Great post! I like it that you emphasized on the usage of subtitles as a way of inclusive design. I think it can be helpful for students who have hearing problems and students in general as well because subtitles could help students take in more information then only listening to the contents. The subtitles could also be used after watching the video and serve as a reviewing material.
I wonder whether there should be more types of UDL for other students with various needs such as students with visual impairments or students who have problems reading? Would it be helpful to add some additional audios to describe certain images for video contents that are not covered in the speaking of the video?
What kind of interaction would the video require from your students? Does it force them to respond in some way (inherent)?
The videos we chose would have questions that allow the students to think and reflect. They would ask the students to pause the video and work out the answer before releasing the answers in the video but they do not force the students to answer them. However, we do find online tools that could make these videos into interactive videos that would force the students to answer the questions before the students could move on with the video. We think it can be helpful for the students to be more engaged and we could also see the students’ interactions with the questions by looking at them answers.
In what way are they likely to respond to the video on their own, e.g. make notes, do an activity, think about the topic (learner-generated)?
Taking notes and discussing notes with each other later in a forum would be a good way for the students to respond to the video. The online tool that our group found and mentioned in the last section of this blog is another way for the students to actively respond to the video contents. We would set questions that ask the students to reflect on a certain point and them could enter their answers in this online tool, as well as taking the points down to reflect and discuss later in the forum we set for them.
What activity could you suggest that they do, after they have watched the video (designed)? What type of knowledge or skill would that activity help develop? What medium or technology would students use to do the activity?
We would ask the students to reflect on the content of the video by combining the content with their own experience in life. Since our topic is on personal financing, the video would be a good topic to reflect for everyone. It would be a Learner/Material and Learner/Self interaction where the students integrate the knowledge they learned from the video and use it in their own cases. The students could post their reflections on blogs, discussion forums or make it into videos. These media forms are all good for sharing and peer interaction which would be a Learner/Teacher and Learner/Learner interaction.
How would students get feedback on the activity that you set? What medium or technology would they and/or you use for getting and giving feedback on their activity?
As was mentioned in the last section, students could get feedback through sharing their blogs, videos or discussion posts and get feedback from both the teachers and peer students. This would also be a second learning opportunity for the students when they send and receive feedback from the peers and the teachers.
How much work for you would that activity cause? Would the work be both manageable and worthwhile? Could the activity be scaled for larger numbers of students?
Presumably the preparing and task-assigning would not take much work because one task would be assigned to every student. The sharing and giving feedback activity would take much work since the teachers are expected to read everyone’s post and give feedback. However, since the students are also asked to give feedback to their peers, the teachers work load would be reduced. Teachers would also be monitoring the students interactions and giving advice on the feedback.
The work would be manageable as the teachers would be expected to go through the students assignments nevertheless. Giving feedback to students work and their interactions would be manageable if the students number is within a reasonable range but the workload would increase as the students number grow. It would be worthwhile because the students tasks and the interaction patterns would require the students to learn not only from the materials but also their own experience, the teachers and the other students.
Design for inclusion and diversity is necessary for designing learning resources and materials. In my group’s learning design, there will be lessons in the form of reading and listening to learning resources and doing analysis by discussing cases or evaluating materials. In order to meet the needs of the learners with special needs, or for unexpected occasions, I would add more features to the materials we provide. For example, for reading activities, we would find audio versions or if there is, video versions so that the learners with specific needs would be met. When it comes to discussions or evaluations of cases, we would provide online forums for unexpected occasions such as the pandemic. During the online discussion, we would also try to be inclusive by providing the learners with different options for their forms of submission. They could submit texts, videos, audios on the same topics.
The examples of universal design I know are in computer and software design. For example, people with disabilities could use the accessibility functions on Apple devices. Here is a video of how people with visual impairment use an iPhone:
There are also functions where it allows the device to read out the texts on a screen, as well as converting audios to texts. This universal design is very inspirational for a learning design because when my group is designing our project, we could also think about learners who may have this need and incorporate functions that would make it easier for such learners to access to our resources.
Universal design is a great point to address in our group learning design and our future design for any resources and materials because it is so easy that we forget such needs and this could potentially block some individuals from accessing the resources that might be important to them. Knowing how we could do to meet the needs of all learners could improve the inclusiveness of our resources. Like Jin mentioned in the post of the three principles of inclusive design, understanding the audience is the most important part because the center of the design should be human, the users of the resources rather the resources themselves. Using technology in the design is also an important principle. As mentioned earlier in this post, technology as made it a lot more convenient for inclusion. Using technology properly in our own design could greatly improve the inclusiveness of our work. However, misuse of technology could also cause negative results of the learning experience such as the excessive use of videos mentioned in Jin’s post. Therefore, when designing our group learning resource, we also need to evaluate the technology we used to make sure that it benefits the learners.
I agree with your points on that by communicating with different people we could get better learning outcomes. And apart from what you mentioned, I also think that what we already know could determine how much we could learn from a topic, but by communicating in a group work, we get to not only learn from the materials but from team members. This learning process could potentially bring us more than learning individually.
You mentioned that your learning theoretical knowledge only allows you to use them in tests and homework and that group work makes you learn from other’s experience by applying the theoretical knowledge you learned. I am curious whether you would have an example to show what you mean by this?
I really like your detailed explanation of inquiry-based learning and the infographic you found that demonstrates some of the ideas of this approach. The six important points you mentioned at the end of the blog sound like learning outcomes that students who learned how to use inquiry-based learning will be able to do and I think it is a nice touch because the last part could be a checking list for the readers of your blog to see whether they got the “points”.
You also mentioned in the beginning of the blog about the specific process and they all seem to have the students as the subject meaning that in this type of learning students lead their learning. I wonder where does the role of teachers or instructors come in? Or could this type of learning approach be done entirely by students? If students could do it all by themselves, what’s the difference between inquiry-based learning and self-learning?
Experiential education is a philosophy that informs many methodologies in which educators purposefully engage with learners in direct experience and focused reflection in order to increase knowledge, develop skills, clarify values, and develop people’s capacity to contribute to their communities.
Queen’s University
As the quote describes, Experiential Learning or Experiential Education is a learning practice where learners would take initiatives and make decisions in specially chosen learning experiences. Learners are required to actively participate and engage in the learning process by questioning, investigating, giving assumptions, solving problems, reflecting and critically analyzing. In other words, learners in the experiential learning take the lead in their learning process rather than being led by the instructors.
Below is a framework that is considered the most common structure for experiential learning named Kolb Learning Cycle.
A common framework for Experiential Learning from Queen’s University webpage.
From the framework, we could see that experiential learning occurs with previous knowledge so that new questions and planning could happen to trigger a new cycle of learning experience. By actively thinking and discovering questions, learners use existing knowledge and methodology to conduct and push for results and conclusions. Then, learners would reflect on the experience and draw new conclusions so as to critically analyze the learning cycle and get ready for future learning experiences.
Experiential Learning and Our Learning Design
Experiential Learning could be used in many circumstances such as learning about the nature and its phenomenons, learning a skill or a type of sports, and conducting a scientific experiment. This learning approach is experience-based which means learners learn through experience.
Our learning design is focused on the topic of personal finance management, which is based on many theories that are in the economics field. Learners are expected to learn through studying theories, putting the theories into given conditions and eventually applying them into practices. This approach is different from experiential learning approach and therefore, I don’t think experiential learning aligns with our chosen topic.
Reference
What is experiential learning? Experiential Learning Hub. (n.d.). Retrieved October 8, 2022, from https://www.queensu.ca/experientiallearninghub/about/what-experiential-learning#:~:text=Experiential%20education%20is%20a%20philosophy,to%20contribute%20to%20their%20communities.
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