Micro-credentials
This project demonstrates how digital badges can reimagine education by making assessment more engaging and personalized. Through the integration of digital credentials, it celebrates diverse student achievements, encourages a growth mindset, and transforms the learning experience into one that is both dynamic and inspiring.
Enduring Understanding
'Enduring understanding' is perhaps another fancy term for learning objective during backward design. The term does seem to fit perfectly for 'Cognitive apprenticeship'. Cognitive apprenticeship is an educational model that aims to make thinking visible. It requires that the instructor models, coaches, and scaffolds the learner as they learn new skills. The model also requires that the learner verbalize their learning and reflect on it. My project on 'digital badge' or micro-credential is a cognitive apprenticeship for me.
NOTE: Enduring understanding and learning objectives are used interchangeably in Instructional design. But they are not the same thing in terms of cognitive science for developing learning goals.
I have an enduring goal and Bill (William Wisser, director, TLL) is going to model, coach and scaffold this learning experience while I build the digital badge for the DELIVER module for T127.
My enduring understanding goal is to understand how assessment criteria are built and what makes good assessment criteria. In addition to my enduring understanding, I will also be building a badge visual that appropriately visualizes the course, specific Deliver module, and the assessment criteria while adhering to the Teaching Learning Lab's media guidelines.
ADDIE & Backward Design
As discussed with Project lead Bill (William Wisher, Director, TLL), we are using the 5D framework discover-design-develop-deliver-debrief, a revised ADDIE model to structure the project's progression and Backward design for the design stage of the model. This past couple of weeks I have dedicated my time to 'discovery' phase of the project. I have achieved two main objectives that should help me build the foundation for the following phases of the project. First, I delved into prior undertakings of student work and necessary readings to understand digital badges. Second, we have a project charter agreement in place and a rolling agenda to stay on track with our development.
Reflections While building the project charter, one key takeaway was defining what is 'in scope' and what is 'out of scope' for me. To have a 'out-of-scope' list, I hope is going to save me time, as well as a reminder for myself as to what tasks not to pursue. It also sounds like what one of my Harvard Alum mentors says, 'If you are building a to-do list, you have to build a 'not-to=do' list as well.'
THOUGHTS
I am also wondering how tools like rolling agendas and project charters aid this cognitive apprenticeship of understanding and practicing being a learning designer. In bigger picture, how important are tools for cognitive apprenticeship, when should the mentor introduce these tools? I am also a little confused about how our roles differ from project managers since ADDIE, backward design and other things I am going to be doing for my project feels like project management tasks.
DISCOVER: Past work done by TLL students on digital badges for deliver module. My project digital badge is a micro-credential project. Well, what are micro-credentials? Why are micro-credentials awarded? When is it appropriate to provide a micro-credential? How is it different from a certificate? I do think a digital badge is an encrypted certificate; it just probably has a cooler visual like the one I am building.
Learn about the DELIVER module in T127. What are the assessment criteria that are indicative of the completion of the delivery module?
DESIGN: Assessment Criterias After learning the deliver module of T127, I analyzed what is currently reflective of the completion of the DELIVER module. Based on that, I picked some criteria that are worth assessing. Some questions that I thought through were: Are all course activities and assignments badge-able criteria?
Badge Visual: Some of the questions I am answering as I move on with my project are reflective of the tasks I take on for building the visual of the badge as I work with the media lab. What is reflective of T127? How do you signify the criteria for task completion of the DELIVER module? Badge to show inspiration from the branding of Gallery Walk?
DEVELOP
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Confirm the criteria with Bill.
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Create a deliver module supplement with the criterias to trigger the badge on the T127 sandbox on Canvas. (Questions? Ask Hope)
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Encrypt the criteria into the badge. Badges to be shareable on socials and should tell who awarded it and the tasks learners completed to be awarded.
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Replicate Sandbox design to the T127 course (Sandbox is where the lab designs and tests without disturbing the learning experience of the students)
DELIVER: T127 peers receive the badge after uploading their gallery walk artifact. I share my project at the gallery walk.
DEBRIEF: Collect feedback from peers, Bill, Hope and Sean.
Other Personal Reflections
Designing Learner-centered Learning experiences
To create a practical learning experience, the readings suggest that it would be best if a Learning designer approaches the feat with three different types of approach designs; Learner-centered approach, knowledge-centered and assessment-centered. My reflection reflects mainly on the Learner-centered approach.
Learning the Learners
MY KEY TAKEAWAYS:
The first step an Instructor can take is to ask questions/design tasks to help the instructor learn where the learners stand in their knowledge about the subject matter. In cognitive science, this term perhaps is called 'generative question'. An Instructor can effectively invoke deep processing when the instructor throws in a scenario (perhaps a generative question), asks the students to predict the situation, and then asks them to backtrack and find a roadmap for why they reached the particular prediction. This process while on one side, gives the Instructor an idea of where their learners stand on the subject matter, it also lets the learners realize their learning gap in the subject matter.
THOUGHTS
As a Learning experience designer, how do you work with the Instructor in creating Generative Questions? 'Well I think the answer lies in knowing the enduring understanding, or the learning goal of each lesson the instructor wants the learners to learn'
I am curious and I wish I could see an example of what a learner realizing a learning gap looks like. I wonder how it is different for adults and for children.
This knowledge about learners helps the Instructor to avoid any learning gap that could occur if the Instructor would not know what their learners know or do not know.
Some specific exercises can include (but not limited to):
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Asking learners to make predictions about the situation or the subject matter at hand. Then follow up with questions targeted towards their reasoning for the prediction.
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Ask deep questions when teaching, and provide students with opportunities to answer deep questions, such as: What caused Y? How did X occur? What if? How does X compare to Y? (Moulton, 2014)
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Challenge students with problems that stimulate thought, encourage explanations and support the consideration of deep questions. (Moulton, 2014)
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Select tasks that consist of misconceptions regarding the topic, this way, learners can assess for themselves if their ideas are coherent with the knowledge body or if their ideas need to change.
In cases where a learning designer is an independent party and not the instructor, these exercises are crucial for the learning designer to assess the current environment being fostered by the Instructor and, in some cases, the learners too. The Learning designer can assist the Instructor in then making additions or building one of a different nature.
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How can learning designers effectively help experts in curating learning experiences for novices?
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How much domain knowledge should a learning designer have?
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Is there a time frame that a learning designer has to spend to be able to design learning experiences in a field completely new to the designer?
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How much does a learning designer’s epistemology affect the design and the content?
Earlier I used to think that it learning designers should have in-depth knowledge about the subject matter if they want to design learning experiences. The step by step process of designing learning experiences in ‘Moving from novices to experts and its implications for instruction’ had a thorough walk-through to help instructional designers in being able to design learning experiences. This has changed my prior thoughts. I now believe that with adequate knowledge about the subject matter, a learning designer should be able to collaborate effectively with the Expert/Instructor to curate an excellent learning experience. I stand convinced that as learning designers, we could help Experts in being able to transfer knowledge effectively to their novice learners.
It will also be fun to see how much time and effort I, as a novice learning designer, will spend in my attempts to create elements of the learning design process and constructively compare it with how experts of this field do it.
The readings we have been given have imprinted so much knowledge, mostly about drafting an objective for learning design and what should be considered when one starts designing. The materials equip a good starting phase.
Before HGSE, my learning experiences in Nepal and India were primarily based in behaviorism and cognitivist approaches to learning. Initially I felt bitter about not having the opportunity to ‘better’. However, after reading how retrieval practices are also necessary to one’s education, I realized that our education systems were doing some things the proper way, they might not be as effective in garnering other skills necessary for modern societies but they certainly helped me learn a certain way, they garnered in me the skills necessary to inculcate habits of remembering so that recalling information to build on top of that would be efficient. Right after arriving at HGSE, I struggled to understand the nature of assignments and be able complete even simple assignments, because these types of projects and assignments were new to me. They required me to think deeply then create, reflect, and build based on my learning in a way that was different than what I was used to. These exercises sparked my interest in designing learning experiences.
I want to call the Moulton 2014, a pot of gold for learning Designers. It has effective ‘to-do’ lists and I see it influencing the design projects I will be taking in the near future. I have loved learning about different ‘theories of learning’. I love the constructivist, constructionist approach to designing learning experiences and I look forward to designing my projects based on design principles of learning theories.
I also found the ‘Epistemology’ Illustrating conversation fascinating and highly relatable. My brother AI-ML scientist and I differ in what we think constitutes ‘true knowledge’. I had been aware of this all along but now this awareness has a face to it the difference of epistemology. Recognizing this should help our further conversations on scientific and social science topics.