Decide what activities to include in your course

Knowing the types and mixture of activities to include means you can give your learners the best experience and develop their skills.

You need to think about what types of activity your course will promote. Start by using the framework based on Miller’s model:

• Knows – fact gathering (reading, searching and viewing)
• Knows how – interpretation and application (reflecting)
• Shows – displays, visualises knowledge
• Does – performance integrated into practice

Using a combination of these activities works well in face-to-face and online learning.

Using visible learning

Visible learning means learning from creating visible products. This is the best way for both teachers and learners to make the most of a course and can include:

• calculations
• reports, essays and summaries
• wikis, blogs and concept maps
• diagrams and sketches
• presentations, talks, debates and performances
• audio and video

Benefits of using visible learning

Learners can use visible learning to:

• track their learning so they can identify gaps in understanding
• develop professional self-regulated critical skills
• provide peers with feedback on the visible outcomes of learning activities

You can use visible learning:

• to track and respond to learners’ development
• to create useful feedback
• as a basis for assessment