Map Content to Goals
Map content to student-centered goals to promote self-directed, generative learning
1. Establish clear learning objectives
A learning objective is what you hope learners will be able to do as a result of their learning. Consider cognitive, behavioral, and affective outcomes. Incorporate empathy and the whole learner by including what learners should know, what they should be able to do, and how their feelings or attitudes might change.
Here's an example of learning outcomes for a tutorial on how to go from topic to keywords:
- Explain what a keyword is in the context of database searching.
- Select appropriate keywords to search for resources about research topic.
- Feel confident in ability to construct a keyword search in JumboSearch.
To learn how to write actionable and observable learning objectives, take a look at this Foundations in Learner-Centered Design module on learning objectives.
2. Create content aligned with your goals
How will you put your goals into action and observe whether students achieve them? Develop activities that allow students to engage with the skill you want them to practice and incorporate modes of assessment. Starting with learning outcomes and then designing instruction aligned with those objectives is called backwards design.
3. Limit scope to your user's needs
Help students recognize that the content has the information they need, otherwise they'll look elsewhere.
- Stick to one or two learning objectives. Don't try to accomplish too much!
- State the learning objectives so students can quickly identify them.
Resources for Learning Objectives
Writing meaningful, measurable learning objectives is HARD! Here are some useful resources to help you define learning goals for your students.
Scaffold Content
Organize content in an approachable, scaffolded way
Create content that helps students learn to satisfy their own needs. Rather than providing a list of what the currently need, show them where to look for what they might need. Connect your students with strategies and tools rather than sources.
1. Reduce cognitive load to make your content usable
What does cognitive load mean to instructional designers? Cognitive load is the amount of working memory used by the learner to perform a task or understand a piece of information. Educational psychologist John Sweller posited that good instructional design reduces the cognitive load on the user.
Some quick and easy ways to reduce cognitive load for the learner include:
- Use navigational signals like headers, bolding, short paragraphs, and bullet points to create clear and scannable content that helps users quickly identify what is useful to them
- Use plain language - avoid jargon and define terms
- Use consistent terminology across content
- Provide multiple ways to engage with content (i.e. video, text, screenshot, interactive examples) so users can self-select what works best for their learning style
2. Scaffold content to help students work toward mastery
Journey mapping is a great way to think through scaffolding and put your empathy skills to use. Create a map of a process that your student might do that captures every step:
- A timeline could be a good way to capture the process
- Be comprehensive! Include steps that may seem meaningless, break big steps into smaller ones
- Note down your student’s emotions at each stage
- How many steps are required to accomplish the task?
- Ask yourself why and how about each step
- Look for patterns and insights
I like using Google JamBoard to do this. I made a sample learning journey map for the process of writing an annotated bibliography. Make a copy of this learning journey map template to use in your design practice.
