About

We know about formative feedback, metacognition, activating prior knowledge, and much else. Researchers mostly agree on the basics. There is still much to learn, of course, but it's fair to say that we know how to help people learn skills.

Like any area of expertise, learning about learning takes study. There is no reason to think that experts in, say, computer science, know much about how people learn computer science. Computer science experts have studied algorithms, programming, operating systems, networks, etc. Most have not studied human long-term memory, attention, schema abstraction, and so on.

Why? Let's take universities first. Most university faculty are not trained in learning. There's little motivation to learn about learning. Faculty are rewarded for publishing research, not maximizing student outcomes.

This is not a criticism of faculty, by the way. It's just the way higher ed works. Some faculty are great teachers, but that's more because of them than the organizations they are part of.

What about commercial trainers? Course designers tend to be experts in programming, statistics, database design, or whatever. They don't study how brains learn. Usually.

How does Skilling help course authors not trained in learning? By offering them pedagogical patterns, that is, ways of helping students that we know work. That doesn't mean that Skilling makes course design easy, just easier.

The authoring tools help people make great course content. For example, to add a metacognitive reflection question to a lesson, authors type "reflect" and a question they want students to think about.

Don't know metacognition is? That's OK. You've probably never been trained in learning. It's unreasonable to think that you would somehow just know about metacognition. Skilling has pedagogical patterns that can help. Still, good course designers know something about how people learn. They use that knowledge as they work.

Once authors have made a course website, they give it to instructors. Instructors can help students learn skills, even when they (the instructors) don't know much about learning. The website will have chewy learning research goodness baked in.

Further, Skilling gives instructors tools to make their jobs easier. For example, Skilling has a rockin' feedback system. Skilling also makes it easy to reach out to students who are falling behind.

More people are wondering whether higher ed is worth the time, and money. Student debt is at record levels. Those who don't finish college, or graduate but can't get a good-paying job, can take decades to pay off their loans.

Student's majors matter. On average, people with degrees in political science won't make as much as people with degrees in IT. Why? Because IT graduates have more skills that employers want. It's the skills that make the difference.

Making good skills courses is what Skilling is all about. At the end of a semester, students know that they are more skilled. They see the value of their investment.

Adela

How easy is all this?

Compared to what? With Skilling, universities can improve student outcomes, without changing the way they operate.

Of course, you could try changing your university's culture. Easy, right?

Maybe change how tenure and promotion works. No problem!

Adela

Ah, well...

Exactly.

With Skilling, you can focus on one course at a time. Working together, a discipline expert and an instructional designer can make a great course. Don't have an instructional designer? One motivated professor could do a good job, using known pedagogical patterns.

Making a high-quality course is hard work. However, it can be done by one or two people, in a few months, with limited funds.

Changing university culture? Maybe Sisyphus would give it a try.

Sisyphus

day 7: Exhausted by BOTAGAINSTHUMANITY

Hey, no, thanks, but I'm fine.

Good luck with that!

You'll need it.