The idea of desgning learning activities is to provide a task or an iterative series of tasks that require the student to be an active participant in the learning process. The learning activities, with associated guidelines, focus the student's learning around challenging tasks that may be authentic to the way the discipline is practiced. Learning activities require the student to engage with the topic at a high level, either singly or in a group, in the pursuit of high level learning outcomes. A taxonomy of learning outcomes can be used to judge the appropriate level.
As the learning activities are specific tasks that the student will carry out, they are the key aspect of the design of online courses or modules. Learning activities are the bridge between the desired learning outcomes of the course, and the assessment. In many cases the activity may also be the assessment task, as doing the activity enables the student to demonstrate their capabilities in an application of the course topic.
Learning activities are active tasks such as designing an experiment, implementing it and presenting the findings, designing a survey, conducting it and reporting on the results. Online discussions, role plays, investigations and reports, and field trips can all be challenging and engaging learning activities. They are designed to elicit deeper learning by encouraging the student to be an active participant, to learn in different ways, and to develop new ideas and understanding through participation in a project, and possibly collaborating and sharing ideas with others.
Learning activities can range in duration and scope from an activity that is part of a tutorial or workshop to 'global activities' that provide a focus for the whole course. They may be a one-off experience or an iterative process in which students progressively deepen their understanding of the topic.
Educational technologies can be most effectively used to facilitate, support and enable students in their learning activities. Technologies can be used to present authentic scenarios, and to provide ongoing access to resources and support such as access to current data, literature sources, and communication through online discussions and chat. The courseware design process needs to start with the learning activity, and then take account of the tools, resources and support that will be needed to enable students to learn effectively by undertaking the activity.
A design model for online courses - Oliver (2000)
The above diagram illustrates how learning activities relate to other aspects that may be important in the design of online courseware.
In an aligned system, learning activities form the essential link between the desired learning outcomes and the assessment task. In some cases they may be the assessment task.
Learning outcomes --> learning activities --> assessment
The learning activity needs to enable the student to develop the capabilities to reach the performance level required by the learning outcome. It needs to engage the student in an active process such that the student will inevitably learn a great deal from the activity. To pick the right activity, try asking yourself what the best way to develop the capability is. Another question is what type of activity, requiring the desired capability, would a student be involved with in a real world context? A third possibility is to consider how the most effective students may go about the learning process, then arrange the activity in such a way that all students go through that process. This could involve stages of analysis, research, experimentation and discussion for example, to produce a specific output.
Online technologies can be used to enable the learning activities and processes to be carried out in the most effective way. They become a range of resources that are always available to enable students to structure their own path, to access resources, demonstrations of techniques, communication tools, analytical tools such a spreadsheets and simulations. They can enable the students to obtain feedback as they are going, both from the tutor and other students. The design model above can be used to indicate the resources and supports that may be needed to enable the students to engage with the learning tasks in the most effective way.
Students are asked to design a scientific experiment and to write a proposal outlining the purpose, method, and equipment needed. On acceptance of the proposal, students conduct the experiment, write a report, and make a presentation of their results to the rest of the class. Case study
Students study texts each week and participate an online discussion with new discussion topics related to the texts each week. This is followed by a group task conducted online. Case study
Students are given a scenario that outlines a series of problems with a company sales unit as a global activity. The students may either work individually on a report on their own company or organisation, or work in groups on the scenario provided. The report, in two stages, provides an analysis of the problem and the proposed solution covering a range of topics.
Students are asked to work in groups on a scientific topic that is currently receiving media attention. Their activity is to report on the scientific issues, and to write a press release on the topic. Case study
Oliver, R. (2000). Developing online learning environments that support knowledge construction (Course Notes, used with permission).