The document discusses evidence-based teaching and learning strategies supported by cognitive psychology research. It summarizes key findings on perception, attention, memory and the testing effect, spacing effect, interleaving, and elaborative learning. The presenter recommends applying these strategies like frequent low-stakes quizzes, distributing practice over time, mixing up topics, and asking deeper questions to optimize course design and improve student outcomes. Videos and resources on cognitive psychology and effective learning techniques are also provided.

1. D2L Minnesota Connections 2019
April 5, 2019
What Works?
Applying Evidence-Based Teaching and
Learning Practices in D2L Brightspace
Handout
Presenter: Maggie Glazer, MS, MBA, LPC
Psychology Instructor mglazer@sctcc.edu; 320-224-3994
St. Cloud Technical & Community College
Introduction/Overview
Objectives
1. Summarize key cognitive psychology research findings
2. Differentiate high utility evidence-based teaching and learning strategies and low utility
traditional teaching and learning strategies.
3. Apply evidence-based teaching and learning strategies to design and teach courses (seated and
online).
Agenda
1. Goal: We have in common wanting positive educational Outcomes
2. There are misunderstandings about learning that impede
3. Cognitive Psychology – Perception, Attention, & Memory
4. Cognitive Psychology Research – Testing Effect, Spacing Effect, Interleaving, and Elaborative
learning
5. D2L Strategies for teaching and learning
What Types of Study Strategies Do Your Students Use?
A. Highlighting is low utility
B. Rereading is low utility
C. Summarizing is low utility
D. Self-testing* is high utility
Misunderstandings about Learning
Learning Styles, Left Brain/Right Brain, High Stimuli Classroom
Goal: Improve Educational Outcomes
● Helping students better regulate their learning by using better teaching and learning techniques in
course design and teaching strategies
● Psychologists have been developing and testing cognitive learning and study techniques for well
over 100 years
○ Teachers & students do not know about the strategies
○ Students are more familiar with traditional study strategies like highlighting and re-
reading

2. ○ Real learning that lasts over time is hard work for the instructor and the learner
Cognitive Psychology –Perception
Sensation – Objective
Perception – Subjective and allows us to make sense of the world
Perception means we don’t all experience the world in the same ways.
Concepts: Top-down and bottom-up processing
Cognitive Psychology – Attention
Attention is difficult to define.
Cognitive psychologists mostly agree that attention is the ability to focus on specific stimuli.
Multitasking is a myth. You are switching your attention between stimuli and slowing your reaction time
to both.
Disproving the idea of multitasking activity:
Time yourself with a stopwatch doing the following tasks. Record your times.
Task 1 – Counting from 1 to 26
Task 2 – Reciting the alphabet from A to Z
Task 3 – interleaving numbers with letters,
1-A-2-B-3-C etc. (Switch back and forth between Task 1 and 2.)
Handy stopwatch
https://stopwatch.onlineclock.net/
Add times for Task 1 and Task 2
Report in the chat box
1) Time for Task 1 & 2
2) Time for Task 3.
3) Which number is larger?
4) Usually Task 3 takes over twice as much time.
Cognitive Psychology-Memory
Everything we do requires memory in one form or another.
Memory is subjective and reconstructive.
Multiple processes make up what we call memory.
Short-term to long-term memory
-Encoding in a deep and meaningful way.
Forgetting
-As soon as we learn something we start to forget it. The forgetting curve is steep.
Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve

3. Cognitive Psychology Research
Dunlosky, et al. (2013) Improving Students’ Learning With Effective Learning Techniques: Promising
Directions From Cognitive and Educational Psychology
Optimize Course Design
● Retrieval Practice (testing effect)
○ Provide frequent low- or no-stakes quizzes (online and pencil paper)
○ Ask questions and require answers from memory
○ Provide feedback with right and wrong answers
○ Many ways to provide retrieval practice---anything that requires students to bring
something to mind.
● Distributed Practice (spacing effect)
○ Revisit information throughout the semester
○ Integrate brief reviews of previous ideas in later classes
○ Assign homework or quizzes the week(s) after discussing the topic in the classroom
○ Help students create effective study schedules (remember the forgetting curve?)
○ Cramming vs. spacing. Better to space out learning in short bursts rather than all at once.
Plan your lessons accordingly.

4. ● Interleaving (mixing up learning)
○ Vary topics, If you are teaching a 5 step procedure you might teach step 1, then step 5, step
2, circle back to step 1, step 3, back to step 2, etc.
○ Interleaved practice feels sluggish, but long term results are better than massed practice
○ Students need to shuffle their flashcards
● Elaboration (deeper understanding)
○ Ask How and Why questions about what students are learning to gain a deeper
understanding
○ Compare and contrast. Ask “How are two ideas similar (or different) to one another?”
○ Reflection-What would I do differently next time?
○ Encourage students to make connections to their memories and experiences and ask how
they are similar or different.
○ Elaboration is best when used to help develop understanding not when introducing an
idea.

5. Links to videos:
Cognitive Psychology Top-down and bottom-up processing
https://youtu.be/kTZURg8FXl8
Cognitive Psychology Selective Attention
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJG698U2Mvo
Learning science resources:
• Article: Improving Students’ Learning With Effective Learning Techniques: Promising Directions
From Cognitive and Educational Psychology
http://www.indiana.edu/~pcl/rgoldsto/courses/dunloskyimprovinglearning.pdf
• Book: Brown et al. (2014). Make it Stick: The Science of Successful Learning.
• Book: Carey (2014). How We Learn: The Surprising Truth About When, Where, and Why It Happens
• Book: Rhodes et al. (2020) A Guide to Effective Studying and Learning
• Book: Weinstein & Sumeracki (2019). Understanding How We Learn: A Visual Guide