OnlineHE_Toolkit

15 The European Commission's support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents, which reflect the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. Project Number: 2020-1-RO01-KA226-HE-095434 depending on the participants’ needs. Among the most common ones we find Moodle, Schoology, Atutor, Chamillo, and Canvas. Apart from analysing the online setting of the instruction, where learners will practise the desired skills, we need to analyse the environment where they will actually use and apply the acquired knowledge. That environment is everyday and/or professional life. Therefore, the online setting will have to resemble that of real life. This is why a term called “authentic learning” comes into the spotlight. Authentic learning is based on the principles of (socio)constructivist approaches, situated learning, and communities of practice. According to Herington (2006), an authentic learning environment: ● is relevant to the real world ● includes ill-defined problem-based learning activities: the education problem (which students will solve to acquire skills) is multifaceted, requiring a combination of skills to be solved ● requires continuous research (sustained investigation) and is not solved on the spot ● requires collaboration among the members of the learning community ● is interdisciplinary ● requires a complete solution but it is open to multiple interpretations ● includes multiple representations of knowledge These principles can be followed later on, during the development of the activities to create authentic online learning environments. Step 4: Setting the performance outcomes Afterwards, we can define the specific learning outcomes. These are presented in the form of statements that indicate what the learners should be able to do, after the instruction is completed. Since these objectives will dictate the whole instruction, it is important they include the skills learners should learn, the conditions under which the skills must be performed, and the criteria that show whether the performance is considered successful. A widely known procedure of writing adequate learning outcomes is called the “A.B.C.D. method” (Heinich, Molenda, Russell, & Smaldino 1996): ● A udience: who the learners are (who should exhibit a skill/knowledge/attitude?). ● B ehaviour: which task/behaviour the learners should be able to do. To choose effective verbs that can be measured, we can use Bloom's revised taxonomy. Based on this, the objectives are classified into six (6) categories, that reflect the cognitive process with which students are engaged: from lower-order to higher-order thinking skills: (1) remembering, (2) understanding, (3) applying, (4) analysing, (5) evaluating,