Effective Remote Learning
As we move more into online learning, how can we try to effectively maximize the learning of our learners? What does the research say? Here I have listed some evidence-based approaches to maximize the impact of your online teaching based around the science of learning research center at the University of Queensland.
Use of Images, Text and Voice Over
Research on how learners learn has shown that a combination of relevant visual images and speaking to the images as prompts greatly enhances learning. In comparison learners presented with heavy text in presentations with speech leads to poorer learning outcomes.
Just as we enjoy watching Netflix, the combination of images and voice far exceeds learning achieved through just information being spoken or seeing the images alone. In contrast, presenting text-heavy online presentations in combination with speaking to these slides, is detrimental to learning.
Think about when you are listening to two people at once. You can only pay attention to one person speaking at a time. What about trying to read while someone is talking to you? Hard isn't it? This is because reading and listening to speech use the same region of the brain to process the information. As you are reading this text, you are speaking the words in your head. This makes it difficult for the brain to properly hear and understand two things at once.
In an online classroom situation, when learners are presented with speech and written words at the same time they are forced to choose which one to fully pay attention to. When they switch between the two, valuable learning is lost.
From a teaching perspective, try using Zen presentions which include only visual images in the presentations and speak to these images as prompts. This reduces the amount of text that learners need to read during lessons and allows them to focus on what is being taught.
Use of Space in Presentations
Speaking of presentations, learners presented with successive images in the same location on a presentation out-performed learners presented with the same images in unpredictable locations. On studying spatial predictability, researchers believe that when learners know where in space something is going to occur they are faster to focus on it.
Using brain scanning, neuroscientists have determined that when we know something is about to happen, the brain activity decreases, meaning the brain is working more efficiently. This happens through ‘implicit learning’ where people are able to learn and utilize these predictable patterns without conscious effort – becoming quicker and more attentive with less effort. In short, if a learner knows, or can predict, where something will occur, they can focus on it more quickly and efficiently.
In an online environment, this research suggests that providing learners with predictable presentation formats with text, subheadings, and images in the same locations will improve learner focus.
Spacing of Learning
When it comes to going over content, spacing out practice will improve long-term learning, memory, and educational performance.
Research has shown that learning and memory can be enhanced if practice sessions are broken up and spread over a longer timespan rather than if they are all clumped together in one long practice session. Neuroscientists have found that if learning is stretched over several short sessions, areas of the frontal control and deeper memory networks of the brain show greater activity.
This suggests that teachers schedule regular review sessions with low stake assessments during online lessons to revisit the previously learned material rather than rely on one revision lesson before an assessment. Useful digital tools for reviewing content in such a way include multichoice based Quizizz and Kahoot, which can be set as asynchronous tasks to embed core facts and can be used to direct further teaching.
This suggests that teachers schedule regular review sessions with low stake assessments during online lessons to revisit the previously learned material rather than rely on one revision lesson before an assessment. Useful digital tools for reviewing content in such a way include multichoice based Quizizz and Kahoot, which can be set as asynchronous tasks to embed core facts and can be used to direct further teaching.
The adoption of a spiral curriculum can also help develop this. A spiral curriculum is one in which there is an iterative revisiting of topics, subjects or themes throughout the lessons. A spiral curriculum is not simply the repetition of a topic taught. It requires also the deepening of it, with each successive return to concepts building on the previous one.
Mix Up the Content
Long-term learning and classroom performance can be enhanced by mixing up topics for learners rather than focusing on single concepts. Research has shown that ‘massed practice’ the idea of focusing on one specific task at a time, has short-term benefits but has been seen to negatively affect long-term performance and learner’ skills transfer to other contexts.
In contrast ‘interleaved practice’ the approach where learners learn many different skills in a jumbled way has been found to impair performance during immediate practice but improves long-term performance and the ability of the learners to transfer their skills.
Neuroscientists have shown that if the practice is interleaved, task-relevant brain areas communicate and coordinate more with each other, beneficial for long-term performance.
Importantly too, research has also shown that learners who learned through interleaved practice, are more likely to also do better in applying knowledge and skills in different contexts compared to those learners who have learned through massed practice. So when designing online lessons, develop tasks that incorporate a number of concepts and approaches to solve, not just one. So for my science lessons, I will incorporate a range of topics that the learners will engage with.
Incorporate Active Recall
Think about what kind of tests you like? Do you prefer exams to be full of multiple-choice questions rather than open-ended ones? Let's be honest, multiple-choice, right? but why is that? The simple answer is that multiple-choice questioning is easier on the brain.
Research has found that multiple-choice and open-ended questions test different memory systems within the brain known as ‘recognition memory’ and ‘recall memory’. Recognition memory is the ability to recognize previously encountered facts. When the previously experienced fact is reexperienced, this content is matched to the stored memory. Recall memory refers to the mental process of retrieval of information from the past. Open-ended questions test recall memory as the brain must actively retrieve information from the past with few guiding cues to help.
Brain scans have shown neuroscientists that when people are using recognition memory, there is weak neural activity in shallow memory networks of the brain, while in contrast, recall memory showed stronger neural activity in deeper brain memory networks.
Testing in the classroom has shown that learners using active recall learning methods involving more open-ended questions and summarising notes produced stronger long-term memory and significantly improved performance when compared to learners undertaking passive review practices like reading notes, as the former trigger recognition memory networks.
So when it comes to the tasks to do in online lessons, consider more active tasks involving answering open-ended questions or having the learners create summary presentations of topics which they can then present to their peers. Applications using flashcards like Quizlet and those incorporating open-ended responses like Socrative and (update) Quizizz are great tools for this. Multichoice applications like Kahoot are not as effective as they focus more on recognition memory.
The application Flipgrid is also great as a recall memory tool as you can get learners to verbalize their understanding of a topic to the camera to tease out misconceptions and understanding.
Use Stories
Stories allow our learners to simulate an experience. This leads to higher levels of engagement, emotional connection and motivation when listening. Contextualized information leads to increases in transfer and understanding of the content compared to information just presented as junks of facts. Presenting facts in a unified story activate more neural regions including memorization and mentalization.
When presenting online, introduce facts as a background story. For example, the development of calculus through Newton's self-isolation during the plague of 1666. This will help learners contextualize and personalize the material. Use stories from you and your learner's lives through discussion to increase engagement and provide deeper considerations of the topics.
Starter Activities are Critical
The choice of starter activity can determine how learners interact with the lesson. Once a learner determines how to respond to a task, this response will guide how the learner future behavior when dealing with tasks, even if the task differs from the original. This suggests that choosing one approach to solve problems allows learners to decrease brain activity making it easier to process information.
So this means when planning online lessons, determine how learners will interpret and interact with content. Prior to the lesson allow learners to use a task with the process you want them to use. Content presented in starter activities will activate strategies that will determine how they interact with the content being presented later. Therefore, any reviewed material should be relevant and based on the learning objectives of that lesson.
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