Teaching psychomotor skills, or any skills, using online video can be very effective, but only if learners actually pay attention! H5P allows for a more engaging, interactive, analytic, trackable, performance support design, addressing learners' sometimes false perceptions regarding their prerequisite knowledge/skills, optimizing time, and facilitating achievement of learner outcomes.
The Office of Digital Learning, a division of the College of Arts and Architecture at Penn State, recently launched a Shop Safety course. Like any discipline requiring the use of potentially dangerous machinery and tools, it is critical that learners be fully aware of the proper procedures to follow, and the inherent risks involved, when setting up and operating these devices.
To ensure that all learners received standardized instruction regarding shop safety, we created a video intensive online course designed to highlight key features, operating procedures, and associated risks. This was important, since tools may vary from shop to shop, learners may or may not have had prior shop experience, and, as we all know, bad habits can develop along the way.
Despite our best efforts to promote this training, we were finding that learners were either not watching the videos in their entirety, or they were not watching them at all, sometimes falsely assuming that they already possessed the prerequisite knowledge and skills. Once in the shop, it was quite apparent who viewed the prerequisite training, and who did not.
Consequently, as instructors, designers, and developers, we faced the following challenges: How do we make learners more accountable when learning this critical information? What innovative techniques and tools are available for us to use? Can we use data analytics to not only track learner progress, but actually encourage learners to engage more fully with the content, so they can avoid injury or a serious accident?
By rethinking our approach, and using the inherent capabilities of H5P to easily embed questions at critical points within the actual videos, we can prevent learners from skipping important content, or jumping prematurely to a final assessment. Learners need to fully engage with the content in a meaningful way before being allowed to progress through the course. Although this lock step type of learning is not a new concept, using the latest techniques and tools makes this a much easier goal to achieve.
In addition, important tracking data can be provided to the instructor, so that they can be made fully aware which learners demonstrate proficiency, prior to actually using the machinery and tools. This reduces opportunities for content skipping, and empowers instructors to offer additional hands-on training for those who may be experiencing difficulties.
When incorporated into the course design, H5P has the potential to offer a more effective means of promoting shop safety. Furthermore, the techniques and tools addressed have widespread generalizability.
Regardless of your professional background or area of expertise, knowing how to apply this innovative H5P approach can make a significant difference in terms of optimizing quality, cost, and time, not to mention risk avoidance. This educational session is open to anyone interested, and is aimed primarily at the novice/intermediate level.
The goal of this session is to create awareness of the many benefits of H5P, and share practical insights regarding its application. Participants will receive additional context regarding the original need, a review of the H5P tool, including its features and functions, relevant examples, a demonstration of how it can be used for various instructional purposes, and an opportunity to discuss the implications of this approach.