Efficient preparation of classes
An approach that efficiently converts existing learning materials, such as textbooks or YouTube clips, into a cohesive and engaging class
National classes in which teaching staff populate learning management systems together—to save time and to optimize quality
An approach that enables institutions to develop repeatable learning objects more efficiently
Efficient staffing practices
A program that motivates, facilitates, and rewards peers who assist one another
Class creator
An approach that efficiently converts existing learning materials, such as textbooks or YouTube clips, into a cohesive and engaging class
Overview of the problem
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To be agile, tertiary education institutions, such as universities and colleges, often need to design fresh classes or courses.
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Teaching staff cannot merely refer students to relevant textbooks, Wiki-versity, YouTube, or other sources—but must translate these materials into cohesive and engaging classes. Usually, teaching staff do not feel they are granted enough time to achieve this goal effectively
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Indeed, in some instances, these staff might need to design a class or course within a few weeks
Overview of a solution
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Rather than learn all the material, and then translate this information into slides or other formats, teaching staff should be able to apply a series of tools that translate these materials into cohesive and engaging classes
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These tools enable teachers to present an engaging tutorial, even before they have learned all the material comprehensively
Examples of the tools
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One tool might encourage students to enter key information they want to memorise into an app. The app would then test their memory of this information a day, a week, and a month later—an approach that has been shown to facilitate learning as well as teaches students how to learn
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One tool would be a Chrome extension that prompts students to answer various questions, and record various notes, when they read or watch YouTube or other sources
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One tool might generate weekly reminders to students, perhaps even automatically, from a repository of insights about how to study effectively. The teaching staff, therefore, may not have to compose weekly reminders themselves
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One tool might remove a portion of letters from the written text: Students are more likely to remember text in which some of the letters are missing.
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One tool might measure how long the teaching staff needed to read online text. This information, if communicated to students, could help these individuals allocate their time effectively. Furthermore, teachers could disclose the sections they perceived as challenging, because these disclosures tend to foster rapport and trust.
Collective class development
National classes in which teaching staff populate learning management systems together—to save time and to optimize quality
Overview of the problem
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To design an engaging class or course in a learning management system or LMS—such as Canvas—teaching staff need to have developed many attributes
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They need to be proficient in creativity, learning design, and the tools that accompany this LMS, demanding significant time and effort
Overview of a solution
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Instead, some teaching staff would prefer to follow a series of instructions on how to design these classes or courses.
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For example, a consortium of tertiary institutions that utilize the same LMS could organize a specialist to fulfill this role
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The specialist would instruct these teaching staff to collect relevant information in advance—such as 10 to 20 interesting facts and 10 to 20 photos
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The specialist would then arrange some online sessions. During the sessions, staff would be instructed to complete a series of activities to design the class or course. They might be told to insert a specific activity, for example. Staff would primarily complete the class or course within the sessions
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Because many tertiary institutions would participate, the economies of scale would enable this program to be repeated frequently, such as 6 times a year, or customized to specific disciplines.
Examples of these activities
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The specialist might show teaching staff how to convert text to a multimedia format that is suitable to students with dyslexia or other challenges
Parallel development of learning materials
An approach that enables institutions to develop repeatable learning objects more efficiently
Overview of the problem
Many tertiary institutions develop reusable learning objects—such as video clips, digital activities, open education resource texts, and other resources they can use repeatedly in courses. Unfortunately, these institutions often
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develop reusable learning objects around topics that change frequently, diminishing the longevity of these objects and hence the return on investment
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develop an inadequate number of reusable learning objects, hence limiting the capacity to save money on live teaching
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develop too many reusable learning objects, offsetting the benefits of live teaching
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develop reusable learning objects that are low in equality—or develop reusable learning objects that are too high in quality, squandering efficiency
Overview of a solution
To prevent these complications, tertiary institutions should
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develop metrics that estimate the longevity of information—to ascertain which information is most amenable to reusable learning objects
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estimate the return on investment of each reusable learning object
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introduce an efficient procedure to develop many reusable learning objects economically.
To illustrate, an efficient procedure would need to comprise several features, such as
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a template that trainers can efficiently populate, designed to capture information that could be converted to reusable learning objects
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a set of tools that convert this information into videos or other reusable learning objects
Greater support for peer support
A program that motivates, facilitates, and rewards peers who assist one another
Outline of the problem
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Tertiary institutions can seldom afford to supply their students with the level of mentoring and assistance they would like
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Programs in which students receive assistance and guidance from peers are helpful
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Nevertheless, because of constraints in both funding and the capabilities of these peers, these programs are often limited in scope and benefit only a subset of students
Outline of a solution
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To inspire students to assist one another, institutions need to introduce a gamified platform that motivates, facilitates, and rewards this assistance
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For example, to motivate and to reward these individuals, students should receive points on this platform whenever they develop the skills to assist peers and then actually assist peers.
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They should be able to convert these points to credit on assignments, references from staff, opportunities to attend scarce events like a leadership or exchange program, actual money, and a range of other possibilities.
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To facilitate these individuals, students should be able to access modules in which they learn to help peers organize an essay, write effectively, reference appropriately, optimize grammar, evaluate sources, understand the content, improve their study skills, and manage life skills, such as finances
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Example of assistance
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A student might decide to collate the mistakes or misconceptions of peers and outline this information on a website
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If this activity is endorsed by staff, the student would receive points in proportion to the duration of this task—and may convert these points to specific range of rewards.
Some relevant literature
Contributors
To seek advice or engage specialists on these initiatives, contact the contributors of this page
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Class creators
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Collective class development
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Parallel development of learning materials
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Greater support for peer support
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