Creativity and Impactful Learning Through Implicit Cognitive Vulnerability

Creating an instructional environment in which the learners can be cognitively vulnerable with the information learned, with learner colleagues, as well as with the instructional facilitator is vitally important towards information attainment and actively evaluating and revising one's own conceptual frameworking of information. The instructional engagement of the learner within the instructional environment is vitally important, towards knowledge acquisition as well as the learner's creativity towards understanding and working with the information, while emphasizing the strengths associated with impactful learning. Creativity is understood within implicit cognitive vulnerability, articulated as value, effectiveness. Further, impactful learning is understood as relationships and community, as well as respect and consciousness.

The Distance Education Phenomena

The Instructional Design field has been significantly impacted by the distance education phenomena. With the strengthening of the distance education presence, more focus has been framed around concerns related to interactive activities that built upon the importance of communications and building relationships between the course information, the learners, the instructional facilitator, and the larger community wherein the information may be more fully framed. The vast and ever-expanding distance education phenomena is moving beyond the traditional “comfort zone” of procedural Instructional Design expectations, towards a more holistic and innovative thoughtful multimedia-supported design and development process wherein the Instructional Designers must be able to engage more fully in the socio-engagement of the learner within a multimedia-supported global community of learners. This chapter describes the developments of distance education from the perspective of instructional designers.

Wyoming’s Instructional Facilitator Program

In 2006, the Wyoming state government allocated monies for the Department of Education to fund the work of Instructional Facilitators, or coaches, in schools across the state (Wyoming Department of Education, 2008). In Spring 2009, after the program had been in place for two years, an ex-post facto study was designed to examine the impact of the program on teacher practice. An online survey was used to collect data from classroom teachers throughout Wyoming’s public schools. Teachers answered questions about the extent of their work with Instructional Facilitators, the activities that they worked on with Instructional Facilitators, and the impact of their work with Instructional Facilitators on their practice. Results indicate that while a large number of teachers reported spending a small amount of time working with Instructional Facilitators, a small number of teachers reported spending a great deal of time working with Instructional Facilitators. Although differences by teaching level were apparent, the majority of respondents indicated they wished to continue working with an Instructional Facilitator and that Wyoming is spending its money wisely on the program. Discussion of these findings includes implications for Instructional Facilitator workloads and the need to focus their work on specific outcomes.

Teacher Presence

Teacher presence refers to the fully engaged instructional facilitator within a learning environment. Within this specific discussion of teacher presence, the focus is upon distributed learning environments that includes not only online learning environments but also mobile learning engagement efforts. Teacher presence engages not merely an instructional design and evaluative assessment effort, but integrally engages the learners within the instructional environment through discourse, reflective practices and supporting the motivational needs of the learner. Further, teacher presence directly impacts the motivational and cognitive support needs of learners, through instructionally appropriate actions of the instructor as a facilitative guide, as a self-regulatory maven, within a cognitive load support system, as well as mentor-focused instructional efforts.

Applying Kolb’s Learning Theory to Library Instruction: An Observational Study

Objective – This article answers the following questions: does applying Kolb’s Learning theory to library instruction enhance student engagement and will it improve librarian teaching practices? Methods – This observational study analyzed four forms of qualitative data to examine the learning experience of first year nursing students and the teaching experience of two Faculty Librarians. The four forms of data collected were: (1) post-class qualitative feedback to assess the students’ engagement; (2) library instructors’ shared teaching observations; (3) librarian peer feedback after observing each other teach; and (4) feedback from an instructional facilitator on the individual librarian’s teaching skills. Two distinct lesson plans were developed: Lesson Plan One was the first attempt at incorporating Kolb’s theory into practice and Lesson Plan Two was a refinement of Lesson Plan One. Teaching strategies were altered from one lesson plan to the next based on the instructional facilitator’s feedback. The role of the instructional facilitator was to guide the professional development of new instructors by providing them with information and feedback on their teaching skills. Results – There were perceived improvements in student engagement and teaching practice from Lesson Plan One to Two. Although the students’ reported experience remained similar from one to the next, both the librarians and instructional facilitator felt the students were more engaged and the environment seemed more collaborative when following Lesson Plan Two. With the second lesson plan, librarian instructors experienced a positive transformation as teachers, becoming facilitators of learning rather than lecturers. Conclusion – Incorporating Kolb’s theory into instructional practice resulted in librarian instructors perceiving a positive effect on both instruction and on student engagement in the teaching-learning process.

The Distance Education Phenomena

The Instructional Design field has been significantly impacted by the distance education phenomena. With the strengthening of the distance education presence, more focus has been framed around concerns related to interactive activities that built upon the importance of communications and building relationships between the course information, the learners, the instructional facilitator, and the larger community wherein the information may be more fully framed. The vast and ever-expanding distance education phenomena is moving beyond the traditional “comfort zone” of procedural Instructional Design expectations, towards a more holistic and innovative thoughtful multimedia-supported design and development process wherein the Instructional Designers must be able to engage more fully in the socio-engagement of the learner within a multimedia-supported global community of learners. This chapter describes the developments of distance education from the perspective of instructional designers.