Discussion
Selecting meaningful and effective activities for students to learn from during a course should be the focus of every instructor. While this is an easy statement to make, it is not necessarily an easy task to achieve without a significant level of forethought and planning put into the course development. This holds true for all types of delivery be they traditional classroom settings, online or a blending of the two options.
Student centered learning is ideal for distance education (online instruction) because “students take on more of the responsibility of learning and become more actively engaged in the learning process.” (Waterhouse, 2005, p. 37) Activities such as interactive learning, collaborative learning, learning by doing, and roleplaying are a perfect fit for the online environment where student interaction with the instructor can be can be a challenge without “live” audio and visual measures that an instructor based delivery would require; instead, student centered learning challenges the individual to work with their classmates and the material as they travel through a series of activities that by design alone is engaging and conducive to learning and as a result, rely on the instructor as the facilitator.
This course is designed around that very ideal of teaching, allowing the students to explore theory and learning objectives through interactive group projects that is then followed by self-reflection allowing the student to determine on their own accord, their level of learning. The teacher remains as a facilitator, guiding the students through the material and discovery process with encouraging feedback and periphery interaction through prompts along the way. The initial design of the course still focuses on delivering required materials for the students to read, supplemental materials, the virtual classroom itself and a structure to follow but once that has been completed, the students become the “star of the show.”
The four activities and corresponding assessments in this module rely on problem-based learning, self-assessment and portfolio assessment in the form of case-studies, jigsaw structured research, mind mapping, discussion and self-reflective blogs. The assessments were chosen because of how well they lend themselves to student centered learning but also because they provide an easy, organized progression through Bloom’s taxonomy of learning which is a model for comprehensive growth. Lastly they were chosen because of how readily they lend themselves to discovering real world applications which is priceless since it prepares the student for the reality of their chosen profession and provides a foundation with which they can rely on when similar circumstances arise while on the job.
Student centered learning is ideal for distance education (online instruction) because “students take on more of the responsibility of learning and become more actively engaged in the learning process.” (Waterhouse, 2005, p. 37) Activities such as interactive learning, collaborative learning, learning by doing, and roleplaying are a perfect fit for the online environment where student interaction with the instructor can be can be a challenge without “live” audio and visual measures that an instructor based delivery would require; instead, student centered learning challenges the individual to work with their classmates and the material as they travel through a series of activities that by design alone is engaging and conducive to learning and as a result, rely on the instructor as the facilitator.
This course is designed around that very ideal of teaching, allowing the students to explore theory and learning objectives through interactive group projects that is then followed by self-reflection allowing the student to determine on their own accord, their level of learning. The teacher remains as a facilitator, guiding the students through the material and discovery process with encouraging feedback and periphery interaction through prompts along the way. The initial design of the course still focuses on delivering required materials for the students to read, supplemental materials, the virtual classroom itself and a structure to follow but once that has been completed, the students become the “star of the show.”
The four activities and corresponding assessments in this module rely on problem-based learning, self-assessment and portfolio assessment in the form of case-studies, jigsaw structured research, mind mapping, discussion and self-reflective blogs. The assessments were chosen because of how well they lend themselves to student centered learning but also because they provide an easy, organized progression through Bloom’s taxonomy of learning which is a model for comprehensive growth. Lastly they were chosen because of how readily they lend themselves to discovering real world applications which is priceless since it prepares the student for the reality of their chosen profession and provides a foundation with which they can rely on when similar circumstances arise while on the job.