Don't Believe the Hype: Applying

Cognitive Science to Create

Great Online and Blended

Learning Experiences

Peter Arashiro, M.Sci.Instructional Design and Systems Manager, Michigan Virtual University

Jason Neiffer, M.Sci.Doctoral candidate, The University of Montana

Assistant director/Curriculum Director, Montana Digital Academy

Paperless handouts

Image by Martin Cisneros

Thought Leaders, LLC

Allan

BrewBooks

Ideas about

Teaching and Learning

What inferences do

you make about

teaching and

learning?

Does this support

what we know

about teaching and

learning online?

Where do these

ideas and statistics

come from?

Dale’s “Cone of Experience”

Verbal SymbolsVisual SymbolsRecordings, Radio, Still PicturesMotion PicturesEducational TelevisionExhibitsStudy TripsDemonstrationsDramatized ExperiencesContrived ExperiencesDirect Purposeful Experiences

Dale, E. (1946, 1954, 1969)

• Thalheimer (2006)

Claims are “fraudulent”

• Willingham (2010)

Learning is messy and complicated

These percentages don’t

consider a student’s

“learning style”

These percentages don’t

consider a student’s

“learning style”

•Willingham (2010)

Research Foundation is Weak

•Gardner (2006, 2013)

Reconsideration from Advocates/Modalities Different from “Styles”

•R. C. Clark and Mayer (2008)

Student Self-Awareness is Low

Combine the suggestion of

“research”

+

Incomplete knowledge about

the research

+

The unique qualities of the

“21st Century Digital Native”

“Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy”

• Fryer (2011)

Native ≠ Literate

• McKenzie (2007)

Claims are “Thinly Supported”

• Walsh (2011)

• Willingham (2010)

Multitasking Claims are False

I have this amazing toolbox, I

must use it!

Laffy4K

Why the

science of learning?

Willingham (2010)

How does LEARNING science

inform YOUR teaching practice?

THREE SIMPLE concepts to IMPROVE

DIGITAL LEARNING ENVIRONEMNTS

1. BE mindful of A STUDENT’S

COGNITIVE LOAD

Cognitive load theory

RetroArt

• Sweller, Ayres, and Kalyuga (2011)

Brain has limited capacity (3-4 items)

Exceeding the brain’s capacity leads to distraction

Instructional environment must be purposeful

Eliminate Unnecessary Distractions from Platforms

Eliminate Unnecessary Distractions from Platforms

Simple, clean text

Minimum use of clipart and non-content images

Choose one or two typefaces/styles per page

Resource: Non-Designer’s Design Book (Williams)

Resource: Presentation Zen (Reynolds)

Eliminate Unnecessary Distractions from Platforms

Maintain Consistency with All Materials

Maintain Consistency with All Materials

Maintain Consistency with All Materials

Maintain Consistency with All Materials

Force system-wide theme

Use sticky blocks to place consistent content in courses

Avoid over-designing course pages

Lessen the Impact of the “Scroll of Death”

Lessen the Impact of the “Scroll of Death”

Don’t store content on main page

Close off unneeded weeks (past and future)

Don’t over-design the main page

Lessen the Impact of the “Scroll of Death”

Use LMS’s tools to limit learning path to logical sequence

2. Use YOUR PLATFORM’S tools to

design thoughtful content

CHUNKING

Willingham (2010)

Image: Malamed (2013)

“Book” Module in Moodle

Assignment Module in Moodle

Assignment Module (From Kevin Cleary, MTDA)

USE DIGITAL TOOLS to Provide

Practice AND Corrective Feedback

Basic Corrective Feedback in the “Lesson” Module

More Detailed Feedback in the “Quiz” Module

3. DESIGN CLASSES that TEACH

and not just provide resources

See-ming Lee

Provide Thinking Guides to Help Student’s Organize their Learning (Meta)

Instructor Interpretation of Content – meta cognitive strategy

Completion tracking/

access restriction

Access Restriction

Activity Completion

Teacher should craft order of materials/lesson

Student should have some input and control of pacing

Alternatives should be aimed at remediation, or for advanced students but carefully assigned

“Think of to-be-learned material

as answers, and take the time

necessary to explain to students

the questions.“Willingham

Additional reading

Examine your existing platforms– are they

providing enough functionality to use the

science of learning?!

Examine your existing materials– are you

following these rules?

Ask your students– are your materials

providing enough guidance to be effective?

Peter Arashiro, M.Sci.Instructional Design and Systems

Manager, Michigan Virtual University

Twitter: @Peetrpiper

Jason Neiffer, M.Sci.Doctoral candidate, The University of

Montana

Assistant director/Curriculum Director, Montana Digital Academy

Twitter: techsavvyteach