Archives February 2020

Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool

I just recently finished revising my website and was ready to check it for accessibility. I used the web accessibility evaluation tool (WAVE) powered by WebAIM. This tool is free to use. The first step is to enter your web page address.

After you enter your website address, you will get a summary listing the errors, contrast errors, alerts, features, structural elements, and aria elements. Selecting the view details button at the bottom of the summary section provides details on the errors. The errors on my landing page included a linked image missing alternative text, missing form labels, two empty buttons, and five empty links.

Error List

The next step is to select each of the error messages to get more information on the errors. Three of the empty links are my social media links in the top bar of my website. The top bar has three social media icons for Twitter, LinkedIn, and email. A user can click on any of these links to complete the action in the icon. However, if you have low vision, you would not know what the icons are and, therefore, would not know the correct usage. To make this accessible, you must add titles to the social media icons.

The other two empty link errors are for the hamburger menu icon and then close the menu icon. On my website, I chose to have a menu with titles in the top bar and the hamburger menu for use on smaller screens.

The next set of errors to evaluate are the missing form labels in the MailChimp sign-up form. There are two errors: a missing form label in which a form control does not have a corresponding label and an orphaned form label.

I checked the CSS style changes I made to see if I had inadvertently deleted the label. This was not the case. I then looked at my “contact me” form. This form had the same errors. The problem seems to be that the text explaining the purpose of the box cannot be inside of the box. I also noticed that there is low contrast between the text in the “enter your email box” and the background. I will change this text color to meet accessibility contrast requirements.

Low Contrast Errors

On my blog page, I initially had low contrast errors in the author and date fields for the individual fields. I fixed those with CSS. However, I still have errors for low contrast in the sidebar text. To fix those errors in a Google Chrome browser, right-click on the offending text and select “inspect.”

After identifying the class for the blog post info, date and comments, I added the CSS to change the text color from gray to black.

.oceanwp-recent-posts .recent-posts-info {color:black}

.oceanwp-recent-posts .recent-posts-comments a {color:black}

If you need to check contrast for text color or when creating images, another option is to use the WebAIM contrast checker. The minimum acceptable contrast ratio is 4.5:1 except for large text, which should be at least 3:1, incidental or decorative text and logotypes.

Headings

You can then select the structure tab on the WAVE tool to evaluate the overall structure of your website.

Notice that my website has a header and a navigation menu, but no H1 header for the overall page. There are a series of H2 headers throughout the webpage and H4 headers on the footer. H3 headers are found in the individual blog posts. To make the webpage easier to navigate, WAVE recommends adding an H1 header for the website.

Accessibility Summary

The web accessibility evaluation tool is straightforward to use. Errors, contrast errors, alerts, features, structural elements, and aria elements are all identified. Selecting one of the icons brings up a details page where information about the error can be found as well as suggestions on how to fix it. I was able to resolve all of my alternative text errors, structural errors, and contrast errors. I was not able to fix the errors associated with my forms. Though I suspect if an additional label were added outside of each text entry box, the error would be resolved.

Several instructional design models have been developed to provide instructional designers with a format to follow when analyzing a situation that will need instruction, developing the relevant content, and then evaluating the results of their effort (Brown & Green, 2016). One description of this process is the ADDIE method, which is an acronym that divides the process into the following components:

Analyze

Dick and Carey (1996) suggest that in addition to analyzing the content you will be teaching, you should also evaluate the learners and the environment in which the learning will take place. An emphasis on this analysis is a movement away from the lecture-based or sage-on-a-stage method where the content is presented with little regard for the background or needs of the learner (Dick, Carey & Carey, 2009).

Generally, during the analysis phase, a needs analysis, a problem identification, and task analysis are completed. The goals and objectives for the course are developed. The model developed by David Merrill called Pebble-in-a-Pond deviates from this because he suggests developing objectives after the content has been established since he feels that they will frequently change during the development phase (Brown & Green, 2016). In addition to goals and objectives, learner and environmental requirements

Design

There are several suggested formats on how to design instruction. David Merrill (2002), in his “first principle of instruction,” feels that learners must be engaged in solving real-world problems. They must rely on previous knowledge learned and construct new knowledge. This new knowledge is applied by the learner and assimilated into their world. The design phase typically starts with the learning objectives, then moves to a flowchart or organizational structure for the content, then storyboarding and finally designing the actual system or user interface (Brown & Green, 2016).

Develop

During the development phase, the instructional designer, along with the subject matter expert, writes the actual content. After developing the content, there is a period of trouble-shooting and seeking feedback. 

Implement

During the implementation phase, the instructional designer teaches the trainers and develops methods for assessing the content.

Evaluate

The evaluation phase includes writing both formative and summative assessments for the learner to verify that they met the learning goals for the course as well as evaluation of course delivery, content, and implementation. 

Sample Instructional Design Process

The problem that will be explored and evaluated in this course is how to train new admissions committee members. Admissions committee members are expected to fairly, quickly, and equitably assess 3000-4000 applicants. This assessment must be done using a holistic approach to maintain the diversity of the class while at the same time, achieving a level of consistency that is defensible when questioned by applicants.

In addition, a new software system will be utilized during the next admissions cycle. The volunteer admissions committee members need to use this software in the pre-admission screening process.

Needs Analysis

The first step in the design process, according to Brown and Green (2016), is to conduct a needs analysis or a systematic look at who is requesting a change, why a change is needed, and what variables are involved, including technological and environmental. The instructional designer can help determine what change needs to occur.

In addition, a new software system will be utilized during the next admissions cycle. The volunteer admissions committee members need to use this software in the pre-admission screening process.

Robert F. Mager suggests that a common approach is to evaluate how the process should be done and how it is currently being done. If there is a discrepancy between the two, then the instruction is needed (Brown & Green, 2016). To develop a comprehensive needs analysis, the instructional designer should interview or survey all relevant constituents.

Another method suggested by Brown and Green (2016) was developed by Allison Rossert (1995).   Allison Rossert indicates that the instructional designer should determine the optimal performance of a task, the actual performance of the task, any feeling about the task that may be contributing factors as well as any root causes for sub-optimal performance (Brown & Green, 2016).

In this workshop case, the desired change is to train new admissions committee members on how to do a systematic, equitable look at evaluating candidates for admission by looking at their application holistically and comparing the applicant metrics to the mission of the school.

The need for an updated plan for evaluation, as well as an instructional manual, was determined after interviewing several members of the admissions committee. They felt that with many new committee members, there is a need for training on how to utilize a consistent, equitable method for applicant screening.

Currently, each member of the admissions committee utilizes their interpretation of the mission statement to determine how well each candidate meets the criteria. This method seems to work well with a stable, experienced committee. No statistical evaluation for consistency has taken place.

The plan is to evaluate the admissions committee procedure and performance over the next several months as well as analyze the statistical correlation between various aspects of the application with their committee score. Opinions for root causes of inconsistencies, as well as suggestions for improvement, will be sought from admissions committee members as well as from administrators and IT professionals who have been involved in the last admissions cycle. 

Steps in a Needs Analysis

Step One: Determining the Desired Change:

Problem List:
​1. Each medical school has approximately 4000 applications that need to be screened during the admission process, which extends from August through April each year.
​2. For the most part, the screeners are volunteer faculty who do the screening after hours.
​3. Each screener may have a different interpretation of the mission statement and, therefore, different priorities when determining what makes a good applicant.
​4. Diversity in all aspects of the application is essential. As an institution of higher learning diversity of culture, experiences, country of origin, socioeconomic factors as well as educational history are all important and valued.
​5. There is new software coming out for the next admissions season. The prescreening admissions process will need to be done on this new software.

Step Two: The request

The request for the desired change is coming from many sources. Many medical schools are looking at innovative ways to screen applicants. They are using combinations of the following options: metrics only, holistic evaluations, candid interviews, and mini-multiple interviews.

The next step is an informal interview of both the IT and administrative personnel, as well as the admissions committee members, followed by a survey of both IT and administrative personnel, as well as members of the admissions committee.

Step Three: Implementation

The desired change will take place in the admissions office.

Step Four: The intervention

The next step is a  formal observation. The output from each member of the committee is observed. Data is collected from each pre-admission screener. This data includes the following: how many people they screen, how they rate each applicant, and ultimately how many are chosen to be interviewed. Also, correlation studies are done between each component of the application and ultimate acceptance decisions to determine if there is a correlation and if it is positive or negative.

The purpose of the observation is to collect data to see if there are parts of the application that could use technology to score while still maintaining diversity.

Step Five: Evaluating the Success

As the project continues, a formal set of objectives is developed. The admissions committee members, as well as the IT and administrative personnel, are given a second survey to determine how well the scoring rubric meets the needs of the committee. They will look at whether it is aligned to the mission of the school, ease of use, utility, and ease of imputing scores in the software system.

Needs Analysis

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Task Analysis

After a needs analysis has been completed and the goals for training are more formalized, the next step is a task analysis, which, according to Brown and Green (2016), is the most critical step in the instructional design process.

Morrison et al. (2006) emphasize the need to tie together the goals from the needs analysis, the characteristics of the learners from the learner analysis, and the content of the task analysis. According to Brown and Green (2016), the final step in the task analysis process is to evaluate the success of the task analysis. They suggest asking a subject matter expert who was not involved in the process to assess the detailed task analysis and see if any steps require further elaboration or clarification.

The two tasks that need to be analyzed in this workshop are the following:

• break down the steps to screen a medical school application
• break down the steps required for a new committee member to learn how to input the content from the pre-admissions screen of an applicant into the new WebAdmit software.

Brown and Green (2016) recommend evaluating the task in terms of both scope and sequence and then formalizing it in either outline or flowchart format. After the task analysis is complete, Brown and Green (2016) suggest that specific learning goals be developed for the learners.

For this process, a committee will be formed consisting of one member of the IT department, one instructional designer, and one member of the admissions department. They will teach the new committee member how to access and utilize the software.

The two tasks that will be analyzed are 1. the steps necessary to access and input the prescreening review of a candidate into the WebAdmit software and 2. the steps required to look at a medical school application formally. 

Learner Analysis

Brown and Green (2016) state that the next step in the instructional design process is analyzing the learners. As a designer of instructional content, it is essential to know who your learners are as well as their strengths and weaknesses. No longer is teaching considered a process of imparting knowledge to learners who lack the information. Instead, it is acknowledged that learners have their own skill sets and experiences that they can draw upon to construct knowledge.

With this in mind, learners are an active component of the curriculum instead of mere recipients. Anyone who has taught for any length of time will probably agree that each class has its personality and that this must be taken into account when planning the curriculum. 

Unlike other information gathered in the instructional design process, the analysis of the learners is a more private document. Brown and Green (2016) suggest starting with analyzing your learners as humans to see if your instruction has a role in fulfilling any basic human needs or wants. Next, look at their motivation for participating in the education: are they required to attend, or are they a willing participant (Brown & Green, 2016).

The goal for all instruction should be to be as inclusive as possible. Analyzing learners for special needs as well as deficits in skills is vital to make sure that it meets the needs of as many people as possible. 

eThe instruction design task in this workshop is the following: to analyze the steps in evaluating a medical school application, determine how this task could be standardized and taught to all learners, and utilize the new software to input data from the pre-admission screening, The recommendations of Mager (1988, p. 60, as cited by Brown & Green, 2016, p. 78-79) were followed in the learner analysis survey and a discussion of the demographics of the population.

​Dick, Carey, and Carey (2011) suggest analyzing:
1. Entry skills
2. Prior knowledge of the topic area
3. Attitudes toward content and potential delivery systems
4. Academic motivation
5. Educational and ability levels
6. General learning preferences
7. Attitudes toward training organizations
8. Group characteristics

Organization of Content

Goals and Objectives

Goals determine the intention of the instruction, and objectives describe the intended outcome of the instructional activity, according to Brown & Green (2016). However, D. H. Jonassen (1991) contrasts objectivism and constructivism and posits that if instructors shift their philosophy to more of a constructivist view, then learning objectives would not be necessary or desired.

Constructivists believe that each learner constructs their knowledge and makes their mental models based on their experiences. If that is the case, then the goals and objectives for each learner would be different.  The traditional objectivist position puts the instructor in the role of determining all that is to be learned and how it is to be learned, and the learner is merely the receptacle for this learning (Jonassen, 1991). To see the goals and objectives of this project, click here.

Goals are overarching statements about why you need instruction and what it is supposed to accomplish. A goal describes the change that is expected to occur in the learner, whether it is a change in knowledge, skill, or attitude.  Goals need to be formally articulated before any instruction can be developed, according to Brown & Green (2016).

Objectives are much more specific and are usually written in a format that clearly defines what the learner is to learn, how the instructor will know that they learned it, the level of achievement they have reached learning it, and in what period the learner will complete the learning (Brown & Green, 2016).

There are several formats learning objectives can take. According to Mager (1984), a learning objective should include an action, a condition under which this action will occur, and a criterion or level of competency that the learner will demonstrate. A well-established method for writing effective objectives is Bloom’s taxonomy. Instructors focus on the purpose of goals and objectives: to develop effective, organized instruction for learners.

Organizing Instruction

The next step for the instructional designer is to decide how the instructional content will be organized. According to Brown and Green (2016), the first step is determining the scope and sequence of the material. In other words, you need to determine precisely how much content you intend to cover and in what order you plan to cover it.

There are many methods of organization discussed by Brown & Green (2016), and frequently the setting will provide some restrictions. The content could be organized in terms of content, which is the concepts, skills, or attitudes that you intend for the students to incorporate based on your objectives or in terms of media, which is the methods that you will utilize to teach the content (Brown & Green, 2016).

It is important to remember that all objectives and, therefore, content learned should not come from the instructor. The learners, while actively working with the content, will develop their objectives. Brown and Green (2016) describe Edgar Dale’s Cone of Experience (Dale, 1969) as a way of describing the continuum of available learning experiences. They can range from enactic or real-world experiences; to iconic or visual or sensory experiences, to symbolic or the use of sounds or symbols that are unrelated to the experience (Brown & Green, 2016). The instructor considers the setting in which the instruction will occur when planning. A classroom setting, programmed instruction, and distance learning each have their benefits and drawbacks (Brown & Green, 2016). 

Learning Environments

Bransford, Brown, and Cocking (2013) as cited in Brown and Green (2016) describe four types of learning environments:

Learner-centered: This environment focuses on the learner and utilizes their experiences, biases, and prior knowledge to uncover misconceptions and preconceived ideas and develop new mental models that are more cohesive and consistent with the known science at the time. An example of this would be a group engaged in problem-based learning. 

​Knowledge-centered environments: In this environment, the instructional content takes center stage. Activities are designed to teach the material and develop understandings. An example of this would be an instructor teaching on a scientific principle.

Assessment environment: The instructional setting is designed to provide the opportunity for continual testing, feedback, and then revision. An example of this would be an online testing session where a student self-tests, gets feedback on their answers, and the opportunity to retest. 

Community-centered environments: In this environment, not only are learners learning from the perspectives and experiences of other learners but are also extending this knowledge to real-world examples of problems.  An example of this would be a class on training employees where theories on how best to train are explained first, and then companies provide real-world case studies as practice activities.

Teaching Styles

Directed learning or teaching: In this method, the instructor has developed clear learning objectives and goals that will be covered when teaching the content. The focus is on the information; the instructor has the central role, and activities are designed to allow learners to engage with the material and learn the content  (Brown & Green, 2016). This type of instruction is typically used in the medical field to teach how to perform a medical procedure. There is only one correct method, and attention to detail is critical.

Open-ended learning or teaching; In this method, the learners are the focus, and they actively work on solving a complex problem. The instructor’s role is more supportive. Goals for the instruction may or may not be present, but objectives are not. The learners determine the objectives as they work through the content. Open-ended learning provides a forum and promotes divergent thought (Brown & Green, 2016). This style of learning is commonly used in medicine to explore a clinical scenario. It is more important to consider the perspectives and conceptions of the group members than to quickly arrive at an answer. 

Strategies of Teaching

Problem-Based Learning: In problem-based learning, a group of students is presented with a problem. They utilize their experiences, biases, and prior knowledge to develop a list of objectives of content or concepts that need further investigation or understanding. After researching these objectives, the group reconvenes to try to develop a solution to the problem (Brown & Green, 2016). This method is used in medical schools to examine a clinical scenario, develop a differential diagnosis, and then to try to create a plan of action or plan of care for the patient. 

Simulations and Games: Simulations and games allow a participant to participate in learning a new skill in a realistic environment with little to no risk. It is much easier to learn how to do something if you have the opportunity to practice the skill in an environment that feels authentic (Brown & Green, 2016). In medical education, simulated patients and simulation labs are used to teach medical students and residents how to perform a procedure or learn a new skill in a way that presents little to no risk. 

Instructional Games: Instructional games are a fun, interactive way of extending knowledge or identifying gaps in knowledge by allowing students the opportunity to compete against themselves or others. Games must be well designed, or the focus shifts from the content to be learned to the game itself (Brown & Green, 2016). In medical school, there are many instructional games to teach about the immune system. The immune system is complex, with terminology that is new to the learner. The opportunity to play an instructional game makes learning less of a struggle and keeps the learners engaged. 

Just-in-time teaching: A method of using direct instruction in a more open-ended environment. Here the instructor provides mini-lectures to teach complex topics or provide background information (Brown & Green, 2016). After a problem-based learning session, just-in-time teaching is used to allow learners to continue working on their problem by providing them with enough background knowledge to keep them from becoming frustrated without giving so much instruction that diversity of thought is stifled. 

Evaluating the Course

The next step in the process is to determine how successful the learners were at meeting the objectives for the course. A criterion-referenced evaluation assesses the competence levels of the learners at meeting each criterion. A norm-referenced assessment compares learners to their peers instead of evaluating mastery of content. To develop a successful evaluation, the instructional designer must make sure that the appraisal fully lines up with and thoroughly assesses the mastery of the objectives.

The evaluation can be conducted in several ways: a pen and paper test, an assessment demonstrating a skill, a performance evaluation, using observation or anecdotal records, reviewing a portfolio, or using a rubric (Brown & Green, 2016). The timing of an assessment depends on the goal.

A formative evaluation will check on the progress of the learner and the success of the instructional designer at meeting the objectives. A summative assessment is given at the end of the instruction to evaluate how successful the process was at helping learners achieve the goals and objectives. 

In this workshop, it will be essential to access whether the admissions committee members can effectively do the following:

• use WebAdmit to screen applicants for medical school
• demonstrate familiarity with the prerequisites and minimum requirements for a medical student application
• clearly articulate the school’s mission and determine attributes that can be used to show the alignment between a candidate and the mission of the school
• evaluate and then defend reasoning for classifying an applicant at a certain level. 

Evaluating the Instructional Design Process

In addition to evaluating the success of the learners at meeting the objectives, the success of the program or design must be evaluated. Formative evaluation can be used to check progress as well as provides an opportunity to make changes or improvements, and a summative evaluation assesses the overall success of the designed instruction at meeting its goal; have the learners achieve the objectives.

There are many stages for the assessment of an instructional design project.

• The first is to evaluate the instruction in draft form and make sure that it meets the intent of the subject matter expert as well as the needs of the learners.
• The next step would be to have a group of learners take a pre-quiz, work through the content, and then take a post-quiz to see how successfully they were learning the content with or without the instructor.
• Finally, the instructional material is field-tested by the instructor (Brown & Green, 2016). 
• A summative assessment is essential to evaluate the overall success of the training session or instruction.

One well-described summative assessment is that by Kirkpatrick (1994), which has four levels of evaluation, each level more comprehensive than the previous.

Level 1 is to check for reactions or feedback to the training session. 
Level 2 is to look at what was actually learned by the participants. 
Level 3 is to test their ability to transfer this information to new scenarios
Level 4 is to look at whether the outcomes seen are a direct result of the training.

Evaluation of the workshop.

What is cognitive load?

Cognitive load describes the total amount of mental energy that is required to process new information with the rate-limiting step being working memory. Paas and Sweller (2014) compare knowledge that must be acquired to genetic knowledge obtained through evolution. They divide knowledge into primary and secondary information.

Biologically primary knowledge is the knowledge that we have been genetically programmed to acquire. It is usually easy to obtain, requires little to no effort, and can be assimilated subconsciously (Paas & Sweller, 2014). Biologically secondary knowledge usually involves the use of primary knowledge, it is more difficult to obtain, and energy must be expended to achieve it. As an example, listening and learning your native language is primary, and reading to learn is secondary knowledge.

According to Paas and Sweller (2014), biologically primary information is stored in independent modules in long-term memory, while secondary knowledge is organized into schemata. The more variations of a given related schema a person can process and store, the more fluent they will become in a given subject area or skill.

The architecture of cognitive load

According to Pass and Sweller (2014), biologically primary and secondary information enter working memory to be processed. Biologically primary information is quickly and unconsciously processed. Biologically secondary knowledge is the knowledge referred to in the principles below. Working memory integrates the various components of information into memory models or knowledge constructions. These new memory models are then organized and combined with knowledge in long-term memory to form schema. There are restrictions on the capacity for new information in working memory, but not for information drawn from long-term memory. 

Information Store Principle: Long-term memory provides the ability to store an almost unlimited amount of information in the human brain. This information is gathered over a lifetime. Learning something new results in an alteration in long-term memory. Learning results in altering the biologically secondary data that is already stored in long-term memory. As the store of biologically secondary information increases, the user gains fluency in the topic (Paas & Sweller, 2014).

Borrowing and Reorganizing Principle: If each person had to acquire information on their own, it would be difficult to impossible to make any progress in society. To facilitate increasing our secondary knowledge stores, we get it from other people, either by listening to them, reading what they write or by imitating them. Paas and Sweller’s (2014) Cognitive Load Theory assumes that the purpose of instruction then is to assist people in gaining information from other people and, just as importantly, aid them in organizing this knowledge in long-term memory. 

Randomness as Genesis Principle: If a learner is not guided when learning something new, then their only option is to make random choices and test them in much the same way that random genetic mutations occur and are tested by the environment (Paas & Sweller, 2014). Each time a learner makes a choice, as long as the options are limited, they could learn from their decisions and be more directed in their learning. Evolutionary unlimited choices could lead to the death of an organism due to indecision.

Narrow Limits of Change Principle: If there are an unlimited number of possibilities presented to a learner, it would be impossible to choose, test, and learn from the choice. Pattern recognition would be nearly impossible. Working memory has both a size limitation, about seven chunks of information, as well as a memory span limitation, 20 seconds without rehearsal, so it serves as a rate-limiting step. The added benefit of this rate-limiting step is that it makes it difficult for the learner to make substantial changes in long-term memory, possibly making it unusable (Paas & Sweller, 2014).

The Environmental Organizing and Linking Principle: Information stored in long-term memory would have little value if it were not correlated with environmental conditions to generate actions. New information entering working memory from the senses is subject to the limitations described above, but information coming from long-term memory is not (Paas & Sweller, 2014). 

Three types of cognitive load

Assumptions of the Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning

Dual Channels:  According to Paas and Sweller (2014), humans can process visually/spatially represented material, and auditorily/verbally expressed content in separate channels. If there is sufficient energy available, information entering one channel may be converted to a representation in the other channel (Mayer, 2014). 

Limited Capacity: Each of the two channels has a limit to the amount of information that it can process in a given period. A memory span test is one way to test an individual learner’s capacity. A vital function of the executive control part of the cerebral cortex is to allocate resources or determine processing priorities (Mayer, 2014).

Active Processing: Leaning is a dynamic process that requires the ability to select relevant information, organize the data into mental models, and then integrate it with information in long-term memory to form schemata (Mayer, 2014). 

Overall premises of the Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning

According to Mayer (2014), a multimedia design must not only have a coherent structure, but it must also guide the learner in how best to build a knowledge structure or mental model. The first step is guiding the learner while they select relevant words and images. Then they must help the learner organize the material by allowing them to see relationships between the components and recognize patterns. Finally, the designer must help them build connections between new knowledge and already learned knowledge stored in long-term memory (Mayer, 2014). 

​Comparing and Contrasting Cognitive Load Theory and the Cognitive ​Theory of Multimedia Learning

Both Paas and Sweller’s (2014) Cognitive Load Theory (CLT)  and Mayer’s Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning (CTML) (2014) recognize that there are three types of processing demands or loads on working memory: intrinsic or essential, extraneous, and germane or generative.

In CLT, knowledge is defined as either primary biological knowledge or secondary biological knowledge. The transmission between generations, ease of acquiring the information, and the conscious effort required are used to define them (Pass & Sweller, 2014). Whereas, in CTML, the focus is on the channel that the information enters, whether visual or auditory.

CLT describes the processing of information in terms of cognitive architecture consisting of working memory and long-term memory and applies the following principles: linked to environmental demands, randomly generated, acquired from others, and limited by working memory processing and energy limits (Pass & Sweller, 2014). While Mayer (2014), in CTML, starts with sensory memory, which perceives information and holds it for a brief period to allow the selection of words and images, transduces it, and makes it available to working memory.  The information then moves to working memory where seven plus/minus two chunks of information are organized into mental models and integrated with previously learned information (Mayer, 2014).

Long-term memory in both CLT and CTML functions to store information in a highly structured manner. Schema is continually being reorganized and rebuilt into schemata, with the goal being automatic recall. 

Similarities Between the Two Models

Both CLT and CTML discuss the structure of human cognitive architecture with CTML adding the sensory phase to working memory and long-term memory (Mayer, 2014). Effective instructional design is used to minimize cognitive load to maximize the limited capacity of working memory. According to Mayer, the end goal is to decrease the amount of necessary extraneous processing so that generative processing can be increased or encouraged (Mayer, 2014).

​​Methods to Reduce Extraneous Cognitive Load

Redundancy Principle: The redundancy principle states that people learn more deeply when they have graphics and narration rather than graphics, narrative, and on-screen text. Requiring the learner to try to coordinate redundant information with essential information increases memory load and interferes with learning (Pass & Sweller, 2014). The cognitive theory of multimedia learning posits that there are two channels, each with limited processing power, to bring information into working memory. On-screen text and images or diagrams would both use the visual/spatial channel, whereas spoken narration would use the auditory/ verbal channel. Using spoken text and on-screen pictures or diagrams would make use of both channels without overloading either one.

The redundancy effect was not demonstrated when short segments of text were used (Kalyuga & Sweller, 2014). Redundancy may be beneficial for non-native speakers, learners with hearing disabilities, when there are no graphics, or when technical terms are used (Kalyuga & Sweller, 2014). An important caveat of the redundancy principle is that it does not apply when both spoken and written text are both needed for understanding.

Another example of redundancy presented by Kalyuga and Sweller (2014) is the redundancy of actual equipment. Having an instruction manual to read along with a computer may be redundant. Learners may learn more deeply with just the instruction manual. A possible explanation is that when an instructional manual is used along with the equipment, there may be a feeling that any needed instructions could be looked up on a just-in-time basis in the instruction manual instead of learning the content (Kalyuga & Sweller, 2014).

Coherence Principles: The coherence principle states that people learn more deeply from multimedia when extraneous material is excluded. It is tempting to include stories, videos, and random facts that would be interesting to the learner, but not necessary to understand the content. This extraneous information increases extraneous cognitive load, decreases available energy for essential processing, and can be confusing to the learner (Mayer & Fiorella, 2014).

The detrimental effect of adding extraneous information is even more significant in learners with low working memory capacity, the cognitive load imposed by the task, the interest level of the task, or when the content is presented using a systems-based method instead of a learner-based method. 

Signaling Principle: The signaling principle states that people learn more deeply when cues are added that highlight the organization of the essential material or to help them select the most relevant information (van Gog, 2014). These cues can be done textually, by adding underlining or bolding, by using imagery such as arrows or highlights, or auditorily by emphasizing certain words.

In the theory of multimedia learning, there are three steps:

• selecting images and text

• organizing images and text

• integrating the information to build connections or schema.

Signaling helps with selecting images and text. This selection process is necessary for the information to be available to working memory.

Research reviewed by Mayer and Fiorella (2014) showed that novice learners tend to attend first to the most salient features of the content. In addition, they showed that learners performed better on transfer tests after reading a summary of the required content instead of a full-length version. 

Effective signaling makes more processing power available to facilitate the germane cognitive load. Mayer and Fiorella (2014) also demonstrated that picture cuing had a significant effect on retention, but not on information transfer. Signaling seems to have a more substantial impact on low skill learners than on high skill learners.

Some research reviewed by Mayer and Fiorella (2014) showed that some learners did not perform better with signaling, even though eye-tracking showed that they responded to it. In contrast, learners with more knowledge of the task look faster and proportionately longer at relevant aspects of a task (van Gog, 2014). Signaling is most effective when used with learners who have less background knowledge, when it is used sparingly, and when the display is complex. ​

Using Refutation Text to Facilitate Conceptual Change

Conceptual change models emphasize the need to determine what the learner’s preconceived ideas are, show that how they are inconsistent or incorrect, and help them to develop a new mental model that is more consistent with scientific evidence. The first step for the learner is to uncover these inconsistencies (Sinatra, Kienhues & Hofer, 2014). If a learner has very little preexisting knowledge, it is relatively easy for them to develop mental models that assimilate the new information into their previous understandings (Posner, Strike, Hewson & Gertzog, 1982). 

On the other hand, if the learner has plenty of preexisting beliefs and perceptions, it may be much more difficult to get them to challenge these beliefs. Overcoming this challenge is called accommodation (Posner et al., 1982). 

Posner et al. (1982) describe four conditions that must be present for successful accommodation of new knowledge:

• the learner must be dissatisfied with their current understandings;
• they must be able to understand the new information;
• the new information that they have learned must make sense to the learner;
• the new explanation must be fruitful or explain concepts or inconsistencies that their current knowledge structure or schema is not able to (Pintrich et al., 1993). 

According to Tippett (2010), learners have three options when faced with scientific knowledge which runs counter to their current beliefs:

• they can reject the new knowledge
• they can memorize the new knowledge and have fragmented knowledge structures
• they can restructure their current schema to incorporate the new information (Pintrich et al., 1993).  

One way that conceptual change could be facilitated in the classroom is the use of refutation text. According to Tippett (2010), refutation text is intentionally structured to challenge the learner’s current beliefs. Refutation text starts with a statement of the misconception. It then goes on to state that this conception or belief is not valid. Finally, there is a refutation of the misunderstanding with a statement of the currently understood scientific explanation (Tippett, 2010). 

In the book The Adult Learner by Knowles, Holton III, and Swanson (2015), the theory of andragogy is proposed and explained. Pedagogy, or the way children are taught and how they learn, is described first. Pedagogy is based on the assumption that the teacher is the instiller of knowledge and that children are the receivers. The teacher is the single responsible party for education. The authors state that teachers of children must thoroughly understand how children learn and what techniques are necessary for them to get the most out of their education. Knowles et al. (2015) felt that expertise, though a different kind, is required when teaching adults as well. The teacher assumes the role of facilitator and provides a safe environment for adult learners to participate in more active, self-directed learning.

Knowles et al. (2015) six primary assumptions include the following:

The need to know: The teacher determines what children need to know, but adults are used to making their own decisions, prioritizing their goals, and determining what is the best use of their time. To have adults “buy-in” to education, they need to know what will be taught, why it is essential, and how it will benefit them in their daily life. On the flip side, they need to understand the ways they will be disadvantaged if they do not learn the content or skill (Knowles et al., 2015). Like most adult activities, learning is most successful for adults if they are encouraged to share in choosing which learning strategies will be utilized.

Adults have experience: Children come to a classroom with a lack of life experiences, and they must be assisted in learning how to file or consolidate the new material they learn. Careful scaffolding must be supplied by the teacher to allow the student to progress. Knowles et al. (2015) contrast this with adults who have a lifetime of experience. By its nature, this leads to much greater heterogeneity in the adult classroom. Knowles et al. (2015) said that effective adult learning requires the ability to tap into these experiences as a resource and make learning an experience in itself. A lifetime of expertise contributes to an adult’s self-concept. The authors feel that ignoring this expertise devalues the adult learner. Adult learners may not need careful scaffolding of knowledge. They can consolidate or make mental models and file information with their lifetime of experiences (Knowles et al., 2015). 

The learner’s self-concept: Knowles et al. (2015) point out that adults have developed the ability and responsibility to make their own decisions, which leads to their autonomy. This ability to make decisions and the consequences of the choices they make lead to their developing self-concept. To have another tell them what they need to learn and how they would learn it best is antithetic to this. According to Knowles et al. (2015), sometimes adults are used to the learning experiences being what they remember from grade school, and frequently they will assume the passive role of “learner.” Helping adults understand that they need to apply the same decision-making abilities that they use in their life to their education helps them move from dependent to self-directed learners (Knowles et al., 2015). On the flip side, denying a self-directed adult the ability to make decisions on how they learn best will thwart learning as well.

Readiness to learn: Knowles et al. (2015) stress that the learning experience is the richest and most beneficial for an adult when it is timed, when an adult is ready to learn it. Adults understand that knowledge can be powerful and can help them in their social and work life. For this reason, they are more inclined to participate in learning that contributes to their personal or work goals. Pratt (1988) provided a model explaining why adults may be comfortable and self-directed in their learning in one circumstance, but require direction and support in another. 

Orientation to learning: Knowles et al. (2015) feel that adults want to learn how to complete a task or to solve a problem instead of learning organized by subjects. In addition to timing the learning well, it needs to be practical and to have real-life applications. Studies have shown that people learn math concepts best when they are taught in terms of everyday math problems, and language is best absorbed if the learner is taught the words that they will need in their daily life (Knowles et al., 2015). 

Motivation to learn: Knowles et al. (2015) say that adults can be motivated to learn something from a motivator outside of themselves, but the most influential motivators are internal. Concepts like improving self-esteem, quality of life, and job satisfaction are strong motivators for adults. Putting andragogy into practice requires preparation, though a different kind than teaching children. Adult learners must be told what they can be expected to learn, as well as realistic expectations of how they will learn the content and then apply it.

Andragogy in Practice

Knowles et al. (2015) stress that a climate must be collaborative, respectful, and warm. Adults must be welcomed into learning and must feel that they are safe. Adults learn best if they are motivated to learn, and the content is timely and applicable to real life. To develop the content, the learner and instructor should collaborate on what needs to be taught, the needs to be addressed, and the objectives of the course. Learning activities must be active, experiential, and logically sequenced. Finally, the course must be evaluated by both the instructor and the learners on how well it meets the learner’s needs. 

If learning for adults is structured in this way, it can lead to better retention as well as completion rates for adult classes. If instructors structure a lesson as a collaborative experience and assume the role of co-learners seeking feedback and encouraging two-way communication, they are more likely to be successful as an instructor (Knowles et al., 2015). 

 Applying the Principles to Giving Feedback

Need to know: Medical students need to understand how to provide and receive feedback. On a recent survey completed by both faculty and students, the ability to give and receive feedback was one of the top learning goals identified. Students need to understand how to provide appropriate feedback to their instructors, realize that receiving feedback is how they will grow in their clinical skills, and learn effective decision-making skills.

The student’s evaluations, which strongly contribute to their success or failure at obtaining the residency of their choice in the specialty they desire, depending on their ability to evaluate and learn from feedback successfully. Explaining to the medical students how faculty and students contributed to choosing the topic will help get buy-in for participation. Students are told that it was a mutual decision on what objectives were selected, and careful consideration was made that they are relevant and essential to their medical student career.

Learner’s self-concept: Medical students are adult learners. They are responsible for their own lives and learning. Their patients will depend on their medical knowledge and clinical decision-making skills. They are autonomous and feel comfortable that they know what they need to learn. Ask students to think of a previous experience where their inability to give or receive feedback effectively was detrimental to their home or work life. This question will help them see why it is essential for them to learn more about feedback, its purposes, communication styles, and under what terms feedback should be given. 

Role of learner’s experience: We have all received feedback throughout our life. We have a wealth of knowledge to draw on when considering when feedback was given effectively and when it failed miserably. Case studies are used for students to draw on their experiences, incorporate their new knowledge, and evaluate how they will give feedback in the case study scenario. An assessment at the end of the training video will review the technique so that all learners are prepared to participate in the case studies. 

Readiness to learn: Students have been provided feedback in the way of grades throughout their educational careers. This practice continues through medical school. The need to score high on their exams as well as have excellent clinical skills summaries motivate students to learn how to both give and receive feedback well. A student who is resistant to feedback and does not want to improve or change or one that provides inappropriate feedback to their preceptors will not only run the risk of scoring low on their clinical assessments but also be a danger to patients. 

Orientation to learning: Explaining the strong correlation between improvement in their clinical skills and their clerkship comments or evaluations and then subsequently their Medical School Performance Evaluation should provide a strong external incentive to want to learn how to give and receive feedback effectively. The desire to improve communication skills, deliver bad news, and encourage growth and change in their future patients will provide internal motivation to learn how to provide feedback in a way that strengthens relationships. 

Motivation to learn: Knowles et al. (2015) say that adults can be motivated to learn something from a motivator outside of themselves, but the most influential motivators are internal. Concepts like improving self-esteem, quality of life, and job satisfaction are strong motivators for adults. 

With the internet, do you think there is still a difference between the way adults and children learn?

Learning Technologies Overview

Learning technologies have expanded in usage and availability, but may be limited in their application to developing a collaborative environment for a community of inquiry. At the origin of online learning was computer conferencing. It was quickly apparent that it had different properties and applications than face to face learning and would require a different approach. The two critical components to meaningful inquiry are feedback and discourse. Pioneering technologies did not readily provide this. Communication is key to learning, and technologies increase the ability to communicate, but this communication may be more social communication instead of collaborative communication (Garrison, 2017). 

Garrison explored several categories of technology and their contributions to eLearning in his book. Web 2.0 changed the internet from a text-based means of providing information to a multimedia source providing: videos, blogs, discussion forums, and wikis. Learning management systems offer technological ways to organize and deliver content in an online format. Social media provides the means to share snapshots of life, but this communication remains superficial due to text limitations and the lack of substantive conversation. Research has shown an inverse relationship between the use of social media and reflective thought.

Mobile learning or cell phones make content easily accessible, but it is difficult to type a lengthy response or paper on a cell phone. According to Garrison (2017), cell phones are ubiquitous, and instead of restricting their use in a classroom, they must be effectively incorporated into engaged learning. MOOCs are massive online classes that cost-effectively deliver content to large numbers of people. Garrison points out that very few MOOCs are given college credit because they do not represent engaged learning, and there is a lack of quality control.

Learning technologies have enormous potential to advance learning. How best to utilize them in collaborative work is still being determined. There is the risk that ready access may lead to more superficial content delivery instead of facilitating communication in a community of learners collaborating in productive discourse (Garrison, 2017).

Blended Learning Overview

According to Garrison, approximately 80% of US institutions of higher learning offer blended learning courses. Blended learning combines the benefits of face-to-face instruction and communication with the convenience of online activities. A blended learning class does not mean just adding online activities to an already established face-to-face class.

Blended learning can enhance a face-to-face classroom by allowing for more discourse through discussion posts and more reflection through written activities. The hope is that passive listening to lectures will be replaced with more engaging activities and collaborative inquiry. Blended learning may provide a solution for the large classes found in a university that must rely on lectures alone due to their large class size. If lectures and instructional materials were available online, then limited classroom time could be more effectively used for team projects, labs, and small group instruction (Garrison, 2017).

Blended learning has several advantages over either face to face or online learning by itself. Blended learning, by use of its online component, provides a means for communication outside of the classroom and has been found to contribute to greater group cohesiveness. Asynchronous writing communication allows time for deeper reflection and revision of student thoughts and frequently leads to more comfort with expressing opinions and ideas in the classroom.

Some studies cited by Garrison (2017) state that blended learning leads to learning the material better and in half the time. Students in blended learning environments express higher perceptions of learning, greater satisfaction, and higher completion rates. According to Garrison, the face-to-face environment is preferable for initiating the discussion; the online environment is ideal for exploration and continuing the debate, with the final resolution phase discussed in the face-to-face classroom (Garrison, 2017).

Guidelines for Practice Overview

Designing a curriculum requires identifying learning activities that are congruent with the intended outcomes of the course, but keep in mind the technical constraints, the learner abilities, and the subject matter. There are four main categories of learning activities: listening, talking, reading, and writing.

Talking and writing are both limited in face-to-face classrooms. Talking due to class size limitations and writing due to time constraints for in-depth grading and providing feedback. In an online classroom, students can listen by reading and talk by writing (Garrison, 2017). 

Garrison (2017) lists seven principles to follow for teaching and learning in the community of inquiry framework:
1. Plan for the creation of open communication and trust.
2. Plan for critical reflection and discourse.
3. Establish community and cohesion.
4. Establish inquiry dynamics.
5. Sustain respect and responsibility.
6. Sustain inquiry that moves to resolution.
7. Ensure assessment is congruent with intended processes and outcomes

Garrison (2017) provides several tips to teachers on the design and organization of the online classroom, including the following:

1. Work to balance facilitation with direct instruction to provide the greatest opportunity for student collaboration.
2. Present yourself as a guiding member in the community of inquiry and not as an authority figure.
3. Focus on using collaborative inquiry to make meaning, not in relaying information in a lecture-style or a self-instructional learning package.
4. Welcome each student and make them feel they are part of a cohesive group, but social interaction must be relegated to a chat board or coffee shop.
5. Set group sizes so they maximize the potential for reflective thinking and critical discourse.
6. Develop case studies and problem-based learning problems that mirror real-world issues and situations.
7. Develop content so it is not overwhelming.
8. Encourage dialogue and label discussion posts based on the phase of inquiry.
9. Provide feedback promptly and diagnose misconceptions to facilitate the learning process.
10. Design assessments that clearly align with the learning outcomes (Garrison, 2017). 

Assessment and Evaluation Overview

Assessments are necessary for any educational activity to determine the learner’s processes and outcomes, and should be in the form of both formative (throughout the course) and summative (at the end of the course). Students will tailor their efforts towards the assessment criteria if they feel they lack discretionary time. If​ collaborative learning and inquiry are meant to be the course outcomes, then the assessment must clearly show that.

Formative feedback must be designed to evaluate both the collaborative and individual efforts. Garrison (2017) suggests creating a comprehensive group project in which each member identifies their contribution. Assessments in the way of formative feedback allow students to compare their work to benchmarks in the activity rubric as well as keep them motivated to stay on course.

Since participation is such an integral part of an online course, it must also be assessed. Teachers should make sure that their assessments do not lead to overly structured discourse. Students must also have input into the assessment process. If they have no input, they will not buy into the community aspect of eLearning. For this reason, the assessment criteria for participation should be readily available to students and be easily understood. 

​One idea suggested was to have students submit a final paper in which they quote their discussion posts with the thought being that if they did not participate, they would not have anything to mention. Teaching is a fluid role. Students must assume some responsibility for it as a course develops to develop shared metacognition. Studies cited by Garrison (2017) showed that student’s perceived learning was directly correlated to the participation grade weight in the course. Course management systems can be used to track discussion posts and logins. New technologies are being developed to assess discussion post content better (Garrison, 2017).

Evaluation is a different process and results in determining the effectiveness of a particular course in both its delivery method and in fulfilling its stated intent. Course evaluation should assess the content delivered for both accuracy and biases, as well as the assessment methods used by the instructor. Surveys should be developed to determine how well the students felt supported. Finally, the course outcomes should be evaluated for effectiveness  ​(Garrison, 2017).

Organizational Issues Overview

There is a higher education movement away from lectures in large classes and towards online and blended learning. This movement will help alleviate both financial and large class size concerns. Campuses have always been the physical location for a scholarly community, but with the internet, that is no longer a requirement.

The first step in moving from the antiquated lecture-based delivery method is policy development. The institutional policy must be developed that is focused, endorsed by all, and provides necessary resources for real change. The goals and objectives must be attainable and clearly laid out.

A collaborative, not a hierarchical management structure, must be designed to be adaptive and willing to advocate for change. Just as the community of inquiry framework provides a method for collaborative inquiry in the classroom, this same collaborative community of inquiry should be utilized at the leadership level (Garrison, 2017). 

A major stumbling block to movement away from lecture-based curriculum delivery to a more collaborative inquiry-based curriculum using an online or blended delivery method is the faculty. Lecture-based curriculum delivery is all many of them have ever known. An intensive, longitudinal faculty development program will be needed to help with both understanding new curriculum methods as well as developing familiarity with technology.

The community of inquiry framework can be used in these sessions to familiarize faculty with the different critical elements of the framework in a trusting environment as well as begin to use the necessary technology. It will take time for all the faculty to learn and adopt new curriculum methods. They must be supported both in time and finances by leadership to allow this to occur successfully (Garrison, 2017).

Future Directions Overview

Garrison (2017) summarized his points in the final chapter of the book. He said that e-learning educators must be careful not to confuse either social media or the glitz of learning technologies with the utilization of technology for a collaborative blended learning experience. Early concerns that universities would outlive their usage have been unfounded.

Still, universities who do not move away from antiquated lecture-based education in large lecture halls will be left behind. The community of inquiry framework has been in place for 15 years and has undergone significant research as well as provided a platform for future research. A future area of research focuses on how to incorporate the community of inquiry framework into a vast array of disciplines, student levels, and technologies (Garrison, 2017). 

In one study on adaptation of a community of learning in a K12 setting, after weekly sessions, students were found to have a marked increase in cognitive abilities that were still present in follow-up two and three years later when compared to a control group. The community of learning survey was developed to provide a tool to quantitatively assess the utility of the framework (Garrison, 2017). 

Garrison (2017) points out that looking too far into the future has only shown a 10% success rate. Still, the marked contrast between the passive lecture-based curriculum method and the collaborative community of inquiry is stark. The movement from a competitive assessment method to a collective effort for inquiry and meaning-making is the only method that makes sense in the current world where people can get any information they want at any time. Creativity and innovation in a collaborative environment will continue to nurture further achievement (Garrison, 2017). 

A Community of Inquiry Survey Overview

The Community of Inquiry Survey Instrument is organized around three presences: teaching, social, and cognitive. In the teaching presence, the three main areas: design and organization, facilitation, and direct instruction, are all assessed. The teaching area of the survey is focused on the instructor and assesses their ability to design a clear and organized curriculum as well as balance facilitation with direct instruction. In the social presence section, affective expression, open communication, and the ability to develop group cohesion are evaluated. The final part of the survey assesses the cognitive presence. It asks learners about the four phases of curriculum development: triggering event, exploration, integration, and resolution. Learners are asked to evaluate the effectiveness and utility of each step in the process ​(Garrison, 2017).

Shared Metacognition Questionnaire

The shared metacognition questionnaire was developed to delineate the responsibilities of a student when they are engaged in the learning process as an individual and when engaged in the learning process as a member of the group. These strategies for maximizing shared metacognition can be utilized in an online classroom, blended classroom, or a face-to-face classroom (Garrison, 2017). 

​

A Community of Inquiry is an educational theory developed by Garrison, Anderson, and Archer and described in Garrison’s book E-learning in the 21st Century: A Community of Inquiry Framework for Research and Practice (2017)  that articulates how online classrooms and eLearning can utilize effective social, cognitive and teaching presences and provide a community atmosphere to enable participants to make meaning and integrate it into their personal knowledge base. This community of learners works together to achieve a deep understanding of a particular area of knowledge. They describe their framework as “collaborative constructivist” or the utilization of a group, social environment to make personal meaning. This meaning is constructed through repetitively sharing thoughts and ideas. They stress that it is collaboration, not cooperation that is required. Collaboration requires open communication to develop shared solutions to problems. Learning as an individual, even with reflection, generally results in seeking information to confirm already held beliefs. In a community of inquiry, all the learners assume the position of teacher and learner at various points in the learning (Garrison, 2017). 

A Community of Inquiry Overview

Garrison (2017) defines a community of learners as a group of participants who assume both teaching and learning roles. A back-and-forth discourse allows the participants to facilitate inquiry, construct meaning, and validate their understanding, Garrison feels that to best utilize online and blended learning effectively, roles should not be assigned to participants, but instead, a learning community model should be adopted to search for personal meaning and understanding through the process of active inquiry. The educational experience is made up of a social presence, a cognitive presence, and a teaching presence. Each member of the community will assume varying degrees of the teaching presence, with the students assuming a gradually increasing role. The learning should take place in an environment of trust, communication, and cohesion, which is defined as the social presence (Garrison, 2017). 

Social Presence

Social presence is the ability of all members to identify as part of a group. It leads to a feeling of group cohesiveness and a feeling of value for each group member. All members develop personal relationships over time and feel comfortable communicating openly in their group. A significant concern about communication in an eLearning environment is the lack of non-verbal cues and the fear about whether written communication can, in some measure, compensate for this. Written correspondence may help with the conundrum of trying to establish personal relationships in an academic environment while allowing participants the freedom and encouragement to be skeptical and critical of all new ideas (Garrison, 2017). Written communication may also allow for a greater period of reflection, as well as allow introverts time to express themselves.

Emotion

Several factors influence the social presence of a learning community, not the least of which is emotion. Garrison (2017) describes many studies arguing for the strong influence of emotion on a collaborative approach to both thinking and learning. Emotion can change throughout the class, but it is pervasive. Emotion plays a role in decision making and can often be the defining factor in determining whether a group can move forward. A second factor that influences social presence is interpersonal relationships. If the learning environment has too many strong interpersonal relationships, then group cohesiveness will decline. Garrison also feels that while communication tends to decline over time in a group, the cohesiveness increases. Teacher presence is also positively correlated with student social presence. Studies cited by Garrison have found a relationship between social presence, satisfaction, and perceived learning. Motivation is the last factor cited by Garrison. It is required to maintain interest and personal investment in the class. Feeling valued as a member of a group helps to maintain motivation (Garrison, 2017).

Categories of Social Presence

Garrison then goes on to describe the three broad categories of social presences: affective communication, open communication, and cohesive communication responses. Affective communication can be incorporated in an online class to show respect and welcome by the use of emoticons, capitalization, careful use of humor, and personal references. This communication should encourage a sense of belonging and allow participants the feeling of interaction with other participants. Open communication can be facilitated by maintaining an environment of respect while encouraging questioning and discourse. In the online classroom, the use of discussion boards and text chats can facilitate communication. Interpersonal and open communication can support group cohesiveness. Increased group cohesiveness will lead to better collaboration.  A balance of social cohesiveness must be maintained: too little will inhibit any meaningful discourse, and too much social presence can lead to inhibition of the inquiry process (Garrison, 2017). 

Cognitive Presence

Garrison describes the cognitive presence as the process that learners must go through to make meaning of the content. Making meaning requires both reflective thinking on the part of the individual and discourse within the group. Critical thinking and cognitive presence are closely related. Critical thinking is needed to both authenticate existing knowledge and to generate new knowledge. Critical thinking requires the ability to think independently, but also the willingness to be questioned. Critical thinking and creative thinking are both needed in the process of inquiry and to avoid confirmation bias or to look for evidence to support your current beliefs. Reflection and discourse are both required in thinking critically, and a text-based medium may facilitate, rather than inhibit, this process by allowing more time and more chances to edit your work (Garrison, 2017).

Practical Inquiry

Garrison offers the use of the Practical Inquiry model to operationalize cognitive presence. It requires a balance between the deliberation that occurs in your private world and involves reflection and discourse with the shared universe.

The Practical Inquiry model includes four distinct phases: a triggering event, exploration, integration, and resolution. The triggering event is a well-thought-out activity or question that engages the participants and gets them to buy-in to the value of the class. This activity should generate curiosity and questions. During this phase, the teacher can present the objectives and expectations of the class.

The second phase is exploration. This phase is the process of trying to understand the nature of the problem and seek the necessary background information. This process requires moving back and forth between a private reflection and public collaboration and could include brainstorming and literature searches. A proper balance must be maintained between seeking enough information to understand the “big idea” of the course without becoming overwhelmed with detail. 

Integration, the third phase, is focused on constructing meaning. Students continue to reflect and participate in collaborative discourse. This phase is where students integrate new knowledge into their previous understandings. They should examine different perspectives and explore their thinking as they confirm their new knowledge.

The fourth phase is the resolution phase. This phase frequently requires decreasing the complexity of the problem being studied or defining a specific part of the problem and seeking a solution for it. This phase is where students are required to demonstrate their understanding and be able to defend their thinking. This phase frequently generates new questions. The tendency in many classes is to spend much time on the first two phases and explore them very well, spend less time on the third phase, and very little time on the fourth (Garrison, 2017).

​Research has shown that in the online class environment, a natural decrease in participant involvement will occur during the integration and resolution phase as more reflection takes place. How learning outcomes will be measured is another concern and area of research. Assessments such as tests are frequently used, but they tend to measure superficial learning. Garrison advocates for the use of perceived learning as a proxy for learning outcomes. He feels that we must move beyond assessing the individual and move towards more of a shared and distributive learning environment. Instead of individual metacognition or monitoring of thinking and learning, shared metacognition should be utilized in a community of inquiry (Garrison, 2017). 

Teaching Presence

The responsibilities of the teacher are complex because they are responsible for creating and shaping the learning environment. They have the responsibility of defining the curriculum and designing educational activities. The teaching presence brings together all elements of the community and works to achieve a balance between meeting individual learner’s goals and encouraging active participation. Individual learners may use the internet and learn about whatever interests them, but the purpose of an academic course is to focus on learning that has societal value as well as helping the individual continue to learn and grow. To encourage active participation, the teacher must be knowledgeable about both content and pedagogy as well as set clear expectations for the course, expect critical discourse, and be willing to step in to clear up misconceptions. According to Garrison (2017), the teacher’s roles fall into three major categories: design and organization, facilitation, and direct instruction. As the class progresses, some of these teacher responsibilities should shift from the teacher to the students.

Design and Organization: Unlike a face-to-face class, an online class may take much more upfront organizational work. The structure of the entire course must be determined before the class begins, but it must retain enough flexibility that the students feel invested in determining the content. The content must be narrow enough to be discussed and evaluated effectively, but links and extra content must be provided for the exploration phase of learning. The teacher must instruct participants on how to best participate in the class as well as provide all relevant due dates and instructions for activities (Garrison, 2017). 

Facilitating Discourse: Teachers must be very active on the online discussion boards, clarifying areas of confusion, providing encouragement, and directing the discussion toward the education goals. 

Direct Instruction: Teachers must be present to diagnose misconceptions. They should act as the “guide on the side.” Garrison (2011) said that without a strong teacher presence, students tend to be polite, but show limited engagement in learning the content. To get higher-level thinking, teachers must be able to provide timely feedback to students. Teachers must also be present to act as a “sage on the stage” and provide accurate factual information.  In an ideal learning environment, there is a balance between the facilitation of discussion and direct instruction. 

Developing a Learning Plan

In the third stage of the UbD template, you will develop your learning plan, keeping in mind alignment with the learning goals established in stage one and the assessments developed in stage two. Stage one and two are designed and written for and by the instructor. The instructor writes stage three for the student. Wiggins and McTighe (2012) suggest that all learning goals should be engaging and effective. An engaging assignment or assessment will keep a student interested and thinking throughout the class period. Rote memorization, passive learning, and completing worksheets are not engaging work. Effective assignments are ones that lead to better understanding and the ability to transfer these understandings outside of the classroom or apply them more abstractly.

Wiggins and McTighe (2012) suggest coding all the learning activities as A, M, or T, and they provide a list of verbs that instructors can use when writing their learning goals to aid in putting them in the correct category.

Since the ability to transfer is the ultimate goal of UbD course design, Wiggins and McTeague (2012) make the following suggestions to aid in this process.

• Learners should practice using multiple skills simultaneously with coaching and feedback from the instructor.
• Students should be encouraged to make use of all of their prior knowledge and constantly relearn, reword, and rephrase their understandings. 

Differentiating Learning:

The focus of stage three is the learner. It helps to think of a class as individual students instead of as a group. Each individual comes to a course with his/her educational background, goals, and skills. It is not practical, nor suggested, to differentiate all aspects of the curriculum. The learning goals should stay the same for all students, but the acquisition of knowledge needed, and the assessments used to determine competencies may vary. Pre-Assessments can be used to assess student strengths and weaknesses before starting a unit.

Carol Ann Tomlinson (1999) suggests that instructors can differentiate the content used, the way the students will work with that content, and the expected product of their work. An instructor can use the student’s readiness or background and their learning profile to help guide the need for differentiation (Wiggins & McTighe, 2012).

Organizing the Learning Plan:

One of the most important aspects of curriculum design is developing the learning plan, so it makes sense to the learners, is engaging, and will lead to understanding. The unit is not completed when it is written. A continuous improvement plan includes seeking feedback from peers as well as experts in the field to make sure the unit makes sense, and it is easy for another educator to follow.

While teaching the lesson, an instructor will closely watch to ensure that the lesson is meeting the goals for the students as well as seek feedback from the students as they work. Finally, the instructor will base the success of the lesson plan on the success of the students since their ability to make meaning and understand the content is the reason the lesson plan was developed ​(Wiggins & McTighe, 2012).

Just like it is nice to know where you are going on a trip, it is helpful for students to see where the learning plan is headed and why it is headed that way. If students have a clear goal for their learning, and it has value to them, they will be much more motivated to pursue the goal. In the goals section, instructors will list the SMART learning objectives for the students. These goals should be specific, measurable, attainable, results-focused, and time-bound. In the next section, the instructor will let the students know how these understandings will benefit them in their life and career. The last section will clearly define the information they are expected to come to the unit with, the information they will leave the unit with, and any misconceptions that may be identified along the way ​(Wiggins & McTighe, 2012).

Students don’t usually start a new unit excited and ready to begin. The instructor will need to get their attention and then hold that attention. Suggested ways of grabbing their attention include challenging questions, stories, personal connections, and contrasting perspectives or points of view. Technology can be used to aid in getting student attention ​(Wiggins & McTighe, 2012).

One temptation we are trying to avoid is “covering a unit or a textbook” instead, we want students to discover or uncover the material themselves. In this section, the instructor will list the experiences that are likely to aid the student in doing this. These experiences should allow the student to make meaning from the content and then be equipped to transfer this information to other settings and scenarios ​(Wiggins & McTighe, 2012).

Each time a student recalls information, it is stored in the brain in a slightly different way. This revision process is why our memories change over time. As the unit progresses and the student has more experiences and gathers more perspectives, they should rethink, revise, and reformulate their understandings. These revisions should not be considered a summative product, but instead, a path to understanding that deepens over time and with reflection ​(Wiggins & McTighe, 2012).

Autonomy and lifelong self-learning is the goal. Your goal as an instructor is to help students learn to assess their strengths and weaknesses instead of relying on you to do so. Metacognition is the process of reflecting on your thinking. Encourage students to seek feedback from others and then take the time to reflect on this feedback and use it to self-evaluate their progress ​(Wiggins & McTighe, 2012).

For your curriculum to fit all of your learners, it must be slightly tailored to meet the different needs, interests, and abilities of the learners. On the other hand, not everything in the curriculum should be differentiated, you have set learning goals, and all students should strive to reach them. They may need slightly different paths to the target.

Carol Ann Tomlinson feels that the curriculum can be differentiated by altering the content, by allowing a different learning process, by allowing different products to be developed and through a personalized learning environment. The instructor can assess the student’s readiness to learn through pretests and work with the student’s learning profile to develop these modifications ​(Tomlinson, 1999).

As you plan your lesson plan, you will need to check continually to make sure that it is aligned with the goals in stage one and the assessments in stage two. You will want to make sure that the plan makes sense to the learners and will most effectively lead to their ability to uncover the content and make meaning from it. Some things to consider are, do you intend to help your students develop habits of mind or improve their technology skills? Habits of mind are problem-solving skills that will help your learners more effectively operate in society. They are the life skills that people learn in several settings. As an instructor, you need to determine if it is your goal and responsibility to incorporate them into your content. (Costa & Kallick, 2009).

Students use technology, but how strong are their technology skills other than texting and posting? Consider if your unit will help them develop more academically oriented technology skills. In addition, how will you, as the instructor, use technology in the classroom and to analyze your student’s results. These results will lead to further modification and tailoring of your curriculum ​(Wiggins & McTighe, 2012).

References

Developing Assessments

The second stage of the UbD curriculum planner developed by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe (2011) involves developing assessments to demonstrate an understanding of the learning goals using the six facets of understanding. Since rote memorization or demonstration of factual knowledge or skills is not the goal, we develop assessments that show that students can take the learning that they have accomplished in our courses and apply it in new and novel situations. They can show this by either using their knowledge to solve practical, real-world problems or by practically applying an abstract concept. 

Six facets of understanding

Wiggins and McTighe (2011) have proposed six facts of understanding that can be used to demonstrate understanding: the ability to explain, to interpret, to apply and adjust, to have perspective, to show empathy, and to demonstrate self-knowledge. These facets do not need to be used in a single assessment, and, unlike Bloom’s criteria, there is no hierarchy (Wiggins & McTighe, 2011).

The ultimate goal is for the teacher is to do the following:

This process can start with teacher involvement, but the goal is the autonomy of the student (Wiggins & McTighe, 2011).

Wiggins and McTighe (2011) suggest that to develop these practical assessments, instructors should use criterion-based evaluations. These criteria should reflect on the goals of the unit as well as the standards and competencies identified in UbD part 1. Having transparent criteria makes the performance goals evident to everyone involved and allows the student to self-assess their progress as they work through the assessment.

Teachers can benefit from tracking criteria as well because areas that are unclear or do not map back to the goals will become more evident.  Wiggins and McTighe (2011) advocate for using four types of criteria; impact, content, quality, and process. These criteria are used to determine how effective the product was at reaching its goal, whether the content was accurate and complete, the quality of the work, and whether the design was appropriate for the task. After the criteria are identified, a rubric should be developed to provide feedback to students. All the criteria should be evaluated, but the emphasis should be placed on impact.

In addition to stressing the alignment of the course and the need for a transparent criterion for assessment Wiggins, and McTighe (2011) feel that authentic tasks that are valid measures of understanding are imperative.  They stress that an authentic task will feel most “real” and valuable to the student.

Wiggins and McTighe (2011) used the acronym GRASPS to layout the composite parts of the tasks.

Stage 2 Template Overview

​The next section is for all the other evaluative methods. These can be mapped back to the meaning and transfer goals, as well as the knowledge and skill goals. This difference between these assessments and the ones in the earlier section is that they may assess factual knowledge and skills that will be a foundation for the understanding that will come later.

The last section of Stage 2 of the UbD framework is the grading rubric you will use to assess that understanding of the “big ideas” has taken place.​

Understanding by Design (UbD) developed by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe (2011) is a curriculum planning framework that purposefully focuses on helping students understand the big ideas that are being taught and be able to transfer these understandings outside the classroom. Big ideas should allow a learner to make sense of a lot of information. Curriculum planning progresses through three steps: determining the desired goals, looking for evidence of learning, and then developing a learning plan. This backward design allows curriculum designers to check for curriculum alignment continually. 

Wiggins and McTighe advocate for teaching for understanding and then providing the opportunity for students to apply these understandings in real-world circumstances instead of covering the material or teaching to the test. They describe the teacher’s function as a coach. The teacher determines what is essential for the student to understand and then plans how they will assist them in reaching and demonstrating that understanding, much as a coach determines which skills and abilities his or her players need to succeed, determining how players can demonstrate mastery and then planning exercises and training to help them develop these skills (Wiggins & McTighe, 2011).

Standards of learning should be obtained in the area of content and used as a benchmark to measure student progress towards understanding.  According to Wiggins and McTighe (2011), students’ ability to explain, interpret, and apply their knowledge serve as markers that they have mastered understanding. Students who understand the concepts will be able to make connections and justify their conclusions in their own words.

Stage 1 Template Overview: Identify Desired Results

Stage 1 is composed of identifying relevant content standards or competencies and using them as guides to develop transfer goals and understandings about meaning. Standards are frequently overarching and ambiguous. They are hierarchical in structure and require interpretation and unpacking. The standards or competencies are intentionally put to the side of the UbD curriculum planner to make it clear that while they are essential to consider, they are not the goal of the unit.

The unit should not be planned in one sitting. Instead, the knowledge and skills should logically give the student the tools to learn the meaning or understandings in the unit which will then allow them to transfer these understandings outside the curriculum. Periodically all of these components should be checked against the standards to verify alignment (Wiggins & McTighe, 2011).

Transfer Goals

Transfer goals should lead to specific long-term accomplishments. They should be the goal of all education. Education is only valuable to students if they learn how to do something in one context and can apply it in another. With clearly written transfer goals, students will never need to ask why they need to learn something. It will be clear what the benefit of learning the concepts will be and how understanding them will allow the student to benefit in the real world.

Students should also be able to use their knowledge in real-world situations without needing someone to tell them when and how to do something. Students must mine their knowledge base for what is applicable in that particular situation, apply this knowledge without guidance, and use good judgment while doing so. Transfer goals should be written as “Students will be able to independently use their learning to…” (Wiggins & McTighe, 2011).

Transfer codes, list of long-term accomplishments as a result of the course, competency codes

Meaning

Essential questions should be asked throughout the unit to help guide the learner toward understanding. Essential questions are not questions that can be quickly answered or that depend on rote memorization. They should be open-ended and have no simple right answer. Essential questions ask the student to think deeper, to question, and to analyze. These questions should be debated and looked at in several ways. Students should be asked to defend their perspectives to demonstrate that they genuinely understand what the question is asking. These essential questions will help students find patterns, connect ideas, and come up with strategies to solve future problems. ​These questions should raise other issues in the mind of the students and should be questions that require repeated questioning. Inquiry to answer these essential questions will lead to the understandings of the course. Understandings should be stated as, “Students will understand that”….(Wiggins & McTighe, 2011).

Essential questions you will ask and your understanding goals along with competency codes

Acquisition

The acquisition part of the curriculum planner is where you determine the knowledge and skill goals that the student will strive to obtain to master the understanding and transfer goals. The knowledge and skills are not the end goals, just as drills in sports are not the end goal. Knowledge and skills should be effectively utilized throughout the course as building blocks. They should be carefully chosen to make sure that they fit the goals of the unit.​ These knowledge and skill goals should be written as “Students will know…” or “Students will be skilled at…”  (Wiggins & McTighe, 2011).

Factual knowledge and skills that are required along with competency codes.

Book summary of Make it Stick: The Science of Successful Learning by Peter Brown, Henry L. Roediger III, and Mark McDaniel.

Chapter 1- Learning is Misunderstood

In Chapter 1 of Make it Stick, Brown, Roediger, and McDaniel (2014) contradict what most students have learned about learning. They define learning as the ability to acquire new knowledge and skills, the ability to recall this information, and the ability to apply and use it at a future date. Students have always been taught that the more they practice, the better they will get at learning and retaining new information. Brown et al. (2014) say that this gives a student a false sense of security and results in learning information that rapidly degrades in memory over time. Instead, they suggest that spaced recall is the right way to learn, with two or more other subjects interleaved between the recall attempts.

Tests should not be thought of as exercises in memorization, but instead as retrieval practice. The more effort that is put into learning something, the more durable the memory. If students just reread and highlight, it gives them a false sense of security because they can recall the words more quickly, and fluency increases, but the underlying concepts are not practiced. To learn the concepts, they need to remember the material, make a mental model of it, and tie it to a foundation of information that they have already learned (Brown, Roediger, and McDaniel, 2014).

Chapter 2- To Learn, Retrieve

Brown, Roediger, and McDaniel (2014) stress that retrieval of information is essential for retaining information long-term and making it stick. Testing in the classroom can provide this retrieval practice. Frequent low-stakes quizzes instead of high-stakes tests can decrease test anxiety, are more efficient than cramming, and inform instructors of weaknesses in student comprehension.  This testing benefit is even more beneficial if it is spaced out, and feedback is provided to purge inaccuracies. Each test interrupts forgetting. (Brown et al., 2014). This testing effect has been studied in both the laboratory and in the classroom. (Roediger, 2014).

Testing and reflecting provide the same benefits, whether teacher-initiated or student-initiated. For best results, use a test format that requires a student to supply an answer instead of just recognizing it. Many people feel that creativity is higher order and more desired than memorization, but learning the information provides the needed base for creative thinking. Use the UBD template to design assessments.

Chapter 3 Summary- Mix up your Practice to make it stick

In chapter three, Brown, Roediger, and McDaniel (2014) explain why spaced practice with interleaving and varied training is much more effective than massed practice. Taking the time to reflect afterward and to elaborate on how you would do things differently the next time, make it even better.

Rapid-fire, repetitive practice seems very useful to quickly learn new skills and commit them to memory, but Brown et al. (2014) say that this practice exclusively utilizes short-term memory. In a classroom study, they demonstrated that when content is interleaved with material from other subjects and practiced in a varied way with breaks in between; it is three times more successfully recalled in the long term. Mixed practice in sports allows for a greater range of muscle memory. This memory is stored in a part of the brain that stores more complex motor movements. By interleaving, for example, working on a few problems from each section of a math book each day instead of working on one part at a time, students can discriminate between the issues better, develop rules to follow, and assess the context of the problem. Conceptual knowledge, as opposed to simple recall, requires the ability to discriminate and to understand the relationships between the parts (Brown et al. 2014). ​

​This process is not as straightforward as it sounds, however, because teachers can get frustrated with the slower pace and students feel that just as they were about to understand a subject thoroughly, they were forced to move on to new material (Brown et al. 2014). Use the UBD template to define goals and develop a learning plan.

Chapter 4 Summary- Embrace Difficulties

In chapter 4, Brown et al. (2014) discuss the three steps in learning: encoding, consolidating, and retrieving. A sensory perception such as what you see, how something tastes, or how it feels must be encoded into a memory trace in the brain to be remembered.  These new memories must be stored in an appropriate place in the brain. New memories are quickly forgotten if they are not linked to memories or traces of information in a process called consolidation. The more varied the information that is stored in long-term memory, the more cues available for consolidating the data.

Sleep seems to help with this consolidation process. Each time information is retrieved from long-term memory, it is re-consolidated. This process strengthens the synaptic connections and makes the memory trace more durable and helps learning stick. A confounding detail is that sometimes there is a need to forget previous information so that it does not contradict or interfere with learning new material. An example of this is the need to forget a language that was acquired in school so that a new one can be learned without confusion (Brown et al., 2014).

The more information that is forgotten between recall attempts, the higher the need to learn the material, and the higher the emotional connotation, the more effective the learning will be. Higher-order learning requires the ability to discriminate between details and be able to generate rules (induction). The best way to make sure this process is successful is not to fear failure and to try to create a solution before you are given one. Fear of failure can lead to feelings of incompetence and anxiety, which will disrupt the learning process (Brown et al., 2014).

Desirable difficulties can make learning more durable by giving the learner obstacles that they must overcome to master the material. These obstacles must be attainable and pertinent to the task at hand. An example given in the text was reading a book with the font slightly off focus. This practice will increase retention and make learning stick because the learner pays more attention while reading the text. The need to focus slows the student down, giving them more processing time. Generating a new idea instead of memorizing material also increases learning. Fill in the blank tests, and essay questions require people to retrieve the information instead of just recognizing it so they will lead to longer retention (Brown et al., 2014).

Chapter 5 Avoid Illusions of Knowing

In chapter five, Brown, Roediger, and McDaniel (2014) discuss some illusions that make learners think they know something that they do not. They first describe the two ways of knowing from David Kahneman’s book Thinking, Fast, and Slow. The first, system 1, is unconscious, intuitive, and immediate. The second, system II, is a slower process using conscious analysis and reasoning. Using and relying on system one without waiting from system II can result in errors in thinking (Brown et al., 2014).

Metacognition is the process of monitoring your thinking, looking for these errors. Judgments made should be based on outside clues and feedback from others, as this is much more accurate than relying exclusively on your perceptions.  As humans, we like for everything to make sense, so we develop stories to explain what we perceive. These stories may not be based on reality. Memory is based on reconstructions of what we think happened so they can be distorted by suggestion, memory inflation, interference from other events, and the illusion that we know things that we do not. An example of this in the classroom-  a teacher who is very knowledgeable about a topic will lose touch with the reality of how best to teach the material and how long it would take to learn it. Other students are a much better judge of where there are holes in understanding. This understanding is the basis of Eric Mazur’s Peer Instruction (Brown et al., 2014).

Studies have demonstrated that the most unskilled students are also the ones who are mostly unaware of their lack of competence. Since they lack insight into their shortcomings, they have no motivation to improve (Brown et al., 2014).

So how do we best develop mastery? Brown et al. (2014) suggest making mental models help information stick. Learn how to put all the steps in a process together into a cohesive whole.  Pay attention to external cues and calibrate your thinking based on this input. Seek feedback and listen to it. Use simulations or the apprentice model to provide rapid feedback and error correction (Brown et al., 2014).

Chapter 6 Get Beyond Learning Styles

In chapter six, Brown, Roediger, and McDaniel (2014) strive to debunk the long-held theory that each of us has a preferred learning style and that to learn best, we must be taught new material in that style. This theory is not supported by research and is very limiting. It allows the learner to feel that if they are not taught correctly, then they will not and can not learn. Instead, Brown et al. (2014) suggest that each person should be in charge of their learning. They follow the premise that what you think you can learn or do, will end up being what you can learn or do, so you should extend your boundaries instead of limiting them. The only learning difference that the authors feel has any validity as far as restricting abilities is language fluency and reading ability (Brown et al., 2014).

​​ A learning difference that does make a difference is intelligence, but how do you accurately define intelligence? It has typically been determined by measuring a person’s logical and verbal abilities. There are two forms of intelligence: fluid intelligence or reasoning ability and crystallized intelligence or the compilation of a lifetime of knowledge. Howard Gardner extends the definition of intelligence to include eight different types: logical-mathematical, spatial, linguistic, kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, and intrapersonal. Robert J. Sternberg defines it as three different types of intelligence: analytical, creative, and practical (Brown et al., 2014). According to Brown et al., Gardner’s definitions of intelligence have not been supported by research, but Sternberg’s have.

Regardless of how you define intelligence, what matters here is what you do with it. Typical intelligence testing measures abilities or strengths. Brown et al. (2014) suggest that instead, we should measure or identify weaknesses, work on those areas, and retest. In this way, we measure progress or gains in ability as opposed to a static measure of strengths (Brown et al., 2014).

​Brown et al. conclude by defining two different methods of learning: structure building and rule versus example learning. Those who are high structure builders learn better, build better mental models, and exclude extraneous, contradictory information better than low structure builders. Reflecting on what you did right or wrong allows you to make progress in developing better mental models in the future. Rule learners look for underlying principles or rules when making comparisons, whereas example learners learn many examples and try to compare new information to a currently known model no matter how well it may or may not fit (Brown et al., 2014).

Chapter 7 Increase Your Abilities to make learning stick

In chapter seven, Brown, Roediger, and McDaniel (2014) discuss the plasticity of the brain and how effortful, goal-directed learning leads to the greatest success in making learning stick. Plasticity is the ability of the brain to remodel by a process called neurogenesis. This brain flexibility is in contrast to the original teaching that IQ and capacity were predetermined at birth and primarily determined by genetics.

The structure of the brain consists of gray and white matter. Gray matter is made up of the cell bodies, and dendrites of the neurons and white matter are composed of the myelinated axons of the neurons. A connection between the axon of one neuron and the dendrite or cell body of another is called a synapse, and this synapse is where learning occurs. By the time we reach adulthood, our brain’s 100 billion neurons have formed 150 trillion connections. These connections are reinforced by increased myelination and pruning of unused connections throughout our lifetime (Brown et al. 2014). 

The brain interprets the information provided by the senses. For a long time, it was felt that the loss of a group of neurons or damage or loss of a sensory modality would result only in significant disability. Neuroplasticity is the ability of the brain to remodel itself so that a group of neurons can take over the function of another group of neurons. The work of Paul Bach-y-Rita eloquently demonstrated this remodeling ability. He showed that the tongue could substitute for another sense by mapping sensory impulses and transmitting them to the brain, and then the brain could then learn to interpret these impulses. To better understand this, a worldwide project called the Connectome project was undertaken. The goal of this endeavor is to attempt to map all the connections and pathways of the brain, one cubic centimeter at a time (Brown et al. 2014). 

Intelligence was felt to be primarily due to genetics and to be an inherited characteristic. This premise can be very limiting because if intelligence is strictly due to genetics and not something that can be modified with effort, then practice and learning are of no benefit. Researchers have demonstrated that children who are taught they are smart are afraid to take risks because they do not want this fact questioned, and they do not want to show the effort they must put into something to learn it.

The average IQ in the industrialized world has increased by about 15 points. This increase is due to environmental factors, not genetic factors, which provide evidence that intelligence is not strictly inherited and can be modified or increased. After this research came out, there was an explosion of technology designed to “train the brain” both to increase intelligence and to prevent the onset of dementia (Brown et al. 2014). ​

Deliberate Practice to make it stick

The message here is that a growth mindset is needed. What you think you can learn or do is what you can learn or do. Children who better understand that effortful learning leads to intelligence and that intelligence levels can change due to these efforts have greater success in school. If students set performance goals for themselves, they will fix these goals at a level they feel comfortable that they can achieve, according to Carol Dweck. She goes on to demonstrate that children who set learning goals, instead of trying to validate their ability, are trying to acquire new knowledge and skills and therefore set higher goals (Brown et al. 2014). ​

In summary, effortful learning changes the brain. Use of deliberate practice, memory cues, such as mnemonic devices and memory palaces, as well as a growth mindset, leads to the best learning and make learning stick. As Brown et al. (2014) summarize in this chapter, it is self-discipline, grit, and persistence and not just genetic predisposition that can lead to expertise (Brown et al. 2014).

Chapter 8 Make it Stick

In chapter eight, Brown, Roediger, and McDaniel (2014) summarize and give examples of the techniques taught in the book. They start with tips for students, which include: practice retrieving, space out your retrieval practice, and interleave the study of different problem types. They explain that with each of these techniques, your intuition may tell you it is not working, but if you stick with it, you will see results. Elaboration or tying the information to things you have already learned will also help. Some examples of this could include generating concept maps and summary sheets. The generation of answers to problems before you come to class will make it easier for you to know what you do not know and focus your learning in class. Reflecting on what you have learned will strengthen your skills because it is a combination of retrieval practice and elaboration. At the end of your training, you need to calibrate your learning by looking to outside sources for feedback (Brown et al. 2014). 

The study tips provided by Timothy Fellows in the text are valuable to make learning stick and are summarized below:
1. Do the reading BEFORE you come to class
2. Anticipate possible test questions and generate answers to the test questions
3. Ask and answer questions as you read through the material
4. Make sure you identify and understand all keywords and definitions
5. Take any practice tests
6. Test yourself frequently on critical concepts
7. Space your retrieval sessions and interleave them with the study of other topics

For teachers, they advise that you start with teaching students how to learn, so they understand that the techniques that you choose are based on research results. Teach students how to study. Create desirable difficulties in the classroom with frequent quizzing, problem-solving, and group testing. They suggest that teachers should be very transparent about why they are doing what they are doing (Brown et al. 2014).