STO Chapter 4

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. 

In Chapter 4: “Building Community” Darby presents the following:

📖 Theory: Leo Vygotsky, Zone of Proximal Development & Garrison, Anderson, and Archer, Community of Inquiry

💡Models

• Structure student interactions

• Reveal your personality

• Design and teach for cultural inclusion

• Convey caring and support

📌 Principles: 

• Create zones of proximal development

• Establish teaching presence

• Support social presence

🎯 Quick Tips:

• Require peer-to-peer interactions in your class

• Show up to class as often as you are able

• Prior to the first day of class, post some information about who you are as a person

• Develop your cultural awareness

• Cultivate and demonstrate genuine caring for your students

How do we use some of these Models, Principles, and Tips in eLearning projects? 

🚀 Application to Instructional Design

This chapter has some great advice for more traditional online courses, but taking these ideas into eLearning and microlearning is a little trickier. The title of this is "Community," which doesn't always happen in eLearning, or rather doesn't often happen well. After reading the chapter, I have a couple of ideas. One of the models Darby discusses is "reveal your personality." In instructional design, whose personality should shine? In some eLearning situations, the designer hands off the product to a client, so the designer doesn't stick around to administer the product; it cases like that, it would be important for the client's personality to shine-- not just branding, but tone as well.

To make eLearning more personable, show more personably, and potentially show cultural awareness, different avatars can be used as the student or a mentor/teacher role. Allowing the learner to choose the avatars and having several options can make the experience feel custom and personable. I tried this technique in one of my first projects, found here in my portfolio, and I generally like how it turned out (although using the free version of the software meant I had limited avatars to chose from).

The last tidbit I will try to incorporate when appropriate is the peer-to-peer interaction, which leads to peer-to-peer learning. In an online class where discussion boards can be used and monitored, this is easier that a training video going out to the company, but it's still not impossible. Having in-person discussion groups about the topic would be a great, if not always practical option, so how about comment sections on some learning? Or assignments or prompts to discuss the topic with a co-worker or supervisor? It is vitally important that learning not happen alone; learning is always richer with other people.