Small Teaching Online & ID

I recently attended a professional development event for my 9-to-5, and a majority of the attendees were faculty or hold faculty-adjacent roles. Several times over the course of the event, the book Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning by James Lang was praised. I put the book on my TBR list, but I couldn’t find it in the library. But all was not lost: its companion book, Small Teaching Online by Flower Darby with James Lang was available. I checked out the book to get some tips on improving my online courses, but I also thought it might have some applicability to designing eLearning experiences. I am learning a good bit about linking learning theory to practice in online environments, so I thought I would share. For the next several weeks, I’ll go over a chapter of the book each Wednesday and how it relates to instructional design. 

Intro and Chapter 1: “Surfacing Backwards Design”

📖 Theory: Creating Significant Learning Experiences by Fink and Understanding by Design by Wiggins and McTighe

• Backward Design

  • When designing for a course, ask 3 questions:

    • Where do we want to go?

    • How will we know if we arrived?

    • What will help us get there?

  • For assignments, explain 3 things:

    • Here’s what I want you to do

    • Here’s why I want you to do it

    • Here’s how to do it

• Reflection!!! 

📌 Principles: 

• Design with the end in mind

• Provide frequent reminders of the purpose of content and activities

• Point students back to the core objectives

• Connect the beginning and ending

🎯 Quick Tips:

• Get students working on the final assignment during week 1

• Clarify the purpose of classwork and assessments

• Assign tasks that foster self-reflection

• At the close of the semester, have students reflect on where they’ve come so far and what they intent to do to continue their learning

🚀 Application to Instructional Design

Map It by Cathy Moore is a pivotal book in Instructional Design. Some of the principles in that book align directly with the theories in this chapter of Small Teaching Online. Moore encourages designers to start with the goal and find what the real problem is; Darby encourages online educators to also begin with the end in mind. Moore’s focus is on what the learner needs to be able to do, whereas Darby focuses on what the learner needs to know– but Darby also encourages reflection. Reflection and application encompasses the doing suggested in Map It. 

Starting with the end in mind is something I instinctively do when designing any type of learning experience– eLearning, online courses, in-person workshops. I always have learning outcomes, and this book reminds me I need to ensure those outcomes are clear to the learners. When appropriate, I also like to co-develop the learning outcomes with the learners; this is especially effective with adult learners. It gives the learners ownership over their own learning, and that increases their investment in the course. This is a difficult task to do with large-scale eLearning, so in that case, the why behind the what must be clear to the learners, or they will just click through the experience as quickly as possible. 

The emphasis on reflection is something I completely agree with! I always leave space for the learners to apply the new information to their own lives. Reflection and application are the filter that captures the valuable knowledge before it escapes. There won’t be any different doing (as encouraged by Moore) without the learner practicing (or at least envisioning) the new knowledge or skills. 

The skills that I will directly apply to instructional design from this chapter are 1) start with the end in mind, 2) reflection and application, and 3) make sure the purpose is clear to the learner, not just the instructor. 

✨ Next week, we’ll dive into chapter 2, “Guiding Learning Through Engagement”