2024-03-29 07:56 UTC (Access Key = T)
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2024-02-20
Tim Cliffe - Blog
Learning Objectives Were Not Intended For Learners
01 Target Audience
(01.1) Anyone involved in the specification of learning resource content, and especially eLearning resources.02 Executive Summary
(02.1) This article provides a brief explanation of the reason learning objectives were never intended for learners, the unnecessary cognitive load imposed by presenting learning objectives to learners, and the benefits of using learning objectives in the manner originally intended.03 Structure of This Article
- (04) Introduction
- (05) Lost In The Sands Of Time
- (06) Based Upon Experience
- (07) The Reasoning
- (08) The Consequences
- (09) The Solution
04 Introduction
(04.1) Educational learning objectives came to the fore following the publication of Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives (1956): Cognitive Skills.(04.2) Those within the education industry know all about learning objectives, and how SMART they are:
(04.3) Practitioners, within eLearning, are very familiar with including objectives, in multi-media resources, and presenting them to the learner.
05 Lost In The Sands Of Time
(05.1) What appears to have been lost, in the decades since 1956, is the fact the identification of such objectives, by Bloom, was intended as a framework (taxonomy) for teachers, in the development of teaching resources, not learners.06 Based Upon Experience
(06.1) I have never, personally, encountered a teacher who started a lesson by saying..."By the end of this lesson, you will be able to: Explain X; List Y; Describe Z."Further, during discussions with numerous colleagues, over many years, I have not found one with a different experience to my own.
07 The Reasoning
(07.1) The reason for this agreement is simple. Learners, be they students or employees, do not start with the premise..."I need to be able to explain X, list Y, and describe Z."Learners start with...
"I need to know how to do 'something'."
Consequently, teachers are more likely to begin a lesson by saying...
"Today, we are going to learn how to..."
(07.2) The simple fact is, if the learner already knows they need to be able to explain X, list Y, and describe Z, they must already possess sufficient knowledge of the material to understand they have such a need. This in turn may well require a revision of the objectives.
(07.3) If we now start with such revised objectives, and return to 07.1 above, we find ourselves, potentially, trapped within a circular argument.
08 The Consequences
08.1 Learning Objectives
(08.1.1) The inclusion of learning objectives has a knock-on effect for the learner and the 'lesson':- The additional, and unnecessary, cognitive load, imposed upon a learner, when presented with learning objectives;
- The 'Objectives' screen adds one further screen to the 'lesson' the developers must spend time and money producing, reviewing, and maintaining. This may represent a significant overhead where courses have many 'lessons';
08.2 Contents Page
(08.2.1) An indirect consequence is the closely allied, and common, practice of presenting the learner with a Contents page (often based on the learning objectives). Why?(08.2.2) Users of on-line instructional materials know they will be presented with a menu, and even if they don't, a Menu Button presents an obvious indication.
(08.2.3) The Menu lists the 'contents' of the lesson. What is the purpose of having two lists of the same information? Doing so results in the need to ensure both lists are identical, with the resultant overhead of review and maintenance, not to mention yet another, and unnecessary, cognitive load imposed upon the learner.
(08.2.4) Further, a Menu is locationally and interactively contextual to the learner's experience of their position within the 'lesson', whereas a Contents page is not.
(08.2.5) Those familiar with the issues relating to data integrity will be well aware, the practice of having multiple independent copies of the same information is an undesirable, and avoidable, threat to data validity and consistency.
09 The Solution
(09.1) Let us dispense with presenting learning objectives to the learner (and Contents pages):
- Learners are not in a position to develop the material that will teach what they need to know;
- Learners can do without the unnecessary additional cognitive load imposed by Objectives and Contents pages;
- eLearning practitioners will:
- Develop more effective materials resulting from the absence of '2' above;
- Save time and money in the development of resources;
- Increase the accuracy of information presented to learners.
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Learning Objectives Were Not Intended For Learners by Tim Cliffe © 1997-2024.
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Resources
eLearning:
- 3D Printer Developments by 3D Printing Industry
(External link, opens in a new tab/window); - Augmented Reality from Tobias Kammann
(External link, opens in a new tab/window); - Browser Statistics by w3schools.
Browser Type, Operating System, Screen Resolutions
(External link, opens in a new tab/window); - Cambridge Dictionary The Cambridge Dictionary - leading authority on the English Language - Dictionary and Thesaurus - Free to use
(External link, opens in a new tab/window); - eLearning Feeds by eLearning Feeds. Ranked and scored e-learning blogs
(External link, opens in a new tab/window); - Global Statistics (on-line) by ITU - Includes Stats for the Web and Mobile
(External link, opens in a new tab/window); - Multi-media Software SourceForce - Open Source software (free) development and distribution community
(External link, opens in a new tab/window); - Punctuation Guide by the renowned Professor Larry Trask
(External link, opens in a new tab/window); - Referencing:
- Typography by Typekit Practice
(External link, opens in a new tab/window); - Virtual Reality Blog by Enter VR
(External link, opens in a new tab/window); - Web Usability by Nielson Norman Group
(External link, opens in a new tab/window).
Security:
- Anonymous Browsing:
- Computer by The Tor Project
(External link, opens in a new tab/window); - Mobile by The Guardian Project
(External link, opens in a new tab/window); - User-Agent String Confirm what information your browser is giving away about itself, your operating system and computer
(External link, opens in a new tab/window);
- Computer by The Tor Project
- Computer Security from Graham Cluley
(External link, opens in a new tab/window); - Email Encryption by GnuPG, for various Operating Systems
(External link, opens in a new tab/window); - Publicised Location Confirm your VPN/Proxy settings; where the Internet thinks you are
(External link, opens in a new tab/window); - Random No. Generator Create random passwords, convert numbers to letters, e.g., 5 = E
(External link, opens in a new tab/window); - UK NCSC Advice and guidance from the National Cyber Security Centre
(External link, opens in a new tab/window); - On-line Privacy by The Tin Hat. Articles and Tutorials
(External link, opens in a new tab/window); - VPN Reviews by TechRadar
The latest reviews of VPNs
(External link, opens in a new tab/window).
- GCA Toolkit Access the UK Police ActionFraud website
Protect small/medium sized business from cyber attacks
(External link, opens in a new tab/window); - Quad9 and DMARC Access the UK Police ActionFraud website
Protect your system and e-mail
(External link, opens in a new tab/window).
Guarding against disinformation and the re-writing of history.
Web Archive Access the Internet Archive Wayback Machine website(External link, opens in a new tab/window)