What Are The Hallmarks of Good In Person Teaching?
Courses that happen in real time adhere to the properties of good adult learning - often referred to as andragogy. Keeping adult learners engaged and motivated has its own set of guidelines. Watch the short instructional video to find out more.
Well-designed content based on clear learning outcomes and a logical sequence of input, output, assessment, and application is key to learning no matter what technology delivery is in use. Consistent structure with regular formative and summative feedback whether in person or via teleconferencing or LMS systems reduces cognitive processing loads and increases learner confidence in the course.
Create Social Learning
An instructor’s main job is to co-create a welcoming, inclusive, safe community of contributing learners. Provide time and space for quality content input, questions, discussion, dissent, and hypothesis testing in all modalities. Be present both synchronously and asynchronously to model expected levels of engagement.
Utilize Pre-Existing Competence
Adult learners analyze new information against existing mental models. They tend to be informed, complex, and questioning learners. Their full lives outside of school compel them to maximize learning time, seek immediate work-life application, and question the benefit of content and activities. In all modalities, find out what learners already know and think about the subject matter to determine your starting point. Create opportunities to test out new ways of thinking and encourage learners to adopt a growth mindset in areas where they may lack confidence.
When feasible, offer adult learners a choice about their learning and involve them in decisions about assignments, assessments and scheduling. Facilitate autonomous, targeted knowledge construction by providing a wide variety of supplemental learning resources to explore non-sequentially. Include an archive of all prior course materials to date for additional independent review.
Support Adult Cognition
Humans are pattern seekers and storytellers, so engage learners with narrative, imagery, and novelty. The brain is best at pulling in and incorporating new information that is presented via multiple senses in small, sequential chunks. It wires learning connections best in low stress, high reward environments. It learns most deeply and permanently through experiential hands-on projects, role plays, simulations, etc. It retains most effectively when information is periodically recycled and applied to an increasing number of situations. Scaffold learning materials and provide periodic reminders such as job aids, checklists, etc. to help with short term memory challenges in asynchronous modalities.