<p>Basically, the revelation that I had was — <strong><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">I like right answers</span></strong>. &nbsp;I really like tidy right answers. &nbsp;I usually don’t ask learners questions that I don’t have a “right” answer or answers for. Even when the task is “authentic” and “embedded in context” I want there to be a right answer. &nbsp;And this <strong><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">is </span></strong><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);"><strong>wrong</strong></span>.</p> <p>Because what Dan Myer is teaching his students is how to approach problems that don’t have right answers, which is the way that most of the problems in the real world work. &nbsp;His students are learning to be okay with that, and how to ask good questions, and how approach those problems.</p>

1. Read what they gave you.

2. Involve them from the beginning

3. Ask them to help identify what people need to do<br> and why they aren’t doing it

4. Ask them to help brainstorm activities and limit information

<p>If your SME keeps suggesting fact checks instead of more realistic decision-making activities, you might try the following questions:</p> <ul> <li>If a person doesn’t know that fact, what do they do wrong on the job? How would that affect our goal?</li> <li>How could you tell by watching me do my job that I know that bit of information?</li> <li>What mistakes do new people make?</li> <li>What mistakes do people make when they get over-confident?</li></ul>

This helps remind the SME that the only information that should go into the material is the info that’s <strong>required to perform the activities</strong>

<p><b>Questions:</b></p> <ol> <li>What do you expect learners to be able to DO after completing the course that they can’t do now?</li> <li>What are the consequences TO THE LEARNER if the learner fails to master the intended outcomes?</li> <li>Can you show me an active demonstration, a detailed simulation, or provide an opportunity to directly observe the desired performance?</li> <li>What specific performance mistakes do new learners regularly make?</li> <li>What tools, resources, job aids, or help do successful performers (or even experts) use to do these tasks?</li></ol>

<p>One of the practical things I took from this session is that she writes the scenario’s out divided in 5 elements:</p> <ol> <li>The <strong>tasks</strong> that you need to be able to perform</li> <li>The <strong>procedures</strong> you need to know</li> <li>The <strong>tools</strong> that you have to use</li> <li>The <strong>knowledge</strong> you need to have</li> <li>The <strong>performance</strong> you have to deliver</li> </ol> <p>A very helpful scheme to use when you set up a scenario based learning experience. She starts out with a global storyline and character description, than she defines a sequence of events that contain a number of action points. She divides the scenario into smaller parts each containing a few action points. She only scores on action points and on good choice.</p>

<p>In Freeman’s research, it appears that it takes an instructor a little longer to figure out what they want to do with the course pedagogically than to become comfortable with the technology. </p> <p>“That’s one of the biggest things, that the technological learning curve is shorter than the pedagogical learning curve,” Freeman says. “The technology’s not the problem. It’s not what’s making people take longer when they teach.” </p>

Freeman was able to demonstrate that, once past the first online course, there is a significant reduction of instructor time. This leads him to believe that much of the complaint of excessive time consumption probably comes from the first-time experience.

Freeman’s data doesn’t challenge the assumption that it takes longer to develop an online course than a face-to-face course. What he has established is that the teaching, as well as the development, become less time consuming, and that that change can come as early as the second or third time out.