Learning Report: An Educational Analysis of an Online Course in Adobe Flash

The Report

Learning theory

In the course of the graduate program that this capstone project seeks to fulfill, there has been discussion of many learning theories. What learning theories were used? Why? A number of theories were instrumental in the development of this course. The concepts of traditional and constructionist approaches to knowledge transfer, behavioral vs. cognitive instructional design, learning as a social activity, critical thinking, knowledge types, cognitive load theory, amongst others, played roles in this project's development. The primary influences will be briefly defined and examples given of how they were incorporated into the project.

Traditional vs Constructionist Approaches to Knowledge Transfer

The constructionist approach says that knowledge, or meaning, construction takes place in the mind of the learner. Since different learners bring different backgrounds and experiences to the table, they integrate new knowledge in different ways. An athlete will use different reference points from which to build new knowledge than the musician or the mathematician and therefore may require different metaphors and teaching aids. Because of this, the constructionist approach is referred to as a learner-centered methodology (Duffy & Cunningham, 1995). In contrast, the traditionalist approach puts the emphasis more on the teacher and has been described as the "sage on the stage" phenomenon. Traditionally, the learner has been seen as the seeker of information. The teacher has been seen as the expert and has the information that the learner is seeking. The flow of information has been perceived as originating in the teacher and flowing towards the learner, as if information were a commodity to be given. The constructionists would disagree and claim that knowledge is constructed in the mind of the learner. The learner has to work for the knowledge. They have to integrate it into their existing mental structures. Knowledge can't be given, like a coat. It has to be earned.

I believe both of these approaches have merit and influence good instruction. In this course, it is assumed that a learner does not have preexisting knowledge about Adobe Flash and is seeking it. They are looking for a expert source of instruction to guide them in their acquisition. Regardless of whether the course is an independent experience or part of a degree program, the learner is allowing themselves to be guided by a mentor toward a goal. This is a traditional approach. The learner wants skills in Flash, and this course's job is to deliver. Once the learner actually starts the process of knowledge acquisition, then constructionist theory becomes very applicable. As each learner attempts to integrate new knowledge into their existing schemas, each will draw upon their own experiences to do so.

For example, this course was being taught on-line at the same time it was being developed. This is not an ideal situation, but a common practice when demand dictates the development time-frame. During a forum interaction between myself and a learner in the class, I used metaphor and examples to explain the basics of creating functions in Actionscript. Even though I kept the explanation at a very basic level, it was beyond the comprehension of my learner. He responded as follows:

"The last paragraph about functions sounds like a kind of grammar lesson in programming, to my uninitiated ear. I can follow it in the way I might hear someone describe how they solved a math problem using calculus-based principles, even though I’ve never taken calculus. If I needed to apply the principle in a practical manner, I would be unable to make the connection. "

My background is in technology. My learner's background is in dance and graphic arts. He has had no experience with programming at all. Because he has no reference points from which to draw, understanding the basics of actionscript will be a bigger challenge for him than for other learners that have had some exposure to computer programming. While I cannot be certain, my guess is that the particular posting that confused him did not confuse others in the class, since no other learners commented on the post.

Behavioral vs. cognitive approaches to instructional design

Two fundamental approaches to instructional design informed this course; the behaviorist and cognitive approaches. The behaviorist approach looks purely at the behavior without considering the reasoning process that underlies the behavior. Instructional design from a purely behavioral point of view, would resemble a tutorial with nothing more than steps towards solving a problem. In contrast, a cognitive approach would be to analyze and uncover the thinking process underneath the behavior; answering the question why one particular behavior was chosen over another (Bransford, Brown, and Cocking, 2000, Gardner, 1985).

Both of these approaches exist in good instruction and have been employed in this project. The text book that was chosen is a tutorial guide. Its purpose is to expose the learner to the Flash authoring program as quickly as possible, with little to no theory. It is primarily behaviorally based and has had both positive and negative impacts on the learners as the following forum excerpt illustrates.

"For the first time in this book, I was happy with my results after I did my tutorial. I am taking another online class that is supposed to be about animation. I have not learned any animation at all. Yet, with this class, I am learning exactly what I want to about animation. One of skills that I am gaining in this class is how to make buttons work. I know that sounds simple, but last semester I had the hardest time trying to make a simple button. Yet, with this last chapter, I did it in less than ten minutes. This is a great chapter."

In this paragraph the learner is pleased with the learning that took place. However, implicit in her first sentence, "... for the first time in this book...", is the implication that other chapters have not been as instructive. To this last forum posting, I responded as follows:

"Good. I'm glad the tutorial approach to this class is working. It's a different approach since I am not exposing you to a lot of theory. There is time for that later after you are somewhat functional with the program. Funny thing about how we learn, when we put our hands on an assignment, we integrate it with our existing knowledge quite naturally and thereby expand our theory base in the process. Do-ing often answers many of our questions, and enables us to get enough references to ask better questions. "

Learning as a social activity

As the last sentence indicates, the cognitive approach to instruction is incorporated into the forum dialog. The completion of a tutorial, or lack of completion, brings up questions that demand answers. This state of mental unrest is what Duffy calls perturbation or puzzlement.(pg. 175). It is the recognition of a problem that needs an answer and is the first step in problem solving. The subsequent questions, or expressions of the mental conflict, can be addressed in the forum. Through the forum dialog, we can use examples and metaphor that are matched to the learners experience and therefore have a better chance for knowledge transfer. It is through the rich mutual sharing of experiences and personal understanding, that education finds its social component (Salomon and Perkins, 1998). The rich content involved in explaining the "why" of an exercise is a higher-order cognitive process. Both behavioral and cognitive approaches are therefore employed in this project.

Incorporating critical thinking into problem solving

The project employed elements of critical thinking in order to problem solve, i.e. complete the project assignments. Normally, in problem-centered learning, a problem is first proposed. Then, all of the materials and resources made available to the learner should support and scaffold the learners ability to solve the given problem. In the case of this course, the learner is coming into the class with little to no knowledge of Flash. To give them a problem to solve with no guidance, is like "throwing them in the deep end of the pool and telling them to swim". If they don't know anything about Flash, this approach could cause an unnecessary learning trauma. Critical thinking is employed in another way.

In this project, the learner is first given a series of tutorials where they are exposed briefly to the concepts they will need to accomplish their assignment. Very little theory is given. The tutorials are all hands-on. After the prerequisite skills are received by the learner, they are given a problem to solve. What makes the problem solving critical in nature is how ill-structured it is. By purposely making the project extremely open, and giving the learner a wide array of possible solutions, the learner is forced to identify their own needs and motivations and then to apply them towards their target goals (Jonassen, 1997). A minimum of constraints are given. The constraints are designed so that the learner does not take on a project that is beyond their skill level at that moment in time. The constraints also ensure the tutorials they just completed can be used as resources to complete the assignment. Some of the constraints are as follows:

As the list of constraints illustrate, the assignment has definite elements that can be verified and therefore graded. Either the learner has included an image or they haven't. However, a wide degree of freedom is given regarding the content and the ways that the elements are deployed. The ill-structuredness of the problem requires more critical thinking faculties.

Metacognition

A key component of critical thinking involves the metacognitive function. Simply stated, when a learner can monitor their own relative level of understanding, they can determine what they know and what they still need to learn. They can manage their own time; knowing how much time to spend on a particular task. They can determine when to adjust their schedule, when further research is needed, or when to ask for help. Metacognition deals with the learners ability to monitoring their own thinking processes (White and Frederiksen, 2000).

Metacognition is employed in in this project via journalling. Each week's lesson has an assignment associated with it entitled, A Reflective Journal Entry (Achterhof, n.d.). In the journal entry, the learner is asked to reflect on what they have learned in the week's assignments. What myths were dispelled? What problems were encountered? And if overcome, how? What fears were faced and surmounted? In answering these questions, they expose and test their assumptions (Van Gelder, 2005) and open their personal biases and myths to scrutiny. By reflecting on their internal processes, the learners exercise their metacognitive muscles as well as provide value feedback for the instructor.

Procedural and declarative types of knowledge

Another learning theory component that played a major role in the design of this project is the concept that there are two distinct types of knowledge: declarative and procedural. Declarative knowledge refers to knowledge about things. It is the theoretical component of knowledge. It is the what and why components of our knowledge-base. However, it was determined that knowing "what" or "why" does not necessarily guarantee that we know how to apply the theoretical foundations to do work. Therefore, a different type of knowledge, procedural knowledge, was identified and plays an especially strong part in the workforce training environment.

The course in basic Flash contains, and evaluates, both types of knowledge. It is heavily slanted however towards procedural knowledge. Because this course is part of a degree seeking Visual Communications Program in Multimedia, its focus is on preparing the student-body for the workplace. Therefore, skill acquisition is a primary driving force for this course and its primary focus is on procedural knowledge. The learners, while needing to know what Flash is and isn't, primarily need to know how to accomplish various presentation tasks. These tasks are procedural in nature.

The declarative knowledge is evaluated through a series of quizzes. The quizzes were created using the Learning Management System (LMS). Both Moodle and WebCT provide excellent tools for creating and automating the scoring of declarative knowledge. By lessening the burden of grading for this type of knowledge, more attention can be spent by the instructor evaluating the procedural knowledge.

The procedural knowledge is evaluated in two ways. First, the forum discussions provide a richer context for understanding the nuances of student understanding. Through the online social interactions, it is easier to determine where understanding is awry. Secondly, procedural knowledge is evaluated through the assessment of uploaded assignments. By assessing how a student approached an assignment in the actual working file, student understanding of the procedural aspects of project creation can be determined.

Cognitive Load Theory

If Cognitive Load Theory were to be translated into lay terms, it might sound something like this. We are bombarded by information all of the time. As a result of this constant bombardment, we selectively filter out information that we don't need at any given moment because our conscious working memory can only handle so much information at one time. As designers, if we want to maximize the amount of information that our learners carry away from our instruction, then it would be in our best interest to minimize the amount of unnecessary thinking our learners have to do (Tardieu and Gyselinck, 2003). This can be accomplish in simple ways:

In recognition of cognitive load theory, and to maximize the information that learners carry away from this instruction, every effort was made to reduce confusion and simplify the message. The following techniques were employed:

 

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