Chunking

Module 2: Chunking is: TBA (use file from computer, 7/9/10)Chunking Assignment: Foundations of Educational Theory for Online Learning
Lesley ECOMP 6201, Module 2

“Chunking refers to the brain’s ability to move information into long term memory if it is organized in recognizable patterns or small sets of information.” – description of chunking as a cognitive technique (from McBride’s course materials)


OUR (EXAMPLE) ASSIGNMENT: Questions by McBride about Ally (2009)

Ally, M (2009). Foundations of educational theory for online learning. In T. Anderson & F. Elloumi (Eds.) Theory and practice of online learning (pp. 3-31). Athabasca: Athabasca University.

Chunk 1: Introduction


1. What does ‘doing it right’ entail?

Ally specifically defines ‘doing it right’ as “mean[ing] that online learning materials must be designed properly, with the learners and learning in focus, and that adequate support must be provided” (p.4). Bonk and Reynolds (1997) maintain that learner-focused educational materials and experiences are central to online learning and “must create challenging activities that enable learners to link new information to old, acquire meaningful knowledge, and use their metacognitive abilities; hence, it is the instructional strategy and not the technology that influences the quality of learning” (p.3).

My summary: Doing [online instruction] right means strategic planning of online learning materials, with built-in flexibility and clear understanding of how students’ learn and one’s own role as facilitator of their learning process.


2. Describe some of the benefits of online learning.

Ally defines online learning as, “the use of the Internet to access learning materials; to interact with the content, instructor, and other learners; and to obtain support during the learning process in order to acquire knowledge, to construct personal meaning, and to grow from the learning process” (p.5).

I have often seen the benefits of online learning advertised in terms of the ability of the student to fit in a course with their complex schedule (avoidance of time restraints) and to access courses and instructors that otherwise would be prohibitively far from their home or workplace (avoidance of spatial restraints). Ally confirms this and cites various benefits for both the student and the instructor.

Student:
a) Access!! (assuming technology is not a barrier) in the form of either synchronous learning possibilities (students still get access to real time interaction with cohort and/or instructor) or asynchronous learning possibilities (students can do work on and around their own schedule and commitments).
b) Context!!—students can directly “contextualize” their learning (i.e. their own space is their laboratory).
Instructor(s): “facilitator”/“tutor”
a) Instructor takes on the role of facilitator/tutor, allowing them to tailor and strengthen the educational experience of each student based on his or her preparedness and current expertise.
b) Access!! to students can be done on and around the instructor’s other commitments and schedule and can take the form of synchronous or asynchronous (see above) tutoring as needed.

Ally does mention the caveat (Rossett 2002) that both students and instructors must have dedicated “commitment and resources” for online learning to be successful.


3. The development of effective online learning materials should be based on what?

Online educators must understand how students learn and take seriously the need to present their materials in the various ways students learn. There are three educational theories that Ally suggests be used to develop course materials. Ally suggests that courses should include activities that tap into each theory (taxonomically, according to Newby (1993)), as follows:

BEHAVIORIST: learning happens in response to external stimuli and causes a measurable (i.e. testable) change in behavior. This approach may best be used to teach “facts” central to the course content (p. 7).

COGNITIVIST: learning is an internal process that can only be measured by looking at the learning process of the individual student (i.e. how they problem-solve or personalize subject matter, rubics to score project-based learning). This approach may best be used to teach “processes and principles” central to the course and how they can be applied to the student’s practical application of the course content (p. 7).

CONSTRUCTIVISM: learning is the processes by which students “interpret information and the world according to their personal reality”—“observation, processing, and interpretation” based on their previous “personal knowledge” (Cooper, 1993 and Wilson, 1997; as cited by Ally on p. 7). Constructivism approaches teaching as the presentation of “strategies” that can be used to teach the “why (higher level thinking that promotes personal meaning and situated and contextual learning)” (p. 7).
situated learning = facilitated learning (p. 5)/contextual learning = ?personal context, other?

COGNIVIST-CONSTRUCTIVIST: Meizrow (1991) melds constructivist and cognitivist thinking to describe ideal learning as “transformative learning”, defined as (p. 223 of his work) “reflectively transforming the beliefs, attitudes, opinions, and emotional reactions that constitute our meaning schemes or transforming our meaning perspectives” (cited p. 18 of Ally).



Chunk 2: Behaviorist and Cognitive School of Learning, Part 1


1. What are the four perspectives for online learning from the Behaviorist perspective?

The behaviorist school of learning looks at testing as the only way to verify the learning process because it looks at it as a black box (to the instructor) and relies on quantitative measures, as follows (p. 8):
a) learners need explicit instructions so they can judge for themselves whether they have successfully completed the requirements of any online assignment;
b) testing (i.e. our online quiz) is the only way to verify the successful completion of a task (this seems most relevant to a fact-collecting assignment);
c) materials should be presented in an easily understood sequence (i.e. “simple to complex, known to unknown, and knowledge to application” (Ally, p. 8);
d) and learners need regular, and constructive, feedback from the course facilitator.


2. How should information be organized to facilitate processing?

To achieve course outcomes, students need to collect and transfer information first into their short-term (working) memory and transfer it to their long-term memory (p. 9, Fig. 1-1). A key to learning facilitation is the strategic presentation of course information. Specifically, “information should be chunked to prevent overload during processing in working memory” (p. 12). It should be clear to student and instructor the organization of each lesson. Ally provides three visual examples of this in on p. 13 as Fig. 1-2 (linearly presented items), 1-3 (mind mapped items, central item with arrows connection concepts), and 1-4 (hierarchically presented concepts, which is similar to mind-mapped items with additional “levels”).

I see how this can be applied to either a behaviorist-style activity or a cognitivist-style activity in that any of these provide a map/flow-chart/check-list of how the student should progress through the activity. An example is this list of questions provided before I process this reading.


3. What are the four implications for online learning from the Cognitivist perspective?

A cognitivist perspective respects learning’s “internal process of memory, thinking, reflection, abstraction, motivation, and meta-cognition” (Ally, p. 8).

IMPLICATION 1: Instructors must respect the sensory experience of their students and think through how they present information. Ally suggests (p. 11):
a) “Important information should be placed in the center of the screen for reading, and learners must be able to read from the left to right.”
b) “Information should be highlighted to focus learners’ attention.” A good example of how to achieve this visually might be a wordle. Another way to achieve this is differences in font or font color.
c) Each lesson should be justified to the learner; as in a lab report, goals should be well defined by the instructor.
d) “The difficulty level of the material must match the cognitive level of the learner, so the learner can attend to and relate to the material”.

IMPLICATION 2: Instructors must use presentation strategies for new information that are easy for students relate new information to their previous knowledge base. For example:
a) Course material, especially new and complex material, should be presented in what Ally calls “an advance organizer” to incorporate all of the lesson’s details in one online space. Examples of this presented in ECOMP 6201 include the wikispaces based site PBworks: wiki tool (http://www.PBworks.com) and the course’s Blackboard site.
b) Models help students recall mental connections and models they have made for themselves previously.
c) Asking well-crafted questions before the lesson starts help students get their thinking caps on and may motivate them to complete the lesson with additional resources.
d) Prerequisite test questions, like those provided in this assignment, help students with diverse backgrounds get properly prepared for the lesson’s new information.

IMPLICATION 3: Instructors should “chunk” material for students (or maybe ask them to do it in an assignment, like I am doing now, or create visual mind-maps or other diagrams of the information) to help them effectively process new information. Ally refers to this process of “chunking” as a way to facilitate “deep processing” of presented information. Specifically, Ally suggests, “online learning materials should present between five and nine items on a screen to facilitate efficient processing in working memory” (p. 12).

IMPLICATION 4: Course assignments should ask students to “apply the information in real life … to contextualize the learning and to facilitate deep processing” (p. 12).

Chunk 3: Cognitive School of Learning, Part 2


1. What is the difference between field-independent and field-dependent cognitive styles?

Field-independent and field-dependent cognitive styles are two different approaches to problem solving relevant to the social aspect of online learning. Field refers in this case to the field of colleagues, specifically the instructor and other cohort members. F-independent students are more analytical, less influenced by cohort social dynamics, and often self-motivated. F-dependent students often need more reinforcement to maintain self-motivation and are inclined to think of “events in a more global, less differentiated way” (p. 15). An example of this might be an F-dependent student over-thinking a conversation or requiring additional help (in the form of answered questions) for understanding a lesson or the arch of course.

2. Describe the Keller ARCS model for motivating learners.

The Keller ARCS model, developed by Keller (1983) and Keller & Suzuki (1988), says external motivation of student learning online (external = from the instructor) should address student Attention, Relevance, Confidence, and Satisfaction. Instructors cannot rely on the internal motivation of students and must address these four components in their lesson design.

a) “ATTENTION: Capture the learners’ attention at the start of the lesson and maintain it throughout the lesson” (p. 16).
b) REVELENCE: Remind students of the relevance of each lesson, even within a larger course. Ally suggests that an instructor might “describ[e] how learners will benefit from taking the lesson, and how they can use what they learn in real-life situations” (p. 12). In other words, the structure of the activity itself can be a motivating factor (see implication 4 of cognivitist perspective, this outline).
c) “CONFIDENCE: Use strategies such as designing for success and informing learners of the lesson expectations” (p. 16). Specifics include organizing material in such a way as to make it easier to remember [i.e. “sequencing from simple to complex or known to unknown” or suggesting that the lesson could be completed with one of several strategies (p. 16)].
d) “SATISFACTION: Provide (on-going) feedback on performance and allow learners to apply what they learn in real-life situations” (p. 16).

I see this as the online equivalent of “classroom management” and a way of reminding oneself, as an instructor, to address the “implications” of the cognitivist perspective as a way to manage the online learning environment and ensure quality of experience.




3. What are some strategies to enhance meta-cognition?

“Meta-cognition,” as defined by Ally, “is a learner’s ability to be aware of his or her cognitive capabilities and use these capabilities to learn” (p. 17). Ally suggests that lessons should include “opportunit[ies] to reflect on what they are learning, collaborate with other learners (i.e. message boards, projects), and check their progress (i.e. self-assessment or quiz-based assessment)”. Basically, providing feedback opportunities before the end of each lesson enhances meta-cognition.




Chunk 4: Constructivist School of Learning


1. Describe how learning takes place from the Constructivist perspective.

From the constructivist perspective, learning is an active process whereby students “create (their) knowledge” by interpreting and processing what they perceive within the context of the course. This is a learner-centered model and is where the instructor as facilitator idea is strongest.

2. Why should learning be interactive?

Learning should be interactive because learning is an active process. The constructivist perspective suggests “learners should construct their own knowledge rather than accepting that given by the instructor. Knowledge construction is facilitated by good interactive online instruction” (p. 19). Further, Ally suggests that in online instruction, the context and personalization of material shouldn’t come from the instructor (as in a traditional lecture course), but from the students interacting with the material.

3. According to the levels of interaction in online learning, what are the three types of Learner-support interaction?

Ally describes the levels of interaction in online learning visually on p. 21. Once learners have accessed the information (learner-interface interaction), processed the information (learner-context interaction) with encouragement “to apply, assess, analyze, synthesize, evaluate, and reflect” on the content, they will need support in the learning process. This takes the form of the three types of learner-support interaction: “learner-learner” (i.e. collaborative learning through chat room postings and response postings), “learner-instructor” (i.e. comments and discussions with instructor), and “learner-expert” (i.e. interview assignments or learner accessing further information).



Note: GREAT summary diagram on pg. 25!! (discusses learner preparation, learner activities, learner interaction, and learner transfer).