In my efforts on developing the course I’m working on, I took the concept of the ABC Learning Design workshop back to my department. Together with my colleagues, I tested the concept of mapping the course activities and the integrated learning activities. We agreed that the method is great for visualizing the elements of the course and highlighting needs for alterations.
When marking the activities as grading or not it was clear that we could include more formative feedback elements involving peer review. We, the teachers, agreed that we are reviewing a “lagom” amount of activities. However, there are room for more peer reviewing and peer learning. The students in this advanced course have a lot knowledge to bring to the table, and it became clear that this possibility could be facilitated more effectively. Boud and Falchikov (2006) suggest that assessment activities can, rightly used, contribute to future learning. If we can help the students to become “assessors”, it potentially promotes lifelong learning. The literature show that providing feedback can be beneficial for the provider. In the process the provider is learning e.g. to improve skills of analysis and evaluation. Additionally, providing peer feedback can enable students to become more independent and make them regulate their own learning (van Popta et al., 2017)
While reviewing the course it also became clear that the alignment of the assignments could improve. We decided to alter the first assignment to better connect with the later. By doing so, the later assignments are picking up the thread, and pointing back to the beginning of the course, therefore improving alignment.
The Rethink:Kau work shop got me on the track of integrating a greater variation of pedagogical methods used in the courses. As individuals learn in different ways (Willingham et al., 2015), a more diverse palette of learning activities will likely target more learning styles, facilitating learning for a wider range of learning styles. For me, not working with digitalization, the workshop was an eye opener on the technical possibilities that are out there.
BOUD, D. & FALCHIKOV, N. 2006. Aligning assessment with long‐term learning. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 31, 399-413.
VAN POPTA, E., KRAL, M., CAMP, G., MARTENS, R. L. & SIMONS, P. R. J. 2017. Exploring the value of peer feedback in online learning for the provider. Educational Research Review, 20, 24-34.
WILLINGHAM, D. T., HUGHES, E. M. & DOBOLYI, D. G. 2015. The Scientific Status of Learning Styles Theories. Teaching of Psychology, 42, 266-271.