (and adults mostly memorize by analogy, some of them lose the ability to remember mechanically). They say, something must be repeated at different conditions (real!), at different pace, in different applications - this works. Then students will be able to use the things that they have learned for sorting out real problems, not only in the calm labs.

Of course, (online) learning must be active:

 “Tell me and I will forget.
Show me and I will remember.
Involve me and I will understand.
Step back and I will act.”

Doing real things (as Roro said) while teaching/learning is crucial. By the way, if the teacher is a researcher at the same time he/she can involve the students in some kind of research and this would motivate them. And step by step students works will create the data base to be analyzed!

Another thing (again, I could have mistaken) - about the amount of encoding and remembering. Our brain selects some piece of information from the whole bulk, it doesn't need anything and everything, so the amount of content should be the right size!

We often want to teach (act) more, than it is necessary,most times  it is better to do less, but better.

Thank you, Roger and Bodo!

Have a successful and populated session!

Larissa

 

 

En réponse à Larissa Timofeyeva

Re: Activity 1 - Successful online learning strategies

par Roger Deslandes,
Hi all, In addition to my previous post on the forum here are a few goodies for you. In relation to the "brain rules" the implications for learning strategies are: - include motion in your activities. This one could be a real challenge in online scenarios!; - build communities of practice and utilise team-oriented activities. There have been some great examples here at CALmet online :) ; - no two brains are the same in terms of function and learning occurs in differing ways and at different rates. Create a learning environment where you can activate as many "intelligences" as possible; - stimulate multiple senses - auditory, kinesthetic and especially the visual sense vision ("trumps all"); - Attention spans are SHORT, of the order of 10 minutes. Lengthy "sage-on-the-stage" (lecturer-centred) monologues are not likely to be effective methods of enhancing learning. Learning does not happen without emotional connection. Therefore it is important to re-engage attention through the "emotional reset" of learners; - Build new information - especially complex concepts - incrementally and gradually. Repetition is an obvious way to enhance and guage the uptake of learning; - Be aware of sleep cycles and low-ebbs in energy in learners. For example we all know how difficult it is to sit through a heavy lecture after lunch! Make those session times hands-on and engaging; - Create a level of stress that is appropriate for the learning where people are motivated and it is safe-to-learn . Being over-stressed impacts adversely on learning; - Create an environment that allows for exploration and enquiry. Cheers - Roger :)
En réponse à Roro Yuliana Purwanti

Re: Activity 1 - Successful online learning strategies

par Roger Deslandes,

Hi Roro,

Thanks for your reply. I agree with you and have incorporated some of your ideas in my previous post :)

Cheers - Roger

En réponse à Roger Deslandes

Re: Activity 1 - Successful online learning strategies

par Mark Higgins,

Hi all,

For me some of the rules connect to some innovations happening in the way we teach ... for example exploration ... in many of our online courses and the way I see simulators being used there are quite some times when students are asked to do a task that involves analysis of an image or set of data - in effect they are being asked to explore. 

But I think most of all what these "rules" suggest if to think about the environment that we teach in - does it have the requisite variation and structure so that teaching  can become learning 

Mark 

 

En réponse à Mark Higgins

Re: Activity 1 - Successful online learning strategies

par Wilfried Jacobs,

Hi all,

You really tackle an important and also difficult point. We just finished the online phase of the EUMETCAL-EMeTrain-seminar about satellite meteorology where we first included quizzes and homwork that will also be the base for distributing certificates about sucessful participation. Generally, the picture is rather different. Beginning from passive to outstanding and much beyond the expectations. The same for the forum.

After the seminar I will prepare a report about this seminar. May be that this report is also interesting for you. May be that we can use it as a starting point for the next Calmet-Workshop. I am not yet quite sure if I will join the next EUMETCAL-Workshop in Reading.

Nice week end,

Wilfried.

En réponse à Wilfried Jacobs

Re: Activity 1 - Successful online learning strategies

par Izolda Marcinonienė,

Hello Wilfried,

yes, it would be useful to read your report about satellite meteorology and conclusion. Especially that my colleagues attended online and classroom phases.

Good luck next week on seminar final trainings in Langen!

 

Izolda

En réponse à Roger Deslandes

Re: Activity 1 - Successful online learning strategies

par aditya warman,

Hi everyone,

Roger, thanks for sharing this great resource. I think that there's no argue of how brain based learning can be very effective. It's already proven by researchs and it's easily make sense. If we want to do something about a system, we have to understand how it work. In case of distance learning, we could say that system are not in it's best environment. It has given limitations such as space, time, and tools. So what can we do?

That's where rule#1 will be tested. Survival. The brain will evolve. It will find it's way to adjust to situations. And it's our job as an instructional designers to facilitate it with approaches through it's channels. Using multiple channels is also related to the rule about wiring, attention, and sensory integration.

Recently, i had proven in a classroom experience, that a great story is not enough to perform a great story based learning. We need emotions, which we can create through intonations, eye contacts, and other sensory connections. Emotional context (including relevancy, making senses) is crusial in learning. It somehow open the gate for informations to flow in and retained. Visual, as always is the most favorite channel. But it is not likely we tell other people about good shiny stuffs without intonations and expressions. Maybe these will also apply in distance learning.

One other thing that i agree with is that repeating will keep us remember. But with precaution that repeating is only making it permanent, not perfect. This is where mental models are important.


Have a nice weekend,


Adit

En réponse à Roger Deslandes

Re: Activity 1 - Successful online learning strategies

par Patrick Parrish,

Roger and Bodo,

Thanks for sharing this great online resource based on Medina’s book, and for generating the discussion. I purchased an eBook copy some time ago, and browse it from time to time. The 12 Brain Rules seem to confirm what we have been learning about learning from other forms of research for some time. I highly recommend it, with the caveat that one should look beyond neuroscience research to learn more. More on this comment at the end.

I think all the Rules are worth paying attention to, but the ones that I think challenge our traditional modes to teaching, especially via online learning, are

#3 All brains are wired differently, and

#12 We are powerful and natural explorers

3. Too often we explain things in only one way, and we have too few activities that allow for individual decision-making processes. A simple way around this is to decide to use multiple approaches to explain the more complex things, which is a form of repetition (Rule #5) but not in a way that makes learning boring. Some quick examples to address this Rule is to use multiple case studies, a variety of illustrations of conceptual models, explain things in both words and pictures, and also, perhaps even more important, get the students/participants to explain things back in their own words. This allows students to hear even more forms of explanation, but allows students to articulate their unique way of understanding, which they might not even be aware of unless asked to state it.

12. Authors have been arguing for more than 100 years that inquiry can be the most powerful form of learning, because, as Medina says, it is our natural way of learning about the world. Not that we learn everything this way, but almost everything critical we learn this way, even language to some degree. There are many forms of inquiry, not just scientific inquiry, as in the analogy Medina makes. Art, design, narrative, criticism and social debate are also forms of inquiry—ways of making the uncertain more certain or meaningful.

Mark already mentioned the Exploration strategies of Simulation and Cases, which can be done online as much as in the classroom—although the form gets a little trickier. A real-time weather briefing is a great example, and a similar approach can be to teach historic cases to make the theory real. Asynchronous online cases are very possible as well. You can just build in the questions and decisions points as quiz items or discuss forum questions, and spread the completion of the case out over a long period of time.

Discussion is another form of inquiry in which people work toward consensus or diversity of understanding. As an example, in our most recent Online Seminar for Trainers, instead of just telling learners what we thought were the advantages and disadvantages of Online learning and Classroom learning, we used padlet to gather their comments and lists of these, then compiled them into a summary. The group was exploring their ideas, experiences and biases toward the modes of learning, not just hearing ours. It was much more effective, and we all learned more as a result.

As Roger points out, neuroscience research has really taken off in recent years as methods for collecting data about brain processes have matured. But personally, I am surprised that the research results are taken by some people as the final word on cognition and learning. Looking at the brain is a bit too reductionist to me, a bit too small for the unit of analysis. People learn within social systems and have complex personal and cultural histories. Even individually they are more complex than their brains, larger than their nervous systems, and more than just their bodies as well. Still, learning is such a complex phenomenon that we need to take every possible perspective to wrestle with the challenge of understanding it. Medina’s book is a nice summary of one perspective, and there is a lot more to come. 

Patrick

En réponse à Patrick Parrish

Re: Activity 1 - Successful online learning strategies

par Roger Deslandes,
Hi all, It's great to see the discussion going on around this first activity. We'll have some more activities for you shortly :) Thanks for your insight here everyone. Pat, I think the point you make regarding enquiry as a powerful form of learning is pertinent. For me one of THE KEY issues which is fundamentally important in the online paradigm are the tools and approaches we use to create interactions that support genuine inquiry. INTERACTION has always been the key challenge for me. To support those interactions we need clear learning outcomes, a clear knowledge of conceptual models that are to be applied and for me a challenge has been to write meaningful assessment questions that test decision making and real understanding. I would like to hear particular strategies that people have used in the online environment to support interactions and enquiry. These can range from high-tech solutions to simpler, but equally powerful methodologies. I'll look forward to your feedback :) Cheers - Roger
En réponse à Roger Deslandes

Re: Activity 1 - Successful online learning strategies

par Izolda Marcinonienė,

Roger,

I agree with you-interaction requires a special enviroment which should be created by teacher and later  developed together with students. It is much more difficult to do online than on classroom phase. Roger, I still remember the action with kangaroo in the classroom in Sibiu..."Do not throw the kangaroo!"-it means for me "Be prepared for unexpected situations which you could created by youself!". You must find the way how to solve (and quickly, especially on line) a new problem:)

Izolda

En réponse à Roger Deslandes

Re: Activity 1 - Successful online learning strategies

par Ratih Prasetya,

Hi Roger, thanks alot for bring this knowledge up to us. It does awakes me that to conduct a successful online learning we have to consider all the subject matter, all the brain rules in this case, without missed any of these rules.

I am interested in rules of exercise and exploration.

By exercising more and more we will know every single little thing we missed in the previous activity, so we will have it noted in our brain, fix the mistakes and be better in the future. Because sometimes we already have much load than our brain could take and only by exercising we have experience and we wont repeat the previous one mistake.

Exploring things is a human nature that help us evolve. We could always have a new knowledge with it. And knowledge always could attract people when we provide it and online learning is one typical way to serve it. Online learning is simply an easy way that could satisfy our needs of knowledge. By combining our nature of exploration and serve it the best way, such as this online learning, people could get new things to learn and bring benefit to them.

I think one strategie to enhance online learning and attract people to learn is bring up a brand new knowledge or updates such as topics that related to science and technologies. 

Thank you Roger and Bodo, Have a nice weekend all.

Ratih

En réponse à Ratih Prasetya

Re: Activity 1 - Successful online learning strategies

par Juniarto Widodo,

Dear Roger and Bodo

Thank you for give us a chance to deliver our brain to bring the rule for successfully online learning. This are our perception :

#1 Enhance a kind of spirit gain to student motivation that this course is the most importance to increase their knowledge.no one else, so they keep their commitment untill the class is over.

#2 Student Task. Student task some time can bring to stimulate their power of deep capability.

So...many thanks and see you...

Juniarto Widodo

 

En réponse à Roger Deslandes

Re: Activity 1 - Successful online learning strategies

par Nurahmini Muchtar,

Dear Roger and Bodo

Thanks for the resources and it tell many things happen in my learning experiences. 

first of all, and that is definitely how to make learning interesting for them, because if not, any sesedehara learn how it is delivered if not make them interested in the way of learning anything submitted will not be able to get them interested, especially on how to learn online.

1. First make them interested in the use of emerging techniques (how to make participants listen to us to finish)
2. survive the impact of different coming from the participants and continue to seek ways to overcome them.
3. In the online learning sought to be involved in the motion.
4. The time is never the same in different parts of the world should be important as well.

Thanks 

Amy