Flow of Content

The courses each took their own spin on how they sequenced their content and conveyed their information:

Food allergy awareness: the developers of this content sequenced the learning in three different sections [minus the summary section], and all three were evenly split into two subsections. This gives a good balanced feel to the content and makes it feel as though each section is equally important. I really liked the pre-assessment, and the fade-in of information as you scroll down the page. It acts as a guide that smooths out the flow of the information.

Design learning objectives: this content was very text-heavy, but several of the images dispersed throughout the learning were relevant and helped create memorable visuals to tie to the information. Some did not, however, and could have been left out. 

Creating Social Change: the fade-in of new information as you scroll the page is fluid and conveys a professional feel to the course. Information is split up evenly between text blocks, images, collapsible information, and bulleted lists. 

Pacing and Assessment

The courses also were a little different from one another in their approach to pacing and assessing learners along the way:

Food allergy awareness: Learners were encouraged to follow the sequence of the course by being prompted to click “next” at the bottom of each page. There was a pre-assessment at the beginning of the course, and a knowledge check at the end. Assessment questions were a mix of multiple choice, true/false, and matching. Despite the intentional order of the content, you can skip through information if you were to want to, so the content is self-paced.

Design Learning Objectives: Learners were encouraged to follow the sequence of the course by being prompted to click “next” or “continue” at the bottom of each page. This course had low-stakes knowledge checks spread throughout, which served as useful summaries of the information. These questions were multiple choice and provided immediate feedback.

Creating Social Change: Learners are prompted to click on the next lesson at the end of each page. The content in this course is also self-paced, and there are plenty of drop-down blocks of information for an autonomous learning experience. 

Final Thoughts

There were unique strategies to each learning that I would like to take away from this evaluation and potentially use in my own courses. The Food Allergy Awareness course did an excellent job at pacing information and allotting similar amounts of information to each section, creating a good balance of weight between content, which is something I can learn from. The Design Learning Objectives course spread knowledge checks throughout the learning to keep up engagement and understanding, which is something else I will be keeping in mind, especially for content that may be quite dense. Finally, the Creating Social Change course used the collapsible groups strategically to create proximity of information and allow for self-guided learning of each selection. I thought it was used very well as an organizer and it helped with reducing cognitive load, as there was really a surplus of information to be explored.