Learning Approaches & Authentic Assessment

Learning Scenario: Project Based Learning (Genareo and Lyons 2015)

As a final project students enrolled in an online course on branding and identity design are tasked with creating an identity and collateral package for a fictitious restaurant. They are given background information on the owners, an actual address of where the restaurant will be located, and instructed to conduct additional research. All the tasks are rooted in real world expectations and are completed in sequence, allowing the student to justify their final visual designs.  This final project is spread across several lessons and exercises where students submit their work and research for feedback and grading.

Authentic Formative Assessment

Each exercise requires the student to submit their research and current stage of visual design for review to the instructor. The instructor takes this opportunity to asses the quality of the student’s research and it’s real world application, as well as their visual concepts and executions. The instructor can then provide constructive feedback and links to examples to the student on what they did well and areas where they can improve, both their research and visual concepts/executions. Each exercise is graded but students are allowed to resubmit, applying the feedback and instruction they received. Since student’s work is unique the instructor tailor and adjust expectations to meet the student’s needs for success (Miller 2020).

Connections to other learning theories.

Several learning theories overlap in this scenario which enhances it’s success rate in teaching. The course’s online nature, real world application of topics and concepts, and the need for the student to be responsible for their own learning, put into the principles of andragogy (C Pappas 2013). The additional presence of an instructor who provides tailored feedback at an individual level connects to constructivism and Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development (McLeod, 2019).  Furthermore the instructor’s use of linked examples/tutorials apply elements of connectivism in allowing the student to construct a network (AlDadouh, A. A., Osório, A. J., & Portugal, S. C. 2015) that they could utilize in real world scenarios.

References

Smith, M. K. (1996; 1999, 2010) ‘Andragogy’, the encyclopedia of informal education.
https://infed.org/mobi/andragogy-what-is-it-and-does-it-help-thinking-about-adult-learning
Retrieved: June 07, 2020

McLeod (2019) The Zone of Proximal Development and Scaffolding
https://www.simplypsychology.org/Zone-of-Proximal-Development.html
Retrieved: June 07, 2020

Christopher Pappas (May 9, 2013) The Adult Learning Theory – Andragogy – of Malcolm Knowles
https://elearningindustry.com/the-adult-learning-theory-andragogy-of-malcolm-knowles
Retrieved: June 07, 2020

Vincent R. Genareo PhD and Renee Lyons November 30, 2015  Problem-Based Learning: Six Steps to Design, Implement, and Assess
https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/course-design-ideas/problem-based-learning-six-steps-to-design-implement-and-assess/
Retrieved: June 07, 2020

Andrew Miller April 7 2020 Formative Assessment in Distance Learning
https://www.edutopia.org/article/formative-assessment-distance-learning
Retrieved: June 07, 2020

AlDadouh, A. A., Osório, A. J., & Portugal, S. C. (2015). Understanding knowledge network, learning and connectivism. International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning,12(10), 3-21. Retrieved June 07, 2020, from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED572896.pdf