Loading

Building Better Learning Experiences: An Active Learning + Digital Literacy Approach Justin Hodgson, Ph.D. | Indiana University

Workshop Goals

The goal of our sessions today is to help faculty embrace a transition mindset: reimagining their role from teachers to learning experience designers, and embracing active learning and digital literacy strategies that help build engaged learning experiences.

  • Shift from focus on teaching to focus on learning
  • Shift from banking model to building identity
  • Shift from content delivery to designing experiences

Agenda

  • Part 1 - Identify the reorientations + high impact strategies that facilitate learning experience design.
  • Part 2 - Move from high impact strategies to high impact practices in designing assignments, activities, and assessments that facilitate learning experience design.
  • Part 3 - Q&A, Sharing out ideas, Discussing in-progress works, etc.

Part 1

“I’ve backwards engineered my outcomes, now what?" A Shift Toward Learning Experience Design

Shift from focusing on teaching to focusing on learning

By shifting from Teacher or Student centered classrooms to Learning Centered classrooms, we necessarily begin to understand our task as educators in different terms. We commit not to teaching as much as helping students learn; we prioritize designing engagements that lead to meaningful learning experiences.

Meaningful Experiences

If we want students to have a meaningful experience that aids learning and retention, then it's worth considering what constitutes a "meaningful experience." For this activity, think about positive, meaningful experiences you've had in your personal, professional, or academic life. What WORDS would you use to describe what made them meaningful? Take a moment to put a few ideas in the chat. You can use the prompts below to guide you:

  • A meaningful experience feels ______________ (fun, etc.).
  • A meaningful experience involves ______________ (challenges, etc.).

Giving Students the "Why"

If we want to invite students to inhabit the identities of our disciplines and engage in our courses in a meaningful, growth-minded way, then - first - they need to have a clear sense of why doing so matters beyond checking off a degree requirement.

Transparency in our courses is the key to helping students see why they should be in our classrooms and why they should embrace the ways of knowing, doing, and making that are key to our disciplines.

Infographic created by Miranda Rodak | rodak@iu.edu
Overview | TILT
Image Captures from Miranda Rodak's Course

Building Projective Identities

Part of the why includes helping students not only to understand the reasoning behind course tasks, but to also get a clearer sense of what it means to engage the world as a scientist, a musicologist, a historian, a sociologist, and so on. But the truth is that few students have had positive experiences with these subjects and so don't see themselves as being, becoming, or even pretending to be a scientist, musicologist, historian, etc.

Game design principles offer a robust framework for turning our courses into learning ecologies and this notion of "Projective Identities" comes from James Paul Gee's 36 Principles of learning in What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy).

Part 2

From Low Stakes to High Impact: Assets, Activities, & Assessments

We have to do the work to prepare or train students to understand what we are doing. We have to work against their perception of "good teaching."
  • Multiple studies over multiple years show that students taught in active learning classrooms are significantly more likely to outperform their peers. But we have to do the work to prepare or train students to understand what we are doing (i.e., we have to work against their perception of good teaching: e.g., "sage on the stage") (see Ezarik, Inside Higher Ed)
  • Bringing digital literacy/digital creativity practices in the classroom has a positive impact on student engagement, performance, and retention. This is even more pronounced (nearly 2 times more) for BIPOC and first generation students (Civitas, Adobe, and UT San Antonio, 2020).
  • Students remember and value meaningful experiences. The experience of being in a class has significant impact on student motivation to attend and perform. Additionally, making the path the transparent and lowering the barriers to success help increase student participation.

ACTIVE LEARNING | 3 Orientations

“Active learning” is a methodology that insists learning is more effective and more likely to be retained and applied if students actively participate in knowledge creation. Keep in mind: active learning means engagement, not activity. Active learning can be oriented in three directions.

Overview | Active Learning

DIGITAL LITERACY | 3 Approaches

  • ACTIVITIES | In-class engagements that get students involved with course content/ideas/issues in critical and creative ways, and doing so through the use of particular digital technologies and practices.
  • ASSETS | Instructor-produced deliverables that guide students through content or practices, illuminate concepts or methods, set-up (or extend) in-class engagements, etc.
  • ASSESSMENTS | Opportunities for students to create particular kinds of output and for instructors to assess student learning and development based on those outputs.
Full Guide | 3 Approaches for Integrating Digital Literacy

Active Learning + Digital Literacy Activities

Example 1 | Pause Procedure w/Digital Collaboration

  • Pause: Every 15-18min, pause for 2-5 minutes and invite students to share notes, thoughts, and/or recap main points (lecture, discussion, engagement) in shared digital space: i.e., on Google Docs/Google Slides.

The Pause Procedure can be used for shared note taking, individual or group reflection, challenge-based engagement, and the like. My preferred engagement is a low-stakes note-sharing and critical thinking using a set of prompts/engagements.

Example 2 | Think-Pair-Make-Share

Think-Pair-Share is a popular Active Learning strategy used in classrooms. The modified version, Think-Pair-Make-Share, brings Digital Literacy and Active Learning together, adding "making" (and reflection/explanation) as a key component. This allows instructors to use what students make as a means to facilitate engagement.

OVERVIEW

  • 1 minute: Write down a response to a prompt.
  • 2 minutes: Pair up (or group up) and discuss your responses. Select one key takeaway.
  • 5-7 minutes: As a pair/group, create an image (using Adobe Express) that conveys that takeaway.
  • Share image creation with instructor/class; be prepared to explain both the creation and to expound on the takeaway.
Example Prompt (Digital Gardener Faculty Fellows Program): What is Digital Literacy? What does it look like in your Discipline?
Think-Pair-Make-Share Activity

Example 3 | Social Media as Model

This activity invites students to "social media making" as a way of knowing/developing understanding. For example, instructors might have students create a TikTok video or an Instagram post that conveys a practice, concept, or structure related to class.

Example Prompt (ENG-W171): Pumpkin Challenge in Minecraft EDU

Welcome to the pumpkin patch / Minecraft EDU / TikTok challenge! Today we are practicing drafting, building, documenting, and discussing our work.

  • Draft: On a piece of paper, plan how you're going to build the pumpkins in Minecraft EDU at different scales (e.g., one that fits in 6x6x6 area; another in a 15x15x15 area). Think about how to represent rounded shapes in a cube form!
  • Build: Using the fill command, fill a cube of your desired dimensions with your chosen material. Then "carve" your pumpkin by removing blocks. Do this for both pumpkins.
  • Decorate: Decorate your pumpkins and pumpkin patch. Bonus: create Jack O' Lanterns!
  • Document: Create a TikTok video introducing your build and build process to an audience of freshmen students at IUB.
  • Submit: You should submit an mp4 file or a link to a TikTok. You are not required to publish this video if you do not feel comfortable.mit

TIPs & TRYs: Use voice-over, sync to music, incorporate transitions, participate in popular trends, etc. Get creative! This will service as your soft launch into the next unit on video/podcasting.

Gemma Huck | Student Example

FEEDBACK LOOPS | 3 Orientations

Personal/Self-Reflection

  • LEARNING REFLECTION: Students identify (descriptively) what they have done (as part of an activity, engagement, assignment, etc.) and to explain what they (think they have) learned.
  • SELF-ASSESSMENT Students evaluate their own work using the same assessment criteria as instructor, providing explanation/rationale for the quality of that work, its grade, and/or the degree to which they see it meeting the (assessment) criteria of the assignment/activity.

Peer-to-Peer

Student-to-Student feedback loops can be critical in student learning and in building community. This kind of engagement is at the heart of group work, class discussions, and many of the active-learning strategies. The most recognizable feedback loop is peer review. Instructors should provide explicit guides to ensure meaningful and constructive engagement:

  • ROLES | Assign peer reviewers specific roles: content expert, design, flow, etc.
  • STRENGTHS | Peer reviewers identify strengths and extrapolate on what makes those parts strong (or engaging or meaningful).
  • PRIORITIES | When done reviewing/marking-up the work, the Peer Review should highlight one or two “must address” parts, offer a suggestion for how to best address those matters, and explain why those changes are important to the target audience.
  • REVISION PLAN | Once the student has received feedback from their peers, they should draft a revision plan. This is not just a list of things to address, but a descriptive and strategic document outlining the act of revision and their approach.

INSTRUCTOR to STUDENT

In-Class Feedback Loops

  • Pre-class/Post-class Conversation: informal engagements before or after class; personalize the learning experience and make connections with students.
  • Eye Contact & Calling People by Name: make eye contact and refer to students by their name – this lets them know that you see them and they feel recognized.
  • “Warm” Calling: use pre-class activities (discussion boards, social annotation reading activities) or in-class activities (think-pair-share / think-pair-make-share) to invite students to say more about their work/comment/post/activity.
  • Mid-Class/End-of-Class Check-in: Do a quick check during class or at the end of class to see what students are understanding and/or that they need help with (see 1-Minute Notecard below)
An "End of Class" Micro Pause Procedure

Out-of-Class Feedback Loops

Low Impact

  • Assessment (grade)
  • Generic comments (“good job”)
  • Completion/Non-Completion Confirmations

Low-to-Moderate Impact

  • Personalized and situated comments (“Great job, Sarah! I really like what you did with the first part of X")
  • Generic comments with assessment (“Nicely done” + grade)

Moderate Impact

  • Personalized comments with assessment (“Fantastic work, Sarah. While there were a few issues here, what makes your project stand out is X, Y, Z. Next time or during revisions, focus on ____.”)

Moderate to High Impact

  • Audio/Video (or in person) personalized comments with assessment (grade).
  • In writing studies, audio/video feedback has been shown to not only make more meaningful connections with students and to personalize the learning experience, but to have greater impact on student improvement in writing (see any number of works by Chris Anson)

High Impact

  • Office Hours / One-on-One Conversations

Assets

Assets can be understood in two primary categories: instructional assets and professional assets. The former are things we use to help facilitate the learning experiences in our courses; the latter are things we use to enhance our own career.

Instructional Assets

Assignment Handouts

Instructional Resources

Professional Assets

Assignments

Course assignments are opportunities for us to assess student learning and development with course content, practices, and approaches.

  • This is the most common way faculty integrate digital literacy into work with students and typically starts by providing students a "digital option" in addition to the more traditional assignment: i.e., instead of writing a traditional paper, have them create the paper using Adobe Express webpage (scrolling multimedia writing experience)

Below are student examples (working from simple to complex) across a range of modalities. Collectively they start to gesture toward what multimedia composition and digital literacy can look like in the classroom.

Multimedia Essays

Journal/Magazine Articles: Research-based Writing

Image Engagements: Infographics/Composites/Posters

Audio/Podcast Engagements

Video Engagements

justinhodgson.com
JH on LinkedIn