Designing Online Learning Materials Supporting Constructivism

As I begin the 3rd week of my course, we have begun to explore contextualisation and its link to on-line design. Moving from a instructional design background the ideas about building context firstly ring true. As a facilitator of leadership courses, when we put a challenge to a group that has a real world link, the learning is all the better. But when we link that learning to assessment the workshop/course really begins to flow.

The resources provided on my course have backed up these experiences and once again I was drawn to one particular piece.

Designing On-line Learning Materials Supporting Constructivism from When Teaching Meets Learning, Ron Oliver, School of Communications and Multimedia.

I add it here though somewhat condensed in order to get the points across more quickly.

1. Choose meaningful contexts for the learning - create settings which provided a strong connection between the learning and the purpose for which the learning was intended.
2. Choose the learning activities ahead of the content - The way to do this is to consider how the learning is to be used in real life and to replicate this form of activity.
3. Choose open-ended and ill-structured tasks - The tasks have to provide the learners with the capacity to explore, inquire and reflect as means of generating some understanding of the context.
4. Make the resources plentiful - Learners need to be able to explore and inquire and to derive their own meaning from these processes. It is important for them to see many different outlooks, to be able to view situations from a number of perspectives, to be able to disregard irrelevant information and to have to deal with the cognitive conflicts that occur as their ideas develop.
5. Provide supports for the learning - In Web-settings there are many strategies that can be used to support students. Perhaps the most effective support comes from peers. Creating collaborative and cooperative settings for learners provides many advantages for the designer and the learners.
6. Use authentic assessment - Using assessment with the learning activities provides an accurate measure of performance and achievement and is likely to accurately represent the capacities of the learner in the workplace setting. Students show particular care about learning activities that are in some way related to the planned assessment.

Another piece now stapled to my wall.