{"id":774,"date":"2020-04-08T12:53:23","date_gmt":"2020-04-08T03:23:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/cilt\/?p=774"},"modified":"2023-06-27T14:08:59","modified_gmt":"2023-06-27T04:38:59","slug":"can-i-design-higher-order-online-learning-activities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/cilt\/2020\/04\/08\/can-i-design-higher-order-online-learning-activities\/","title":{"rendered":"Can I design higher order online learning activities?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Along with rethinking assessment in online teaching, you are hopefully also thinking about your students\u2019 learning activities and what their learning experience is like. The Flinders Learning and Teaching Principles<\/a> underpin all our teaching, with student experience<\/em> at the centre. In the face-to-face classroom we use a multitude of very creative learning activities but some won\u2019t translate well to the online environment or require access to specific technology to be successful (e.g. small group discussions require technology such as Collaborate to be used).<\/p>\n

Facilitating a good student experience can be challenging in a teaching environment we may not be all that comfortable in.<\/p>\n

Digital technologies offer many opportunities to design creative, meaningful and authentic learning experiences for students.\u00a0 The article on creative online assessment<\/a> explores a variety of ways to include meaningful digital assessment and many of those ideas can be used simply as ungraded learning activities or formative (ungraded) assessments.<\/p>\n

So how do you make online learning activities meaningful and authentic?<\/p>\n

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  1. Revisit the learning outcomes for your topic
    \n<\/strong>What do the students need to be able to do on completion? Look at the in-class activities and assess which of them will easily translate to the online space and remain effective. You may already have a few online activities making this task simpler. Then consider what other activities the students may have to participate in to achieve these learning outcomes.<\/li>\n
  2. Look at your assessment
    \n<\/strong>This should be aligned with the learning outcomes and any changes to assessment should already be made. But have you considered what learning activities are needed to scaffold<\/em> the students toward the assessments (and thus achievement of the learning outcomes)? What steps are needed to support the students toward successful completion of their assessments?<\/li>\n
  3. Review Blooms\u2019 taxonomy
    \n<\/strong>Bloom\u2019s taxonomy is a method of categorising levels of reasoning in learning. Each of the six levels requires an increasingly higher level of abstraction. In higher education, our goal is to move students up the levels from a minimum of \u2018application\u2019.<\/li>\n
  4. Explore the tools available to you in FLO
    \n<\/strong>Consider how you can use these to encourage higher order learning in your students.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The Bloom\u2019s Digital Taxonomy (see infographic) is helpful in translating our learning outcomes into activities compatible with the online environment.<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    Infographic Credit: Ron Carranza<\/em><\/p>\n

    Here are some examples of higher order online learning activities you could adapt for your own students:<\/p>\n

    Creating<\/strong><\/p>\n