Level Up Learning

Power up student learning! From simple scenarios to emerging technologies, let's level up learning by adding interactive elements and instructor presence to engage students more deeply. We challenge you to join our journey from bricks to clicks to learn more about our process for working with instructors to develop rigorous learning experiences. We will explain how we work with instructors to make content come alive for all students, regardless of time or space.

Level Up Learning Resources

Interactive learning involves engaging students in active participation in the learning process, with the aim of increasing engagement, motivation, and retention. Below you will find image examples of ideas to level up learning using H5P and the Lessons tool in Moodle.

Leadership Adventure

Choice Board

Professional and Ethical Decision-making Scenarios

Jeopardy

Property Sisters

One Hen Vocabulary Practice

The following activities are intended to be used as an aid in retaining important vocabulary for the story entitled, One Hen. Let's have a little fun! You can choose one of the activities below or do both if you wish. 

Flashcards Activity

Read and answer each definition or question before you flip the card over. To progress through this activity, select the blue Turn button to see the answer to the question. To move on to the next card, select either I got it wrong, or I got it right.

Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives

Drag each vocabulary word to its correct part of speech.

Google Form Practice Quiz

Read each definition and choose the vocabulary word that matches it by selecting the circle button (radio button). You may take this practice test as many times as you would like.

Humanizing Your Online Course

Let's take a few minutes and talk about humanizing your online course. ​Online learning environments can sometimes feel like a cookie-cutter experience where students get the "everyone is the same" experience. It may even feel like you are just a number and have no face, but it doesn't have to be like that. There are so many ways to ensure that you create a course that is diverse, equitable, and inclusive for all students. One way to do that is to humanize your course. You want to make sure to connect with your students, have them connect with their peers, and guide them to connect with the course content. Humanizing a course should be intentional and not an afterthought. It should be about building human relationships so that all students feel like they are part of a community of learning.

I wanted to take the time today to share a resource I stumbled across today while continuing my studies of UDL (Universal Design for Learning) and DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion).

In many learning activities, we tend to neglect the human connection. ​In this resource, an understanding of the importance of human relations between the instructor and student is not only explained but examples of how these principles are implemented are also provided. Take a look at the infographic below as well as discover additional ideas on humanizing an online course. 

If you have enjoyed what you have seen so far, you can learn more about how you can humanize your course through the linked website.

Would you like to view a different version of the above infographic? Choose an option below.

• Text version
• Condensed version

This infographic was created by Michelle Pacansky-Brock and is shared with a CC-BY-NC license. 

Your Turn
Comment below and let me know how you humanize your online course.

Learning Experience Designer

Hi everyone! I often get the question, "What do you do for a living?"

My response is one that always gets me the strangest look..."I am a senior learning experience designer."

9 out of 10 times they want to know more! If you have 3 minutes, take a look and learn about what I do each day. #lovewhatyoudo

Workforce Skills Development

As a learning experience designer there are many things that I am passionate about when it comes to designing courses. One of those passions is incorporating workforce skills into course design. I recently started an unofficial pilot with a subject matter expert (SME) to ensure that we were purposeful in developing workforce skills throughout her course. The course that was chosen for this pilot is a construction management course that focuses on strategic planning within the construction industry. I worked with the SME to incorporate opportunities for students to build the skills needed to be successful not only in the course but also in their future career in Construction Management. The opportunities we built, included, or repurposed are videos, interactive activities, and researched information.

The activities and resources provide both workforce hard and soft skills. In terms of hard skills, these are the knowledge and abilities that an employee needs to perform his or her job duties effectively. Soft skills, on the other hand, are the personal qualities that help employees to thrive at work. It was important that we included both hard and soft skills in order to fully grow the students in the course.

Process

The first step in the process was to convince the SME that this would be a great idea. I made sure I did my research and spoke to how this could benefit students in the present and future. I discussed with her that this wouldn't take a whole lot of time as she was already doing many of these things in the course. The idea was to put the skills in front of the students and develop the skills at a higher level. 

The next step we took was to review the course outcomes and module learning objectives. A discussion about her goals for her students and how we can encourage student growth in the areas of workforce skills was our next topic of discussion. We also talked about what workforce skills her students would need to be successful as they complete the activities and assignments in the course. It was noted that many of the activities and assignments had multiple skills, but we thought for cognitive load that sticking to the development of one skill a module would be the best option. A strategic approach was taken to place the workforce skills appropriately in the course. We looked at all components of the course and where the skills would fit best based on the outcomes and objectives of the course.

It was critical that we were transparent with the students about the workforce development skills, so we built the purpose and benefits into the syllabus. We wanted to ensure to provide the research and data behind what we were doing.

As we continued our discussions we wanted to make sure that we presented these skills in a fun and interactive way. It was important that students didn't feel like this was a burden, but yet see the benefit to their future endeavors while having a little fun.

The following short video is an example of how we incorporated one of the workforce skills into a construction management course.

We also thought it was important to include instructional language within each assignment that reminded students that the workforce skill development activities they are completing in each module will help them throughout the course.

In the last module of the course, students are exposed to some of the career opportunities available to them in the construction industry. Each video includes someone who is currently in the field. The videos provide an introduction to the job, loves & challenges, how to prepare for the job, and a few teasers. 

Data Driven Decision Making

Since we are piloting this we wanted to collect data based on the student experience. Below is an example of some of the questions that will be asked to the students. The data we receive will help us in our decision making with course revisions and allow us to reflect and see what is working well and what needs to be improved upon. 

Wrap Up

When we began our discussions, our ultimate goal was for the students to be able to acquire the workforce skills in the moment but also develop the skills, so that they are successful in the workforce. It our responsibility as educators to plant the seed and help it grow.

We are excited to learn about the student experience and to see how developing these skills impact student motivation and academic success. Stay tuned for updates!!