The firelogs are crackling, the chill has fallen upon us and the marshmallows are poised and ready for the toasting! And to commemorate the start of the festive winter season, we decided to bestow you all with the best gift there is - the gift of knowledge! Course design knowledge, to be precise.
Starting today and up until the 16th of December, our e-Learning experts at Catalyst EU will be sharing 12 top tips to refresh your course design. How to keep your content organised and up to date, fostering collaborative learning, helping your students to stay engaged and on-track, and much, much more!
Each day we will reveal the next step on how to enhance your course, so make sure to check back every day, and please do share your work - the more the merrier! And if you have any questions please reach out using the #12DaysOfCatalyst hashtag on Twitter or LinkedIn; we’ll be more than happy to help you with your course design needs.
Day 10
Consider Wellbeing Options
During the various COVID pandemic lockdowns, I was very fortunate enough to meet with a number of teachers, learning technologists and support staff to ask how they are coping with the rapid shift to online delivery and what advice they had for their colleagues when designing learning that takes digital wellbeing into consideration.
I have presented on this topic many times, but see my GASTA (5min) presentation for the ALT Winter conference 2021 for a very quick recap of my 'Top 10 tips':
Podcast a lesson to listen to on a walk Once a week, provide one of your sessions as an audio-only resource, or perhaps encourage a fellow academic to discuss the subject with you and record it. This was students can listen to it through their mobile devices while out on a walk. If you want to provide a transcript (which we absolutely advise) you can use GoogleDocs to 'type with your voice' https://support.google.com/docs/answer/4492226
Sketch your thoughts When responding to a task you can ask your students to respond by drawing/sketching/mindmapping their thoughts on paper. This can then be scanned and uploaded to the Moodle Assignment tool. According to Laura Busche "Cognitive psychologists have been studying the impact of sketching on brain functioning for years, and with good reason: Putting ideas to paper is a powerful way to extend one’s memory.". Hand Sketches – Things You Didn’t Know Your Doodles Could Accomplish
Set wellbeing reminders throughout your course Using labels, you can set restriction and completion rules so they can pop up and set intervals. For example, you can set a reminder to pop up after completing a quiz to go and get a glass of water from the kitchen, or go outside for 5 mins for fresh air
Make groupwork matter Some feedback we received was that groupwork was very much appreciated by students, however to be fully effective there needs to be some further considerations:
Allow the groups to work together for longer. This gives learners a chance to build a proper relationship with their peers
Make groupwork task-orientated. Give them a problem to solve, and enough time to discuss strategies and solutions
Give them tools to facilitate this too! Put them in Moodle groups and let them have their own group chat in the Moodle messaging system, forum, wiki etc
Identify live vs asynchronous learning opportunities You've survived having to move your lectures to Zoom/BigBlueButton/Teams etc, now it's time to think about how to perhaps flip the balance so learning can take place prior to your live sessions, so that the time could be better spent on answer questions, going deeper into the subject matter. this makes learning more flexible, especially in times when illness is a very real prospect, having to study and work at home with other members of your household present, or maybe having to share a computer with siblings/parents. If you haven't already looked into flipped learning, now is the time!
Structuring content for reduced cognitive load Some really great learning design advice would be to adhere to the following:
Make your structure clear in your Moodle course using topic headings
Identify how long each activity will probably take
Chunk up content so that students can schedule time for them. For example, videos should be 5-7 mins
Use a mix of passive and active engagement (with breathing space in between!)
Give students chances to respond - leaning is a multi-way-way conversation between teachers, students and their peers.
What next?
We would absolutely love to work with you and your course teams to identify opportunities to weave wellbeing into your courses, so please get in touch if you want to buy a block of consulting hours.
Watch our CatWebinars that took place over lockdown.
Did you spot the mini nature pictures throughout this page?
Research has shown that bringing in elements of nature into your space can be calming and soothing. Many of us became 'plant parents' during lockdown as they brought us joy - is there any way you can bring nature into your online learning space? Perhaps offer ambient soundscapes that your learners can have on in the background such as:
If this is something that interests you, look up 'Biophilia'
Bespoke training and consultancy from our eLearning specialists at Catalyst IT
For those wanting a CPD pathway for Moodle you can apply to become a certified Moodler. Find out how you can sign up for the Moodle Educator Certification, designed and validated by Moodle HQ, and delivered by us.