IMIH.OpenLearning

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How to develop open How to develop open learning materialslearning materials

By Bart CornilleBy Bart Cornille

HOW TO DEVELOP OPEN LEARNING HOW TO DEVELOP OPEN LEARNING MATERIALSMATERIALS

Aims of the Workshop•To describe the concept of open learning and the implications on course design

•To explain how to plan self-instructional guides

•To provide practice in how we can humanize our printed materials

Objectives of the Workshop•Define the concept of open learning

•Describe who our future users/readers will be

•Demonstrate the writing of objectives

•Decide on the content and on how to sequence it

•Explain the media that will be used

•Demonstrate methods of assessment

•Give examples of open learning materials

Defining open learning

Open learning is a state of mind; Open learning is a way of enabling adults to take responsibility for their own learning…

Roger LewisOpen learning is when decisions about learning are taken by the learner. These decisions may be over a number of different aspects of the learning process, including:

Whether or not to learnWhat to learn (selection of content/skills)How to learn (methods, media, routes)Where to learn (the place of learning)When to learn (start and finish, pace)Who to turn to for help (tutors? Trainers? Friends? Colleagues?)How to get learning assessed (and the nature of feedback provided)What to do next (other courses? Career direction?) (1989a:90-91)

There are at least seven major questions we need to ask in planning a self-instructional course:

1. Who will be the learners?

2. What are the aims and objectives?

3. What will be the subject-content?

4. How will the content be sequenced?

5. What teaching methods and media will be used?

6. How will learners be assessed?

7. How will the course be evaluated with a view to improvement?

Writing Objectives

Writing objectives is meant to help you plan your teaching.

In writing objectives we are trying to indicate what successful learners should be able to do (or say) to demonstrate that they have learned. So it is better to avoid introducing objectives with words like those on the left below. Instead, begin an objective with a verb like those on the right below:

AVOID words like: USE words like:

Know… State…

Understand… Describe…

Really know… Explain…

Really understand… List…

Be familiar with… Evaluate…

Become acquainted with… Pick out…

Have a good grasp of… Distinguish between…

Appreciate… Analyze…

Be interested in… Summarize…

Acquire a feeling for… Show diagrammatically

Be aware of… Compare…

Believe… Apply…

Have information about… Assess…

Realize the significance of… Suggest reasons why…

Learn the basics of… Give examples of…

Believe in… Demonstrate…

Once you know your objectives for the manual as a whole, you will need to know how they relate to the objectives for individual chapters. Readers will be expected to achieve some objectives as a result of a particular lesson, others will be expected to get better and better at, chapter by chapter.

So, objectives can be arrived at by asking:

Which of the objectives will be fully attained during this lesson? And

Which of the objectives (or which aspects of which) will readers improve their ability in during the lesson?

Deciding on content

• Help the readers find their way into and around your subject, by passing or repeating sections where appropriate.

• Tell them what they need to be able to do before tackling the material.

• Make clear what they should be able to do on completion of the material, e.g. in terms of objectives.

• Advise them on how to tackle the work, e.g. how much time to allow for different sections, how to plan for an assignment, etc.

Writing a self-instructional lesson

• Explain the subject matter in such a way that users can relate it to what they know already.

• Encourage them sufficiently to make whatever effort is needed in coming to grips with the subject.

• Engage them in exercises and activities that cause them to work with the subject-matter, rather than merely reading about it.

• Give the readers feedback on these exercises and activities, enabling them to judge for themselves whether they are learning successfully.

• Help them to sum up and perhaps reflect on their learning at the end of the lesson.

In the list below, I have grouped these access devices according to whether you would insert them before, during, or after the main body of your lesson:

• Explanatory title

An obvious point, but one that’s often neglected – give your lesson a title that tells the reader what it’s about.

• Contents list

Present the learner with a list of the main topics in your lesson, arranged in order of occurrence.

• Concept map

A concept map or flow diagram can show up the inter-connections between topics.

• List of objectives

Readers can find it helpful to be told what they might expect to be able to do as a result of reading the lesson.

• Pre-test

Tell your learners what skills or knowledge you expect them to have before they can benefit from your lesson.

Before

Introduction/overview

An introduction can be very helpful, even if it takes only a paragraph or two. It can fulfill any combination of the following:

1. Providing an overview of what is to come.

2. Whetting the readers’ appetites and convincing them that the lesson is worth spending time on.

3. Dispelling any false expectations as to what the lesson might be about.

4. Forging links between what readers know already and what you are expecting them to learn.

5. Pointing out links with other lessons (or courses).

6. Giving guidance on how to learn from the lesson.

During

Links with other topics

Links with other topics may have been pointed out in your introduction, but they may be worth mentioning later as well.

Headings

Headings should help learners to:

1. Find the parts of the text they wish to read.

2. Recognize where one topic ends and the next begins

3. Appreciate which topics are grouped together as aspects of some larger topic.

4. Estimate which topics the author considers more important and which less.

Numbering systems

Some writers number the sections and paragraphs within their lessons. Hence they can be cumbersome, and difficult to keep logical.

Instructions

Keep your learners informed as to what they are supposed to be doing. If you want them to think up examples of their own or relate a point to their working lives, say so. If you want your readers to memorize something or write it down in their notebooks, tell them so.

Verbal signpostsTry to keep your readers informed as to what you

are doing. As you write, you should be able to help your readers with “verbal signposts” like these:

1. “On the other hand…”

2. “In much the same way…”

3. “Another example…”

4. “But that’s not the only way…”

5. “Now we come to an aspect that may surprise you…”

6. “Let us turn aside for a moment to examine…”

7. Now we come to the really tough part of the argument…”

8. What this all adds up to is…”

9. But this no longer holds true when we look at…”

Visual Signposts

You will further help your reader if you can use visual as well as verbal signposting. Where possible, let the structure of your teaching be apparent at a glance.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

ADDITIONAL READINGS

STUDY TIME AND ACTIVITIES

REFLECTIVE/WRITTEN/READING ACTIVITIES

Glossary

At the end of some lessons you may need a glossary. This should contain working definitions of all the new concepts that have been introduced. These will normally be definitions that refresh your readers’ minds about what they have learned.

Post-test

This would consist of one or more exercises that learners should be able to carry out successfully after having worked through the lesson.

Index

The index should consist of the key words that readers are likely to look up.

After

Imagine how you might operate as a tutor or a coach, working with just one learner.

You might simply check that the learner understood what you had been getting at.

You might ask the learner to suggest examples for his or her own experience.

You might get the learner to apply the ideas being discussed to a new situation or example.

You might invite the learner to carry out a practical task involving the new ideas. And so on.

Some writers of self-instruction distinguish between what they call:

SAQ (Self-assessment questions)

Which may appear, perhaps several together, testing major objectives, at the end of perhaps an hour or so’s reading; and

ITQs (In-text questions)

This may be used at frequent intervals in the text between SAQs, generating the running dialogue between author and reader.