The Interactive Learning Resource on Dietary Supplements effectively integrates universal design principles by incorporating multiple means of engagement, representation, and action and expression. The learning activities, such as the fact-or-lie exercise, critical reading, and scenario-based evaluations, promote robust learner-to-material interactions, enabling students to critically analyze supplement claims. Group activities and the discussion forum foster meaningful learner-to-learner engagement, encouraging collaboration and peer feedback.
Areas of Improvement
Although the resource includes strong interactive elements, there are opportunities to deepen its universal design principles and interactivity. Expanding the use of digital tools, such as online quizzes or interactive multimedia scenarios, could enhance learner-to-material interactions and keep students engaged in modern learning environments. Additionally, while group discussions encourage collaboration, more structured feedback mechanisms or peer review rubrics could make learner-to-learner interactions more effective. Finally, the inclusion of culturally diverse perspectives and examples related to supplement use would enrich the material, making it more inclusive and relevant to a broader range of learners.
Overall Comments/Suggestions
The resource is well-crafted and demonstrates a thoughtful approach to engaging students with critical thinking and practical applications. To improve, incorporating adaptive technology, such as gamified assessments or personalized learning pathways, could further enhance learner engagement and material comprehension. Structured guidelines for group activities and discussions would make peer interactions more impactful. Expanding on universal design by including more varied means of expression—such as video or audio submissions for assignments—would cater to different learners’ strengths.
I really enjoyed your use of ChatGPT and perplexity to create a story about teaching kids long division; I wish learning long division was this memorable for me! What struck me most in your reflection is your insight of how AI will affect academic integrity on a post-secondary level; as the deployment of AI grows, policies need to be set to ensure that students are still learning the content that they are supposed to be.
It’s truly breathtaking to see where the development of AI will take us into the future. Awesome job!
In this module, I was given the opportunity to analyze generative AI tools learn more about how they operate. Being one of the biggest buzzwords in the world, the multifaceted use of AI undoubtedly raises questions about the future of multiple industries. As a computer science major, learning about the breakthroughs of AI is becoming imperative to stay competitive, knowledgeable, and employable in the field. The two tools that I opted for were ChatGPT 3.5 and DALL-E 2, both owned by OpenAI. Learning about the use and evolution of AI is something that I am personally passionate about and I aspire to have a career within that sphere.
ChatGPT
In ChatGPT, I used text prompts to generate information pertaining to the list of uses provided in the module description. These prompts aim to prospectively help me with creating my lesson in Module 4, The benefits of nature in mental health.
(OpenAI, 2023)
In my first prompt, I had the program brainstorm ideas to explain some ways that nature directly affects your mental health.
(OpenAI, 2023)
Following that, I had the program generate simple explanations for complex topics by allowing it to elaborate on the 3rd point above, enhanced cognitive function.
(OpenAI, 2023)
Finally, out of curiosity, I had the program write code and create a sample project in the Python programming language that simulates the theoretical “goodMood” value become true after running through the function natureWalk(). This program aims to satirically show that going to on a walk in nature improves your mood.
DALL-E
In DALL-E, I took a similar approach to my use of ChatGPT and used text prompts to generate images that visually express what immersing yourself in nature can do for your mental well-being.
(OpenAI, 2023)
Prompt used: “A cartoon of a person who looks happy and in a good mood while going for a nature walk.”
(OpenAI, 2023)
Prompt used: “A before-and-after cartoon, where the person goes from in their room in a sad mood, to in nature in the sunshine in a good mood.”
Reflection Questions
Have you used AI applications before? If you have, what have you used them for?
The two free tools that I chose to examine, ChatGPT and DALL-E, are resources that I have utilized in the past out of curiousity or to finish schoolwork where appropriate. In my software engineering class, the use of GPT to get through labs and assignments is encouraged so long as you source the material. When tackling such tasks, using GPT can get you past roadblocks and give you mildly accurate solutions without scraping the internet. However, it is imperative that once a solution is obtained, a student should be able to interpret the answer and learn to derive it on their own. With regards to DALL-E, I have only experimented with it on my own because I am intrigued by a tool that can generate photos with a simple prompt. These tools from OpenAI have shown to be useful for me and I plan to make use of them in the future as they evolve.
What ethical concerns do you have (or not have) about the use of some of these tools? (signatures from artists without their consent)
An ethical concern that I have surrounding AI is copyright infringement and proper credit. As stated in the module description, the lines clarifying who owns which types of content have been blurred and certain court cases can be a toss-up. This applies for generated text, images, and things of the like. Since these models effectively scrape the internet for copious amounts of data to become “smarter”, it raises the question about what happens when copyrighted content is emulated by AI very closely, if not exactly. For instance, there exist companies who create AI models that generate portrait-like images of you if you input a few photos of your face. In the generated images, you may sometimes be able to see the signature of an artist responsible for creating the background or other aspect of the photo that the AI scraped from the web, where presumably the original artist was not accredited with their part of the creation. Some examples of these companies are LensaAI and AnimalAI.
Moreover, information privacy breaching is another concern that I have with these tools. As AI grows in popularity and accessibility, it will become much easier for bad actors to exploit AI to generate sensitive data and/or personal information. For example, the popular use of AI to simulate human voices in what is called a “deepfake” is making it extremely difficult to distinguish real from artificial which open the doors for scams, crimes, and other malicious acts.
Where do you think these tools will be in their evolution in 2-3 years’ time?
Considering the exponential leaps in the development of these tools and their capabilities over the last year which was arguably spearheaded with the release of ChatGPT, I think that AI tools will be farther in development and implementation that any of us can roughly predict. I am an advocate that AI on roughly every level can be used in tandem with human intelligence to solve problems and accomplish tasks. However, as mentioned before, I see the works of AI seeping into every industry that sees it fit, firstly looking to augment tasks that are strongly automated. While I don’t have insight on how AI will affect each industry individually, I am confident that the way that AI learns to use big data will be key to how that industry changes, however that may be. From automated healthcare diagnostics to automated voice actors in your favorite cartoons, I think AI is moving closer to widespread adaptation faster than we realize.
References
OpenAI. (2023, Nov. 20). [ChatGPT response to a prompt about examples improving mental health by immersing yourself in nature]. https://chat.openai.com/
OpenAI. (2023, Nov. 20). [ChatGPT response to a prompt about an insightful paragraph about nature enhancing cognitive function]. https://chat.openai.com/
OpenAI. (2023, Nov. 20). [ChatGPT response to a prompt about creating a Python script to simulate setting a goodMood value to true by going on a Nature Walk]. https://chat.openai.com/
OpenAI. (2023, Nov. 20). [DALL-E response to a prompt about a cartoon of a person who looks happy on a nature walk]. https://labs.openai.com
OpenAI. (2023, Nov. 20). [DALL-E response to a prompt about a cartoon about a person going from a bad mood to a good mood through nature]. https://labs.openai.com
I really enjoyed your approach to this lesson; it follows while the template perfectly and gives a succinct amount of resources/tips at each step. I specifically took a liking to your activity for students to walk around a sports facility and try different sports so they can experience first-hand the benefits of being active and have fun while doing it. This clearly promotes active learning and sheds light on the ideas taught in Bloom’s taxonomy; for example, getting students to actively participate, remember rules, and carrying discipline to other areas of their life.
I appreciate you reassuring that my choice to be active everyday is a good one. Awesome job!
I think you have created a comprehensive lesson plan that utilizes Merrill’s Five Principles and Bloom’s Taxonomy in order to teach a practical lesson in life: saving money. The content, infographics, and read/watch content successfully align with your learning objectives. In particular, I enjoyed your reflection question, “What kind of shopping discounts do you find most attractive to you, and why?” because it allows the reader to reflect on their experiences and preferences and analyze how they may be able to use the content to help them personally.
I appreciate you giving providing some useful Black Friday tips that I will put to use this week. Great job!
This module walked me through the principles of learning design and instruction, as well as gave me the opportunity to experiment with a tool that is used to create engaging learning activities in H5P. I followed a provided lesson template to outline the objectives and instructions of a course centred around the effects of nature on mental health. The H5P tool I created gives students a chance to test their knowledge by placing the words in their respective boxes to correctly complete sentences.
Reflective Question: Where do you see constructive alignment and backward design used in this course or another course you are taking/have taken?
I can see constructive alignment and backward design used in many of my computer science courses at UVic. For example, in a course similar to numerical analysis, where we use numerical approximations and methods to solve problems, this course is first constructed with the end goal in mind; the course rubrics detail an exhaustive list of the methods and applications that one should understand and be ready to utilize having completed the course. Moving forward to assessment development, these courses usually consist of 1-3 midterm examinations in addition to a final exam to ensure that all of the course material and the corresponding course objectives are covered cumulatively up until a given point. Finally, the instruction takes form in the centuries-old structure, lectures. In these types of courses, this method of instruction proves well because success in the course is predicated upon learning the lecture content and using that knowledge to perform well on assignments and tests. Therefore, students can take whatever approach they desire to be able to do so; this can imply self-studying for some students. In this way, the ability to learn the material is not necessarily contingent on being present in the classroom. As a result, students will not be penalized for not adapting to a certain way of teaching that is best for learning that course’s content.
This flexibility in instruction is what leads me to believe that courses that are very number and theory-heavy leave instruction design the last of it’s priorities.
These same principles follow regardless of whether the course content consists of algorithm finding, coding, software development policies, theory, or a mix of the above.
Course: The Benefits of Nature for your Mental Health
Overview
In this week’s lesson we are going to learn about how surrounding yourself with nature can improve your mental health. The state of your mental health directly influences your quality of life. Amidst the busy lifestyles that we all seemingly live, the significance of connecting with the environment around us is often overlooked. Research has shown that immersing yourself in nature can have tremendous effects on improving your mental health. Whether you are looking to reduce stress or foster a sense of calm or rejuvenation, exposure to nature is definitely an outlet that you should consider to foster mental and emotional stability.
On BBC, Dr Julie Smith demonstrates the benefits of immersing yourself in nature to improve your mental health, and 5 tips to ensure that you can find nature despite your busy lifestyle.
Content
Students will be informed of the importance of taking care of one’s mental-well being through examples and bullet-points
Students will be shown an informative and labelled infographic illustrating the cognitive benefits of nature on mental health
Students will be told stories from the teachers’ or other individuals’ perspectives on how nature improved their mental well-being
Application
H5P Tool: Students can demonstrate their knowledge using the provided H5P tool to test what they have learned thus far.
Reflection
Explore and Discuss: Students are advised to set aside 15-30 minutes to spend mindlessly in nature. It is encouraged to find a nature path or sanctuary if possible, and walk around there; however, it can be any natural setting, such as a park, forest, beach, or a regular stroll outside. Be mindful of your emotions and mood while exploring this setting. Ask yourself: How does being in this setting affect my mood? What can I smell, see, hear, or even taste that enhances my experience? What emotions came to the surface? Write a paragraph on your observations and comment on another student’s response.
To Do This Week
Read/Watch the provided articles and video above
Take note of the importance of mental health care and provided personal examples
Study the provided infographic provided
Complete the H5P tools; the wordsearch and the fill-in-the-blank
The learning purpose of my video is to teach others how to clean their white sneakers. The popularity of white sneakers has been skyrocketing over the past decade, and this choice results in dirtier looking footwear doing everyday tasks than otherwise in a different color pair of shoes. I personally have own a few white sneakers and advocate that maintaining their cleanliness and condition ensures that they look fresh and last as long as possible.
Which of the principles we’ve covered this term (e.g., Mayer/Universal Design for Learning/Cognitive Load Theory) did you incorporate into your design and why?
CLT – address Intrinsic cognitive load as I defined all of the tools such as washcloth, dish soap, towel, etc. to be used before undergoing the process
CLT – address Extraneous cognitive load through the temporal contiguity principle) as I performed a voiceover to work perfectly with timed visuals
Mayer’s Principle: Voice – the voiceover is very conversational as it makes learning a procedure that is very hands-on much easier to follow.
Mayer’s Principle: Coherence – the captured video, and consequently, the voiceover only encapsulates the necessary parts of the procedure and nothing else.
What was challenging about capturing your own video? How would you approach capturing video differently next time?
What I found difficult about capturing my own video was choosing the right camera angle to ensure that the listener can feasibly see everything that I am doing in detail since this is a hands-on process. In order to obtain the angle of the bathroom countertop, I had to place a cardboard box on top of a wooden table. I feel that I comfortably captured all necessary angles to highlight the techniques and tools that I used so that someone can see and understand them clearly. This will be something that I will put more emphasis on when I capture a video in the future; I will try to rationalize the proper tools that I need to capture effective video based on the context of it. For example, if I were to film a hands-on tutorial video similar to this in the future, it may be a good idea to invest in a head/chest phone strap to give the audience a clear view of what I am doing with my hands and the tools around me.
Video:
Video Script:
Hi, my name is Justin and I am going to show you a simple way to clean your white sneakers!
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So in order to do this, you’re going to need the shoes that you’re cleaning, a towel to keep your counter clean, a soft bristle brush, some dish soap, some warm water in a bowl, a washcloth, and finally some paper towel.
First we’ll take off the laces of the shoes to enable deeper access and to prevent damage to laces themselves. So after adding about a teaspoon of soap into the water mixture, we’re going to dip the bristle brush in.
Give the brush 1 or 2 seconds to absorb the solution and start wiping all along the upper, the tongue, and the midsole. I find that cleaning the outsole, or the bottom of the shoe, doesn’t work the best with this solution and may require other mixtures such as baking soda. Cleaning deep stains may also require a different solution such as OxiClean, which is outside the scope of this video. Be sure to apply a fair amount of pressure when brushing the shoe on the sides, and when applying pressure to the top of the shoe, place your other hard inside of the shoe under the area in question to prevent shoe deformation. Don’t be alarmed if the inside of the shoe gets a bit damp or wet, as this will be fixed when the whole shoe is set out to dry. This method works best on leather shoes, such as the ones that I am cleaning. For best results, give each shoe 2 rounds of brushing to remove as much dirt and spots as possible.
However, if there are still little bits of dirt that aren’t coming off, dip a small piece of the washcloth into the solution and do your best to rub that out with a bit of pressure. Now, Repeat for the other sneaker.
Once both shoes are coated in the solution and have been brushed decently thoroughly, run the washcloth under warm water and gently start to wipe the shoe and remove the solution. Be sure to remove all spots of soap as possible. Do this twice if necessary.
Now, just before we leave them to dry, we will insert some paper towel on the inside to absorb excess moisture to accelerate the drying process and retain shoe shape.
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After the shoes have been cleaned, we can then leave them out to dry, ideally outside close by for faster drying.
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We can then use the leftover solution to soak the shoelaces.
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Then after 3-4 hours of drying, your shoes are ready for your next adventure. Thanks for watching!
In this module, I learned about the myriad of benefits that effective storytelling can have with regards to learning and making connections. Storytelling allows people to more well-rounded; whether you’re a writer or a reader, storytelling allows people to understand different perspectives in a multitude of situations. In the video ‘The Power of Story in Teaching’, the narrator breaks down the value of good storytelling. They describe that storytelling:
Creates meaning through experience
Holds more depth than a single example
Develops individuals’ creativity
Helps people connect the dots from theory to the real world
Evokes empathy
With respect to multimedia learning, it is clear how we can use storytelling to our advantage. By placing learners in situations, strengthening their intuition for story takeaways, and increasing memory retention, we maximize our ability to teach students valuable lessons in and out of the classroom.
Experimenting with Twine
Using Twine gave me an opportunity to be creative. After learning about different storytelling techniques and methods, Twine was an excellent platform to put them to use. While understanding the interface took a bit of time, it was easy once I got the hang of it. My Twine story depicts an individual who is coming to terms with switching majors in University and exploring the different career possibilities that result from their choices. I built this story similar to that of a video-game decision tree which are akin to the nonlinear branched narratives that Twine is built to create.
Reflection Question: Describe a meaningful learning experience that started with a story that you heard. What made it impactful for you? What senses did it appeal to? Did you recognize any of the storytelling techniques reviewed this week?
A story that I vaguely recall from high school comes to mind. Before I proceed to tell the story, I’d like to issue a small trigger warning for the sensitive content provided in the upcoming paragraphs. All of the students had gathered in the gymnasium to hear from a guest speaker to highlight the dangers of impaired driving. For the sake of clarity and to prevent repetition, let’s call this guest speaker Dan. Dan, equipped with a slideshow presentation, described the unfortunate aftermath of allowing his daughter to hang out with her friends at the beach. When Dan’s daughter denied the presence of alcohol and/or fast drivers at the beach, he allowed her to go.
After a few hours, Dan gets a call that his daughter was involved in an accident. When he shows up to the scene, he notices a car that appeared to have had a catastrophic accident. It had turned out the driver of the car holding 5 people was speeding too fast and crashing into the pole, causing many fatalities. However, one individual that had been sitting in the center-back seat had survived. To Dan’s dismay, it was not his daughter.
A few of the storytelling techniques that Dan used were:
Immerse your audience in a story: Throughout the entirety of Dan’s story, he provided us with supplemental images of the situation and relevant scenes that helped us get a visual grasp of what he was describing at any given point.
Tell a personal story: The courage that Dan demonstrated to share this story enabled us to connect with him on an emotional level. We were able to experience his hardship and feel as emotions as if they were almost ours. He shared this experience with us to demonstrate that anybody in that room could have made that wrong decision and end up in a similar circumstance.
Create suspense – Dan created tension in the story when he appeared at the scene and was rushing to see who the survived individual was and recreated the emotion during the moment.
End with a positive takeaway – Dan went on to express how the memory of his daughter lives within him and that he dedicates his work to minimizing the chance of this happening to as many individuals as possible through persuasive and informative decision making. While there wasn’t an inherent positive takeaway, he mentions the familiar adage that should be implanted in everyone’s minds: Don’t drink and drive.
I enjoyed your breakdown of the Wave Description tool. I have also been noted to present alt text in my article as well so I am glad that this tool presents those errors to us and how to correct them.
I am also intrigued by your infographic. Having learned Cognitive Load Theory before, I can affirmatively say that you have not left out any important details and ideas while making a visually appealing infographic. Your use of hierarchy and repetition ensures that readers can draw patterns between the ideas and take in the message that you are conveying. Great job!
Great job on your screencast and reflection! As someone who hasn’t uploaded a public YouTube video before, your video provided through insight on the process from beginning to end. I appreciate how you highlighted certain details such as link sharing and playlist adding which could have just as easily been forgotten about. With regards to your reflection about the principles of multimedia learning, you made great use of the signalling principle when you zoomed into ‘Upload Video’ button in the beginning of the video to ensure the learner knew exactly where to go.
