Learning wrappers take many forms (exam wrappers, homework wrappers, metacognitive wrappers). Their purpose is generally to provide learners with framework for reflection on their learning: what did they learn, what confusions surfaced and what do they need to explore further, change or seek clarification on as a result of what they learned? The use of learning wrappers need not be confined to exams and paper writing). Musician and scholar Jose Bowen, wrote a piece for his blog: Teaching Naked, where he described his use of cognitive wrappers to help students reflect on performance or rehearsal activities. The key is in the brevity and flexibility of the design of a wrapper. Bowen offers a 4 part model for designing a wrapper:
- Rationale
- Reflection
- Comparison
- Adjustment
Since reflection and self regulation are important aspects of learning in any self-guided learning situation, I wanted refine the learning design approach we were using for our Digital Tattoo website, and implement a modified learning wrapper for some of the video content we are curating or creating. Our goal with the site is to provide a space for learners to reflect on their own experience related to themes around privacy and online identity. We use questions as a springboard for reflection, video (or case studies) to help tell the story, and curated collections of resources to facilitate further exploration or taking action. We were inspired by the video wrapper design used for TedEd.
Process
Since we are working in WordPress (CMS version), our wrapper was built for that environment. We chose the framework (headings):
- Watch: obviously! leading with the video.
- Think: a few questions in self assessment form to provoke thinking related to personal experience/reaction.
- Explore: some curated content for wider context, further exploration.
- Discuss: an opportunity to propose questions to encourage conversation
The coding work was done by my awesome colleague Rie Namba, with support from John Hsu. Plug-ins used include:
- gravity forms: for the self-assessment in Think
- display-comments plug-in shortcode: to get comments into the learning wrapper.
Examples
From Digital Tattoo:
Social Media Personalities
Privacy in the Cloud
Documentation
* Learning Wrapper on the UBC Wiki: code for implementation on UBC’s CLF Theme in WP.
* plug-in shortcode for displaying comments in the wrapper: this was developed by Rie for UBC’s CLF theme in WP. Shared via GitHub
Potentially Coherent 