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Reviewing Two Online Delivery Models of the Smithsonian's Historical Biographer Badge and
Related Quests @ SmithsonianQuests.org

As the digitization of instructional content and activities continues to evolve, more schools and educational
agencies work to understand how online learning opportunities will factor into addressing the needs of
learners as part of formal and informal learning environments. As part of this exploration, questions arise
about the methods by which instructional content design, development and delivery can or should be
modified to support access scenarios that largely occur online via asynchronous or blended models.

Identifying the Need

Blended-learning should accomplish the task of both engaging and enriching curriculum
delivery to students, as we intend traditional models to do. The online learning component of
blended-learning should support novel ways to learn beyond what textbooks can offer to students
and facilitate a community of inquiry and learning, which can take place asynchronously on an
as-needed basis (Hua, Goodwin, & Weiss, 2013, p. 29).

Testing Focus

How does the traditional approach to developing and delivering instruction differ from models
that significantly ask students to consume content and demonstrate proficiency online?

What instructional strategies or changes should education agencies and education designers
consider when transitioning from text-based, teacher-delivered, predominantly in-class
synchronous instruction to digitally-based, learner-directed, blended synchronous/asynchronous
instruction?

Related Research
Instructional Segmenting
:
The segmenting principle states that people learn better when a multimedia message is presented in
user-paced segments rather than as a continuous unit (Mayer, 2009, p. 175).
Active, Formative Scaffolding
:
"The results clearly show the benefits of incorporating an active (as opposed to a passive) pause between
segments of an instructional animation. In other words, an active testing task is more effective than
leaving students to employ their own metacognitive skills." (Cheun, Crooks, Chung, 2013, p.65)

Primary Researcher: Jodi Halligan, M.Ed

Primary Educator: Brian Ausland


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Framing with Game Elements (visual progress/steps)

:
...
people can be made more intrinsically motivated simply by presenting an activity as a game. Not points.
Not badges. Not because of any measurable difference in social game leverage. The controlled setup
allowed us to discover that presentation alone flipped the play switch on. (Lieberoth, 2015, para. 1)

Testing Methodology
In order to examine the use of these techniques, existing digital learning designed to be delivered in a
blended or asynchronous model that did not integrate these techniques sas identified in the form of three
Smithsonian Quests that make up the Historical Biographer badge. A copy of the content, the related
objects, and the designed outcomes for all three quests was created. An instructional designer then
worked with the research team and primary educator to introduce Instructional Segmenting, Formative
Scaffolding, and Progress Steps to the curriculum copy without introducing significant modifications to the
content itself. From December 15th - 19th, a
team of three delivered the two models to
two separate groups of 8th graders as part
of their U.S. History class. The research
study engaged a total of 55 student
participants, with 32 students in class A
participating with the original Smithsonian
Quests, and 23 students in class B
participating with the modified Quests. An
action-based research model was utilized
which included direct observation, active
recording of learner questions, group
interviews and reflections, individual
questionnaires and a final review of resulting student work to form the primary and secondary findings.
Students received 10 minutes of initial instruction on the testing process, and then 45 minutes of
sustained, independent access to one of three Quests each day over the course of three days. Students
were not allowed to discuss their work with one another, but were allowed to raise their hands to ask
questions of any of the three researcher/observers if they were not able to proceed through or understand
any element of the learning tasks. Number of questions and nature of questions were recorded as
comparative data between the two groups. At the end of each day, students were led in a group discussion
on the days outcomes, obstacles, and opinions on their learning experience. At the conclusion of the full
testing, student work products were gathered and assessed by their teacher and primary researcher for
completion and quality.

Primary Researcher: Jodi Halligan, M.Ed

Primary Educator: Brian Ausland


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Demographic Information
The testing participants were 8th grade male and female students in a pre K-8 charter school in California,
ages 13-14 years old, primarily Caucasian (~98%) with the remainder of the students (~2%) being African
American or Hispanic. The socio-economic demographics of these students are primarily middle class,
living in a somewhat suburban city of 85,000 persons. All of the students are native English speaking, 2
qualified for free/reduced price meals, 1 student was severely physically disabled. No students had
documented cognitive learning disabilities. This charter school has a laptop available to each child starting
in the 6th grades, with Google Education applications utilized. The history teacher and students regularly
(daily) utilizes technology and digital resources and tools to both acquire information and to generate
student work products. However, the students in these classes have not specifically experienced a
blended-learning model where 10-15 minutes of instruction proceeds a 40- 50 minute duration of
independent, asynchronous learning in an online environment.

Summary of Findings
The research provided a valuable opportunity to explore a single piece of learning as structured within
two differing environments that afforded the researcher to apply the instructional formatting/strategies
identified above. Data clearly showed that
the inclusion of

instructional scaffolding
to cause students to engage in a
formative process with the various learning objects, the

segmentation of instructional sequences

to create
deliberate pauses in the instruction and providing
students with steps that
visually moved them from one

task to another to reinforce their sense of progress

,
combined to show resulting increases in completion
rates, decreased need for support/guidance, and
increases in quality of eventual summative products.
Direct observations and survey data gathered provide
further insight into the degree to which these methods
can be integrated to increase learning efficacy in the
online/blended curriculum model where learners typically
work in an independent, asynchronous environment
when controlling for the instructional objects, the
instructional content, and the overall learning expectations.

View full research presentation here

Primary Researcher: Jodi Halligan, M.Ed

Primary Educator: Brian Ausland