This semester, we aim to work in groups to create a digital educational product for learners using tools based on theoretical knowledge. Dr Na Li led us into groups at the beginning of the semester, and we were the third group, named Smile.
Why do we need to work in groups? According to the constructivist view of learning, learning is the process of internalizing knowledge and skills and acquiring tools through social and cultural engagement. This process is often accomplished through the collaborative interactions of a learning community.
Group Discussion of Strengths and Weaknesses
We discussed choosing proposal 1 to identify the strengths and weaknesses of proposal 1. Then each person used Xmind to sort and integrate them, resulting in a personal assessment of proposal 1 (see section 5 for details).
Designing a Digital Escape Room
Proposal 1 Overview: This game will assist the adult workforce participating in the Higher Education Peoplesoft group as well as any professional using the query system in the Campus Solutions program. Through game aesthetics, avatars, reward structures, and self-determination theory, adult learners will understand how forms in Campus Solutions are connected. Some may think they need a lot of knowledge to create a simple business report, but they may only need to understand how a few forms are connected. On this abstract island, players will be immersed in a story and learn how these forms are connected by matching tiles on the island.
Design Theories
Building on the theoretical framework used in the evaluation of Proposal 1, our group went on to design the prototype and final product based on cognitivist learning theory, constructivist learning theory, and social constructivist learning theory in terms of both the teaching and learning dimensions.
In terms of cognitivism, we absorbed the structural view of teaching and learning and discovery learning from Bruner's cognitive structural learning theory (Wang Na, 2011). Emphasizing the importance of active learning and cognitive structure, Bruner argues that the purpose of teaching is to understand the basic structure of a subject (the basic concepts of the subject), its principles, and the attitudes and methods of learning the subject. The following four principles are followed in the process of mastering the basic structure of the subject:
1) Principle of Motivation. Internal motivation is the basic driving force that sustains the learning activities of the students.
2) Principle of structure. Teachers can use all three forms: actions, images and symbols. to present the structure of knowledge, but the best knowledge structure must be used for teaching.
3) Principle of program. Teaching is about presenting a problem or a large number of knowledge structures in an organized way to improve students' ability to master, convert and transfer what they have learned.
4) Reinforcement principle, the teacher must give timely feedback to students to reinforce their learning.
We want learners to acquire knowledge and skills through discovery learning. This is because discovery learning is conducive to stimulating students' curiosity and interest in exploring the unknown, as well as mobilizing students' internal motivation and enthusiasm for learning, providing students with maximum freedom of maneuver, and facilitating the development of critical and creative thinking. Discovery learning is suitable for adult learners in the early stages of learning new knowledge. It facilitates the learning of problem-solving processes and methods.
In terms of constructivism, we have absorbed Jonassen's three-stage theory of knowledge acquisition (Jonassen, 2005). In the primary knowledge acquisition stage, learners often still lack directly transferable knowledge about a domain, when understanding relies mostly on simple literal coding. In teaching and learning, this stage involves mainly well-structured problems, which include a large number of activities that lead to skillful acquisition of knowledge through practice and feedback.
Proposal 1 is aimed at learners who are beginners in Higher Education Peoplesoft and therefore can be mastered by creating interesting problem situations and providing them with the right amount of practice questions and motivational feedback based on Bruner's pedagogical principles.
Design Steps
Step 1 Division of labor in the group
Module Leader: Chen Yang
Instructional Designer: Hongyuan Bu
Responsibilities: 1)Analysis of learner characteristics and learning tasks; 2)Design: Determine learning objectives and choose teaching approaches; 3)Development: preparation of teaching and materials; 4)Evaluation: To make sure that a predetermined goal has been achieved. Instructional designers need to extract needed information from data and analyze it to understand your course audience. Then, instructional designers and content experts cooperate to determine the course content and produce effective courses.
Content Expert: Qian Xu & Anjie Wu
Step 2 Search and screen for appropriate theoretical frameworks
Step 3 Evaluate Proposal 1
Step 4 Design product prototype
Step 5 Design the product
Step 6 Reflect
Design Process
We used a Fishbone Digital Learning Design Method to design the product prototype because it is clear, good-looking, and easy to create. It is feasible to develop interactive learning resources using Articulate Storyline (Novita, 2023).
For the final product design tool selection, we chose Articulate storyline. Because it's simple enough for new designers to quickly design and create courses. It's also powerful enough for advanced users to design anything imaginable. Courses designed by Articulate storyline can be played on a variety of devices.
What I did
1)Integrate all the functions of Articulate storyline into a single document;
2) Collected stock images of islands, airplanes, suitcases, and coconuts;
3) Retrieved and integrated basic knowledge about Peoplesoft into a form that complies with theory and design principles;
4) Developed questions based on knowledge, which included single-choice, multiple-choice, and fill-in-the-blank questions;
5) Helped the LEADER create mind maps.
Reflection
Pros.
Group work facilitated the development and completion of new and complex work.
Compared to H5P, we all agreed that Articulate storyline was better to use, easier to understand, and easier to create interesting and varied lessons.
Limitations
During the design process, we also attempted to follow the pedagogical principle of random access from cognitive flexibility theory (part of the cognitive constructivist learning theory), but unfortunately, the content available for the instructional materials was too simple to qualify for the application of this principle. We also found that although Articulate storyline has many advantages, it also has some disadvantages. For example, Proposal 1 mentions the need for a leaderboard that can be updated in real-time to motivate learners to continue to progress, but we did not find a way to implement this feature in either H5P or Articulate storyline.
In EDS431, Dr Na Li implemented DGBL from the LM to the instructional materials, and from the course assignments to the midterm and final assignments from start to finish, which also enabled me to understand and learn more comprehensively about what exactly DGBL is, the importance and advantages and disadvantages of DGBL, and what DGBL can be specifically applied to in the process of learning.
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