Please note: The DLL course goals and program map must be read from the bottom starting from EDLD 5302, & 5303 then moving onto 5305 and so on. The large red text points to the main plan, strategy, or publication that you will have created upon completion of the course.
CSLE+COVA Capstone
EDLD 5320
Learners will synthesize their knowledge, skills, beliefs, and values gained through their digital learning and leadership experiences and present a comprehensive plan on how they developed into digital learners and leaders that can identify and promote innovation, create significant digital learning environments, and lead organizational change.
EDLD 5318
Learners will apply constructivist learning theories and instructional design principles in the development and delivery of an online course utilizing significant learning environments through selected course management tools.
EDLD 5388/5389
Learners will effectively apply an innovative teaching practice by collaborating with colleagues to evaluate their impact on learners and design and model authentic professional learning (PL) activities that are active, have a significant duration, and are specific to their discipline.
EDLD 5316
Learners will be able to navigate the emerging educational and legal challenges of a knowledge society where most K-12 students are deeply immersed in online communication, having grown up as “digital natives.”
EDLD 5317
Learners will examine a variety of digital environments and other digital resources to effectively communicate with others the practical implementation and the pedagogical value for educational use.
EDLD 5314
Learners will analyze and assess global educational technology innovation projects to determine what worked and what could be done better and apply those lessons learned to local innovation projects.
EDLD 5315
Learners will be able to assess the instructional impact the implementation of their innovation plans have on creating effective digital learning environments.
EDLD 5304
Learners will be equipped with tools to be a self-differentiated leader who can address the inevitable resistance to change that will occur when launching innovative digital learning initiatives.
EDLD 5305
Learners will identify technology innovations and embrace them as opportunities rather than challenges and proactively use those changes as catalysts to enhance their institution or district’s learning environments.
EDLD 5302
Learners will take ownership and agency over the learning process and incorporate learner choice and voice in designing authentic projects that use technology innovations as a catalyst for change in their organizational setting.
EDLD 5303
Learners will prepare and submit an ePortfolio that demonstrates their mastery of the learning outcomes for previously completed professional development work.
Checklists, progress bars, completion status checks, competency or activity focused rubrics and other related tools or methods that help a student to check a completed activity off a list may be useful in competency-based education but these activity monitors do not have a place or role in outcome-based education. They are simply not needed in outcome-based education because the focus of the learning environment and experience is not on completing an activity, rather, the focus is on the outcome which drives the context of learning. I do have to qualify that for outcomes-based education to be truly effective the use of authentic or “real world” learning opportunities are required to create the context for the learning outcome. If the learner is working toward a real-world solution, building or creating an authentic or real-world project, or even researching, analyzing, and synthesizing a plan for a real project, the context of these authentic opportunities drives the learning and the work. Working on authentic projects requires that the learner goes much deeper than simply checking an activity off a list. The trial and error and failing forward that is part of this process does not lend itself to checklists.
In the following video, we explain the difference between competency-based education and outcome-based education. It is important to note that one isn’t necessarily better than the other. They play different roles in the educational process and are used in different contexts and for different purposes. If you are measuring skills, abilities, information transfer, or a variety of other variables through a test, quiz, or even a traditional report or basic essay then you are doing competency-based education. Unfortunately, our educational system misuses the term “outcome” to refer to goals and objects which are central to competency-based education.
As you will have surmised from the video much of our educational system or what we focus on in education is competency-based. It is easy to measure, easy to check off the list, and easy to standardize. In contrast, because real-world problems and projects can be difficult to measure and are difficult to standardize, outcome-based instruction is all too often relegated to special programs, graduate programs, or elite institutions. Outcome-based education has been advocated by the likes of Dewey, Piaget, Brunner, Papert, and many other constructivists and cognitivist learning theorists. The educational historian David Labaree argues that we use the rhetoric of Dewey when we talk about deeper learning, critical and analytical thinking but we have the reality of Thorndyke who is the founder of our behaviorist and competency-based information transfer model of education which is still used today. Because there is an underlying desire to use real-world projects and many of our institutions frame their instruction toward job readiness there is a misconception that they are engaged in outcomes-based education.
This is especially the case in the trades and most other “hands-on”, or job readiness or credentialing programs. The students are being prepared to work in an office, dental clinic, a laboratory, a clinic, the construction site, and the “real world” work for which they need to be prepared, is viewed as the outcome; hence the misconception of outcome-based education. In virtually all of these programs, the “real world” task is broken down into smaller competencies and the student is taught and tested on each of these competencies as they go through their training. Many of these disciplines have a local, regional or federal credentialing exam that the student must pass to be authorized to work in that industry. Where there are no governmental exams there are often associations or other governing bodies formed to ensure standardization who manage the testing and credentialing within the industry.
I stated earlier that competency-based education has its place and we have a system of education that has evolved to fit this need. The designing a curriculum (DACUM) approach and the use of goals and objectives are useful instructional design tools that help to guide the process of breaking down larger goals into smaller objectives which can be easily measured. Due to its prevalence, which is attributed more so to the ease of standardization and measurement than pedagogical efficacy, most students have primarily had a competency-based education experience. This is how school works for most people. The outcome-based education all too often is relegated to special projects or special programs or to higher levels of education, but it doesn’t have to be. We can incorporate many of the benefits of outcome-based education even in a predominantly competency-based education culture if we simply change our focus.
By changing our focus we can bring the benefits of outcome-based education to our learning environments. Introductory level courses, test preparation, and credentialing courses, and other standardized focused instruction can be addressed with competency-based education. Higher-level courses within a program or where preparation for real-life, not just the test is the priority, is where outcome-based education and authentic learning opportunities can be implemented. Several words of caution. Preparing students for real-life not just the test takes more work on your part as the instructor and on the student’s part. It also requires that the control of the learning shift from the instructor to the learner. Since most students have had a steady diet of competency-based education in primary and secondary school and for the most part in higher education, many will not be prepared to take control of their own learning. The research is very clear that even though they will do better active and dynamic learning and have significantly higher grades they will not like it (see Harvard Study). In the following video we explore the consequences of this shift in control over the learning.
If you create a significant learning environment that gives your learner choice, ownership, and voice through authentic learning opportunities (CSLE+COVA) you will enable them to go much deeper into learning and help them revitalize their learner’s mindset.
This has been a long explanation for why I don’t use checklists, progress bars, completion status checks, competency or activity focused rubrics and other related tools or methods that help a student to check a completed activity off a list. These tools play a role in competency-based education where you simply have to check a completed skill or activity off a list. Those activity monitoring tools don’t have a place in outcomes-based education because the focus isn’t the incremental skill or activity, it is the bigger project…and what they will do with that project. All the skills and activities that the learner acquires as they go along are theirs and once they own them they become part of their learning process.
My focus is outcome-based learning and my goal is to help prepare my learners for life, not just a test. I am willing to push the boundaries of cognitive dissonance and challenge my students to take control of their learning in ways which before, they may not have done.
References
Bruner, J. S. (1966). Toward a theory of instruction. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Dewey, J. (1916). Democracy and education: An introduction to philosophy of education. New York, NY: Macmillan.
Ginsburg, H., & Opper, S. (1969). Piaget’s theology of intellectual development: An introduction. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Labaree, D. F. (2005). Progressivism, schools, and schools of education: An American romance. Paedagogica Historica, 41(1&2), 275-288. Retrieved from https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ748632
Papert, S. (1993). The children’s machine: Rethinking school in the age of the computer. New York, NY: Basic Books.
Papert, S. (1997). Why school reform is impossible (with commentary on O’Shea’s and Koschmann’s reviews of “The children’s machine”). The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 6(4), 417–427.
Piaget, J. (1964). Development and learning. In R.E. Ripple & V.N. Rockcastle (Eds.), Piaget Rediscovered: A Report on the Conference of Cognitive Studies and Curriculum Development (pp. 7–20). Ithaca, NY: Cornell University.
Whenever two terms are juxtaposed like Feedforward Vs. Feedback the natural tendency is to ask which is better, or which term or related method will give us what effects or lead to what consequences. I am going to argue that we want to move toward feedforward rather than fall back on feedback. Why? Feedforward is the formative process of providing educative (Fink, 2013) or forward-looking perspectives (Goldsmith, 2009 & Hattie, 2009) that one can use to build on or improve. Feedforward points to opportunities and provides pathways for improvement and growth. In contrast, feedback is summative because it is backward-looking at what was wrong. It doesn’t generally provide pathways to improvement. At least in the more traditional way that feedback is applied.
We are recommending a move from feedback to feedforward that will include the following :
Consider the receiver not just the giver of feedback
Equip the receiver with a growth mindset
Build a culture of trust
Adopt a “What worked & What can you do better” approach to feedforward
Create a significant learning environment that promotes choice, ownership & voice through authentic learning opportunities
What evidence is there to support this claim and the recommended process?
We have one of two options when exploring the credibility of these or any claims. The first is to read all the related literature and conduct a detailed analysis that will inform a conclusion and related pros and cons. The second is to find someone who has done this analysis and has summarized the analysis in a tutorial, or a synthesis post like this one.
Considering the Receiver First
The Science of Receiving Feedback
Helping your Learner Adopt a Growth Mindset
Fixed VS Growth Mindset
Growth Mindset vs. Fixed Mindset
The power of believing that you can improve | Carol Dweck
The Power of belief — mindset and success | Eduardo Briceno | TEDxManhattanBeach
Growing a Growth Mindset
In the post How to Grow a Growth Mindset, I point to the key factors and research that show that promoting a growth mindset like one would promote a positive mental attitude will not work and that the growth mindset requires modeling and a significant learning environment that promotes this perspective both in spirit and in structure.
You will find a very useful Fixed vs Growth Mindset graphic and a short comparison of how the Fixed Vs Growth Mindset is equivalent to the Print Vs Digital Information Age on the blog post Fixed Vs Growth Mindset = Print Vs Digital Information Age
Obviously Carol Dweck’s book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success is definitely worth the read and should be one of those books that all educators have on their bookshelf or in their Kindle or Audible library.
Learner’s Mindset
Learner’s Mindset – a state of being where people act on their intrinsic capacity to learn and respond to their inquisitive nature that leads to viewing all interactions with the world as learning opportunities. This state enables one to interact with and influence the learning environment as a perpetual learner who has the capacity to use change and challenges as opportunities for growth.
To fully explore the Learner’s Mindset and see how it is different than the growth mindset or the Innovator’s Mindset consider the following:
Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset: The new psychology of success. Penguin Random House.
Fink, L. D. (2013). Creating significant learning experiences: An integrated approach to designing college courses. Jossey-Bass.
Goldsmith, M. (2009). Take It to the next level: What got you here, won’t get you there. Simon & Schuster Audio/Nightingale-Conant.
Goldsmith, M. (2003). Try feedforward instead of feedback. Journal for Quality and Participation, 38–40.
Hattie, J., & Timperley, H. (2007). The Power of Feedback. Review of Educational Research, 77(81), 81–112.
Hirsch, J. (2017). The feedback fix: Dump the past, embrace the future, and lead the way to change. Rowman & Littlefield.
Stone, D., & Heen, S. (2015). Thanks for the feedback: The science and art of receiving feedback well (even when it is off base, unfair, poorly delivered, and frankly, you’re not in the mood) (Vol. 36). Penguin.
The following are the links to articles, blog post, YouTube videos, TED Talks, and books that were used or referenced in a variety of talks and workshops on Online Learning and the Online Blended Learning – Learning Lab:
Links to Authentic Learning & CSLE+COVA posts:
I have been advocating authentic learning or project-based learning and creating significant learning environments for decades both professionally and personally. Talking the talk as an academic takes on a much more significant perspective when you walk the walk in your personal life.
The CLSE+COVA section of this site is also a great starting place to see how to create a significant learning environment by giving your learners choice, ownership, and voice through authentic learning opportunities
I really struggled at first with how XYZ applied to me but I went back through the resources, it started to make more sense. It really helps that you have the videos, a variety of resources and, we can meet with you or refer to group meeting recordings. I needed all of those resources and input to wrap my brain around all these new ideas…. It is also so helpful that I can talk to you about these ideas…thanks for your help and encouragement.
This is a cumulative paraphrase of many emails, meetings and discussion posts where learners have relayed their challenges and success in working through difficult ideas. There are two key ideas that we can glean from this collective experience.
Learning requires repetition and lots of input/feedback – most learners find looking at an idea or issue from a variety of perspectives useful. Reading and re-reading the book or article, watching a video, reading a blog post, reading an additional article, discussing the ideas with their colleagues, friends, and the instructor all contribute to the learning process.
Learning takes time and effort – genuine learning requires effort and perseverance. Moving beyond knowing the name or label of something to actual knowledge takes a lot of effort and time. But once a learner takes ownership of an idea and makes it their own by applying that idea to their own context they can then apply this new knowledge in a variety of contexts.
Because we give our learners choice, ownership, and voice through authentic learning opportunities and we are not simply asking learners to regurgitate information on an exam or in a document. The significant learning environment that we provide must be extremely rich and point to a very wide assortment of learning opportunities and resources.
In addition to the, required readings, the videos and related materials, I regularly point to additional ideas and resources in announcements as the learning progresses. I will occasionally add links to posts or other articles in our meetings or discussion forums. Rather than ask our learners to wait for these additional resources to be made available through announcements the following pages will point to a variety of resources that can help you make those meaningful connections.
Why not just include these resources in the supplemental reading section of the instructional modules or add them to the existing structure. More isn’t always better and not everyone may need or even want to go deeper so they may not need these additional resources. Our learning environments have been very well designed and we do have enough information and resources. The additional information and tips that I will be pointing to will help those learners who just want another perspective to help them “really get their head around the ideas” or as I would prefer to state – take full ownership and go as deep as they like. For the most part, I won’t be adding new information but will simply be pointing to similar or related information that will be presented from a different perspective. I will also be pointing to many of my personal struggles or insights that I have gained over the years which may also help learners to identify with the fact that their professor also has struggled with “getting his head around” many of the same ideas.
