| Systems Approach to Designing Online
Learning Activities Steps 5–7: How
will technology help achieve the learning outcomes you desire?
| Step 5: Selecting
Appropriate Teaching Strategies |
- Review all appropriate instructional strategies.
- Base chosen strategies on learning objectives and appropriate cognitive and intellectual
levels.
- Where possible, link all learning objectives to prior learning and experiences.
- Construct handouts and brief lecture material to help students contextualize readings
and activities. Use checklists where possible.
- Maximize student involvement through collaborative as well as individual activities.
- Develop questions in advance and match them to the cognitive level of learning
objectives for which they are intended to provide practice.
- Ask students to develop questions for discussion.
- When you use small group projects, consider peer-review criteria for each student's
contribution to the group in addition to a group grade alone.
- Change your teaching strategies from lesson to lesson to keep students interested in the
interactions.
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| Step 6: Constructing
and/or Selecting Student Involvement Activities |
- Create or select exercises and activities that enable the student's
practice for specific learning performance objectives.
- Guide practice for each new skill through exercises, personal comments, and peer
reviewing.
- Respect the diversity of talents and learning styles of the students.
- Stress cooperation, mutual respect, and mutual support.
- When you use a small group activity, explain why it is used, why it is important, how to
work in small groups, and the variety of roles that students play in the group.
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| Step 7: Selecting the
Appropriate Media for the Learning Activity |
- Select the learning objectives and the teaching/learning strategies for
your activity.
- Determine the sequence of activities or experiences you wish your students to have or
prepare your materials so that students can choose their own sequence.
- Review the available media to match your teaching strategy and the desired activities.
- Identify the media attributes needed by the instructional objectives or learning
activities.
- Identify the student characteristics that suggest or preclude certain media.
- Identify characteristics of the learning environment that suggest or preclude certain
media.
- Select appropriate media for presenting lessons and lectures and for students to
participate in the learning activity or experience.
- To determine what technologies might work for your class, decide what kinds of
interaction and activity you have in mind for the class to achieve your learning
objectives. The following questions should be considered:
- Is synchronous interaction between instructor and student required to achieve the task?
- Is asynchronous interaction between instructor and student required to achieve the task?
- Does the instructor need to observe the student performing an action?
- Is the course based primarily on print-based materials?
- Does the material change frequently?
- Is special equipment or material required to teach the task?
- Can the task be learned in a way other than direct performance of it?
- Do students need extensive interaction with one another?
- Do students need to collaborate with one another to produce something to perform the
task?
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This project is a joint initiative of the Center for the Virtual University and the Center for Teaching and Learning
at UMUC.
© 1996-2005 University of Maryland University College
3501 University Blvd. East
Adelphi, Maryland 20783 USA
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