Learning Approach & Activities

The course employs various experiential learning strategies. Experiential learning permeates various aspects of the course, from the Instructional Design (ID) model that was used during the design phase to the individual technology-aided activities that were integrated as narrative, interactive, or evaluative components of the course.  The ID model employed, which is the Star Cycle Legacy model is problem-based, which employs the experiential learning strategies of problem inquiry and case study.  Each of the four modules will have a virtual reality-tour, which is a simulation of a field trip to a tropical forest, another experiential learning strategy.  Furthermore, students will be actively engaged in online forums that feature peer reviewing or commenting.

The course structure is primarily designed to be problem-based and interactive. Online forums will be streamlined to help learners accomplish the two main assignments of the course.  A smaller assignment during the first half of the course where initial concepts of sustainability and ecosystem services will be applied will span modules 1 and 2 while the bigger assignment or case will aim to integrate what was learned in modules 3 and 4 as well as the early modules.

Each module of the online course will encourage active and experiential learning using interactive 360-degree images or videos that present simulated events representing concepts in Ecosystem Services.

Each week,  you will participate in an online discussion that would encourage you to exchange ideas and share your perspectives that will be beneficial to accomplishing your assignments. We streamlined 14 online forums to help you do your “problems” or assignments with two inquiry learning cycles.   The overall design of the course is illustrated below.

The first inquiry challenge will be represented by a conceptual-level assignment. It will be prompted by a VR tour of a protected tropical forest.  The figure below maps the weeks and forums of the first cycle.

The second inquiry challenge will be represented by a more comprehensive and sophisticated assignment, a forest management plan.  It will be prompted by another VR tour of an unprotected tropical forest and the communities in the vicinity.  The figure below maps the weeks and forums of the second cycle.