Hi AbdulAziz, Leon, Natalie, Patrick, and Zitong. Thank you for sharing the draft of your interactive learning resource about the history of the Nanjing Massacre. I appreciate your chosen topic as I believe it’s important to know the truth of genocide, and the effects of such tragical events on the people who were targeted.
Overview:
Your description is straightforward and concise for the overview of the resource. I found it was easy to digest. I think it also primes the reader for what some of the outcomes might be, and the expecatations of what is to be learnt throughout the topic’s resource.
Learning design:
The descriptions and reasons for the learning theories are explained efficiently, especially in terms of one intaking the information presented and processing it. I think the addition of the second learning theory, constructivism, is great and realistic to cover for the topic of the Nanjing massacre. Having an audience with a range of varying prior knowledge will have an influence on the views one shapes afterwards on the Nanjing massacre, and I like that you recognize that within the rationale for constructivism. Bringing the learners together in a safe and open environment to discuss will be an important opportunity for classmates to hear eachothers views and hopefully have their minds expanded on the topic itself. I love the allowance of sharing peer to peer knowledge to drive learning. Perhaps you might consider splitting up the learning theories, so each one has its own slide with the title, along with its description and rationale. For example, have the slide titled “Direct Institution- Learning Design” followed by the description and rationale you have. I feel like it would make it more clear and beneficial to know right off the bat of which theories you have chosen, instead of finding out as someone reads it. I see there are slides 4 and 5 that are specifically for one of your learning theories, but in general it seems like its a bit complex (too much information spread out over 3 slides) for the task at hand, as given by the assignment criteria: Specify the learning design chosen, and provide a description and rationale.
Learning context:
It seems to me that the age group is not specified within K-12. A suggestion I have is to identify the age group or grade level within K-12, which is quite a large range for a topic where I feel would be taught differently for say grades K-3, 6-9, 10-12. The level of contrast between the groups is high, and for a historical topic such as the Nanjing massacre, I think it might be hard to teach to people who are too young, yet alone be appropriate. In other words I believe the demographic of people is too wide for your resource, and it needs to be refined and defined. Rather than saying “this course is designed for 15 students in K-12, or more specifically, high school students” maybe you could alter it to “this course is designed for 15 students in highschool, in the grades from 11-12”
Learning outcomes:
I might have missed something, but I am unsure as to what all the learning outcomes are…I see there are 3 definitely given, but there should be one per group member, so a total of 5! I notice there is a note with that acknowledged though, so I assume it will be done in your final version. I agree that they should be shorter if possible, which would make it easier to follow and take in as a learner of your resource.
Interactive activities:
For starters, I want to say how much I like the first interactive activity of doing a board game! I think that’s a wonderful and creative idea that certainly showcases “interactive”. Not only will this be fun, but it helps the learners to practice and familiarize themselves with facts with their peers. I did wonder though, what exactly is the board game? How will learners access it? How do you plan on executing this game; for example, will it be in person or an online game you design? Maybe you could use kahoot, a platform which would work perfectly for this activity you have in mind.
Please correct me if I’m wrong, however, I strongly feel the interactive component of the rest of the resource aside from the boardgame activity is missing. There is a lot of reading slide to slide, and it can be hard to follow and stay engaged. This would especially be the case for those with neurodivergent disorders, or even loss of hearing. How do you plan to ensure your students are kept engaged in order to meet the learning outcomes in the end? I know this is the draft and there are some changes you plan to make as a pod based on the comments I see, similar to the ones I would have suggested as well. Perhaps you could consider shifting a few of the activities to represent something more interactive?
In terms of structure for this section, I would highly recommend having the activity following the topic it’s used for, instead of having all the brief commentaries together, then all the interactive activities together separately afterwards. There should be a natural flow to the resources layout as a learner or instructor follows, so this may be something you want to clean up!
Lastly, something to importantly keep in mind is that the activities should relate to the learning outcomes and completing them. I may suggest that you add how each learning outcome is assessed by its corresponding activity, which would bring understanding to how the learning outcomes listed are properly assessed and fulfilled by your learning resource.
Assessment plan:
I like the idea that you have going for your assessment plan of having a discussion board, where students have to create a question, but also answer those. This is an awesome way to have learners interact and benefit from each other. I am a bit unsure of what this looks like for the learners though; where will the discussion board be ? Will they do this in class or after class? Will the instructor provide feedback and review the answers? In addition, I want to emphasize that the assessment plan does indeed need to correspond to the learning outcomes, as you’ve written in the note here.
Inclusivity:
The two contexts are specified and the intention of formatting it in a way to suit the needs of those who are english language learners, and with a loss of hearing is stated. A suggestion I have is to clearly state which two contexts you have picked, as stated in the assignment criteria, earlier on. Maybe have a slide for each context, followed by the overview of your plans on how you will include them to make a resource that is equitable for them to learn. For example, you say for the interactive activity of the causes of the nanjing massacre, special materials will be given to those with vision disorders, however, what they are is not stated or given. I feel though the overview of the plan to design for inclusion is misplaced; how will you design for inclusion? What changes will you make? What barriers are you attempting to take down so there is an equal road without obstacles, for all learners. Make sure this is presented clearly, as it is an important criteria piece for the assignment. Perhaps I would gear away from explaining the learning theories, and focus on what you plan to have as a part of your resource that attempts to design for the inclusion of these groups.
Technology use & rationale:
The use behind your general technology choices is stated, which is a laptop, But further than the laptop, what applications will students have to navigate or visit? For example, technologies you would include here is youtube, websites or applications needed to watch videos, and if on one, the website which the resource will be on.
Also, a question that I have is how the discussion portions of the learning resources are taking place- are they done on a website, or will they be held in person such as a lecture setting or in a classroom? It might be worthwhile to clarify, for the instructors and the learners. If it is a website, be sure to add this in the technology section here and provide a rationale too!
Presentation:
I really like the idea of a slideshow to be a source of information and teaching for a topic that can be dense with facts and history. At the same time though, I feel a bit unclear how the resource is to be presented in full…do you plan to keep the resource on google slides alone, or use a different platform to present the course resource to learners? As an idea, perhaps you could have a detailed outline for the time frame of the lesson, include some and use the slides as a supplementary source alongside the resource layed out somewhere such as notion or wordpress. Regardless, my biggest suggestion is to add some fluctuation in the slides and their contents; add visuals, infographics, and other written formats, such as bullet points, rather than just paragraphs slide to slide. It can be difficult to comprehend having to read large paragraphs slide to slide. One last thing: make sure you have Instructions for each task, as described, which you probably will have in your final version but just thought I should still mention it!
Conclusion:
I really like the content and learning resources you guys have going on google slides. I think you have chosen a meaningful, impactful, and important topic, and I commend you for the effort and work you have put into it so far. Your resource has plenty of potential, I think it just needs some small additions and adaptations to what you already have as a solid foundation. For your convenience, I have summarized a bullet list of my peer review suggestions for your project. I hope that my review and parts of my feedback are found to be helpful. I look forward to seeing the final product and any changes you decide to make! Thank you POD 5 🙂
Overall, my suggestions are…
- Making the format of slides and presentation of information more concise
- Define the learning contexts age group or grade level specifically
- Provide 5 clearly stated learning outcomes
- Have interactive activities that relate to fulfilling the learning outcomes- explain the connection between learning outcomes and their corresponding assessments
- Clarify and add some detail to your assessment plan
- Describe your PLAN of HOW your resource design will include the two learning contexts
- Provide the other technologies required for use for completion of the resource
- Establish how the resource will be presented in all its aspects to learners
{Link to POD’s 5 Resource}
