Learning Models and Assessments
Overview
Effective learning experiences can be created by using learning models and assessments. Designers use learning models to help break down the aspects of the learning process in a way that helps provide structure and meaning. Assessments are important elements in the learning process as they provide a means for learners to get information on their progress, and for instructors to evaluate the effectiveness of the activity and what it was intended to teach. To create well-round evaluation of learner progress, it is best to use a combination of assessment techniques.
Learning Models
Experiential
Experiential learning stimulates academic inquiry though learning by doing and reflecting on the experience. This type of learning helps generate experiences for the learner to create a sense about what the experience is like, an opportunity to make decisions and reflect on the outcome of the experience and how it made them feel.
Project-Based (PBL)
PBL is an immersive model where learners encounter a real-world problem that requires them to critically investigate related content knowledge along the way to develop the skills and understanding needed to achieve the project goals.
Gamification
Gamification has strong elements of behaviorism because it applies game elements to heighten the learning experience. Leaners are motivated to cooperate or compete for the goal in the leaning opportunity through gaming features like immediate feedback, rewards, points and leaderboards.
Assessment Types
Formative
Formative assessments provided the learner with timely feedback through a series of evaluations during the learning experience. Information from the evaluations help learners adjust strategies for learning and focus on areas where they need to improve.
Summative
A summative assessment measures how well the learner achieved the intended objective at the end of the learning experience.
Authentic
Authentic assessments measure the transfer of knowledge and skills in context to real-world situations. The objectives being measured replicate specific tasks that leaners would be expected to perform in their personal and professional lives.
Learning Activity: Experiential Learning
Scenario: Practicum Paired with Didactic
Learner Demographic: Nursing Students
Scenario: Learners are in a didactic course that is paired with a practicum. The learners have an instructor in the didactic, and a preceptor in the practicum. The concepts and skills taught in the didactic prepare the learners for the practicum. In the practicum, the learners are able to practice and apply concepts and skills in a real-world setting.
Assessments for Scenario
Formative
Discussion Questions:
Students reflect and dialogue about each week’s experience in the discussion forum with peers. Discussion questions are created to also help connect information presented in the didactic to the experience in the practicum. Learner responses provided instructors a way to assess individual progress and a way to further clarify or direct learners through further prompting in the forum.
This is also a way for the instructor to reach out to individual learners as needed. Because nursing courses are standardized, there may be a limit to how much teaching methods can be adjusted to meet the needs of a specific learner.
Preceptor Check-ins:
Learners formally check in with the preceptor every three weeks to talk about the practicum and receive formal feedback.
Summative
Final Presentation:
Learning objectives for didactic content will be measured through a summative presentation. The presentation will have a rubric that has a rating scale with performance criteria that define how performance will be measured. Learners will be asked to apply what they have learned in the practicum as it pertains to nursing health assessments, delivery of care and working with diverse populations (these are examples of nursing competencies typically associated with a didactic/practicum course.
Authentic
SOAP Notes:
The learner conducts patient evaluations in the practicum setting and uses SOAP to document the patient findings.
Subjective: Chief complaint, history of present illness, and overall history.
Objective: Observation of patient and measurement of current presentation (vitals, findings from exams, lab results).
Assessment: Medical diagnosis, or potential diagnoses (must justify).
Plan: The plan for treatment based (must be based on evidence and be accurate based on recorded findings).
This is "real-world" experience that measures competence pertaining to required skills and behaviors. Some aspects include properly diagnosing, application of critical thinking and demonstration of aptitude for respectfully interacting and educating culturally diverse patients who come from different socioeconomic backgrounds.
Connections to Learning Theory
Constructivism
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Learning experience is multifaceted.
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Activity elements include problem-solving, exploration, questioning and connections to personal and professional interests to encourage intrinsic motivation.
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Learning experiences are challenging. They require individuals to utilize prior knowledge, or schema, and peer interaction so they actively explore and interact to construct new knowledge. Learning is contextual. Activities are connected to what is going on in the real world.
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Zone of Proximate Development (ZPD): Peer support, and modeling form preceptor.
Andragogy
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Adult learners have an active role in the learning process and an opportunity to organize and work on things independently.
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Diversity of learner experience, ways of learning, and different backgrounds are considered.
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Learning experiences connect new content to the adult learner’s existing perception that they bring with them.
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Content is relevant and applicable to current real-life situations.
References
Boston University Center for Teaching and Learning. (2023). Experiential Learning. Retrieved from
https://www.bu.edu/ctl/guides/experiential-learning/
Mcleod, S., (2023). Kolb’s Learning Styles and Experiential Learning Cycle. Simple Psychology. Retrieved from https://www.simplypsychology.org/learning-kolb.html
Standford: Teaching Commons. 2023, Summative assessment and feedback. Retrieved from https://teachingcommons.stanford.edu/teaching-guides/foundations-course-design/feedback-and-assessment/summative-assessment-and-feedback