Overview
Learning activities serve two primary functions: to inform, and to practice. Learning activities that inform introduce the supporting knowledge that students need in order to perform the competency. Learning activities that cause practice require learners to interact with the content, processing it, and applying it so that they store what they have learned in long term memory. You design learning activities from the student’s point of view to actively engage students, leading them through the process of learning. In this lesson you will learn how to analyze your learning objectives to understand what type of information or activity is to be presented, and what the most effective method for making that presentation may be, to best match the specific learning styles of your students.
Target Competency
Design learning activities that help students master a specific competency or group of related competencies.
Linked Core Abilities
Write clearly and concisely
Think critically and creatively your program or course.
You will demonstrate your competence: o by the development of learning activities for at least one competency you’ve identified for
Your performance will be successful when: o learning activities tell students how they may learn the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary to perform the competency.
o learning activities relate directly to the core abilities, competencies, and learning objectives.
o learning activities require active learner participation.
o learning activities include a variety of learning / teaching strategies.
o learning activities support the teaching and learning cycle: inspire / motivate, teach / comprehend, guide / practice, coach / apply.
o learning activities begin with an action verb.
o learning activities are supported by accessible instructional materials.
Learning Objectives a. DIFFERENTIATE between different types of information.
b. DIFFERENTIATE between use-level and remember-level learning.
c. IDENTIFY presentation methods for each of the 5 types of information.
d. ANALYZE your learning objectives using the Content / Performance matrix.
Learning Activities
_____1.
PREVIEW the learning plan for Designing Learning Activities.
_____2.
VIEW the presentation on Designing Learning Activities. FOLLOW ALONG with the text in your manual under tab 7.
_____3.
COMPLETE all Practice Handouts. Check your work against the scoring guides prior to discussing with the larger group.

Assessment Activities
_____1.
WRITE learning activities for at least one competency in your course or program. Use
Assessment Sheet 7.1.

Now that you have had an introduction to the workings of the brain during the learning process, you are ready to work on designing the learning activities that will help your students master the learning objectives, and in turn demonstrate mastery of the competencies they support. This section will give you a tool called the Content /
Performance Matrix to help you analyze your learning objectives so you have all the information you need to design your learning activities and ensure they are appropriate for your objectives.
The Content / Performance Matrix
The Content / Performance Matrix helps you analyze the content of your learning objectives by giving you a way to classify the type of information it is and the performance level it will be used at.
Facts Concepts Procedures Processes Principles
Use
Remember
There are five classifications of information:
1.
2.
Facts: A fact is a specific piece of information about a person, place, thing, or action.
Concepts: A concept is a group of objects, ideas, symbols, or events distinguished by a single word and shared major features.
3. Procedures: A procedure is a series of sequential steps executed to accomplish a task or arrive at a decision. Procedures are performed by people and describe “how to…” XYZ. They apply to tasks that require little judgment, are specified by directive statements, and are usually written in the second person voice.
4. Processes: A process is a flow of events that describes how something works. Processes are written in narrative form, in the third person voice.
5. Principles: Principles are guidelines for action that require adaptation to specific circumstances. Principles usually contain an element of cause and effect, and are written in the second person active voice.
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There are two performance levels that describe how information is learned: the use-level, which results from elaborative rehearsal and is encoded in long-term memory, and remember-level, which results from maintenance rehearsal and may or may not get into long-term memory —most likely NOT.
Remember-level learning allows the student to simply recall or recognize factual or other information. Any of the categories of information can be learned with remember-level learning; however, the only thing the student can do with it is regurgitate it back in the same form it was learned. Rarely can a student do anything meaningful with the information. Remember-level learning corresponds to the first stair-step of each domain of Bloom’s taxonomy.
Use-level learning requires the student to apply the information to some sort of mental or manipulative task. You cannot teach information at the use-level without this element of application. Teaching facts at the use-level is tricky because facts are just meaningless pieces of information until you give them context for why they are important.
Once you give them context through elaborative practice that connects them to their related concepts, procedures, processes, or principles, then your students can use facts in meaningful ways.
Here is a table that gives some suggestions for ways to present each type of information, and activities to facilitate use-level information.
Facts Concepts Procedures Processes Principles
Presentation Tie to relevant information in other categories.
Use definitions, examples, analogies that illustrate the characteristics of the concept.
Demonstration; checklists
Examples, nonexamples and written guidelines; analogies
Activities Have students create their own task aids for facts to use during practice.
Discriminate between examples and non-examples; compare and contrast analogies; match facts or examples to concepts; case study or scenario analysis to identify concept
Practice / imitation; peer-review of procedure using checklist; selfreview using checklist; repetition; mix-up the steps, put them back in order; peerto-peer teaching
Use stage tables, cycle diagrams, flow-charts or other graphical means of displaying the process
Problem-solving that requires application of the process or analysis of breakdown in process; scenarios to predict next event according to process; decision making based on expectations according to process, or planned intervention to influence outcome of process
Logic proofs; cause-effect scenarios based on principles; logical consequence prediction scenarios; roleplays; case study problems to analyze judgments based on principles; proposal development guided by principles with justification
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Using the Matrix
To use the matrix to help you design your learning activities, start with one of your learning objectives.
EXAMPLE: DETERMINE the steps in connecting a wireless network.
Now look at the level and domain of the verb you used. Does it come from the bottom level of any of the domains in the taxonomy? If it does, you are at the remember-level of learning. If it does not, then you are at the use-level of learning.
DETERMINE is at the application level of the cognitive domain, so it is use-level learning.
Next, look at what it is the student must do —DETERMINE requires the student to find some sort of information. What do you want them to find? STEPS. Steps are usually part of a procedure. So you have now located this objective in the matrix where procedure and use-level intersect.
Facts Concepts Procedures Processes Principles
Use X
Remember
Map out all your learning objectives in this way and what you will see is how many objectives are at each performance level of learning, and how many objectives require students to interact with each type of information. If you find that all your objectives are about procedures, you can look further at that to decide if that is truly appropriate and really what you want to do.
Facts Concepts Procedures Processes Principles
XXXXXXXX XXXX XX X Use
Remember X
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Designing Learning Activities
Now that you understand about what’s happening in the brain during learning, understand how to avoid cognitive overload, and have all this information about your learning objectives, you can design your learning activities. These are the activities the students will engage in to assist in the encoding of information in long-term memory — in other words —LEARN!
There are four major principles that guide the design of effective learning activities:
1. Ensure validity and value:

This is accomplished by making sure that your learning activities target competencies and learning objectives, and that all your competencies and learning objectives are reflected in your learning activities
—a two-way street.
2. Support the thinking process:

Y ou’ve learned how to do this through o choosing student-centered activities, o chunking instruction into manageable bites, o providing frequent opportunities for elaborative rehearsal, o making sure your activities are at the use-level of learning, o planning instruction to swing between the Comprehension and
Practice stages of the learning cycle, and o building in opportunities to facilitate meta-cognition.
3. Accommodate varied learning styles:

This is accomplished through varying your methods and materials, using all four stages of the Learning Cycle, and choosing strategies that are appropriate for the content.
4. Embed core abilities:

You can do this by choosing learning activities that require the use of core abilities, and by selecting materials and resources that represent core abilities.

You may sometimes want to teach a core ability directly, but you don’t have to. You can, and should, embed the core abilities all throughout your curriculum.
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Directions: For each statement, identify if it is a fact(F) or a concept (C).
______1. The names of the parts of a printing press.
______2. The date Pearl Harbor was attacked.
______3. What personal computers can do.
______4. The causes of World War II.
______5. Printing press.
______6. What performance criteria are.
______7. The names of the parts of a personal computer.
______8. The names of Snow White’s seven dwarves.
Directions: For each statement, indicate whether each statement is a procedure
(PR) or a process (PS).
______1. Set up a printing press.
______2. How a printing press works.
______3. Boot up a computer.
______4. Make up a patient’s bed.
______5. The Krebs Cycle.
______6. How the airline reservation system works.
______7. How the brain encodes information to long-term memory.
______8. How to make an airline reservation.
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Directions: For each statement, indicate whether each statement is a principle
(PL) or a procedure (PR).
______1. Sell a product or service.
______2. Format a document according to the MLA system.
______3. Write a research paper.
______4. Format a DVD.
______5. Read the stock market listings.
______6. Select stocks for a portfolio.
______7. Troubleshoot computer problems.
______8. Install printer drivers.
Directions: For the following competencies and learning objectives in the Tent
Camping Basics course, classify each item as either a fact (F), concept (C), procedure (PR), process (PS), or principle (PL).
______1. Set up a tent.
______2. Select a campsite.
______3. Differentiate between a campfire and other types of fire.
______4. List the fire hazard codes.
______5. Practice fire prevention techniques.
______6. Build a fire ring.
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______7. Describe the cycle of combustion.
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Directions: For each of the five sample learning activities below: a.
indicate the type of content the learning activity b.
c.
addresses (fact, concept, procedure, process, or principle) in the first column.
Circle R if the learning activity is at the remember-level, or circle U if it is at the use-level.
Rewrite each remember-level example to make it a uselevel activity.
Content
_____________
_____________
_____________
_____________
_____________
Level
R U
R U
R U
R U
R U
Learning Activity
1. Name the parts of a personal computer.
2. Select a campsite.
3. List the steps for verifying customer credit.
4. Classify seeds as epigeal or hypogeal.
5. Identify strategies to improve learning.
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Use
Remember
Notes:
Directions: Using the Content/ Performance Matrix below, analyze the learning objectives you wrote in learning plan 5 (information contained in Instructional
Analysis tables) for one of your competencies. Make notes about strategies and materials you might want to use as you analyze your learning objectives.
Content/ Performance Matrix
Facts Concepts Procedures Processes Principles
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Directions: Using the notes you’ve made from analyzing your learning objectives
(Practice Handout 7.5), and keeping in mind the principles for designing effective learning activities, follow the steps below to write learning activities for at least one competency in your course or program. Self-assess your work using the scoring guide.
Guiding Principles:
1.
2.
3.
Ensure validity and value
Support the thinking process
Accommodate varied learning styles
4.
Embed core abilities
Steps for Designing Learning Activities
1.
2.
3.
Target specific competencies and core abilities
Choose an action verb to describe what the students will DO during the activity.
Describe the strategy, the content involved, delivery method,
4.
5.
resources needed, and context, such as the setting (classroom, lab, field) and collaboration (small group, partner, large group).
Write to the student.
Refer to instruction sheets for lengthy directions so that you can keep the learning activity statement brief.
Scoring Guide
Learning Activities… Yes No
1.
tell students how they may learn the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary to perform the competency.
2.
include supporting knowledge, skills, concepts, procedures, processes, attitudes or principles a student needs to perform the competency.
3.
relate directly to the core abilities, competencies, and learning objectives.
4.
require active learner participation.
5.
include a variety of learning/ teaching strategies.
6.
support the teaching and learning cycle: inspire/ motivate, teach/ comprehend, guide/ practice, coach/ apply.
7.
begin with an action verb.
8.
are supported by accessible instructional materials.
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