Month: June 2023

The video I have watched is the following:

This video is an introduction to what different materials are used in building and engineering projects. It details how to determine the best materials to use, history of material use, cost associated, types of materials and sustainability. This video is only 10 minutes and provides a good coverage of the topic, while incorporating easy to follow graphics.

Interaction with Learners

The beginning of the video clearly states the intended learning outcomes and what the learner will be able to do after watching the video. Following these it would be beneficial for the students to create a list or a brain dump of what they learned right after watching the video. After watching the video an activity for students could be to analyse a simple example house and listing out what materials can be used for different elements like the walls, flooring, roof and fixtures. Then doing some research on what these materials might cost for the size of the home. This will allow the learners to take the descriptions provided in the video of what each material is used for and be able to think of how that can be designed into a home. Associating the materials with a cost will help to create the relation of why certain materials are used more than others to save on cost but have the same strength.

This video only needs the learners to listen and watch, and since it is a short video it is not very onerous on the learner to do. The activity to follow would take around 15-20 minutes, it is meant to be a short introduction to the concept and help spark connections. This activity can be done through a discussion post where the students can interact and comment on each other’s posts. Once all the discussion posts are posted in a lecture a small poll can be done for which students used which materials for the building components and talk about which are commonly used. 

One day you’re in classes and the next every class is suddenly online. How will this change the planned learning curriculum and student experience? As someone that has experienced this shift in their university experience, I want to touch on this and how my learning resource will be able to adapt in these conditions. 

Brief Intro to the Learning Design

Looking into the best building material to use for a particular type of building, choosing from: steel, concrete and timber. The current learning design is to have a mixture of theoretical teachings, in lab and material testing, and testing using quizzes/midterms/exams to evaluate a student’s learning. But as seen in the past a shift in the learning environment can change how these lessons and evaluations can change, and wanting to ensure the best outcome for the students. To do so I have listed in the below categories some strategies that I have either experienced and made my own adaptations to to make them work better or things that would work well.

Firstly when the learning environment changes it is important that a re-evaluation of what the course needs to teach and what the resulting outcomes and expectations of what the students are capable of doing after the course. Expecting the exact same outcomes of a course that has gone from in person classes to fully online is unrealistic, there will have to be changes made to how evaluations are done.

Theoretical Teachings

This would be the lecture style classes where the professor has a slideshow and goes through material and does some examples on the chalkboard. This is simple to replicate over a zoom meeting, same slideshow and using the whiteboard option on the zoom meeting to annotate. An additional step would be to ask students to give a ‘thumbs-up’ emoji at intervals during the lecture to gauge the understanding and engagement. Since looking at faces and feeling the energy of a physical classroom is not an option. Learning online just sitting and looking at a computer can be difficult especially at home where getting distracted can be easier. Thus taking multiple 1-2 minute breaks can give students a chance to stand/stretch and refocus.  

Lab & Material Testing

Having hands on experience is a very important part of this learning design, which is also the hardest to capture the learning and skills when not being able to meet in person and be physically hands on. The best way is to conduct the lab students would conduct either as a video or over zoom to demonstrate the equipment and procedure of testing. Data collected from the testing can then be given to the students to create a lab report and document their learning. Other additional or supplementary learning can be used like making a vlog (video blog) about the different materials students have in their place of residence or in surrounding areas. This allows students to connect theoretical learning to what they see in day to day life.

Exams

Lastly, how can exams be done in a productive way that adequately evaluates the learning? This comes down to asking certain types of questions, simple multiple choice or true false about material properties or facts are not as productive because this online learning environment allows for having notes/course materials available. So asking questions that are design related, or giving a set of information and asking the student to make decisions based on the situation would be the better option. Still allowing for evaluating the learning outcomes but asking for more deeper thinking rather than simple questions.