Does Video Improve Engagement and Learning? - eLearning Industry
Summary of findings and limitations of research on video for learning
Blog posts
DCMP Closed Captioning Standards – 3Play Media
Closed caption standards with examples of good and bad captioning. While there are other sets of standards available, these are pretty straightforward and easy to apply to learning.
A Look Back At The Years Best From Learning Science And Instructional Design – Mike Taylor
Curated list of research and summaries of research related to learning. Cognitive load, spacing effect, forgetting effect, worked examples, and more.
All posts | LX Research
A collection of research related to learning, tagged in various categories
Different Types of Learning Theories – Understanding the Basics | My Love for Learning
An overview of learning theories: behaviorism, cognitivism, constructivism, social learning, connectivism, and adult learning. The connectivism description is questionable (or at least it's not Stephen Downes's version of connectivism, which I'm familiar with).
Branching Scenario (beta) | H5P
H5P has a tool for branching scenarios now. The sample is a well-done interactive video scenario for home visitors.
Retrieval Practice & Bloom’s Taxonomy: Do Students Need Fact Knowledge Before Higher Order Learning?
The title is a little misleading. This isn't about needing knowledge per se, but about what kinds of retrieval practice are more helpful for supporting higher order learning. Factual questions helped increase factual knowledge, but they didn't help higher order reasoning. Higher order retrieval practice (on its own or mixed with factual questions) resulted in better performance on the higher order reasoning. If we view this as practicing in context, then it makes sense that practicing skills of similar difficulty would produce better results. However, this is contrary to some of the research that factual knowledge has to be mastered first.
Although fact quizzes were beneficial for fact learning, they did not facilitate higher order learning, contrary to popular intuition based on Bloom’s taxonomy.
Contrary to popular intuition, building a foundation of factual knowledge via retrieval practice did not enhance students’ higher order learning. Instead, students’ final fact test and higher order test performance was greatest following retrieval practice that matched in cognitive complexity based on Bloom’s taxonomy: fact quizzes enhanced final fact test performance and higher order quizzes enhanced final higher order test performance. Retrieval practice increased learning by 20–30% under laboratory conditions with college students and also in an authentic K-12 classroom.
Why didn’t fact quizzes improve higher order learning in the present study, as many cognitive scientists and educators contend? First, students may have been unaware that information on fact quizzes was related to final higher order tests, thus they did not transfer their knowledge without explicit instructions to do so.
Mixed quizzes, comprising both fact and higher order questions, increased higher order test performance more than fact quizzes (in Experiment 2) and slightly more than higher order quizzes (in Experiment
If we want to reach the top of Bloom’s taxonomy, building a foundation of knowledge via fact-based retrieval practice may be less potent than engaging in higher order retrieval practice at the outset, a key finding for future research and classroom application.
Factual Knowledge Must (Not?) Precede Higher Order Thinking |Education & Teacher Conferences
Summary of Pooja Agarwal's research on retrieval practice for higher order thinking
That is: when students <span style="color: #000000;"><b>didn’t </b></span>review a particular set of facts, they could still reason with them — as long as they <strong>had practiced</strong> doing that kind of reasoning.
Storyline 360 Modern Player Custom Colors eLearning Widget for Articulate Storyline 360 | Stencil by Cluelabs
Free widget using JavaScript to change the colors in the Modern Player in Storyline 360
What’s your ideal hourly rate? Find out!
Hourly rate calculator for freelancers. Assuming you have reasonably accurate estimates for your expenses and time (including how much of your time is actually billable), this gives you a target for breaking even and for making a profit.
Implicit bias trainings are used to fight racism, but IAT science is flawed — Quartz
The IAT test has weak reliability and validity. The research is mixed on predicting behavior. This might not be the best approach to changing behavior. But maybe over time the research will improve.
Generalist versus specialist? How about a misshapen comb
This is an expanded view of the T-shaped skills explained in Cammy Bean's "Accidental Instructional Designer." It's not a binary of generalist vs. specialist. Many of us have T-shaped skills; we have a broad base (the top of the T) with one set of deeper skills (the vertical in the T). If you have several deeper skills, a map of your skills looks more like a misshapen, uneven comb.
Students Fall for Misinformation Online. Is Teaching Them to Read Like Fact Checkers the Solution? - The Chronicle of Higher Education
This is a better way to teach digital literacy and fact checking. Instead of just focusing on deeply checking the source itself, use "lateral reading" to check other sources and circle back to the original.
Science of Learning Summit | Usable Learning
Resources and references from Julie Dirksen's "Eavesdropping on other Research Domains" session at the eLearning Guild Science of Learning Summit
Designing Learning Experiences in an Evidence-Informed Way – 3-Star learning experiences
Mirjam Neelen and Paul Kirschner on ways to systematically approach using evidence and evaluating research for use in learning
Html2Scorm- LearningCart
Free tool for converting any folder of HTML content into a SCORM 1.2 package
Designing a Custom Progress Bar in Articulate Storyline - Building Better Courses Discussions - E-Learning Heroes
Free widget for creating a custom progress bar in Storyline. This shows course progress rather than slide progress.
GUEST POST: The Emerging Consensus — The Learning Scientists
This is an interesting summary of research, compiling conclusions from multiple types of research. While I'm skeptical of most claims about neuroscience research directly informing learning design, this tries to avoid that. Neuroscience research is used to explain results from cognitive psychology research. They also try to connect cognitive research on the other side with classroom experience.
Constructivism is a theory of learning, not a theory of pedagogy. Neuroscience explains why this is important | npj Science of Learning Community
This is intended to be a controversial position, but it seems to align with research. We construct our understanding in context, building and elaborating schema over time. Our schema are only partial representations though. Learning is supported by creating multiple, overlapping partial representations of knowledge. Repeated exposure and practice in varied contexts is important.
An Informal Learning Business Curriculum - Leading Learning
A collection of podcast episodes on the business of selling and marketing training
13 eLearning Scenario Tips that 60 Experts Agree On – eLearningArt
Bryan Jones asked 60 people for their #1 tip for creating scenarios. He noted the top trends and collected these tips all in a single post. My tip is #23 about aligning the scenario to the objectives.
<p>these are the 13 most important elements:</p>
<ol>
<li><a href="#real">Keep it real</a></li>
<li><a href="#relevant">Make it relevant</a></li>
<li><a href="#structure">Follow a structured approach</a></li>
<li><a href="#plan">Plan and analyze before you build</a></li>
<li><a href="#objectives">Keep the learning objectives and outcomes in mind</a></li>
<li><a href="#story">Tell a story</a></li>
<li><a href="#context">Provide accurate context</a></li>
<li><a href="#nuance">Find nuance in the scenario</a></li>
<li><a href="#choice">Consider scenario choices carefully</a></li>
<li><a href="#sme">Collaborate with your subject matter experts</a></li>
<li><a href="#learner">Collaborate with your actual learners</a></li>
<li><a href="#challenge">Challenge your learners</a></li>
<li><a href="#consequences">Let learners experience consequences</a></li></ol>
<h3>Use your objectives to drive the action in your scenarios</h3>
<blockquote><p>Align your scenario with your objectives. An engaging scenario that doesn’t help learners practice relevant decisions tied to your objectives is a waste of time and resources. Use scenarios to provide learners with a realistic context where they can make choices. In a scenario, the main character’s goal often reflects achieving or demonstrating the learning objective. Use your objectives to drive the action in your scenarios.</p></blockquote>
<p>— <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://www.syniadlearning.com/">Christy Tucker</a></span></p>
Products - Kognito
This vendor has a library of scenario-based courses using virtual coaches. One interesting note is how each decision has two parts. First, you choose which strategy to use. Second, you choose which sentence within that strategy to try in the conversation. You can ask for help from the virtual coach or undo your last action. While the 3D virtual characters are great, you could use that two-part technique in simulations built in other tools as well. Watch the trailers to get an idea of how the interactions work.
4 Design Principles that DON’T Live Up to Their Acronym – eLearningArt
Bryan Jones demonstrates the design principles of CRAP (contrast, repetition, alignment, and proximity) by taking some boring, text-only slides and gradually improving them.
Standard Patterns in Choice-Based Games | These Heterogenous Tasks
Patterns for branching stories and games. Many of these are more complex than what a branching scenario for learning would need to be, but recognizing the patterns and options is helpful.
illustrio: 100% free, 100% customizable icon library
Free icons. You can easily get the same icons in different styles, and you can pick your own two colors.
The Science of the Job Search, Part VII: You Only Need 50% of Job “Requirements” – TalentWorks
Job listings are descriptions of what they imagine the ideal candidate should have. Don't be afraid to apply to jobs because you can't check every single box. You can get interviews while meeting only about half the requirements.
<strong>You’re as likely to get a job interview m</strong><strong>eeting 50% of job requirements as meeting 90% of them.</strong>
You may have seen stories before about how women in particular <a href="https://hbr.org/2014/08/why-women-dont-apply-for-jobs-unless-theyre-100-qualified">don’t apply for jobs unless they’re 100% qualified</a>. We wondered if they were on to something – maybe there’s gender discrimination at play and hiring managers look for women to meet more of the requirements. Turns out, <strong>our findings apply just as much to women as to men</strong>, and actually, <strong>for women, the chances of getting an interview start increasing as soon as you meet 30% of requirements</strong>.
Book — The Learning Scientists
Quick summaries of key points from each chapter in a book on learning science and effective strategies (spacing, elaboration, concrete examples, visuals, and retrieval practice). I wish the graphics were easier to read though. Medium blue italicized serif text on a lighter blue background isn't enough contrast. I don't think low contrast counts as desirable difficulty, just bad accessibility.
Learning Technology Mystery Series Presents “The Case of the Disengaged Learner” with Cara North - The Training, Learning, and Development Community
Cara North's recorded presentation on engagement in learning. Engagement can be cognitive, behavioral, or emotional. Additional resources at go.osu.edu/disengaged
RightMessage | The Beginner's Guide To Segmenting Your Email List
How to segment email lists (what segments to use and how to gather the info)
The Mindset Controversy: Carol Dweck Speaks... |Education & Teacher Conferences
A summary of Dweck's response to recent unsuccessful research on growth mindset. It's probably less important to teach the concept of mindset than to adjust methods of teaching and providing feedback.
<p>Dweck emphasizes that mindset interventions should not be one-time events.</p>
<p>Anything that happens just once — “a chart at the front of the room, a lecture where you define the two mindsets” — isn’t likely to work.</p>
<p>Instead, we should focus on “the policies and practices in the classroom. <em>It is not about teaching the concept alone</em>, it is much more about implementing practices that focus on growth and learning.” [emphasis added]
</p>