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Re-Design for Remote Learning Toolkit
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A 5-Step Approach
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A 5-Step Approach

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#4 Brainstorm Activities

Now for the fun part...creating ways to make learning fun & make it stick!

Think of activities as short ‘bursts’ of learning—with no more than 6 minutes of content presentation. This keeps Learners engaged and helps with retention, especially in remote learning experiences.
Here’s how...
Create engaging ‘remote-friendly’ Activities to support each Topic. We’ve made it easier by pre-populating the list of ‘Activity Types’. Add a variety of different types of activities to keep Learners engaged and to reinforce new concepts in different ways.
For example, you could start with a ‘Quiz’ game or ‘Video Clip’ to grab people’s attention, then go into a 5 minute intro ‘Talk.’ These activities can be in-person, online, or both—it’s up to you.
Pro Tip:
* Need Activity ideas? Refer to tried and true tools like
Bloom’s Taxonomy
⁠
and the
Bloom’s Taxonomy Wheel
⁠
for ideas on digital/online activities to keep learning active, social, and applied.
* Want to re-think your design? Explore the
Universal Design for Learning Guidelines
⁠
(UDL) and
checklist
⁠
to ensure your learning experience covers every aspect of ‘What’, ‘Why’, and ‘How’ of learning experiences and is learner-focused.
* Want to add your own Activity ‘types’? Just type it into the ‘Activity’ column and select your new type (the pop-up with the plus sign (’+’)) to add it to your list of Activity ‘types’
⁠

🤾‍♂️ #1: Suggest Learning Activities for each Topic

⁠
Instructions
1. Select a topic from the ‘Topic’ dropdown list so you can work on developing the Activities and Content one Topic at a time

2. Add Activities to help Learners learn, reinforce, recall, and relate Topic to real-world examples

Pro Tip:
* To help Learners with engagement and retention, attempt to increase the ‘Learner Effort’ as you move through the module. The higher the 'Effort value’, the higher the level of learning.
* To learn more, see
Bloom’s Taxonomy
⁠
and the
Bloom’s Taxonomy Wheel
⁠
.
* Add some ‘Activity Notes’. Here’s where you can describe Learner options for in-person, participate via video, or watch recorded session.
* To learn more about hybrid learning solutions, check out this
this guide
⁠
developed after the COVID-19 impact on learning experiences.

Topic:
Welcome/Intro
⁠

[ Estimated Time of Activities for this Topic:
10 mins
⁠
]


Activity Planning (Sorted by Learner Effort)

⁠
Add an Activity
⁠
⁠
Activities
8
Activity
Duration (mins)
Activity Notes
Approach(es)
Learner Effort
1
Structured Notetaking
10 mins
Welcome & Intro Video: Interview or short story
Active Listening
1. Remember
No results from filter
⁠


⁠

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 #2: Add Remote & Asynchronous Options (if applicable)

⁠
Instructions
We’re ready to add the ‘remote’ and ‘asynchronous’ learning options for all our Activities, if applicable.

1. Use the following worksheet to design a few Remote options (’live’, online video/video interactions) & Asynchronous options (online, but on-demand) options for each Activity.
Pro Tip: This requires a bit of a mindset-shift, so check out the ‘Additional Resources’ page for some inspiration. To learn more,
read this article
⁠
and
check out this example
⁠
.

2. Use the ‘Comments’ section to ask other co-creators for feedback and ideas on a particular Activity. Pro Tip: Use the
at (@) mention code
⁠
in the Comments field to tag other members on the team to message them about something specific directly on each Topics page.
Search
Welcome/Intro
Welcome/Intro
Week 2 Intro
Week 2 Intro
Week 3 Intro
Week 3 Intro
Topic
Welcome/Intro
Keypoints
Keypoint1
Keypoint2
Related Learning Outcome
Learning_Outcome_01
⁠


⁠

🗺️ #2: Take a step back to see how it all looks

⁠
Instructions
Now is a good time to take a look at the draft of your Design Plan to check the following:

⁠
⁠
Are the Topics sequenced in a logical way? Do they flow well? If something’s missing, go back to
#3 Develop Content
⁠
to work on the Topics

⁠
⁠
Are there too many Activities (or too few) planned for each Session, given the time allotted.
Pro Tip: Some universities use the following guideline:
* 50-min for classes that meet 3 times/week
* 75-min for classes that meet 2 times/week
* 2h 45min for classes that meet once/week

⁠
⁠
Is there a good mix of ‘Activity Types’ in each Session? Do the Activities require more 'Effort’ as Learners move along. Go back to Step #1 above ☝️ if you need to move Activities around.

⁠
⁠
Are the Lecture & Video Content pieces broken up into small enough chunks—of no more than 6 minutes? If so, how can you break them up?

View Activity Details by Week

[ Estimated Time of Activities for this Topic:
0
⁠
]

Select a session to view:
Week 1
⁠

Topic
Approach(es)
Learner Effort
Activity
Duration (mins)
In-Person
Remote
Offline
Session
No results from filter
⁠

View the overall Flow of Activities

Session
Topic
Activity
Duration (mins)
Learner Effort
Session 1
Welcome/Intro
Structured Notetaking
10 mins
1. Remember
Session 2
Week 2 Intro
RolePlay
15 mins
​
Session 3
Week 3 Intro
Lecture Content
6 mins
2. Understand
⁠


And, the last and final step:
#5 Start Building
⁠
»

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