Learning Gap and Instructional Needs

​

In the wake of the George Floyd protests in 2020, it became apparent that many people in the U.S. do not understand the concept of systemic racism or the history associated with it in the country. There are so many examples of how this has shaped our society, it is shocking that it has not been taught in schools for so long. Even adults, who were taught in schools that suppressed this information, need somewhere to start beyond what they read debated in the news or social media.

​

This module incorporates the ThingLink interactive poster and podcast episode I have already described. It gives those learning experiences a context and provides both formative and summative assessments.

​

 

Instructional Strategy 

 

To be honest, my plan for this module was influenced by the features offered on this free trial of the iseazy.com eLearning authoring tool. However, with some extra work, I was able to include everything I had hoped plus a couple of things I thought of once I saw its capabilities. The goal here was to enlighten, establish relevance and legitimacy to the topic, spark interest in further inquiry, and provide learners with quality assets (both original and curated) to develop a position on what our top priorities should be right now. It was important to include different mode of multimedia and make it as interactive as possible. The practice questions at the end are meant to push the learner to explore more of the ThingLink interactive poster without being so difficult as to create cognitive overload. I felt it was important to try to get them to explore topics they are not familiar with or may look boring, but are important and may help give them greater understanding of the issues. Of course, the summative assessment has to be open-ended and authentic.