The aim of the series is to stimulate readers to teach and learn more effectively, and we will be working through important topics related to teaching and learning in a systematic and practical way. This article sets the scene by examining some …
The Importance of the Course Syllabus. A great way to start the semester is to begin by properly appreciating the role that syllabi play in higher education. The syllabus should be an instrument to get students and faculty starting on the same page for the semester. "The syllabus is a small place to start bringing students and faculty members ...
Jun 30, 2017 · Learning is essential to our existence. Just like food nourishes our bodies, information and continued learning nourishes our minds. Lifelong learning is an indispensable tool for every career and ...
Signaling, which is also known as cueing (deKoning et al., 2009), is the use of on-screen text or symbols to highlight important information.For example, signaling may be provided by the appearance of two or three key words (Mayer and Johnson, 2008; Ibrahim et al., 2012), a change in color or contrast (deKoning et al., 2009), or a symbol that draws attention to a region of a …
The syllabus is a great place for faculty members to begin helping students appreciate the nature of a given course. As educators, we must not assume that our students explicitly understand why they are taking a given class, how it relates to the college curriculum, or what is meant by the requirements that we carefully outline in our syllabus.
A great discovery that I made early in college was that the course syllabus was like a roadmap with directions for succeeding in the class. Try to think of the syllabi as maps that give you directions to arrive at the end of the semester successfully. Here are a few tips to navigate your semester using the syllabus.
Continues learning is your self-motivated persistence in acquiring knowledge and competencies in order to expand your skill set and develop future opportunities. It forms part of your personal and professional development in an effort to avoid stagnation and reach your full potential.
Continuous learning isn’t just about you. Lifelong learning helps develop your leadership skills which then translates into fostering lifelong learning in other individuals, by encouraging them to pursue further education.
Lifelong learning will help you adapt to unexpected changes, for example, losing your job and having to depend on new skills to find work. By continuing to learn, you’ll more easily step out of your comfort zone and take on new job opportunities.
1. Remain relevant. Don’t be left behind. Ensure you remain relevant to your industry by keeping up to date with trends and adapting your skill set. To function effectively amongst this rapidly changing world of technology, you need to learn new things to remain valuable. 2.
Learning new things gives us a feeling of accomplishment, which in turn boosts our confidence in our own capabilities. Also, you’ll feel more ready to take on challenges and explore new business ventures.
When you’re always learning, you’ll keep improving and grow in your career and start to receive recommendations from colleagues and managers. The chances are that you’ll switch jobs multiple times throughout your life and you need to learn new skills to adapt accordingly.
Continuous learning opens your mind and changes your attitude by building on what you already know. The more you learn, the better you’ll get at seeing more sides of the same situation, helping you understand more deeply.
The second component of any learning experience is germane load, which is the level of cognitive activity necessary to reach the desired learning outcome—for example, to make the comparisons, do the analysis, and elucidate the steps necessary to master the lesson.
The cognitive theory of multimedia learning builds on the cognitive load theory, noting that working memory has two channels for information acquisition and processing: a visual/pictorial channel and an auditory/verbal-processing channel (Mayer, 2001; Mayer and Moreno, 2003).
Video may provide a significant means to improve student learning and enhance student engagement in biology courses (Allen and Smith, 2012; Kay, 2012; Lloyd and Robertson, 2012; Rackaway, 2012; Hsin and Cigas, 2013; Stockwell et al., 2015). To maximize the benefit from educational videos, however, it is important to keep in mind the three key components of cognitive load, elements that impact engagement, and elements that promote active learning. Luckily, consideration of these elements converges on a few recommendations: 1 Keep videos brief and targeted on learning goals. 2 Use audio and visual elements to convey appropriate parts of an explanation; consider how to make these elements complementary rather than redundant. 3 Use signaling to highlight important ideas or concepts. 4 Use a conversational, enthusiastic style to enhance engagement. 5 Embed videos in a context of active learning by using guiding questions, interactive elements, or associated homework assignments.
The first of these is intrinsic load, which is inherent to the subject under study and is determined in part by the degrees of connectivity within the subject.
Guiding questions may serve as an implicit means to share learning objectives with students, thus increasing the germane load of the learning task and reducing the extraneous load by focusing student attention on important elements.
It is integrated as part of traditional courses, serves as a cornerstone of many blended courses, and is often the main information-delivery mechanism in online courses.
Learning objectives communicate specifically what students should be able to do.
Articulating learning objectives helps instructors select and organize course content, and determine the types of assessments and learning activities to build for a course.
When we talk to faculty, we always remind them that learning objectives should use learner-centered language, and be both specific and measurable. Define objectives in simple, clear language, and avoid jargon or references to advanced topics beyond the scope of the course.