I.D.E.A.S June Digest

Every month, we aim to post an I.D.E.A.S digest to share some of the resources, tips, tricks, and tools that our team has come across over the past month. I.D.E.A.S. is an acronym for Instructional Design Educational Activities Summary. Below are some reflections/resources from our team of instructional designers that might be helpful in your course design.

Instructional Designer 1

I learned that in the new Learner Experience in Brightspace, learners can navigate as they wish. This is really useful, for example, for a course where learners look at different topics to practice key skills, but it doesn't matter which order they are completed in.

Instructional Designer 2

Higher-ed students (and likely learners in other settings, such as corporate and K-12) feel that proctoring is an invasion of their privacy (online, the proctor accesses their screen and webcam). Online proctoring has been called “more invasive than face-to-face proctoring”, which means higher-ed students find in-person proctoring invasive as well. Cheating is up, but test anxiety is high due to practices such as proctoring.

What can we do to reduce cheating? One method I've liked to recommend recently is, where possible, ditching multiple-choice exams and replacing them with written response questions that encourage the learner to record an audio or video response.

Instructional Designer 3

If you want to stick with auto-graded quizzes as a form of assessment, there's a lot of value in open-book tests and exams to limit cheating. Plus, they are a more authentic and meaningful assessment, and they promote higher-order thinking (compared to traditional exams). See the article Traditional Versus Open-Book Exams in Remote Course Delivery: a Narrative Review of the Literature to learn more.

Instructional Designer 4

I recently attended a conference presentation about removing bias from your learning experiences, led by Robin B. Charles and Terence Morley from NBCUniversal. This presentation discussed the three most common forms of bias in learning experience design: similarity, expedience, and distance. Here are a few key takeaways from this presentation:

• People may make associations based on previous experiences and knowledge. Making fairer design decisions starts by becoming aware of the biases that could impact the learning and implementing strategies to mitigate the impact of biases.

• Similarity bias can be mitigated in learning experiences by:

1. Noting the similarities you have with your collaborators and ensuring you are all aware of this.
2. Considering the unique perspectives of other stakeholders and how they can be brought into the design process.
3. Reflecting on the learning styles and preferences you favour and how it may impact the way you design and facilitate courses.

•   Expedience bias can be mitigated in learning experiences by:

1.  Completing pilot studies with a sample group that is representative of your target audience. The data collected from these efforts can help you revise your design and approach.
2. Prioritizing taking time to review all data collected.

•   Distance bias can be mitigated in learning experiences by:

1. Ensuring that learners in close physical proximity to the facilitator and learners that are more physically distant (i.e., learning virtually) are all given opportunities for quality engagement. 
2. Focusing on both short-term and long-term learner needs.