Author: lacyrhea

When I began this course 7 weeks ago I had a very limited understanding of learning theories and styles. I had previously learned about the difference between visual learners, physical leaners, auditory learners etc. but I never had much exposure or formal education on the learning theories. As this course is coming to a conclusion I feel that I now have a deeper understanding of the learning theories. Filling out the learning matrix really helped me understand the various theories and how they are applicable to learners.  At the start of this course I would have thought I would have been a learner who benefited mainly from the Behaviorist theory. Now, I still consider that is true, however I also think as a learner I would benefit from the Social Learning Theory and the Connectivism Learning Theory.

Through this course I have learned that I gain a deeper understanding of the material by reading my peer’s discussion posts. This ties into the Social Learning theory as I can create meaning through my interactions with my peers. I also think that by tying the information that I have learned into my previous experience helps me learn by the Connectivism Learning Theory.  Technology has a huge role in my learning as I am doing most of my learning online. Even with the physical textbook that I have I still find myself learning more from the videos, or additional articles that are posted for each week.  I also really enjoyed creating a Mind Map during this course. This really was a new way that I can apply my learning with technology to come up with a solution or a proposed idea. In my industry we focus a lot on innovations and in doing that sometimes you have to think outside of the box. I will definitely be utilizing the mind map software that I learned during this course moving forward in my career.

Overall, as an Instructional Design professional I now feel like I have gained the foundational knowledge about learning theories and styles to help reinforce the training that I am developing or proposing.

This week as part of our assignment we were asked to complete a Mind Map containing the various resources we learn from. This activity was great to allow me to understand my network of learning and help me identify additional resources that could be helpful to leverage. Having these various networks allows me to continue learning even when I am not enrolled in a class. Growing up and not having the internet at the tip of my fingers when I had a question, I had to look for it or ask someone. Now, everything I could ever want or need to know is just one click away. The digital tools that I find the most beneficial typically are ones that contain a video or tutorial. I learn quicker if I watch someone do something or even if I watch a video of someone talking about something. It tends to stick in my mind better than just reading a book or article. With the way technology is now it makes it beyond simple to find what you need on the internet.

My personal learning network supports the themes of connectivism because I do most of my communication virtually. I work for a company in a remote position so when I interact with my co-workers or clients I am doing so via the phone/internet. We have the ability to instant message each other, conduct video conferences, group phone conferences etc. which allows us to stay connected with each other. Also, this class for example, all the resources that I typically need are found online or through the Walden Library. It really amazes me how quickly and effectively I can locate information on a topic that I am researching or studying now. The discussion board that we utilize in the Walden programs is also something that I feel is very beneficial to me and my learning network. I gain a lot of additional insight from my peers just by reading their discussion posts.

This week we were focused on Neuroscience and Information Processing. I found this learning topic very informative to myself as both a learner and a training developer. Being able to identify what type of learner I am and how I retain and store information was very insightful. As an adult coming back and furthering my education it has been difficult to remember how to study and formulate ideas and thoughts. As a Instructional Designer this is also a challenge because it is imperative that you develop materials that encompass all learning types. In order to make the content relevant for everyone it needs to appeal to the way they learn.

This week in doing some further research on the learning topic at hand, I found two articles to share that I found very beneficial.  The first one comes from the Greater Good Magazine and is called Nine Things Educators Need to Know About the Brain. I found this article to be very valuable  because it discusses the ways that the understanding how the brain works and using that information we can positively influence learning. Within this article Louis Cozolino details nine scientific insights for educators to keep in mind. Here are the two the stood out to me the most:

#6: “The brain has a short attention span and needs repetition and multiple-channel processing for deeper learning to occur”

• Cozolino (2013) stated “We have an amazing capacity for visual memory, and written or spoken information paired with visual information results in better recall. There is a greater likelihood that learning will generalize outside the classroom if it is organized across sensory, physical, emotional and cognitive networks.”
• I think that this is a very important thought to keep in mind when designing a training curriculum. It is important to think of ways to present the information to the learners in multiple ways to have a better chance of them storing and recalling the information.

#9: “Learning is enhanced by emphasizing the big picture- and then allowing students to discover the details for themselves”

• Cozolino (2013) stated “Chunking materials into meaningful segments makes it easier to remember, and improves test performance while increasing prefrontal activity during encoding.”
• Chunking is something that I try to do as an Instructional Designer when putting together a training. I believe that this allows the learners to learn all the relevant information about a certain topic and mastering that topic before moving onto the next more complex topic or segment.  

Overall this article really helps drive home what we learned this week and how we can apply it in a practical setting to be the most effective.

The second article I want to share this week comes from Edutopia and is called Metacognition: The Gift that Keeps Giving. This article is beneficial because it discusses how to teach students to apply metacognition which allows them to think about how they learn best. In this article the author explains how to teach students to be more metacognitive. I think this is very important because it is something that was not talked about when I was in school. I first remember talking about learning styles and theories once I got to college. I think by introducing this concept and talking about it in elementary-high school would set the learners up for success when they enter college. The same is true for designing a training curriculum. By allowing the learners to identify how they learn and to be more metacognitive will result in a more successful training program. My favorite point from this article discusses modeling metacognition by talking through problems. It is important for the learners to see the facilitator or teacher working through a problem with the class. This allows them to use their metacognition and think through strategies aloud.

I could go on and on about articles that I have found beneficial this week but overall these are the two that stood out to me. I hope these have given you a deeper insight like they did me into the brain and how people learn and retain information.

References:

Conyers M. & Wilson D. (2014, October 7). Metacognition: The Gift that Keeps Giving. Edutopia. Retrieved from: https://www.edutopia.org/blog/metacognition-gift-that-keeps-giving-donna-wilson-marcus-conyers

Cozolino, L. (2013, March 19). Nine Things Educators Need to Know About the Brain. Greater Good. Retrieved from https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/nine_things_educators_need_to_know_about_the_brain (“./cl

One of the many things that I love about Instructional Design is the passion that Instructional Designers have for their careers. This was something that I noticed again when looking at the various blogs and professional sites this week. I have three sites that I want to start by sharing with you all that are some of my personal favorites.

eLearning Industry is a site that contains great articles written by various people in the industry. This site covers a wide range of eLearning as well as training topics. My organization is just really jumping into the eLearning community so I find this site helpful to spark ideas or gain further insight.

e-Learning Heroes is a site powered by the software Articulate. I love this site because it provides examples of cool new eLearning designs and PPT templates. This is not only a site for e-Learning it also has a lot of other resources that are appropriate for those creating instructor led training. The rapid e-Learning blog offers a lot of great tips and tricks as well. This site is very useful if you have an Articulate membership as you are able to actually download Articulate and PPT templates directly to your computer. Working for an organization that has a high demand of creating training materials, this has been a wonderful find and a great resource I use almost daily.

Lastly, the Instructional Design Central blog has always been one of my favorite finds. There is a wide array of interesting resources and a vast overview of instructional design basics. A very helpful article I found when just jumping into the ID world can be found here. This is a post that breaks down some helpful Instructional Design acronyms so if you are new to the ID field this may be a helpful read.