Project Background
Differentiated Instruction Made Practical builds educators’ abilities to differentiate instruction as a part of their daily classroom routines.
- 13-week professional development program for k-12 educators.
- 500 students in initial course offering
- students from countries around the world
- Blended format: students review and apply course content as individuals, reflect with an in-person professional learning community, and reflect as an individual
- Platform: Canvas
Course Features
This project uses principles of Universal Design for Learning to create a differentiated instructional design for our audience of 500 educators around the globe. Design choices included:
- Multiple means of representation: content represented in text, video and visual format
- Multiple means of engagement: students engaged with content through individual reflection, discussion boards, application in authentic context, professional learning community
- Students were given choice for the format of their individual and group reflections
- Multiple means of assessment: providing options for assessment based on learner goals
- Activating student metacognition and self-regulation through self-reflection and goal-setting: providing criteria and rubrics for self-assessment
Research-Based Best Practices in Course Design:
Authentic assessment
Course quizzes are based on an authentic context: a classroom scenario. The quiz instructions explain the scenario briefly and asked participants what they would do. Participants choose between four answers. No answer is correct; all are realistic options for teachers. The quiz feedback explains how that choice reflects differentiated instruction and what tradeoffs are present in the choice. Participants are encouraged to retake the quiz and explore other options.Â
Capturing student feedback
The course is designed to capture participant feedback at multiple points. This design choice allows the course facilitators to adjust instruction to provide additional support based on participant feedback.
Consistent routines
Routines are used to minimize cognitive load for students: rather than focusing on instructions, students can devote their attention to the task.
My Role on the Project
- Lead Learning Designer
- Collaborated with instructional technologist and media producers
- Created course design with the faculty Subject Matter Expert
- Recommended technology tools based on learning objectives
- Designed, built and tested a new Canvas template based around the specific needs of the course.