Learner Experience Design (Readings)
These are notes/salient points I drew from the assigned readings for the class I’m taking with Stacie called Learner Experience Design. We’ll be going through a series of books that looks at learning through the scope of design, cognitive psychology and human behaviours.
1.23 | Ambrose & Dirksen Readings
The first chapter of the Dirksen readings outlined the diagnosis of problems, figuring out situations in which learning didn’t work, and dissecting scenarios to figure out why. Dirksen outlines five types of “gaps” that hinder learners from progressing — knowledge gap, skill gap, motivation gap, environment gap, and communication gap. I found it very interesting to see her analyze the gaps in such a manner because it really reminds me of the way we talked about children immigrating and learning a new culture in another country (I am an example of this myself). Knowledge was based upon the general education we received in ESL, the skills meaning more practice in reading, writing, listening and speaking with our classmates (which could be very fear inducing), our desire to learn (and in many cases, be socially accepted), be immersed in an environment in which we are compelled to learn a different language and whether we were able to understand the methods in which we were being taught and the overarching goals of why we were put in that scenario and what we were expected to accomplish.
“Learning results from what the student does and thinks and only from what the student does and thinks. The teacher can only advance learning by influencing what the student does to learn.”
— Herbert Simon
1.29 | Dirksen Chapters 2+3
Dirksen chapters two and three discuss the involved learners and goals in depth. Chapter two specifically reveals the different types of learners one may possibly encounter — some with more experience, some more driven, some that are fearful of change/making mistakes, and all with more or less different intentions. It’s important to try guiding learners in a way that enables them to feel like they’re intrinsically learning (even if it started off with being extrinsic learning), so that they can integrate the knowledge and retain it, as well as understand how to apply the knowledge to other problem prompts. It’s in fact important not to make assumptions about applying previous knowledge but still try to gage how much they already know.
Chapter 3 addresses the goals that we have in mind, which could shift the way that learning should take place. Fundamentally, it’s also important to be aware of what the final destination is, and the steps that are necessary to get there.
2.6 | Dirksen Chapter 4 & Ambrose Chapter 2
2.14 |Dirksen Chapter 5 & Ambrose Chapter 4
