Month: November 2024

Hi Danae! I thought you did an excellent job at highlighting how students could interact with both this learning material (video) and their peers using a relatively straightforward activity. I especially liked that you pointed out that enabling students to share their experiences with anxiety may foster more understanding for one another. Additionally, I appreciate your idea of the instructor compiling the most common themes to share with the class. Thank you for your thoughts!

Post 4

Hi Taiya,

I enjoyed reading about how we could adapt our learning resource to better align with the principles of UDL. I thought your idea of beginning the course with heavy student support and tutorial that could gradually be lessen as students gain skills and understanding was a great way to both account for the different comfort levels our students may have with online learning, while fostering self efficacy. I also appreciated that you would like to provide students options as to how they will express their learning. Finally, I really liked that you highlighted the importance of incorporating culturally responsive materials which represent and pertain to students from all backgrounds. Thank you for this insightful post!

Post 3

Hi Amira,

Thank you for your post! You did a great job of indicating how a pandemic or unforeseen event may pose barriers to students in our interactive learning resource. I especially appreciated that you highlighted that moving to an isolated learning environment may raise students anxiety. This is important to note since our learning resource is designed to help provide students with the knowledge to help identify and manage anxiety!

It was great that you brought up how providing different formats of content can help students with a multitude of different learning styles best adopt the material. I also thought your suggestion of a technology training session would be immensely beneficial as given the age of our learners, many students may not have prior experience with online classes and the nuances of the formats they use such as Microsoft Teams.

Blog Post #3

Hi Taiya,

I really appreciated the time you took to break down the open-pedagogy learning approach into all its essential components. I thought you did a great job at explaining the nuances of the open pedagogy framework. I enjoyed reading about how this learning approach can align with our interactive learning resource topic. I think it’s really interesting how students can participate in such a broad range of learning activities using open pedagogy. It was great to see that using this approach can allow for students to directly reflect on their own experiences, but also encourages them to do their own research and exploration to share with their peers and the community. It seems really supportive of students making their own connections and expressing their learning creatively. Great work!

Post 2

Hi Sophie!

I thought you had a really comprehensive explanation of cooperative learning in your blog post. I really appreciated how you highlighted that cooperative learning can be effectively used for the topic of our interactive learning resource, as students will be able to work with one another and likely all be able to contribute first-hand experience to class or small group discussions.

I thought you made a really good point about how there is potential for students to be hesitant to engage in group learning situations with a sensitive topic like anxiety, but you pointed out the importance of a positive classroom climate to help mitigate this potential discomfort. Thank you for your insights!

https://sophiemurphy10.wordpress.com

Hi Danae!

Thank you for sharing this story. I thought the connection you made between your experience and constructivism was quite insightful. Parents often do play a large role in supporting us as we gain independence and you are very right that this experience is reflective in many ways of an apprenticeship. I don’t think I would’ve made that connection myself so I really enjoyed reading your thoughts on the matter. I also enjoyed reading about your experience with the behaviorist learning design and how the financial behaviors you changed were reinforcing through the positive impacts they were having on your situation.

Post 1

Completed by Group 1: Danae Bennett, Amira Davey, Taiya Scorey, Riley Brooks, Sophie Murphy

Aspects we liked: 

• I like that you are targeting an under-discussed health-related topic and aiming to educate individuals on the risks and benefits of the supplement industry. I especially like the activities you have laid out, I think they are very interactive and will encourage learners to dive deeper into the subject. 

• Your learning topics are very insightful! Many learners could benefit from understanding how to critically evaluate supplements and determine their validity. Your models of assessment are constructed well and I look forward to seeing your final product.

• You did a great job highlighting the lack of regulatory oversight in the supplement industry and its risks to consumers. The learning outcomes were clear and well-connected to the main idea, keeping the resource focused and cohesive.

• Your content is well thought out and addresses a critically important topic that many individuals, including myself, do not have much prior knowledge of. I appreciate that your group has a broad range of activities that you are planning to develop for your learners, to support different learning strengths amongst your students. 

• Awesome! The topic is very intriguing and I like the variety of activities that can engage the students rather than just testing them. This would really help the student think critically and place their knowledge in a real life setting.

Areas that could use improvement: 

• Looking through your project, I am noticing that there is no description of sub-topics, lesson plans, assessment plans, or examples for assessments. It may be beneficial to revisit these topics and incorporate them in your final project. 

• In your final project, it could be helpful to include some images or text variations to enhance learner engagement. 

• While the content is thorough, the learning activities could benefit from more clarity and connection to the learning outcomes. For example, interactive tasks such as “Fact or Lie” and “Marketing Tactic or Scientific” seem like awesome activities but lack detail in the instructions for execution and alignment with the learning outcomes. 

• I have noticed that your group has included links to many research articles and grey literature! This is great, however I am curious as to if these are resources that students are expected to overview as part of homework or after-class readings, or if they will be used by your group as literature to inform your class modules. 

• I think your project could benefit from a little more instruction on how the students will complete the activities or how to complete them. The ideas are there and they seem great! 

Suggestions and/or constructive feedback: 

• I think your ideas for this project are great and I am very interested in the materials you have chosen. There is a lot to learn about the supplement industry. One suggestion I would make is to come up with sub-topics and lesson plans to make your learning resource more digestible for learners. Overall your ideas are clear and well thought out. I am interested to see the final results of this project. 

• Your project introduces an important discussion regarding the regulation and validity of supplement marketing. Adding some small adjustments, such as adding text variations and images, can ensure that learners fully engage with your content.

• Your project could benefit from detailed instructions or examples for the interactive activities to enhance their practical application. For instance, provide a clear structure for the “Fact or Lie” activity, such as how groups will collaborate, what criteria they should use to identify facts, examples and lists of “facts and lies”, and how the activity will be reviewed or assessed. This will ensure that the activity is clear to whomever is leading the class.

• It may be beneficial to outline which readings specifically you would like your learners to do outside of class and what they are to be used for. For example, are these resources for students to use when working on activities or are the readings supplemental research to deepen student understanding? Additionally, you might consider creating a grading rubric or assessment criteria of sorts in order to assess students’ work on your proposed assignments. This may better enable your group to efficiently seek evidence of your students learning in alignment with your learning objectives. 

• Your project could use some more instruction as there is not much. I think the lessons would flow smoother if there is clearer guidance and could ensure the students are getting as much knowledge as possible rather than trying to understand the activity entirely. In doing so this can help the students engage quicker and for longer.