Practice Principle
Overview
The Practice Principles offer guidelines for implementing practice events in e-learning environments, during which time students are required to respond in ways that promote learning. Practice events, or “interactions,” may include any action that requires a behavioural response, such as selecting an answer from a multiple choice list, typing in a short answer, or using drag-and-drop features. There is consistent evidence showing that practice interactions promote learning and assist in building knowledge and skills. Therefore, interactions should be integrated in the instructional design of web-based learning tools with the following principles in mind.
The Practice Principles offer guidelines for implementing practice events in e-learning environments, during which time students are required to respond in ways that promote learning. Practice events, or “interactions,” may include any action that requires a behavioural response, such as selecting an answer from a multiple choice list, typing in a short answer, or using drag-and-drop features. There is consistent evidence showing that practice interactions promote learning and assist in building knowledge and skills. Therefore, interactions should be integrated in the instructional design of web-based learning tools with the following principles in mind.
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Guidelines for Use
Guideline 1 – Add sufficient practice interactions to achieve the learning goal
Guideline 1 – Add sufficient practice interactions to achieve the learning goal
- There should be adequate practice interactions integrated into the e-learning environment for the learner to achieve the desired learning goal. To determine how much practice is needed, consider the nature of the job task and the criticality of job performance. For example, jobs requiring highly critical skills, such as those work in health care, would require more practice interactions than jobs requiring less critical skills.
- Practice interactions should be relevant and parallel the features of the job environment. Creating “transfer appropriate interactions,” or activities that require learners to respond in similar ways during practice as they would in the work environment, give greater likelihood that the right cue will be encoded into long-term memory for later transfer. For example, the on-screen layout and required response during practice might replicate that of what is used in the real world work environment.
- Effective feedback regarding practice interactions must be provided to learners. Feedback should be provided after questions are posed, in a manner that succinctly explains why an answer is correct or incorrect, also known as explanatory feedback. For example, learners could receive immediate feedback on the correctness of a response, and cumulative feedback after a practice interaction, suggesting appropriate next steps for future improvement.
- It’s important to offer a mix of differing problem types during practice, and interactions should be distributed over a period of time. Practice should be distributed among all lessons, and among multiple learning events, thereby offering variety and offering a greater chance of reaching more learning styles. For example, while working through a practice session, the learner may be required to choose from multiple choice options, type out an answer, as well as drag and drop responses, in an effort to demonstrate their understanding using multiple methods.
- The six multimedia principles should be applied to practice interactions. The multimedia principles involve the use of graphics, text and audio in e-learning environments. Only relevant visualizations should be included, and directions and feedback should be displayed via on-screen text, so that learners can easily refer back to this information at their own pace. For example, as learners work through a practice situation involving text and corresponding graphics, additional text indicating directions should be accessible, and there should not be any distracting elements.
- Interactions should begin with full examples; with the amount of work the learner must perform gradually increasing. Practice interactions should begin as full demonstrations or explanations, and then progress to more autonomous practice for the learner. For example, students could be guided through the act of balancing equations in an e-learning environment, and progressively have to complete additional steps on their own. The end result would be the learner having to perform the task entirely independently.
Good Examples of Use
Example 1 – https://www.duolingo.com
Example 1 – https://www.duolingo.com
- Duolingo employs all six of the practice principles as it teaches users to learn a new language. Relevant practice is consistently behavioural and psychological in nature, while being varied, or mixed, through the scaffolded practice interactions and lessons. Multimedia principles are demonstrated via relevant visualizations, alongside audio with corresponding text, and feedback is given after every question, cumulatively after each practice session and lesson.
- Arcademics provides skill building interactions in an online context for learners to better understand math, language arts, vocabulary and thinking skills. The platform aims to achieve a high rate of student learning via increased time-to-task and engagement, by providing fun and focused practice. Interactions are relevant to grade level, subject and focus, are mixed and distributed, and immediate feedback is provided.
Helpful Resources
Resource 1 – Article on Deliberate Practice
Resource 1 – Article on Deliberate Practice
- This case argued by Kellogg & Whiteford (2009) forms the basis for the six practice principles above, specifically through the concept of deliberate practice.
- This screencast demonstrates how two websites, Starfall and Arcademics, follow Clark & Mayer’s six Practice Principles
Research
Clark, R.C. & Mayer, R.E. (2011). Does Practice Make Perfect? In E-learning and thescience of instruction (pp. 251-278). San Francisco, CA: Wiles.
Kellogg, R.T. & Whiteford, AP. (2009). Training advanced writing skills: The case fordeliberate practice. Educational Psychologist, 44, 250-266.
Moreno, R. & Mayer, R.E. (2007). Interactive multimodal learning environments. Educational Psychology Review, 19, 309–326.
Rey, G.D. (2011). Interactive elements for dynamically linked multiple representations in computer simulations. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 25, 12–19.
Clark, R.C. & Mayer, R.E. (2011). Does Practice Make Perfect? In E-learning and thescience of instruction (pp. 251-278). San Francisco, CA: Wiles.
Kellogg, R.T. & Whiteford, AP. (2009). Training advanced writing skills: The case fordeliberate practice. Educational Psychologist, 44, 250-266.
Moreno, R. & Mayer, R.E. (2007). Interactive multimodal learning environments. Educational Psychology Review, 19, 309–326.
Rey, G.D. (2011). Interactive elements for dynamically linked multiple representations in computer simulations. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 25, 12–19.