How we see effective and engaging learning

Hi,

Great to see you here! On this page, we want to explain our view on learning. 

Two guiding principles

Before diving into a more detailed overview, we want to focus on two principles which guide our learning design. 

First of all, we want to support learners in gaining knowledge and skills in the most efficient way. This implies we take evidence-informed learning design principles as a starting point. We collect valuable insight from research (both academic and industry), and apply them to the design of our learning platform. In this way, learners are guided maximally to increase their knowledge and skills in an effective way, creating actual value. In addition, by supporting them in a proper way, they can reach their learning goals in way, balancing effort and time, maximizing cognitive capacity. 

Why is evidence-informed design for learning important? Read more here.

Humans are by nature curious, they are eager to learn new things. However, due to the current format of learning, both in education and corporate training, lots of people have lost their motivation to learn. At Dexr we believe that learning should be motivating and engaging, in a view of life-long learning. If the learning process engages the learners to enjoy the experience, they will increasingly be motivated to continue learning. Humans are not only curious to learn, they also like play, and very often learn while playing. Why not tapping into the stimulating experience of playing and gaming, fostering motivation for learning? Well, that's what we aim for at Dexr: we have looked very closely at what thrives people in playing and gaming, and matched them with learning mechanics. This meaningful gamification is an important driver fostering motivation for learning. 

Why is motivation for learning important? Read more here. 

How do we now adapt this to spatial learning at Dexr? 

Problem-centered learning

When learners start a course, they are challenged with a real-world problem. When learners understand that what they are learning is of actual value to them, helping them with real-world problems related to their own context, they will be motivated more and will engage more actively with the learning content. Learning will make them more competent. This problem-centered approach has been identified as the prime instructional design principle by David Merrill and it still being widely adopted. You can read more in detail on Merrill's First Principles of Instruction here. Do not confuse problem-centered learning with problem-based learning. The latter refers to an instructional strategy in which learners are faced with a problem and needs to solve it themselves. Many studies have pointed to detrimental learning effects of problem-based learning, in contrast with problem-centered learning. More information on the distinction can be found here.

Mastery learning

When learning a new skill or when gaining new knowledge, learners need to start with some basic concepts. Later they can apply these basics in more complex learning stages. This builds on a constructivist way of learning, in which humans build new knowledge on previous knowledge. New information is being selected, analyzed and processed. This processing includes retrieving information from the long-term memory and matching the new information with the existing knowledge, before in turn being stored in the long-term memory for later reference. This also implies that one cannot learn in an effective way more complex knowledge or skills, when grounding knowledge or skills are lacking. Learners need to repeat the learning process, until they actually master the learning goals. This idea of mastery learning is an effective way for learning if designed properly: students should be given appropriate scaffolds to attain the threshold of success before moving on. An in-depth article on mastery learning by the Education Endowment Foundation can be found here. 

Scaffolding and metacognition

As discussed above, students will only be able to successfully progress through their learning paths when provided with appropriate support. This support can be provided in many ways, but scaffolded support is essential. This means that the support that learners receive should be tailored to their own needs. As indicated in the article by the EEF (see link above), this can be challenging for learning designers. Therefore, a shift towards metacognition and choice is a promising avenue. 

Learners are offered with various ways of support (we call them 'hints') and they are nudged to check hints they believe are vital for their learning process. They are not obligatory, but are provided for those who need it. When learners fail a challenge, they will understand they need this information to be able to successfully pass the challenge, enhancing their metacognitive reflection on their learning process. If they keep on neglecting the support, they will keep on failing. 

Motivation

As you will have noticed, a lot of these instructional design principles are closely related to mechanics we can find in games. In games, players are in general confronted with a problem they have to solve, such as fighting an enemy, solving a riddle, finishing a quest... (problem-centered learning), they are supported by hints, stories, artifacts, weapons (scaffolding and self-regulating learning) and can only progress if they succeed in a base levels before continuing to a more complex level (mastery learning). Finally, various feedback mechanisms will support them in gaining understanding how to perform optimally in the game and to succeed with minimal effort. We almost forgot: games are fun and motivating, and are able to keep the attention and motivation of the players. Isn't that what we want for learning either?