1.1.2. Metacognitive strategies to foster learners’ metacognitive thinking about a learning design

An important factor related to teaching design is the consistency of learning activities. In other words, you have to make sure that all the tasks match with the learning outcomes. Moreover, the overall structure of the course should be easy to follow. Learners should be able to identify the learning pathway and understand how each topic, learning resource, activity and assignment contribute to their successful learning.

Strategy example 4. Creating concept maps to reflect on the course concepts

Let’s provide an example of activity. In the first task, for example, you can ask students to look for three definitions of “open education” and to describe them according to their characteristics. In the second task, they should work in groups to develop a concept map in which the definitions and characteristics are grouped (fig. 4). To do this, students can choose any tool among the following: Moodle Mindmap, Mindmup, Mindmeister, Genially.

Figure 4. A “Genially” Template for a circular concept map (image source:  https://genial.ly/template/circular-concept-map/)

When students complete these assignments, they develop conscious task performance. And at the same time, you develop metacognition by:

• adding VLE-based learning outcomes in the course
• creating assignments and linking them with learning outcomes, as indicated in the course/assignment or study guide description (more in unit 1.2.)
• setting up and using clear evaluation criteria for each assignment, which can be checked in a study guide
• providing feedback on the grade issued and marking which learning outcomes have been achieved or not.

Strategy example 5. Identifying learning content that requires more explanation

Another metacognitive learning strategy is to encourage learners to ask questions during the class so that the teacher can give on-time responses. To do this, you can use any tool that allows you to co-create documents, e.g., Google Jamboard (fig. 5).

Figure 5. Q&A activity during a synchronous class using Google Jamboard tool (activity created for this training material, Tamoliune, 2022)

Strategy example 6. Self-assessing one’s learning and course content

In order to help students self-assess and monitor their knowledge, you can invite them to provide feedback on a given topic, course unit, learning method, learning resources, on the usefulness of teachers’ feedback, on the clarity of assessment criteria, etc. At the same time, you can ask students to reflect on their own work during the course and on their engagement and participation in synchronous classes. Moodle-based Feedback instrument, for example, allows you to collect learners’ feedback (fig. 6) and, at the same time, generates data on how many answers have been provided.

Figure 6. An example of Moodle-based feedback activity on learning design (Trepule & Tamoliune, MA study course “Concepts of adult education”, Vytautas Magnus University)

Feedback activities should be designed when needed or at least at the end of the course. For example, you can ask learners how they can apply the new knowledge in their practice or what resources they find most successful. These questions foster learners’ metacognition and awareness of how they perceive the topic or the course. You can understand better what their learning preferences are.

Strategy example 7. Inviting learners to co-create learning resources 

You can foster social presence and emphasise the importance of a learning community by inviting students to share learning resources that they find useful for learning in a given course. To do this, you can use Moodle glossary, wikis, or some other external tool. 

You will find more ideas on learning tools that can support learners’ engagement and metacognition in other units of this training material. Moreover, unit 2.2 will provide you with some recommendations on how to make data-informed teaching and learning interventions, while unit 3 will introduce teaching and learning strategies that may help you support and engage students in learning.