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Post#3: Inclusive design

How can you adjust your planned learning activities to meet the needs of your learners if an unexpected event occurs? (for example, a pandemic arises and many of your employees must now work from home – how will you ensure that they can still do their jobs? What training will they need, and how will you deliver it, knowing they must remain at home?) This is a common discussion thread right now as many schools and universities have made the switch to teaching online.

First of all, I will make a new study plan for the students, and they will study by themselves in the form of online courses at home. After that, I will open up a personal meeting time to answer students’ questions. Students need to take training on computer websites. They need to learn the course materials online and how to use computer programs to do the assignments/Assignments I gave them. For the exam, I will write the questions myself, because when online, students can’t be invigilated, they may search for answers on the Internet, which is not allowed but also inevitable. I’m going to make it an open-book test, but it’s going to be a little harder.

Students will be trained to stick to their reading habits and keep up with the class each week. For online courses, strict due dates are necessary, students will not be allowed to hand in assignments or exams late.

How will your interactive learning resource specifically ensure that the needs of all learners can be met?

First, I will let students experience the course I designed, and then I will initiate a questionnaire about students’ opinions on the course design. For example, for students that have colour blind, I will make sure all the course materials are fronted black, and there will be no colourful pictures within course materials. For ELL students, I will try to use simple English words that can be easily understood by students. Students will be assigned to study groups, each of which will include at least one ELL student and several English language students. Thus, native English language students will help ELL students understand the learning material when they have trouble. Group assignments/projects will have the combinations of ELL students and native English language students instead of all ELL students. Moreover, ELL students will have a unique student group in which they will share their tips as ELL students on how to learn the course content more effectively.  For single-parent students, instead of strict due dates, students will have multiple extensions which they are welcome to several days’ worth of extensions on assignments or tests. This means they can take extra days to complete a single assignment due to complex/emergency situations.

Post#2: Experiential learning theory

In this blog, I will answer and explain the following questions about experiential learning: what is experiential learning? what are its characteristics? Does experiential learning apply to our topic? The reason why I pick experiential learning theory as my approach to the learning environment is that it focuses on how does a person understands the learning process, and the learning process is very important to learners.

What is experiential learning?

Experiential learning is a learner-centered, contextualized learning style, which requires a combination of practice and reflection to acquire desired knowledge, skills, and attitudes. Students will acquire knowledge or skills through reading, attending lectures, research or practice. The role of a teacher is no longer to impart knowledge unilaterally, but more importantly to make use of visual, audible, and sensible teaching media to prepare students for the beginning of the experience. Through this learning theory, Students will have an impulse to learn and voluntarily devote themselves to the learning process. Moreover, “Experiential learning describes the ideal process of learning, invites you to understand yourself as a learner, and empowers you to take charge of your own learning and development.” (Institute of Experiential Learning, 2021.) 

What are experiential learning’s characteristics?

“The mission of the Institute of Experiential Learning is to commit to releasing the untapped potential in individuals, teams, and organizations through the deliberate and transformative process of experiential learning.” (Institute of Experiential Learning, 2021.)  Experiential learning is formed by four steps of the learning cycle: Experiencing: Immerse yourself in the real experience of the place and the time.->Reflecting: Observe and think about actual experiential activities and experiences from multiple perspectives -> Thinking: Develop logical concepts and theories through observation and thinking -> Acting: Use these theories to make decisions and solve problems, and verify their new concepts and theories in practical work. Experiential learning enables learners to know the things around them through practice and enables learners to become the protagonists of the class by making them completely participate in the learning process.

Does experiential learning apply to our topic?

I think experiential learning fits our topic “Introduction to Python” in some ways. First, students will have their chance to observe other people’s Python programs and simulate the code, this learning process is very effective and common in computer program learning. Second, students will observe and reflect on their code works and find errors from them, which will enable them to complement their knowledge of Python. Third, students will come up with their own idea of program writing through steps of experiencing and reflecting. Finally, students will use the Python theories they learned to make procedural decisions and solve code problems, they will refine their understanding of Python and practice number crunching over and over.

Below is an introduction of experiential learning in a video way:

References:

Institute of Experiential Learning. 2021. “What Is Experiential Learning?”. Institute of Experiential Learninghttps://experientiallearninginstitute.org/resources/what-is-experiential-learning/

Post#1: Learning, Motivation, and Theory.

Share a story about your best learning experience (could be a formal course or something more personal). Why did you enjoy it?

My best learning experience was when I was taking a course called “business technology” at Camosun College, my professor used both behaviorism and constructivism. In the beginning, he would teach us about the course materials and information we need to learn, and then, he would give us some substantive problems and assignments to finish in class. There were more than 40 people in the class, but he would check and ask everyone if they had any questions. Moreover, after the questions and assignments, he would let us discover more tools on business technologies like ” Word” and ” Excel”. If we find anything that interested us but hasn’t learned yet, he would still help us and introduce the way of using those tools. In my point of view, I really enjoyed the way he taught him, I learned not only from course materials but also from other tools that I discovered on business technologies, so I enjoyed the way he taught me and found it very interesting.

Based on your reading, would you consider your current instruction style more behavioralist, cognitivist, or constructivist? Elaborate with your specific mindset and examples.

Based on my reading of learning theories, I consider my current instruction style more constructivist. As far as I can see, if a student only learns knowledge from books and classes, then the knowledge will not be fully used, it will only be used to the maximum extent in the exam. Constructivists, however, allow me to try to extend what I already learned to further problems, it helps me not only to strengthen the foundation of what I have already learned but also to find out what subject really interests me. As I mentioned in the previous prompt, I enjoyed the way how the professor of business technology taught me because I got to discovered more tolls on those technologies and if I got stuck by them, the professor would explain the questions to me. Therefore, if I’m an instructor, I would define my instruction style as more constructivist.

In Aneka’s post, her professor put the difficult question into the real scene in the form of a story. I think this is a very friendly teaching method, and students can better understand how the question is structured and solved.

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