Content below is originally written for ETEC 512 course. I have decided to do learning analysis of POSE (Program of Open Scholarship and Education ) at UBC(University of British Columbia).
About POSE (Program for Open Scholarship and Education)
The Learning Scenario Analysis that I will conduct is for the POSE (Program for Open
Scholarship Education) course. POSE is a fully online, open-access coursevailable to anyone with an internet connection. In alignment with the principles of open education, the course is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 license, allowing other institutions to reuse and remix the course materials. The course was developed by staff and faculty members from the University of British Columbia’s (UBC) teaching and learning center (CTLT) and UBC Library. I was personally involved in its development as a content creator for the Open Education – Creative Commons module and as a co-facilitator.
The target learners for the POSE are primarily adult learners, including university faculty,
staff, and students at the post-secondary level (University of British Columbia, 2024). The
learning objectives for the program are as follows:
(University of British Columbia, 2020, para. 3).
- To develop an understanding of open scholarship in higher education and the
intersections of open access, education, data, and research;- to develop strategies for addressing potential risks and challenges when planning to engage in open practices;
- to prepare learners to support and develop open education, open access, or open research
projects;- and to create an open project with the support of UBC experts and receive feedback from peers
POSE is entirely online and includes a combination of mandatory asynchronous components and optional synchronous activities. Learners are required to complete three modules (Open Access, Open Research, and Open Education) hosted on the WordPress platform. Each module includes diagrams, interactive activities, and low-stakes, ungraded assessments in the form of H5P multiple-choice quizzes. Additionally, learners must complete two activities from the Activity Bank, which contains various tasks designed to help learners create artifacts. The artifacts produced are shared in a publicly visible comment section on the course website. Learners are also expected to participate in Padlet shared reflection activities, where they share how they plan to apply what they have learned in practice. These responses are also publicly visible. Finally, learners engage in a discussion forum activity within the Canvas Learning Management System (LMS), which requires login via CWL (Campus-Wide Login). Anyone can create a CWL account to participate in the discussion forum. Learners will also have the option to complete additional activities, such as participating in a synchronous chat session with a guest speaker and attending an open workshop.
Analyzing POSE from the Constructivist Perspective
POSE uses a constructivist approach. According to Magoon (1977), the constructivist
approach views knowledge as the result of individual conceptualization of experience. In this context, the role of instructors or facilitators is to guide students in constructing their understanding of knowledge. In POSE, this constructivist approach is evident in the Activity Bank. In the Activity Bank, learners are tasked with creating an artifact. For example, the “Create a slide using a Creative Commons (CC) licensed image” activity requires participants to create a slide using only open-source images. This process embodies the constructivist approach:as learners create an artifact, they simultaneously learn how to search for and use Creative Commons-licensed images.Additionally, a sociocultural constructivist approach is also present in the Activity Bank. In sociocultural constructivism, learning occurs through interaction with peers, and knowledge is co-constructed through shared activities (Schrader, 2015). For example, after completing an activity, learners are required to share the slides they have created, the process of creating them, and how they plan to use them in a class context. These responses are shared in a publicly viewable comment section on the Activity Bank, accessible to anyone with an internet connection. Learners also have the option to share their work on X (formerly Twitter) using the hashtag #POSEUBC. Upon observing the Activity Bank’s comment section, it is evident that advanced learners often help beginners by providing resources and guidance, demonstrating social constructivism in action. Through this interaction, beginners move from disequilibrium to equilibrium (Schrader, 2015). Moreover, learners use the #POSEUBC hashtag to share completed activities outside the course, further fostering collaboration and learning within a broader community. However, one critique from a constructivist perspective is the placement of the discussion component within the Canvas LMS, a closed environment accessible only to users with a CWL (Campus Wide Login). While it is possible to create a CWL account without university affiliation, this setup significantly limits the audience for discussion activities. As a result, only course participants and facilitators with CWL access can view the discussion content. This limitation prevents the discussions—no matter how fruitful—from reaching a broader audience beyond the classroom. A key advantage of making discussions publicly visible is the opportunity for learners to engage with a global community, as Schrader (2015) notes. This approach fosters collaboration and extends the spectrum of learning opportunities. However, the current setup confines discussions within a closed system, rendering them a non-renewable assignment. As Wiley (2016) explains, non-renewable assignments do not significantly contribute to the broader learning community or reach audiences beyond the classroom after grading. For future implementations, making the discussion component publicly visible could enhance the learning experience from a social constructivist perspective. However, this approach also presents challenges, as some learners may feel uncomfortable sharing their knowledge in public spaces. Jhangiani (2019) highlights that public discussions can expose participants to criticism and judgment, creating vulnerabilities that disproportionately affect women, scholars of color, and other marginalized groups. To address these concerns, facilitators could provide learners the option to choose between public and private participation, depending on their comfort level. Additionally, facilitators could moderate the discussion board to intervene in cases of trolling or insensitive comments, thereby mitigating potential risks for learners.
Learning Design of the Course from the Cognitive Theory and Neuroscience Perspective
The POSE course employs multimedia elements such as images, videos, and interactive assessments created using H5P. The course content is divided into multiple short modules, with each module comprising 1–2 pages. This approach is known as chunking. According to Fountain and Doyle (2012), chunking improves learning outcomes by increasing the capacity of working memory. It achieves this by reducing cognitive load and facilitating the effective acquisition of information. In addition, including activities that require learners to “do” or take action enhances learning outcomes overall. This is known as the “Doer Effect.” Interactive activities, such as quizzes, promote retrieval practice by requiring learners to actively recall and apply knowledge during the learning process (Koedinger et al., 2016). In the POSE course, H5P multiple-choice quizzes are embedded throughout the modules to encourage this Doer Effect. Furthermore, H5P provides immediate feedback as soon as learners complete a quiz. According to Foerde and Shohamy (2011), immediate feedback activates the striatum, a critical brain region for processing reward and motivation. This activation helps learners adjust their behavior based onthe feedback received.
Analyzing POSE from the Diversity Perspective
Analyzing the diversity aspect of the approach, I observed efforts by POSE to make the course inclusive. For example, in the Learning Scenario and Case Study section of the module, relatively diverse personas are used. The icons representing humans display a variety of skin tones, and the names in the Case Studies are not exclusively English. This consideration of diversity helps foster a sense of belonging for students (Matthew & Landorf, 2016), providing an inclusive environment where students feel that their identities, personalities, and presence contribute meaningfully to the course. The consideration of diversity is also evident in the shared reflection section of the POSE website. The reflection questions are designed to be broad and inclusive, enabling learners from diverse backgrounds to contribute meaningfully. In the shared activities, I observed learners from various fields, including librarians, researchers, university staff, and educators, sharing their perspectives. They also discussed how they plan to apply the course content in their respective roles. In addition, POSE offers multiple options to accommodate learners in different time zones or with varying work schedules. The synchronous components of the course are optional, and recordings are provided for all synchronous sessions. This approach is important because, as Tsukada (2020) suggests, offering flexible and diverse options for online learning is essential to fostering a sense of belonging among students.
In terms of accessibility, POSE needs improvement. For example, the course relies heavily on multiple interactive elements, which require high bandwidth. As a result, learners with low internet connectivity or those living in rural areas may face difficulties accessing the course content. To mitigate this problem, one potential solution is to provide a text-based version of the POSE course, ensuring that learners can still access and benefit from the content even with limited internet connectivity.
References
Bandura, A. (2001). Social Cognitive Theory of Mass Communication. Media Psychology, 3(3), 265–299. https://doi.org/10.1207/S1532785XMEP0303_03
Foerde, K., & Shohamy, D. (2011). Feedback Timing Modulates Brain Systems for Learning in Humans. Journal of Neuroscience, 31(37), 13157–13167. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2701-11.2011
Fountain, S. B., & Doyle, K. E. (2012). Learning by Chunking. In N. M. Seel (Ed.), Encyclopedia of the Sciences of Learning (pp. 1814–1817). Springer US. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1428-6_1042
Magoon, A. J. (1977). Constructivist Approaches in Educational Research. Review of Educational Research, 47(4), 651–693. https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543047004651
Mathews, S. A., & Landorf, H. (2016). Developing a Framework to Evaluate the Potential of Global Learning in MOOCs. New Horizons in Adult Education and Human Resource Development, 28(4), 3–14. https://doi.org/10.1002/nha3.20157
Perry, T., Lea, R., Rübner Jørgensen, C., Cordingley, P., Shapiro, K., & Youdell, D. (2021). Cognitive science approaches in the classroom: A review of the evidence. Education Endowment Foundation. https://d2tic4wvo1iusb.cloudfront.net/production/documents/guidance/Cognitive_science_approaches_in_the_classroom_-_A_review_of_the_evidence.pdf?v=1732956630
Jhangini, R. (2019, April 11). 5Rs for Open Pedagogy. Rajiv Jhangiani, Ph.D. https://thatpsychprof.com/5rs-for-open-pedagogy/
Koedinger, K. R., McLaughlin, E. A., Jia, J. Z., & Bier, N. L. (2016). Is the doer effect a causal relationship? How can we tell and why it’s important. Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Learning Analytics & Knowledge, 388–397. https://doi.org/10.1145/2883851.2883957
Schrader, D. E. (2015). Constructivism and Learning in the Age of Social Media: Changing Minds and Learning Communities. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, 2015(144), 23–35. https://doi.org/10.1002/tl.20160
University of British Columbia. (2020, December 7). Getting Started. Program for Open Scholarship and Education. https://pose.open.ubc.ca/home-page/getting-started/
University of British Columbia. (2024, April 11). Home. Program for Open Scholarship and Education. https://pose.open.ubc.ca/
Tsukada, H. (2020). Cultivating an Inclusive Climate in Online Classrooms.https://ctlt-inclusiveteaching.sites.olt.ubc.ca/files/2020/08/Cultivating-Inclusive-Climate-v0411.pdf
Wiley, D. (2016, July 7). Toward Renewable Assessments – improving learning. https://opencontent.org/blog/archives/4691
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