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Remember that the stages of autonomous out-of-class learning are cyclical and involve the student fulfilling three metacognitive goals. Identifying learning needs and goals. Secondly, taking initiative to meet these needs and goals. And third, monitoring their learning and if necessary, redefining learning goals and needs, taking further action, et cetera. We said that the students’ motivation to learn underpins out-of-class learning, and that to enhance motivation, we need to ensure that students recognise the value and significance of learning out-of-class.
Keep in mind the five principles of designing out-of-class learning experiences, whether they’re educationally curated or naturally occurring resources, or whether they’re virtual or physical contexts, the principles are variety in learning resources and contexts. A specific purpose to fulfil while learning out-of-class, scaffolding out-of-class learning, aligning out-of-class learning with in-class learning, and last but not least, explicitly communicating the significance of out-of-class learning to the student.
At the start of the course, you were asked two questions. What do your students do beyond the classroom to support their learning? What strategies do you use to encourage students to engage in out-of-class learning? Now, look at the answers you gave to these questions.
Here are some further questions for you to analyse your students’ out-of-class learning experiences. Do your students engage in more educationally curated resources that you have developed or your institution has developed, or more naturally occurring ones? And what are they? How do you create links between in-class learning and out-of-class learning? How do you help students recognise the value and the significance of learning out-of-class? How do you support your students in identifying learning needs, in taking action, and in monitoring their learning? Thank you for listening to me, and thank you for completing this course. I hope you’ve taken away a number of good strategies and practises to try out in your own teaching context, those that will help you create effective, engaging out-of-class learning experiences for your students. I look forward to reading your comments in the discussion posts.
- Out-of-class learning involves learning in a variety of contexts, with both educationally curated and naturally occurring resources. Both types of resources are equally effective in supporting learning.
- If students recognise the personal and/or academic value and significance of an out-of-class learning experience, there is a higher chance they will engage with it.
- The out-of-class learning experiences we design should create opportunities for students to identify learning goals and needs in relation to what they are learning, to take actions to meet these goals and needs, to monitor and evaluate their learning progress and identify new goals and take new actions as needed.
Take a moment to revisit your initial reflections from the beginning of this course.
- What do your students do beyond the classroom to support their learning?
- What strategies do you use to encourage students to engage in out-of-class learning?
Review your comments in the Padlet and consider how your perspectives may have evolved since the start of this course.
Here are some further reflective questions to get you thinking about the types of learning your students engage in out-of-class:
- Do your students engage in educationally curated resources you have developed or naturally occurring ones?
- How do you create links between in-class learning and out-of-class learning?
- How do you help students recognise the value and significance of learning out-of-class?
- How do you support students in identifying learning needs and goals, taking action, and monitoring their learning?
Thank you for taking this ‘Learner Autonomy Beyond the Classroom’ course which has been developed with May Kocatepe. We hope you have enjoyed it. Remember to mark this lesson as ‘Mark Complete’ to earn your Course Completion Badge.
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Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2020). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation from a self-determination theory perspective: Definitions, theory, practices, and future directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 61, 101860.
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Discussions
What key insights about out-of-class learning will you take forward in your teaching practice?
Please share your thoughts and questions in the comments section below.