DESIGN PATTERNS
Supported learning theories
Applicable in-class methodologies
Ergonomic characteristics
THEORIES
CONSTRUCTIVISM
Constructivism is a foundational adult learning theory that assumes knowledge is personalized and actively constructed in a given social context. This process of negotiation involving the construction and exchange of meaning (Candy, 1991) has informed a number of practical teaching methodologies:
self-directed learning (SDL)
experiential learning
transformational learning
(Merriam & Bierema, 2013)
Dalgarno (2001) defines three varieties of constructivism:
endogenous (entirely self-directed exploration),
exogenous (teacher-assisted), and
dialectic (social interaction with collaborative scaffolding).
Each of these forms of constructivism and many the associated teaching methodologies are discussed in our critical analysis.
METHODOLOGIES
PROJECT-BASED LEARNING (PBL)
PBL is a great approach to instill deeper learning in students. It motivates students by making learning purposeful through the design of meaningful, situated learning experiences and the development of applicable real-world skills (PBLWorks, 2019).
A study by Astawa et al. (2019) reinforced the understanding the PBL can improve students’ productive skills as well as their enthusiasm, confidence, creativity, autonomy, and collaboration.
CROWD
SOURCING
Crowdsourcing the creation of content in classrooms is an ideal and efficient way to generate either material or feedback for students. This makes use of experiential learning models like communities of practice and reflective practice as well as both constructivist and connectivist learning theories. It also teaches students ways to collaborate and communicate in large groups and can also be used to generate peer-feedback.
Hills (2015) explores this concept and observes that students tend to recognize high-quality work and that this social comparison improves the overall quality of work in the class
FLIPPED CLASSROOMS
This instructional method inverts the traditional class structure providing students with more pre-class preparation time and shifting the in-class focus away from self-directed tasks and towards more collaborative discussions
(Karanicolas et al., 2012).
Students stand to receive more formative feedback from teachers who have more time in class (Rowe et al., 2013). They also perform better and are more motivated when prepared to engage in deeper, active learning through rich, authentic, and meaningful, situated learning experiences (DeLozier & Rhodes, 2017).
GAMIFICATION
Gamification and a great way to instill fun into classrooms by using game mechanics and experience design to motivate and engage students towards their goals
(Deterding et al., 2011).
Mayer (2014) highlights how games, like other multimedia, engage multiple forms of cognitive representation. Successful gamification aims to foster generative processing, a willingness to exert effort to understand the material.
Educators can use gamification principles to design more fun, engaging activities for typically mundane tasks by focusing on the user experience (UX) and placing limitations or restrictions on time or actions (Kim, 2015).
“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest”
Benjamin Franklin
ERGONOMICS
GOOGLE OFFICE SUITE
Google’s user interface (UI) is simple, practical, and accessible. It was intentionally designed to maximize the user experience (UX). New and novice users will find the single icon toolbar to be intuitive and easy to master with little practice and the option to search hotkeys in the “Help” menu assists users in developing their autonomy and proficiency with the tools.
Simple system and attention messages guide the user to correct the issue through meaningful feedback in the event of any errors (e.g. if your formula is incorrect in Sheets), consequently developing further user proficiency. Although the GOS can also scale itself to nearly any modern display, some more advanced menu options may be restricted on smaller devices in order to maintain basic accessibility, functionality, and balanced layout of the software.
Google's software is typically very well designed and adheres to most if not all of the ergonomic assessment criteria.
ANKI
This ergonomic analysis will focus on the free AnkiDroid application on the Google Play Store. Built to be simplistic, AnkiDroid offers several customizations which can be overwhelming for new users.
The UX is quite simple when practicing a deck of flashcards as users simply choose from one of four options (Again, Good, Hard, Easy) based on how they perceive to have correctly identified the word or concept which will determine how quickly that card will determine how much time will pass before being reviewed again. This makes it simple for users to recall information thus optimizing for human memory limitations (Hanson & Brown, 2020). The gesture options are also gamify the UX by making it fun for users to easily go through cards quickly and efficiently.
The UI is uniform across all devices, using the same colour palette, menu structure, and formatting, etc. The app also uses modalities in the cards themselves (text, images, videos, and audio). However, the complexity lies in the mechanics of the application. Its not immediately apparent how to increase the number of cards being reviewed and the card-creation interface lacks stock card templates nor visualizes the display of the card. It also requires some knowledge of coding. These limitations restrict new users, though many YouTubers are filling this gap.
The app creators could create more messages or a guide to walk new users through the options, or have “simple” and “expert” modes to ease users into the mechanics. In short, the functionality offered by this app is incredible, but the UX design feels clumsy due to the convoluted base configuration.
SLACK
The Slack UI is organized in a consistent, uniform manner with a standard colour template and a toolbar to display channels. This can be customized and is designed to allow users to personalize the UI according to their preference.
There are clear visual cues in the text formatting menu to draw users towards the options they may not immediately consider. For this reason, Slack does a great job at helping new users become accustomed to the complexity of this system.
Messages in the system can be sent through a variety of semiotic modes (images, video, audio, text) and also offer more advanced functionality like text formatting and video chatting.
Despite its initial complexity, Slack does a good job helping users become more accustomed to its interface through the use of a walkthrough guide. This provides new users a basis to work from rather than feeling overwhelmed tons of extraneous options.