Category: 335

I had the pleasure of reading and learning about an Interactive Learning Resource called the  ‘Introduction to Chinese’ by Learning Pod 3. This blog post will offer a peer review in response to this Learning Resource.

As mentioned by group 3, the target audience for this learning design is professionals and enthusiasts, as it facilitates cross-cultural communication and business in China, and is also useful for those who are simply interested in Chinese culture.

Thank you, Pod 3 for sharing your Interactive Learning resource, it was very enjoyable and insightful to read.

You did a great job of providing a clear overview of the topic you are addressing, the learning theories you will be focusing on, and including the history and background information on your educational topic. I appreciate the brief overview you provided at the start on the general layout of your content on bright space. This is helpful for picturing how your course will be structured. 

Further, I agree that introducing the background and history of Chinese characters to immerse learners into the Chinese culture will be an effective way of stimulating engagement in learning Chinese characters. 

I like how you incorporated a variety of multimedia learning tools, such as videos, lessons, quizzes, learning apps. This is a great way of accommodating different learning styles and preferences and offers diversity in your learning design. 

There are a lot of strong ideas in this interactive learning resource that I think will create a great course! After thoroughly examining the ideas, concepts, and overall goal of this learning resource, I have come up with some constructive feedback, ideas, and suggestion that I think might be beneficial for enhancing this project even further. 

You have provided great essential questions, learning objectives, and interactive activities, but I would love to learn more about how your students will achieve the learning outcomes you proposed. This could include providing completion steps by dividing the course into different sections. This would also be a great way of tracking learning achievements and progress. I feel that an effective way to help students track their progress could be to incorporate means for active feedback.

I would love to hear more about how you plan to actively track student achievements, perhaps using rubrics, completion marks, or tests? This includes how you will determine learners’ final standing in relation to their efforts, participation, and understanding of course content, and how this will be determined.

Finally, it would also be interesting to hear a bit about how you plan to integrate UDL principles into your interactive learning resource to make it accessible and inclusive for all learners interested in participating in your course.

Overall, I think you have a great topic with strong ideas. I love how you organized your essential questions, learning objectives/outcomes, assessment plan, and resources/tools into a table. This learning resources is well organized and does an excellent job of describing the goal of the course and capturing student engagement. To make this course even more effective, you could consider integrating some of the suggestions above!

Great work and thanks for sharing

Group 3’s Interactive Learning Resource that I have reviewed:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1be8jwNEgMp7LgA1VWj04M2kG_PV7EnULc3OtqRfGJrQ/edit

I had the pleasure of reading and learning about an Interactive Learning Resource called the  ‘Introduction to Chinese’ by Learning Pod 3. This blog post will offer a peer review in response to this Learning Resource.

As mentioned by group 3, the target audience for this learning design is professionals and enthusiasts, as it facilitates cross-cultural communication and business in China, and is also useful for those who are simply interested in Chinese culture.

Thank you, Pod 3 for sharing your Interactive Learning resource, it was very enjoyable and insightful to read.

You did a great job of providing a clear overview of the topic you are addressing, the learning theories you will be focusing on, and including the history and background information on your educational topic. I appreciate the brief overview you provided at the start on the general layout of your content on bright space. This is helpful for picturing how your course will be structured. 

Further, I agree that introducing the background and history of Chinese characters to immerse learners into the Chinese culture will be an effective way of stimulating engagement in learning Chinese characters. 

I like how you incorporated a variety of multimedia learning tools, such as videos, lessons, quizzes, learning apps. This is a great way of accommodating different learning styles and preferences and offers diversity in your learning design. 

There are a lot of strong ideas in this interactive learning resource that I think will create a great course! After thoroughly examining the ideas, concepts, and overall goal of this learning resource, I have come up with some constructive feedback, ideas, and suggestion that I think might be beneficial for enhancing this project even further. 

You have provided great essential questions, learning objectives, and interactive activities, but I would love to learn more about how your students will achieve the learning outcomes you proposed. This could include providing completion steps by dividing the course into different sections. This would also be a great way of tracking learning achievements and progress. I feel that an effective way to help students track their progress could be to incorporate means for active feedback.

I would love to hear more about how you plan to actively track student achievements, perhaps using rubrics, completion marks, or tests? This includes how you will determine learners’ final standing in relation to their efforts, participation, and understanding of course content, and how this will be determined.

Finally, it would also be interesting to hear a bit about how you plan to integrate UDL principles into your interactive learning resource to make it accessible and inclusive for all learners interested in participating in your course.

Overall, I think you have a great topic with strong ideas. I love how you organized your essential questions, learning objectives/outcomes, assessment plan, and resources/tools into a table. This learning resources is well organized and does an excellent job of describing the goal of the course and capturing student engagement. To make this course even more effective, you could consider integrating some of the suggestions above!

Great work and thanks for sharing

Group 3’s Interactive Learning Resource that I have reviewed:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1be8jwNEgMp7LgA1VWj04M2kG_PV7EnULc3OtqRfGJrQ/edit

My group has chosen the topic “How to Effectively Use Social Media in the Classroom,” therefore I have selected a video that illustrates some of the ways social media can to enhance education.

–> Youtube Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UM5bxbosgD8

I have selected this video as it offers a brief yet informative description of the benefits of integrating social media within learning environments, and how it can be used to promote effective learning. It illustrates how social media shouldn’t be perceived as an obstacle but rather as a tool to enhance and promote student-centered learning.

1. In what way are learners likely to respond to the video on their own?

This video offers the opportunity for open discussion with classmates, and it can also be beneficial to take notes. Incorporating this video into a learning design allows teachers to use learner-generated learning techniques. For instance, before showing the video, the instructor could ask students if they can think of any ways to effectively integrate social media within the classroom to enhance learning, this will emphasize students’ agency, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity. This approach empowers learners to connect with the subject matter, make it relevant to their lives, and develop a deeper understanding through their active participation. After watching the video, students may actively discuss what types of social media are appropriate to incorporate into the classroom and which ones may not be relevant to learning. They may also discuss what stood out to them, what they already knew, and what they discovered.

2. What activity could you suggest that they do after they have watched the video? What type of knowledge or skill would that activity help develop? What medium or technology would students use to do the activity?

After engaging with this educational video, students could write a list of ways they engage with social media for educational purposes within their lives or discuss how the video can be applied to their lives. In terms of activities, students could create an infographic based on the information they retained from the video or make a list of social media platforms they believe can be used within a classroom setting. Further, students could select an interactive platform they think could be beneficial for learning such as Quizlet, Powerpoint, Infographic, or YouTube video, and create a short lesson on what they learned using their platform of choice. This activity allows students to apply what they learned through active/self-discovery. 

3. How will you address any potential barriers for your learners in the use of this video to ensure an inclusive design?

I have chosen this video as is follows principles of Universal Design Learning (UDL). For example it:

• Provides closed captions or subtitles to make the content accessible to learners with hearing impairments and for those who prefer reading
• Uses clear and concise visualssuch as graphics, diagrams, and animations to visually represent concepts, subtitles and captions
• Includes visual diversity, incorporating a variety of images, colors, and fonts to accommodate different preferences and cognitive styles
• Uses engaging content, presenting the content in an interesting and relatable manner to capture learners’ attention
• Allows learners to play, pause, reverse or fast forward to learn at their own pace or take notes
• Uses simple language: Explain concepts in straightforward language to enhance understanding for all learners

However, potential barriers still exist that need to be addressed while using this video in a learning design. For instance, videos that heavily rely on visuals without auditory descriptions or alternatives may exclude learners with visual impairments. This video does not include auditory/verbal cues or descriptions, which can be a barrier to those who are visually impaired. Text to speech is therefore required to address this barrier. Complex visuals, rapid pacing, or too much information presented at once can overwhelm learners’ cognitive capacities and hinder their ability to process and retain information. The pacing of this video may be too fast for certain learners to read the information provided, therefor sharing the video on a platform that allows for pause, start, rewind, and advance, is a useful way to address this barrier. This feature can also be beneficial for those who experience language barriers to read at their own pace. 

By addressing these potential barriers and leveraging the video’s existing UDL features, a lesson can be created to foster inclusivity by removing potential obstacles, making it a valuable tool in promoting diverse and accessible learning experiences.

4. How would students get feedback on the activity that you set? What medium or technology would they and/or you use for getting and giving feedback on their activity?

In term of group discussion, I think that using online discussion forums would be an effective way for students and teachers to share information and receive/provide feedback. Discussion forums allows students to react to course material, share ideas, questions, and concerns, reply or engage with peers, and allows teachers to provide information, answer questions, and read what students have shared. In regard to the learning activity suggested above, where students create a lesson using their choice of social media platform, I think it would be beneficial to have them upload their creations to an online forum where teachers can share feedback and and students can engage with and learn from their creation. This would require online discussion forums, or an online medium such as Mattermost, where students can interact, upload, and share ideas. 

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