Category Archives: Design

Lesson plan on Experiential Learning: Blended, meta lesson, with happy ending!

I have been trying for a while, to develop a lesson on Kolb’s cycle that helps the participants go further from merely understanding the concept of experiential learning, but be able to actually use it for lesson planning. The last version of this session worked pretty well. Here is a sketch of the online and f2f parts of the lesson:

Online module:

  • Watch a video on EL
  • Think back on a particular learning experience from Day 1. Can you identify the 4 stages of Kolb’s cycle? [RO/AC]
  • Think about a skill you have developed in your personal/professional life. Discuss the following: [AC]
    • Have you gone through all 4 stages over the course of developing that skill?
    • What about in a single class/session? Have you gone through all stages at least once?
    • Do you feel all stages have been equally involved in your learning?

Face-to-face:

  • An overview of the 4 stages
  • Any questions/clarifications?
  • Metacognitive reflection:
    • Think back to the online module. Can you identify different stages of Kolb’s cycle as you experienced them in doing the module as a learner? Hint: one stage is missing! (the meta might need a little clarification depending on the group; could be helpful to walk them through it if they find the idea confusing: ‘you watched a video and answered a few questions. what part worked for you as CE?’ etc.)
    • Ask them to identify which stage is missing (AE)
    • ‘As you mentioned, Active Experimentation stage was missing from the module. Now, what type of activity do you think we could do to enable this stage?’ (facilitate a short, guided large-group discussion). Once they came up with a close enough idea, reveal the LOs: ‘Well, that’s exactly what we are going to do in our session today!’
  • Reveal LOs:
    • Suggest a few simple activities to enable each of the 4 stages of Kolb’s cycle for your learners
    • Re-design your Day 1 mini-lesson based on experiential learning
  • Activity 1: ‘What are some of the activities/tasks we could design for our students to help them go through each stage?’ (Suggestions revealed one by one on the slide. Additional suggestions from the group can be added directly onto PPT. A few examples are as below)
    • CE: Watch, read, do an activity, do an experiment, debate, …
    • RO: Think, reflect, summarize, identify the most important points, identify what did/didn’t work, …
    • AC: Think, discuss, analyze, compare, identify the underlying principle, …
    • AE: Plan next step, suggest improvement, discuss what you would do differently, …
  • Activity 2: Re-design your mini-lesson
    •  Revisit your Day 1 lesson
    • Can you re-design it based on experiential learning? (a handout provided with a simplified planning template and a few suggestions)
    • Share your lesson plan with people from your SG (pairs or groups of 3, depending on the time)
  • Closing: selected LG sharing, questions? (depending on the time)
  • Summary/Post-assessment: 1-minute paper.
    • 1 thing that worked best for you in this session
    • 1 thing we could change to promote experiential learning in this lesson. What stage?

 

For more details about the lesson plan, handout and slides, please e-mail me (rowshan@mail.ubc.ca)

Connecting Day 1 Sessions

In the April (8,15, 16) ISW, we introduced the day 1 theme sessions as a single theme session on Lesson Design (Theory). We created a worksheet that the participants used during the 4 parts of the lesson (LO; Motivation; PL; Assessment). During each part, they were asked a couple of questions on the worksheet that got them to apply the lesson to the design of their first mini-lesson. At the end of all 4 parts they had 10-15 minutes to look at their mini-lesson and make changes to it based on their worksheet.

This worked well on a couple of levels:

  1. It connected the 4 theme sessions we do on day 1 without  the facilitators having to design them together.
  2. And it helped our participants solidify what they were learning by providing them with an opportunity for an immediate application of their learning (on which they also received feedback in the afternoon).

If you are interested to know more, send myself, Mabel or Linda an e-mail or stop by the office:-)

Recording the creative feedback on video

On Day 3, I gave the participants the option to have their creative feedback recorded on video. As they all consented, we basically had self-facilitated feedback cycles at the end of which I might add a question or two to expand on an important topic that had come up either in the feedback cycle, or something that was discussed in our 1-on-1 reflection with the instructors. I copied the feedback video along with their mini lesson and gave it to them at the end of the day.

Using post-it check lists on the doors to keep the facilitators informed of the other small group’s progress

In order to make sure both small groups finish around the same time on the occasions we needed to go back to the large group on a specific time, we used the following simple tool. We posted a half-page check list, like the one shown below, on the door of each room with a marker close at hand. This way, each facilitator could simply check off the stage and min-lesson they had just completed. This proved to be a convenient way of knowing where the other group is at without interrupting them, and adjusting the cycle pace if necessary.

Table

Outdoor mini-lessons and experimenting with time flexibility in mini-lessons

We had a lively participant who decided on delivering outdoor mini-lessons on two occasions. Considering the beautiful day as well as the anticipated effect on boosting group dynamics, I happily went along with the suggestion, taking a flipchart and the camera with me. On the second occasion, which was on Day 3, the outdoor lesson (which was the first lesson of the day), as well as the following two lessons, went notably overtime. As, on the one hand, the instructors were earnestly taking new challenges and pushing their boundaries, and on the other, the learners were highly involved and excited to see their peer’s progress, I decided not to interrupt the lessons. The first three cycles went approximately half an hour overtime. The participants, however, were all cool with having a shortened lunch break, so we started back on time. What really thrilled me was that, following the morning sessions, the participants were so in-tune that we were able to finish each of the remaining cycles within 25-30 minutes, with full participation and exhaustive feedback. We ended up by not only totally making up for the extra time we ‘invested’ in the morning, but even with an extra 30 minutes which were dedicated to a free discussion on some of the interesting topics that had come up in our small group . For me this was a great experience showing that trusting the process and leaning toward well-formed group dynamics can pay off in enriching the feedback content as well as improving the small group timing.

Achieving higher-level LOs within shorter theme sessions (30 minutes or less), through focused use of online modules

In our ISW on June 6, 13 and 14, 2015, we have been able to successfully deliver 30-minute theme sessions while achieving learning objectives on higher Bloom’s level (application, analysis and evaluation). This was made possible by consistently building up the face-to-face sessions based on the activities on the online module.

We provided all the necessary resources and definitions on the online module and asked a few questions to make sure they use the resources and respond on basic Bloom levels. We tried to show our presence on the online module, by checking on the comments and providing encouraging comments and rephrased summaries. In the face-to-face sessions, we built up the activities almost entirely based on the resources provided on the online module, as well as the participants’ responses to the questions. Using this approach, the need to spend time on introducing the concepts in the face-to-face session was minimized, and also, the participants were more motivated and could more easily relate to the activities they were doing.

For example, in the session on Learning Objectives, the definitions and guidelines for preparing LOs were provided online. On the online module, we also asked them to provide a sample LO from their first mini-lesson, and also comment on at least one other participant’s LO. Their participation was really impressive, and we also tried to encourage them by replying to the comments. In the face-to-face session, after a short bridge, we gave each participant a “Learning Objective Evaluation Sheet”, which was basically an anonymous LO from another participant (copied directly from their own online responses). We then divided them into 4 groups and asked them to evaluate the LOs given to them, by giving them a score from 1-10, and also by providing suggestions for improvement. By passing the sheets around within each group, eventually we ended up with their LOs being peer-reviewed by three other participants with specific suggestions for improvement from each reviewer. We asked them to leave the anonymous sheets on a table as they left, so that the author of each LO could have a chance to pick up their sheet and use the suggestions. It was amazing to see that 10 out of 12 participants took their peer-reviewed LOs. The effect of the session was apparent by seeing their LOs on their mini-lessons, which were among the best Day 1 LOs I have ever seen.

The whole session took less than 30 minutes. Using a similar approach for other theme sessions, we were able to have the lunch break between 12 and 12:30, while having at least two mini-lessons before lunch on all of the three days.

Design & Development: The Graduate Certificate Program in Higher Education

Over the past few months, Shaya, Jessica, and I have been working on the Graduate Certificate Program in Higher Education. This is a Teaching Certificate offered by the Centre for Teaching, Learning, and Technology here at the University of British Columbia, intended to support graduate students who want to focus more deeply on developing as instructors. We’ve come a long way on the program since we started, and I’ll be updating on the development and launch periodically here, now that we have this lovely blog. Before that, I thought it might be nice to share a bit of background on the redevelopment of the program, and where we are in the development now.

The story so far…
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