Online Learning on Brightspace With the recent changes of the pandemic impacting everyone’s life...
Online Learning on Brightspace
With the recent changes of the pandemic impacting everyone’s life with the advance in technology, online learning has become the best solution to get individuals learning content. Brightspace has incredible features that make the learning experience personalized and aims to increase engagement for diverse learners (K-12, higher education or corporate).
What theory supports online learning on Brightspace?
Learner-centered education (LCE) is a broad umbrella of learning which includes personalized learning, problem-based learning, inquiry-based learning in which learners are taking ownership of their learning journey. The exact definition of LCE is that it focuses on student learning, where the learner decides what and how they want to learn content. The goal of the educator or individual responsible for the content is to structure it in such a manner that provides flexibility in the learning process. Theorist Lev Vygotsky described zone of proximal development (ZPD) as a region within learning that the student can achieve when the content is scaffolded (personalized) to make it challenging but still achievable for the student, as shown in the attached figure. Brightspace as an online platform allows this by the unique features: quick assessments, release conditions, interactive assessment tools, badging and much more.
Figure 1: Illustration of the zone of proximal development that is achievable with guidance.
For example:
Within a cooperation/higher ed setting courses need to be designed for learners with diverse needs some of which are: English language learners, have learning disabilities (ex. ADHD, autism, visually impaired etc.). How can the content be made using the LCE approach on Brightspace?
Approach:
Universal design learning (UDL) mentions a few key points to keep in mind to develop content with LCE approach in mind:
- Offer ways of customizing the display of information (audio, visual, written etc.)
- Offer diverse formats of formative and summative assessments (Quiz with matching, true & false, ordering etc. or flashcards to learn more. )
- Incentive system (ex. Awards, Badges and certifications to learn more.)
- Performance monitoring system (ex. Intelligent agent to learn more.)
- Ability to personalize the learning experience (ex. Profile Card )
Check out the UDL Guidelines for more information.
Comments
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The concept of ZPD has been so core to my own thinking about teaching and learning!
I love the way you've connected this theory with very practical discussions of the Brightspace tools that map onto the theory while encouraging the intrinsic motivation that fuels so much of our individual learning pursuits ex.
- seeing yourself incrementally improving through engagement with learning activities
- receiving personalized reminders that help to keep you going,
- and celebrating your achievements with awards.
So grateful for these posts!
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Thanks for getting us thinking about our learning theories, Rabia! Vygotzky's theory of ZPD suggests that learners can activate the skills that they are close to mastering with the help of a skilled partner too. Discussions are a great tool to facilitate peer-peer interaction to take advantage of the skills that others have already developed to meet a specific goal.
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Peer-peer teaching can also be facilitated through discussions . Teaching benefits both the learner (who can learn from someone closer to their knowledge level and experience) and the teaching peer (for whom teaching is a way of cementing, clarifying and self-assessing their own understanding). Additionally, both peer-peer learning and teaching give learners more opportunities to see other's perspectives and contexts promoting more in-depth learning and critical thinking.
