Abstract
The assembly-line, business-as-usual model of education has changed very little in the past 100 years. Unfortunately, teachers still lecture and are often the center of learning, while students still passively listen with limited experiential opportunities. Online learning environments often follow this format as well, which is problematic for adult learners who are looking for choice, community, and engaging learning environments. This chapter will discuss the creation and use of a choose-your-own-adventure learning pathway model designed to give adult students the freedom of choice and authentic, experiential opportunities in an online graduate instructional design course. The authors will discuss the importance of constructivist learning, making engaging learning environments, and meeting the needs of graduate student learners from the perspective of teacher/designer and student/participant before offering suggestions for the redesign of adult online curriculum.
TopIntroduction
Green (2012) posited that “[e]xperiential, affective, and learner-centered learning came not from the computer age; they were already there thanks to the great American thinker John Dewey” (p. 251). Dewey began his work on progressive education following the Industrial Revolution, when education shifted from families and one-room schoolhouses to the “assembly-line model we have today” (Reigeluth & Garfinkle, 1994, p. 4) consisting of rote memorization and the repetition of facts. However, learning technologies at the time consisted mainly of chalkboards and textbooks, and learning did not correlate to the technological advancements experienced during the Industrial Age. Teachers, not students, were the center of learning. Dewey attempted to address these social changes in his theories of education because he strongly believed that students should discover the enjoyment of learning in planned, purposeful environments where their learning progressed with their inquiry (Dewey, 1938).
Both a great deal and not much has changed since Dewey spoke about experiential learning and students enjoying the learning process. While not much has changed in the application of teaching practices and the structure of education, technology has advanced so rapidly that it becomes obsolete almost as soon as it is released. Yet, technology’s role in the classroom has amplified immensely (McLeod & Graber, 2019). However, the assembly-line, business-as-usual model of education looks very much the same as it did 100 years ago. Teachers are often still the center of learning and students remain largely at desks in rows, passively listening with limited inquiry or experiential opportunities. This is especially true in online learning environments and problematic for adult learners who learn differently than children (Vallera & Lewis, 2019).
This chapter will discuss the creation and use of a Choose Your Own Adventure learning pathway model designed to give adult students the freedom of choice and authentic, experiential opportunities in an online graduate instructional design course. Choice and active learning strategies were selected to meet adult learners’ needs related to their motivation, community development, readiness to learn, and self-directed behaviors. We will discuss the importance of applying constructivist learning, creating engaging learning environments, and meeting the needs of graduate student learners. We will also discuss the Choose Your Own Adventure pathways model from the perspective of teacher/designer and student/participant before offering suggestions for the redesign of adult online curriculum.
TopBackground
Constructivism
Dewey’s philosophy toward a progressive education was built on the premise that education should be centered around the learner and involve the learner’s community and social world (Mooney, 2013). Rather than topics being taught separately from one another, Dewey (1938) believed that they should be integrated; and he stated,
One trouble is that the subject-matter in question was learned in isolation; it was put, as it were, in a water-tight compartment. When the question is asked, then what has become of it, where has it gone to, the right answer is that it is still there in the special compartment in which it was originally stowed away. If exactly the same conditions recurred as those under which it was acquired, it would also recur and be available. But it was segregated when it was acquired and hence is so disconnected from the rest of experience that it is not available under the actual conditions of life. It is contrary to the laws of experience that learning of this kind, no matter how thoroughly ingrained at the time, should give genuine preparation. (p. 48)
Dewey advocated it was the educator’s responsibility to provide purpose and meaning in the classroom. This allowed educators to build students’ social engagement with real-world materials, inquiry, and independent thinking, and strengthen previous learning connections students had made in the world (Dewey, 1938). Student experimentation would increase motivation, interest, and enjoyment in the learning process, while allowing for the transfer of that knowledge to different situations. While these ideas were radical and controversial at the time, Dewey had influenced many educational theorists, and still does to this day. His emphasis on pragmatism, exploration, and practice guided by theory remains the core of constructivist theory (Hoadley & Van Haneghan, 2012).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Self-Directed Learning: A model that describes how individuals take responsibility and the initiative to set their own goals and strategies to meet their learning needs.
Experiential Learning: A hands-on learning strategy where students learn authentically by doing.
Andragogy: A theory involving the methods, practices, and study of instructing adult learners, where it is assumed that adults learn differently than children.
Diversity: The range of cultural differences in race/ethnicity, gender, sexuality, identity, religion, ability/disability, socio-economic status, and other indicators of socially constructed characteristics.
Active Learning: A learner-centered procedure that drives audiences’ inner motivations and interests to explore, engage, and enjoy the learning process.
Engagement: A broad construct that describes a student’s participation in learning, their connection to the social context of learning, their feelings about others while learning, and their interest and motivation to learn.
Online Learning/Education: Any virtual format of delivering instruction with the use of a computer and internet connection to access materials synchronously and/or asynchronously.