Here is the link to our pod’s Interactive Learning Resource –> https://edci335ldp9.opened.ca/
For this blog post we were instructed to search for our Interactive Learning Design subject area on a video service provider. I have chosen YouTube as my video service provider and typed the following key-words into the search engine āReading a Nutrition Labelā.Ā Embedded below is the video I found.
What kind of interaction would the video require from your students? Does it force them to respond in some way (inherent)?
This video does not require any interaction from the students watching as it is aimed towards educating them on the process of reading food labels. It may also lead to the students to think more on their own diets and begin to analyze the types of food that they are eating on a daily basis and what goes into their meals on a more macro/micro-nutrient level.
In what way are they likely to respond to the video on their own, e.g. make notes, do an activity, think about the topic (learner-generated)?
I believe that the students will take notes on the video to help their own understanding of the topic as there is a lot of information that is covered relatively quickly. They may find it beneficial to go back and pause the video at certain points in order to gain a better understanding of what was covered.
What activity could you suggest that they do, after they have watched the video (designed)? What type of knowledge or skill would that activity help develop? What medium or technology would students use to do the activity?
Students should assess their own diet and see exactly what they are eating in a day by adding up the information included found in the nutrition facts label. They should also compare foods by their nutrition labels to see what the healthier option of the two are, this would help get them started on the critical thinking skills that go into meal planning. This activity would be completed over an online blog post where open discussions around the content they included in their blog can happen with their peers.
How would students get feedback on the activity that you set? What medium or technology would they and/or you use for getting and giving feedback on their activity?
Students would receive feedback on their activity their comments left on their blog posts by their peers promoting an environment where open discussions can be had over different nutrition choices which will hopefully strengthen their understanding of the material. Students will also receive constructive feedback from the teacher through a private message, but this assessment will be more formative in nature checking the students understanding of the material included in their post.
Our interactive learning resource is accessible by URL by anyone with a device that can connect to the internet and is free to view without having to first get past a pay-wall or something similar. Students will also be able to get regular feedback from instructors throughout the different learning modules and completion of assignments for better clarity on what is expected. Videos included within our learning resource will also have the addition of closed captioning to account for learnerās who are hearing impaired.
Weāve also kept the design of our interactive learning resource more minimalistic with all of the written content being in black text over a white background to improve the readability of what is shown accounting for those who may be visually impaired in some manner (i.e., color-blindness). Due dates on assignment deliverables will also be more flexible on a student-to-student basis to account for other challenges in their learning that may come up during their instruction.
Characteristics of Cooperative Learning
Cooperative Learning (CL) has to do with splitting a classroom into small groups so that together they are able to help each other in maximizing their own respective learning through collaborative group work. This methodology has been shown to assist with the retention of information and greater interest in the subject matter due to its collaborative nature (Breach et al., 2009).Ā
Watch this video for more background knowledge on cooperative learning:
As identified by Jacobs (2004) there are five key principles that are at the core of this learning approach, they are as follows:
- Heterogenous Grouping ā This has to do with the initial grouping of students and making sure that the groups are as diverse as possible so that students are able to learn from and offer their own unique experiences to the betterment of the group.
- Collaborative Skills ā Each group member must be willing to contribute to assignments and discussions as the CL approach hinges on group interactions
- Group Autonomy ā The teacher has to trust that students are doing self-directed learning within their groups instead and have to be sure to interject within a groupās discussion until itās time for each group to share their own thoughts on a subject matter.
- Maximizing peer-to-peer interactions Ā – This has to do with maintaining the overall quality of student interactions by keeping group sizes small (2-4 students) so that each student has an equal opportunity to participate to the discussion within the given time.
- Positive Interdependence ā This term essentially means that each group member feels a sense of responsibility to the other members of their group in creating an ideal learning environment for each other. Fostering a mentality of what helps one member helps the others and what hurts one member hurts the others (i.e., All for one, one for all).
Watch this video on the Jigsaw method to see a practical example of cooperative learning in the classroom.
How it does not align with the topic of Nutrition Education
As a group we chose not to utilize a Cooperative Learning Approach in our online resource as it is not really practical to get students together in real time for group discussions and for assignments having to do with the topic of nutrition. Also, it does not make much sense to group together individuals for this as the topic of nutrition is rife with misinformation and in order to not perpetuate more of that it is vital to make sure that all learners interacting with our resource have the same base level of understanding before contributing to a more open form of discussion with their peers. We still want to have students learn from one another, so we opted for a more open pedagogy form of instruction that allows for the students to be more involved in the teaching process by creating a community where students are able to learn from and critique each otherās work to grow their own knowledge on the subject.
References:
- Jacobs, G. M. (2004). Cooperative Learning: Theory, Principles, and Techniques. Online Submission.
- Breach, R., Arbuthnott, C., Stilwell, V., McLaren, S., Leith, G., Cargill, H., & Ritchie, M. R. (2009). Designing a nutrition-based intervention using a novel cooperative learning model. Proceedings of the Nutrition Society, 68(OCE2).
Prompt: Share a story about your best learning experience (could be a formal course or something more personal). Why did you enjoy it?
Iād say that my best learning experience had to have been in a high-school Biology and Chemistry preparatory course that aimed to give us students background knowledge that would be helpful in our post-secondary education in the same subjects. Reflecting back on my time in that course I can say that it definitely served its purpose as in my first-year biology and chemistry labs I was able to recognize a lot of the information and skills that were presented to us as I already had some prior experience with either the terminology used or the materials/equipment that were used in the lab that day. The preparatory course also offered us the freedom to choose what subjects we wanted to learn more about in a more self-directed manner away from following a pre-determined curriculum. I found this method of instruction to be more engaging as we would have regular classroom discussions where we would present on our chosen topic and field questions from our classmates and teacher to update them on our research. Personally, I had chosen to dive into the subject of mycology (study of mushrooms) and the end result of my time in the course culminated in a final project of sorts where I grew and harvested my own Shiitake mushrooms along with some other classmates as we formed a learning pod of sorts in the class. There were no final test or quizzes to check on our progress instead we followed a more formative assessment style with our teacher regularly checking in on our progress with our more self-directed projects and following up individually to gauge our understanding of concepts covered in class. I enjoyed the more informal grading process in this course as it had less to do with grading our performance and more to do with preparing us for post-secondary study as evident in the name of the course.
Learning Context
Great choice with choosing to implement inquiry-based learning as it seems that your chosen topic as it promotes having discussions which seems to be a beneficial course of action given the depth of your topic. Your methods of instruction donāt seem to be lacking either as you have provided the learner with ample material to support their education via supplementary YouTube videos and assigned readings. You have also done a great job in outlining inclusion criteria for this course making it more accessible through how the content is being delivered to the student and making adjustments in how āhands-onā you are able to be throughout the course in offering feedback.
Learning Outcomes and Activities
For the final assessment test, it may be helpful to clarify the number of questions found on the test as itās slightly ambiguous. How are the test questions chosen/filtered based off assignment 3? (i.e., inclusion criteria) Other than that I think your group has hit the mark on the other learning activities/assessments. The creation of a mind-map allows for a platform to base student discussions off of making that process much easier and organized for the learner. There was no mention of an assessment linked to this outcome, but I assume it will be based off the quality of the classroom discussion that this promotes. The quiz was a nice touch in reinforcing what the student has learned and making sure that they are engaged throughout the lesson. One point here is that you mention there is no time limit for the quiz but mention in the course overview the class takes 1-2 hours to complete (maybe set a time-limit of 20-30 minutes here).
General Feedback
It may be beneficial to separate the YouTube videos so that there is one per slide and embed the video into the presentation as well as providing the link as youāve already done.
For the assigned readings at first glance, itās not as clear where the links to the readings are, I feel that a different font choice for the embedded link would be helpful in making it easier to spot (or even something saying āclick here!ā)
Overall, your group did a fantastic job putting together your learning resource with it being easy to follow and not too overwhelming with the material being covered (information is digestible). This was a topic I had no prior knowledge about, so it was a great experience for me to learn about how health inequity is still prevalent today in much of the same way it was in the past. If you are needing any clarification on a point Iāve made feel free to reach out, more than happy to clarify any points. Good luck on finishing off the last bit of the course!
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