Children learn much adult behavior by playing at being an adult. Likewise, adults can learn much by playing the role of someone else. In a role-playing scenario, the instructor states a goal and assigns learners roles in achieving that goal. Learners research their roles. They then collaborate via online meetings and discussion forums to play … Continue reading Role-playing activity →

Team-task activities are good to teach teamwork—or any skill that is practiced by a group rather than just an individual. Such teamwork activities require learners to work as a coordinated team to solve a single, complex problem. Team members communicate using online meetings and discussion forums in order to complete their assigned tasks. About this … Continue reading Team-task activity →

Dig-and-decide activities let learners proceed toward a goal by making decisions that help or hinder their progress. These activities resemble the early computer adventure games in which the player sets out on a quest and must pick up objects and choose paths carefully. Such activities are often called social-interaction simulators when they are used to … Continue reading Dig-and-decide →

Schools have used case studies since—well, since there were schools. Case studies provide relevant, meaningful experiences in which learners can discover and abstract useful concepts and principles. Case studies can be the basis for a reading activity, if we just wanted learners to absorb information from the study. However, case studies make fine discovery activities … Continue reading Case study →

A virtual laboratory provides an on-screen simulator or calculator that learners can use to test ideas and observe results. About the examples Here in the Heat flow laboratory, mechanical designers conduct experiments to learn how heat flow depends on factors such as temperature, area, thickness, and thermal conductivity. This HTML laboratory teaches HTML. Learners can … Continue reading Virtual laboratories →

Guided analysis activities step learners through the process of analyzing a complex situations. They answer one of the most important questions ever asked: “So what?” Analyze soil texture lets forestry professionals practice classifying soil textures based on the proportions of sand, loam, and silt in the soil.   Evaluating complex data is …. well, complex. One way of … Continue reading Guided analysis →

Hands-on activities give learners real work to perform. In a hands-on activity, the learner completes a task outside the lesson, such as performing a calculation with an on-screen calculator, designing something on paper, or operating a piece of machinery. The hands-on activity guides learners through the real-life task, provides feedback on their success, and may … Continue reading Hands-on activity →

Drill-and-practice activities build on a simple testing cycle. The system presents a problem, which the learner tries to solve. The system provides feedback on the learner’s solution before posing another problem. Then the cycle repeats. About the examples The Practice recognizing nautical flags activity teaches learners to recognize nautical flags. This part of the exercise … Continue reading Drill and practice →

The guided tour orients the learner in a virtual or real environment. It can be used to lead learners through an online representation of a real environment, such as teaching the layout of equipment in the bay of an ambulance, the twists and turns of a river channel, or the sequence of rock strata in … Continue reading Guided tours →

One of the most valuable forms of online resources is a library of examples that learners can actually manipulate and use. About the example The example shown here offers HTML ingredients that can be used in Web pages to create tables, headings, bullet lists, and so forth. A learner can choose a particular ingredient from … Continue reading Active examples →