This document summarizes a presentation on customizing learning for quality and rigor given at Florida International University. It discusses defining quality and rigor in education and three strategies for customizing learning: 1) designing core concepts with optional learning experiences, 2) incorporating flexibility and choice in roles, collaborations and assessments, and 3) designing sharing and collaboration activities to build expertise. The presentation argues that customizing learning in this way can increase learning quality, rigor and student satisfaction by making learning more personalized.

1. FIU Online Conference – March 30 2012
Florida International University
CUSTOMIZING AS QUALITY
“CODDLING” — A PATH TO
QUALITY LEARNING AND EXPERTISE
Challenging
Energizing
Judith V. Boettcher, Ph.D.
Satisfying Designing for Learning
University of Florida
judith@designingforlearning.org
March 30 2012 1

2. Why Promote Customized Learning?
Increases learning quality, rigor
and satisfaction
Is easy, doable, and exciting
At the heart of how we learn – we
are all constructivists
Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Randy Buckner, Ph.D and the Laboratory of Neuro Imaging
www.humanconnectomeproject.org
2

3. SEQUENCE OF TOPICS
Getting a handle on quality
and rigor
Three Customizing Design
Strategies — What, how and
why
Why customizing brings quality
and why it deepens the
student-centered movement
Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Randy Buckner, Ph.D and the Laboratory of Neuro Imaging
www.humanconnectomeproject.org
March 30 2012 3

4. ONE CHALLENGE – WHAT ARE STUDENTS
LEARNING AND HOW DO WE MEASURE IT?
“A Lack of Rigor Leaves
Students 'Adrift' In
College”
“No measurable improvement in
critical thinking skills through four years
of education.”
February 9 2011 NPR Interview with Richard Arum, one of coauthors of
Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses. Richard
Arum is a professor of sociology at New York University
http://www.npr.org/2011/02/09/133310978/in-college-a-lack-of-rigor-leaves-students-adrift
March 30 2012 4

5. CHALLENGE — GRADUATION RATES AS A
MEASURE
“The Rise and Fall of the
Graduation Rate”
March 2, 2012
chronicle.com/article/The-RiseFall-of-
the/131036/
“Do College-Completion
Rates Really Measure
Quality?”
March 2, 2012
http://chronicle.com/article/Do-
College-Completion-Rates/131029/
Based on 2004 data from 30 public 4 year institutions in Florida
March 30 2012 collegecompletion.chronicle.com/ 5

6. DEBATE IS HEATING UP AS
IMPLEMENTATION BEGINS
“Completion and Quality at CUNY”
March 22, 2012
• A slimmer, standardized core curriculum of
30 credits for CUNY‟s 23 campuses”
• Laudable goal - facilitate transfer and
promote curricular alignment
• Feud over speeding up of graduation rates
vs. sacrificing quality of a CUNY degree
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/03/22/cuny-faculty-sue-
March 30 2012
block-new-core-curriculum 6

7. KEEPING TRACK OF THE ISSUE
Association of Colleges
What is
and Universities Quality?
(AACU) – “Completion
and Quality News
Watch”
http://www.aacu.org/leap/newswatch.cfm
March 30 2012 7

8. A PRIMARY CATALYST FOR
ONLINE LEARNING WAS
ACCESS; NOW OUR
CATALYST FOR CHANGE IS
QUALITY AND STUDENT
SUCCESS
March 30 2012 8

9. DEFINING QUALITY
When you hear someone talk about a
high quality online course, what images
or descriptors “pop” into your head?
Growing
connections,
data
What is
links, synapse Quality?
s
Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Randy Buckner, Ph.D and
March 30 2012the Laboratory of Neuro Imaging www.humanconnectomeproject.org9

10. DEFINING QUALITY – DO THESE WORK?
Exciting — I pondered deep questions
Energizing – I created something useful and
meaningful to me and for others
I struggled thinking about serious problems and ideas
My teacher really “dialogued” and was involved
Analytical – I made choices on challenging
questions so that I know now what I think
and why I think what I do….
I got to know some great people…
I developed confidence in my own thinking
March 30 2012 10

11. A QUICK LOOK AT “RIGOR”
Understanding and Reporting on Academic Rigor (2009)
http://www.lrdc.pitt.edu/pubs/Abstracts/FiezRigorous.pdf
March 30 2012 11

12. DEFINING “RIGOR” …
• When we talk about a ‘rigorous course’ in
something, it’s a course that examines
details, insists on diligent and scrupulous study
and performance, and doesn’t settle for a mild
or informal contact with the key ideas.”
Robert Talbert, Mathematics and
computing science, Franklin
College, Franklin, IN
Understanding and Reporting on Academic Rigor (2009)
http://www.lrdc.pitt.edu/pubs/Abstracts/FiezRigorous.pdf
March 30 2012 12

13. DEFINING “RIGOR” …
• “To me, this is the heart of academic rigor. One
must take a given set of facts and derive
conclusions based on the rules of logical
reasoning, with each step
logical, transparent, and well-documented.”
Richard, Scharr, VP of math and science
education at Texas Instruments
Understanding and Reporting on Academic Rigor (2009)
http://www.lrdc.pitt.edu/pubs/Abstracts/FiezRigorous.pdf
March 30 2012 13

14. RIGOR FROM NEUROSCIENCE PERSPECTIVE
• “If we always stick to what is easy, we
diminish the amount of neuroplasticity
(changes in brain organization) that
occurs, because we can rely on already-
established neural
connections…Generally, „demanding‟ is
good because it recruits the high-level
areas that we most associate with
intelligence, creative problem-
solving, executive control, deep
reflection, and so forth… There are also
time limits on our ability to sustain high
Julie Fiez, cognitive scientist fromeffort without taking Institute
degrees of cognitive U of Pittsburgh in Hechinger a
March 30 2012
break.” (p. 11)
Report on Academic Rigor (2009)
14

15. EXAMPLES OF “RIGOR” IN DISCIPLINES
• In literature, a focus on the text, its
ambiguities, and possible interpretations based
on what is actually in the text.
• In chemistry, a focus on the “why”, stimulating
curiosity about how the world works and its
complexity, what we know, what we don’t
• In professional programs, assessment by outside
experts, expand the “audiences” for projects
• In general, much more
dialogue, coaching, mentoring between faculty
and students and between students
March 30 2012 15

16. REFLECTION/THOUGHT QUESTIONS FOR
YOU
1. What does quality mean to you?
2. How do you define "rigor" in your course, in
your discipline?
3. What is your top quality strategy?
March 30 2012 16

17. HOW DO WE CUSTOMIZE FOR
QUALITY?
March 30 2012 17

18. THREE CUSTOMIZING DESIGN PRACTICES
1. Design for
core, structured
choice and optional
learning experiences
3. Design in sharing
choice activities to
2. Design in flexibility develop a body of
and choice — in experience and
roles, collaborations, expertise in the
“evidences” of community
learning
March 30 2012 18

19. CUSTOMIZING DESIGN PRACTICE #1
KNOWLEDGE
RESOURCES
AND INPUT
1. Design for
core, structured choice
and optional learning
activities
How do you go about this?
March 30 2012 19

20. PRINCIPLE
REMINDER
Learning Principle Supporting Content Choices
ALL LEARNERS DO NOT NEED TO LEARN ALL
COURSE CONTENT /KNOWLEDGE; ALL
LEARNERS DO NEED TO LEARN THE CORE
CONCEPTS… AND DEVELOP USEFUL
KNOWLEDGE
March 30 2012 20

21. STEP 1: ALIGN GOALS, ASSESSMENT AND ACTIVITIES
EXAMPLE — DECISION MAKING & PROBLEM SOLVING
Learning outcome (1)
Articulate how my personal leadership
practice informs my approach to problem-
solving and decision-making
Learning experiences
Feedback & Assessment
1. Complete self-assessment instruments to
1. Coach & provide feedback on leadership
determine my leadership practice
journal entries and what is shared in
2. Evaluate PSDM approaches and select one that
community
is a good match for me and my work
2. Assess project with rubric and small
environment
team review
3. Share the process and results in a leadership
journal and project
March 30 2012 21

22. STEP 1: ALIGN GOALS, ASSESSMENT AND ACTIVITIES
EXAMPLE — DECISION MAKING & PROBLEM SOLVING
Learning outcome (1)
Articulate how my personal leadership Note Personalizing…
practice informs my approach to problem-
solving and decision-making
Learning experiences
Feedback & Assessment
1. Complete self-assessment instruments to
1. Coach & provide feedback on leadership
determine my leadership practice
journal entries and what is shared in
2. Evaluate PSDM approaches and select one that
community
is a good match for me and my work
2. Assess project with rubric and small
environment
team review
3. Share the process and results in a leadership
journal and project
March 30 2012 22

23. STEP 2: IDENTIFY AND CATEGORIZE
COURSE CONTENT
Core Concepts
Core Concepts
and Principles
and Principles
Applying Core Concepts
Problem Analysis and Solving
Customized and Personalized
March 30 2012 23

24. STEP 2 (PLUS) ANOTHER DIMENSION OF
CONTENT WHEN CATEGORIZING…
• Prepackaged authoritative content
– Textbooks and other expert, reviewed content
– NOT blogs, comments, vendor materials
• Guided learning materials (Teaching
Presence)
– Faculty prepared
• Interactive and spontaneous performance
content
Increasingly – Learner-generated
important
content, blogs, journals, wikis, projects
Boettcher, J. www.campus-
technology.com/print.asp?ID=18004
March 30 2012 24

25. STEP 3: PROVIDE CHOICES IN CORE AND
STRUCTURED CHOICE CONTENT
• Develop core assignments
– Core assignment builds community with “shared
experience” with differential focus
• Structured choice in content resources
– Provide personalization, focus and fodder for
discussion
– Lessen stress and encourage responsibility for
learning
– Encourage local and personal application of core
content
March 30 2012 25

26. EXAMPLES OF CONTENT CHOICES
• Global leadership course
– Core readings on leadership concepts
– Set of 3-4 articles, of which two are required, one closest to
world area of interest
• Education, pedagogy and learning theories
– Core reading on key theorist such as Dewey, Vygotsky, Bruner
– Set of 2-3 articles by other theorists, one of which is required
– Link to a key learning theory website where learners choose a
learning theory that best fits content and style of interest
• Public health
– Core readings and practice on measuring water quality
– Assignment to report on water quality in a body of water local to
learner
March 30 2012 26

27. SUMMARIZING WORK OF FACULTY
• Requires content analysis for aligning learning
outcomes, activities and assessments
• Analysis (decoding) of just what the core
concepts, skills, and processes of a discipline
– More focus on process — the how of a
discipline, not just the what …
• Requires broadening perspective of content and
bringing in more media resources + openness to
“whatever”
• Requires shifting to modeling, coaching, mentoring
use of concepts and processes within the discipline
March 30 2012 27

28. CUSTOMIZING DESIGN PRACTICE #2
APPLICATION,
OUTPUT, PRA
CTICE
2. Design in flexibility and
choice in course roles, in
collaborations, in
“evidences” of learning
March 30 2012 28

29. PRINCIPLE
REMINDER
No matter the design… with shared elements and
creating as they learn…
EACH LEARNER EXPERIENCES THE
COURSE DIFFERENTLY ... AND CAN
HAVE DIFFERENT RESPONSIBILITIES
March 30 2012 29

30. “BUT, OF COURSE, EVERYONE WILL REMEMBER WHAT
HAPPENED, SOMEWHAT DIFFERENTLY, YOU SEE..."
Inspector Craddock to Miss Marple in Agatha Christie’s
mystery “A Murder is Announced”
March 30 2012 30

31. Process
thinking…
Immersion and practice…
THINKING LIKE A HISTORIAN…LIKE A
SCIENTIST…LIKE AN ENTREPRENEUR…
DIFFERENT ROLES IN AD HOC
TEAMS, GROUPS AND DISCUSSION
FORUMS
March 30 2012 31

32. Who was READING LIKE A HISTORIAN
responsible for
the Battle of • Shift to investigating historical
Little Bighorn? questions using
finding, contextualizing, corroborating
, and close reading.
• Shift from memorizing facts to
evaluating the trustworthiness
of multiple perspectives
– Montgomery bus boycott
• Learners argue their historical claims
using documentary evidence
Teaching Strategy: Scaffolding - Cognitive modeling
to guided practice to independent practice
Stanford History Education Group
March 30 2012 32
sheg.stanford.edu/?q=node/45

33. THINKING LIKE AN HISTORIAN
“The key was to construct every history
course around two core skills of their
discipline: assembling evidence and
interpreting it.”
History faculty group at Indiana University at Bloomington
Chronicle of Higher Education 11-15-09
chronicle.com/article/Teaching-Experiment-Decodes-a/49140/
March 30 2012 33

34. Learners
Patient, pharmacist, resea
“take on”
rcher, diagnostician
roles
“Thinking like a Clinician”
CLINICAL REASONING STEPS AND
ROLES
March 30 2012 34

35. CLINICAL REASONING STEPS AND ROLES
• Scan/Apprehend
– Identify features, boundaries, patterns of a scenario, situation
that need “attending to”
– Familiar from past experience and noting unusual
patterns, configurations
• Gather
– Collect information such as resources and protocols to aid
understanding the scenarios
– Clarify the known and the unknown from our experience and
that of colleagues
• Appraise
– Sort, organize, theorize as detectives to determine best
interpretation of facts
– Analyze our own judgment for bias, accuracy
– Determine accuracy and validity of assumptions
March 30 2012 35
Brookfield, S. (2000)

36. CUSTOMIZING DESIGN PRACTICE #3
Community
collaboration
and practice
and review
3. Design for sharing “choice”
experiences as a way of
building a body of experience
and thus developing
confidence and expertise
March 30 2012 36

37. PRINCIPLE
REMINDER
Learning Principle Supporting Assessment Choices
LEARNERS DO NOT HAVE TO DO IDENTICAL
TASKS; TASKS ONLY NEED TO BE SIMILAR
ENOUGH FOR ASSESSMENT AND OUTCOME
PURPOSES. REMEMBER VYGOTSKY AND JUNGLE AND TUNDRA BRAINS
March 30 2012 37

38. Learners want to develop
expertise…
Defining roles and responsibilities of licensed
professionals. The journey from novice to expert …
LEVELS OF EXPERTISE
2011 30 2012
March 38

39. LEVELS OF EXPERTISE (1)
• Novice
– Person with minimal exposure to field M. T. H. Chi 2006
• Apprentice
– Person working in a domain under supervision
who has completed an introductory period of
study
• Journeyman or Assistant
– Person who can perform routine work
unsupervised
March 30 2012
39

40. LEVELS OF EXPERTISE (2)
• Expert M. T. H. Chi 2006
– Person whose judgments are uncommonly accurate
and reliable; is highly regarded by peers;
performance shows skill, economy of effort; can
handle difficult and unusual cases
• Master
– Can teach others; member of an elite group of
experts whose judgments set regulations, standards
or ideals.
March 30 2012
40

41. HOW DO EXPERTS EXCEL?
• Generate the best solutions faster and more
accurately
• See and detect features that novices do not “see”
To become
experts, we • Analyze a problem qualitatively including domain-
need a specific and general constraints
wide, broad • More successful at choosing appropriate
and deep strategies
experiences • Are more opportunistic in using resources
in our chosen • Retrieve relevant domain knowledge and
field. strategies with less cognitive effort
March 30 2012
From M.T.H. Chi, 2006 41

42. CREATIVE WORK SHARING: PEER
CONSULTING IN “PIN-UP REVIEWS”
Interactive plasma
screens make it easy
and affordable for
architecture students
to review and consult
on each other’s work.
College of Architecture and Planning at Ball State University (IN)
March 30 2012 42

43. CREATIVE WORK DOING AND
SHARING: PROJECTS AND “INWORLD”
PRESENTATIONS
• Teams complete a project that requires
integrating knowledge across courses
• A virtual scientific conference is open to the
Second Life public
• Sample projects: Meniere's
Disease, Scoliosis, Traumatic Brain Injury
College of Health and Human Performance /University of Houston -
http://grants.hhp.uh.edu/secondlife/vital-spring-12.htm
March 30 2012 43

44. Moving towards
curiosity, questioning, analyzing
Customizing engages and touches learners
WHY CUSTOMIZING WORKS
March 30 2012 44

45. CUSTOMIZING LEARNING
ENGAGES AND TOUCHES
LEARNERS
Content and experiences “make sense” to the learner
– Content “touches on” and links to learner’s
existing knowledge base
– Content is contextualized and situated in
meaningful, understandable experiences
– “Look forward experiences” focus on building
skills and competencies
“I can see how /why this is important.”
“Wow, I wish I had had this
tool/knowledge/understanding back when…
March 30 2012 45

46. WHAT CAN LEAVE LEARNERS
DISINTERESTED…
• Abstract, formal, uncontextualized content; not
situated in a time & place & purpose
– Experiences are not part of learners’ zones of
proximal development (Vygotsky, 1978)
– “Invisible” authors & writers (Clark & Mayer, 2006)
• Course requirements are not perceived as
learning experiences
– Papers, postings & tests do not include community
or opportunity for revision & growth
March 30 2012 46

47. ALL LEARNERS …
• Are most engaged when their learning
experiences enable them to experience feelings
of autonomy, competence, and relatedness
(Hayles, 2008)
• Enjoy being a part of the generation and analysis
of shared, spontaneous content.
Learners instinctively embrace learning
experiences that challenge & stimulate
March 30 2012 47

48. ERIC KANDEL – OUR
BRAIN CHANGES WITH
EXPERIENCES…
• Long-term memory involves
enduring changes that result from
the growth of new synaptic
Dr. Eric R. Kandel connections.
• This means that …”the brain can
change because of experience. It
gives you a different feeling about
how nature and nurture interact.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/06/science/a-quest-to-understand-how-memory-
works.html?scp=1&sq=kandel&st=cse
March 30 2012 48

49. CUSTOMIZING TO THE LEARNER
March 30 2012 49

50. CONCLUSION
“I really enjoyed the VERY IMPORTANT
project and how my
teacher supported me
in doing what was
GUIDELINE
important for me
personally.” In course design, we design for the
probable, expected learner; in course
delivery, we flex, we customize to the
specific, particular learners within a
course.
March 30 2012
50

51. THANKS & QUESTIONS
March 30 2012 51

52. SELECTED REFERENCES
• Brookfield, S. (2000). Clinical reasoning and generic thinking skills. In J. J.
Higgs, Mark (Ed.), Clinical Reasoning in the Health Professions (pp. 62- 67).
New York Butterworth-Heinemann; 2nd Ed.
• Boettcher, Judith (2006, March) The rise of student performance
content, Campus Technology. Retrieved March 25, 2012 from
http://campustechnology.com/articles/2006/02/the-rise-of-student-performance-
content.aspx?sc_lang=en
• Chi, M. T. H. (2006). Two approaches to the study of experts' characteristics. In
K. A. Ericsson, Charness, N., Feltovich, P. J., & Hoffman, R. R. (Ed.), The
Cambridge handbook of expertise and expert performance (Ericsson, K.
A., Charness, N., Feltovich, P. J., & Hoffman, R. R. ed., pp. 21 - 30).
Cambridge Cambridge University Press.
• Hayles, K. N. (2007 ). Hyper and Deep Attention: The Generational Divide in
Cognitive Modes. Profession, pp. 187-199. Retrieved 3/26/2012
from http://www.english.ufl.edu/da/hayles/hayles_hyper-deep.pdf
• Hechinger Institute on Education and the Media at Teachers College, Columbia
University. (2009) Understanding and Reporting on Academic Rigor. Retrieved
February 28 2012 from
http://www.lrdc.pitt.edu/pubs/Abstracts/FiezRigorous.pdf
• Middendorf, J., & Pace, D. (2004). Decoding the disciplines: A model for helping
students learn disciplinary ways of thinking. New Directions for Teaching and
Learning, 2004(98), 1-12.
• Quality Matters Program (2012). MarylandOnline. Retrieved January 12, 2012
from http://www.qmprogram.org/about
• Sloan C Quality Scorecard. (2011) Sloan C Consortium, Retrieved Jan 16 2012
from http://sloanconsortium.org/quality_scorecard_online_program.
March 30 2012 52

53. The Online Teaching
Survival Guide: Simple and
Practical Pedagogical Tips
Judith V Boettcher
Author, Consultant, Speaker
by Judith V. Boettcher
Designing for Learning
and Rita-Marie Conrad
University of Florida
judith@designingforlearning.org
jboettcher@comcast.net
www.designingforlearning.info
March 30 2012 53

54. INSPIRATIONS FOR TEN LEARNING PRINCIPLES
Zone of Proximal Constructivism
Development and active
learning
Lev Vygotsky Daniel Schacter
Jerome Bruner
Memory
Experiential
personalized learning
Cognitive
John Dewey apprenticeship
John Seely Brown
www.innovateonline.info/pdf/vol3_issue3/Ten_Core_Principles_for_Designing_Effective_
Learning_Environments-__Insights_from_Brain_Research_and_Pedagogical_Theory.pdf
March 30 2012 54

55. WHERE DID THE BEST PRACTICES COME
FROM?
Community of Inquiry model Community of
Social, Teaching and Cognitive learners
Presence Idea of a
Garrison, Anderson, A University
rcher, Swan, others John Henry Newman
Instructional design and
learning theory How
People Learn reports
Research on
Bransford, Brown and dialogue and
Cocking communication
Discussion as a way
of teaching
Learner-centered
Teaching… Brookfield and
Preskill
Maryellen Weimer
March 30 2012 55
www.designingforlearning.info/services/writing/ecoach/tenbest.html