Interactive Learning Resource – Peer Review

By Avery Sikkes, Rita Haxhiavdija, Nagarjun Anand, and Evelyn Schoahs

Overview – What the resource is doing well overall

Overall, your Interactive Learning Resource is engaging and well-designed for students. There is both structured content and interactive pieces, so it feels like active learning. There is strong alignment between your learning outcomes and the activities and assessments. Including components like quizzes, PowerPoints, and activity criteria is also very supportive for the student. It is obvious that you put a lot of work into this design!

Strengths – Specific, evidence-based

One of your biggest strengths is the clarity and structure of the learning resource. The layout makes it easy to follow, and it is clear to students what they need to do at each stage. The learning outcomes are very well written and provide the students with knowledge on exactly what they are expected to learn throughout the course.  

The use of interactive elements, like mini lessons, quizzes, and an exit ticket assignment, is also a strength. These activities encourage students to actively engage and make sure they are understanding the content. The exit ticket is a particularly good idea, as the students are able to reflect at the end of the activity. Including multiple materials, like quizzes, PowerPoints, and Google Docs with criteria, is also very supportive to students, helps with their learning, and makes instruction clear. 

Another great strength is your attention to student support and accessibility. The support and resources page is a great addition, and lets students know they have resources beyond just the course content. Including things like academic skills centres, accessibility and learning accommodations, and mental health support is very thoughtful. 

Areas for improvement – With suggestions

One area that could be improved is the overall look of the resource. Currently, most of the content is on one single page, which could potentially feel overwhelming to students. Breaking the content into separate tabs or sections could make it easier for students to focus on one thing at a time. Many students might access the resource on their mobile phone, so it might also be worth it to make it mobile-friendly. 

You could also incorporate more Universal Design for Learning principles, mainly by offering different ways for students to engage with the material. Adding multiple options for completing assignments could make the learning design more inclusive, such as being able to submit a written response, a recorded explanation, or a visual project. You could also include a recording of the PowerPoint presentation for Activity 2 to support learners who benefit from auditory learning. Moreover, you could also add a quick quiz question every few slides so that the learners use active retrieval. You could also include more flexibility regarding how the students engage with activities, such as the weekly schedule. This is a very helpful tool, but it might not work for all learners. Offering different options for making a schedule could help make this component more adaptable to different needs. It would also be a good idea to gamify the scavenger hunt with badges of completion. 

The grading structure of the assignments could also be clarified. It is not entirely clear if each activity is graded individually, whether there is one overall grade, and how the activities contribute to the final assessment. Adding a rubric could help the students better understand what is expected of them. 

This learning design seems like it could be a better fit for students in grade 12 or who have just graduated high school, and use this as a summer course. As it is meant to be a preparation for university, it may give the impression that students who are already in their first year engaging with this course have fallen behind. Changing your target audience could also allow secondary school students to gauge whether post-secondary education is a good fit for them. This might make your Activity 4 work, but a slight adjustment of using the example syllabus to create these planners would allow it to fit grade 12 students. As a result, we would also suggest creating a discussion board so that students who are already in the university could post “pro tips” for incoming students. Such tips and suggestions are likely to be more personalised, and students are more likely to learn from them. 

Final thoughts – Big-picture advice

Overall, this is a very strong and well-developed resource that supports student learning in many ways. With a few small adjustments, your resource could become even more accessible and effective for a wide range of learners. Great work!