Applying Learning Science

Have you ever wondered how to design courses that align with the ways that brains work? 

Inspired by the plenary speaker at the Fall 2022 eLearning Academy conference, Barbara Oakley (author of the book Uncommon Sense Teaching), a group of SCC and SFCC faculty worked together to learn more about how to leverage the science of learning for student success. 

Some of the resources that faculty reviewed included (many of these are available for checkout from the TLC's library): 

Other resources included The Coursera course Links to an external site., “Learning How to Learn” by Barbary Oakley (often offered with free enrollment), “How To Get the Most Out of Studying Links to an external site.” Youtube series from Stephen Chew. and Brain Rules website Links to an external site. from Dr. John Medina.

 

Faculty Projects from the Applying Learning Science Community of Practice (CoP) winter 2023 included the following: 

Amy Anderson: Goal Contract Brain Rules

A Anderson Goal Contract_Brain Rules.doc Download A Anderson Goal Contract_Brain Rules.doc

 

Jared Anthony: Using Unexpected Rewards

Teaching Strategies for Unexpected Rewards Links to an external site.

 

Jennifer Barson: The Pomodoro Technique

Pomodoro J Barson.pptx Download Pomodoro J Barson.pptx

 

Nicole Duvernay: How to beat Procrastination with Pomodoro

How to beat procrastination.pdf Download How to beat procrastination.pdf

 

Sam Hilton and Jamie Adrain: Retrieval Practice

What was the issue you were trying to address? 

      • Online students weren't as successful as in-person students. We wanted to find a way to engage online students more effectively. We felt that they were more disconnected to the classroom community than in-person students. 
      • Online students had lower grades. 
      • Online students needed help figuring out how to learn and remember content. We wanted to encourage "deeper learning."
      • Online students told us that they didn't have time to study. We wanted to help them study efficiently. 
      • Students were not thinking about metacognition. We wanted to help them think about their learning so that they can apply learning strategies to their professional, personal, and academic lives.

What was the learning science concept that you used? 
I focused on the idea of retrieval practice and spaced practice from the following sources:

Any suggestions or tips about how to best adopt/share/use the information with students?

      • Transparency. Talk about "why" you have certain assignments and how they help with memory and learning.
      • Consider using video responses from students. We are finding brief student video responses to be more thoughtful. Students have to pull from their own brain instead of simply copying and pasting responses from the internet. 
      • Use images whenever possible.
      • If you're going to create retrieval practice quizzes, use the test banks.
      • Use a variety of types of quiz questions (multiple choice, True/False, video) to help "make things stick."
      • Allow multiple attempts to keep these learning assignments low stakes.

Files for Students: Study Less Handout Download Study Less Handout and Study Smarter, Not Harder Links to an external site.

Erin Huebener: Retrieval Taking

E Huebener Retrieval Taking.jpg

 

Diamond Wilson: Chunking Strategies

D Wilson Chunking.pdf Download D Wilson Chunking.pdf