Coursera

Blended Learning (Learner Profiles)

October 29, 2015, by Barry Ng

Introduction

This will be one of the parts that I’m covering on Blended Learning to introduce new concepts and what I feel about how learning has evolved tremendously. In my first section, I would consider the a design aspect of Successive Approximation Method(SAM) model, as I would do in a ever changing environment in a fast pace world with the Internet. I would try to create a blended learning design and incorporate it into workplace learning, as I feel most industries and organisations waste a lot of resources and time on training that become redundent.

The methodology that will be under taken will be using the SAM(Successive Approximation Method) model. It places a lot of focus on design, development and evaluation and using iterations to fine tune the process consistently. The methodology will guide the instructional designer(ID) to design and develop this blended learning approach. This model was adopted because of its iterative approaches that it undertakes and the ability to adopt to changing practices amid the rapid changes in technology.

To guide the process of SAM in this development, this first portion discusses the learner profile. The learner profile allows the ID to understand the profile of learners that requires to learn the software. The profile that strongly relates to this software are two categories of learners.

Learner profiles

 

Learners are the focus on a learning system, learning designers try to cater functions and content accessibility to the users. The technology will be a supporting tool for the accessibility of content and for the ease of usage in a learning environment. Since technology progress, we have seen the rapid expansion of MOOCs and other online learning platforms that cater to a wide variety of learners. To enforce the importance of learners in a blended learning approach, there are 3 concepts highlighted in the blended learning approach that I am adopting.

• Learning reinforcement – Learning reinforcement will be a concept that is strongly brought out in this blended learning approach. It allows the learners to recap on the main points that they lack in. As learners do take time to process the information and put it to good use, the development of this coursesite depends heavily on reminders and accessibility of content. The content must be bite size, consumable and accessible. This will draw learners to coming back to the site and grow in their desire to learn.
• workplace learning – Workplace learning would be used to bring the learners closer to their learning space. Adult learners in this context would be able to draw on their personal experience about the software and use it in their own context. They would be drawing experiences and functions that are familiar to them and use it to gain a better understanding of the software. Bringing authentic learning to the learner. hoping to bring the elements of real work experiences that designers face onto the learning platform, extend it to become a community where people can help each other. Because of how relevant the resources are inline with the workplace, the skills and knowledge used in the Learning Management System and in the classroom training environment can be applied more accurately.

• Classroom Learning – Imparting fundamental knowledge and the trainer experience. The trainers experience in imparting knowledge is fundamental to ensuring that the learners reach not only an understanding level of the course, but also the application of the software with minimal assistance. The trainer’s responsibility would heavily depend on going through events of concepts of functions relating to Illustrator. As learners try to link concepts to something that is familiar to them, the trainer would try its best to build constructivism onto majority of the learners for them to link concepts better and apply their skills more effectively.