COI COI Learning Theories & Instructional Strategies 1 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Constructivism in online learning PRIMARILY emphasizes that students:
- Receive information passively from the instructor
- Build knowledge through active experience and reflection (Correct answer)
- Learn best through memorization and repetition
- Perform better with tightly scripted lessons
Correct answer: Build knowledge through active experience and reflection
Constructivism holds that learners actively construct knowledge by connecting new information to prior experience through reflection and practice.
Question 2: Bloom's Taxonomy is MOST useful to an online instructor when:
- Scheduling synchronous sessions
- Designing learning objectives at varying cognitive levels (Correct answer)
- Selecting a learning management system
- Calculating final grade distributions
Correct answer: Designing learning objectives at varying cognitive levels
Bloom's Taxonomy provides a framework for sequencing objectives from lower-order (remember, understand) to higher-order (analyze, create) cognitive skills.
Question 3: Which learning theory underpins gamification in online education?
- Cognitivism
- Behaviorism (Correct answer)
- Humanism
- Connectivism
Correct answer: Behaviorism
Gamification relies on behavioral principles such as reinforcement, rewards, and immediate feedback to motivate and shape learner behavior.
Question 4: In Gagne's Nine Events of Instruction, 'gaining attention' is listed first because:
- It satisfies accreditation standards
- Learning cannot begin without activating the learner's focus (Correct answer)
- It is the easiest event to implement online
- It replaces the need for a course introduction
Correct answer: Learning cannot begin without activating the learner's focus
Attention is a prerequisite for all subsequent learning events; without it, stimuli cannot be processed or encoded into memory.
Question 5: Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), coined by Vygotsky, guides online instructors to:
- Allow students to work only within their current comfort level
- Provide tasks slightly beyond current ability with appropriate support (Correct answer)
- Avoid peer collaboration in assessments
- Focus exclusively on remedial learners
Correct answer: Provide tasks slightly beyond current ability with appropriate support
ZPD describes the gap between what a learner can do alone and with guidance, suggesting that optimal learning occurs with scaffolded challenges just beyond current ability.
Question 6: Connectivism, developed by George Siemens, is BEST described as a learning theory that:
- Emphasizes individual cognitive processing in isolation
- Views learning as forming connections across networks and digital resources (Correct answer)
- Rejects technology as a meaningful learning tool
- Limits valid knowledge to peer-reviewed academic sources
Correct answer: Views learning as forming connections across networks and digital resources
Connectivism argues that in the digital age, learning is the process of creating connections among nodes — people, information, and tools in a network.
COI COI Learning Theories & Instructional Strategies 1
Constructivism in online learning PRIMARILY emphasizes that students: