Sample Activities

In E-Learning by Design, William Horton divides the types of activities that Instructional Designers should use to assess learning into three categories: Absorb, Do, Connect.

These activities should directly connect with a corresponding Terminal and Enabling Objective. Horton’s “Absorb, Do, Connect” model can be used alongside the Universal  Design for Learning (UDL) framework. These two concepts can work together to fully engage students and breakdown the barriers to learning that can occur in any classroom. UDL is broken down into three parts “Representation, Action & Expression, & Engagement.”

The Terminal Objective for this project is to Eliminate waste within the hospital system. The following examples are the “Absorb, Do, Connect” activities that relate to this terminal objective.

Terminal Objective: Eliminate waste within the hospital system
Enabling Objectives		Absorb Activity	Do Activity	Connect Activity
Understand why we focus on the principle of Waste		Listen to lecture from the instructor and read along with the PowerPoint	Quiz: on the Types of Waste	Job aid:Handout with the Wastes listed and defined

Absorb:

Participants follow along with a PowerPoint slide deck presentation as the instructor reviews the Waste one of the major components of any Lean system. This is an introductory module to Waste as a lean principle as well as Waste within the hospital system. The participants are given multiple way of viewing the information. This gives the student “multiple media for viewing the content.” The are looking at the screen and listening to the instructor speak. They also have the ability to follow along in their books with the PowerPoint slides.

Do:

After having observed the teaching of the module, participants complete a short quiz to show retention of the material. The quiz questions are pulled directly from the PowerPoint decks that the students and instructors have just reviewed.

This is not just a quiz for a quiz’s sake. It gives the learner a gage by which they can set their learning goals. After the quiz is taken, the learner will self-evaluate their quiz as the instructor reviews the correct answers with the entire class.

 

Connect:

In order to reinforce what they have learned in the class, participants receive a job aid/handout to hang up in their cubicle at work. This gives them a chance to consistently review the definitions of the different types of Waste that can be found within their hospital system. This job aid is also helpful later in the week when participants are asked to review principles during the Teach Back assessments.