Coursera White Paper Details the Pedagogy Underlying Guided Projects on Coursera

Coursera now offers Guided Projects to help learners acquire job-relevant skills in under two hours by working on an interactive project guided by a subject matter expert. Today we’re publishing a white paper — “Guided Projects on Coursera Facilitate Hands-on Acquisition of Skills” — that synthesizes the academic research and findings that underpin the efficacy of guided instruction as a learning tool.

How to Integrate Mastery Learning into Course Design

In a famous 1984 paper in Educational Researcher, educational psychologist Benjamin Bloom posed what he called the “2 sigma” problem: How can group instruction methods enable students to attain the same level of achievement that can be attained under good individual or small group tutoring conditions? Bloom’s work underscores the importance of rethinking the traditional educational model where time is fixed and achievement is variable. A mastery learning approach flips those variables so that mastery is the constant while time is the variable.

How to Maximize Instructional Design to Bridge the Middle-Skills Gap

“Middle-skills” jobs –– those that “require more education and training than a high school diploma but less than a four-year college degree” –– continue to go unfilled while aspiring workers lack the training required to move into these jobs. Online education provides a valuable opportunity to bridge this skills gap, helping workers gain the skills required to pursue entry-level jobs. But how should educational programs be structured to maximize success for learners seeking to obtain the skills and credentials needed for these jobs? Effective mastery-based instructional design begins by understanding the target audience enrolling in these types of programs and then implementing pedagogical best practices to set these learners up for successful completion of those programs.

How to Flip a College Classroom

Higher education is rapidly expanding into the online teaching space, creating both opportunities and challenges for instructors looking to integrate online activities into their courses. But simply pointing students to online videos or quizzes does not automatically lead to successful learning experiences. If you are ready to experiment with a “flipped” classroom in your teaching, here is what to keep in mind: A successful flipped classroom starts by planning in-class activities to engage students in active learning, and then organizes online content and activities around that learning.