Setting & Learning Experience

For our observation session, Adam arrives at his homework assignment the way he does most weeks—sleepy, and somewhat unenthused. He tells me he does most of his studies on his couch, with his laptop and tablet perched nearby. For me, he arrives formally at his desk.

I observed Adam while he completed a weekly assignment for his asynchronous, remote course in Introduction to International Relations through his University. The class, he tells me, is a required elective on the path to his degree.

His assignment this week is to watch three roughly 15-minute lectures, all of which are composed of a PowerPoint with narration and no visible professor. “We’re given lectures and pages of the book to read,” he tells me “usually I just watch the lectures and use the book as a reference” (Personal communication, June 20, 2021).

He keeps his textbook on a tablet next to the laptop that plays the lectures.  Once he has viewed the lectures, he turns to the discussion board. Het tells me there are usually “two or three questions. Each one needs a response.”

The questions will assess his understanding of key terms and ideas. Most weeks, he is also prompted to reflect on how the ideas discussed affect his own personal experiences.  The questions (below) are taken directly from the textbook (which was apparently printed around 2018)

• Give 3 examples of how Globalization has impacted your life?

• Are tariffs and quotas “positive” actions taken by nation-states? Why or why not?

• Do you believe the IMF is a positive or negative force in International Relations in 2018?  Is it still needed? (Pevehouse & Goldstein, 2020)

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Once he has answered the above, he will need to comment on two of his classmates' posts. Once Sunday rolls around, the assignment will close and he will receive a grade out of 100% from his professor. He will not receive specific feedback, though he notes he could reach out and ask for more context behind his grade if he chose to. For this assignment, Adam went on to receive a 92%.

I observed Adam during week five of a seven-week course.  He explains that this is the standard progression of a week. The lecture and discussion are made available early in the week, and he must post his response to the discussion questions by Thursday. He will comment on his peers’ contributions by Sunday.  The process will begin again in week six with new material to be learned, discussed, and assessed. 

The strategies at play here are clear and traditional in their design. The lectures are somewhat in line with Mayer’s 12 principles in terms of coherence, and while the narration does not read the slides verbatim, they also follow closely to the text on the screen.  Later in this study, we will discuss the absence of “social presence,” as defined by Mayer.  Adam has been provided a textbook that creates a kind of pre-training before he dives into the lectures.  Experienced students like Adam read the discussion prompts beforehand. This allows for another kind of pre-training as he dives into a dense material. Again, more on this later. (Mayer, 2014)

Adam studies in one of two rooms in his apartment. He always uses multiple devices so that he can access the week’s information in multiple different mediums.  In the observation tab, I’ll explore how this affects his learning.