Digital Pedagogy & Instructional Design Flashcards

Which accessibility standard is most widely used to evaluate and improve the accessibility of online course content for students with disabilities?

Answer: WCAG 2.1

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 provide the internationally recognized technical standards for making web and online content accessible.

An instructor wants to promote higher-order thinking in an online discussion forum. Which prompt strategy is most effective?

Answer: Pose open-ended, ill-structured problems that require analysis and justification

Open-ended, ill-structured problems require learners to analyze, evaluate, and synthesize information, promoting higher-order thinking aligned with upper Bloom's levels.

What does 'cognitive load' refer to in the context of online instructional design?

Answer: The total mental effort being used in working memory during learning

Cognitive load theory, developed by John Sweller, refers to the amount of mental effort placed on working memory, and effective design minimizes extraneous load to support learning.

A digital educator is designing a rubric for an online multimedia presentation. Which rubric type offers the most detailed, criterion-specific feedback?

Answer: Analytic rubric

An analytic rubric breaks performance into separate criteria with distinct performance levels for each, providing detailed, targeted feedback on specific aspects of the work.

Which of the following best exemplifies 'connectivism' as a learning theory for the digital age?

Answer: Learning occurs through forming connections across networks, people, and digital resources

Connectivism, proposed by George Siemens, views learning as the process of creating connections between nodes — people, information, and digital networks.

An online teacher notices that ELL students are struggling with text-heavy slides. Which UDL-aligned strategy would best support these learners?

Answer: Add visual supports, captioned videos, and bilingual glossaries to the course

UDL encourages multiple means of representation — adding visuals, captions, and language supports benefits ELL students without reducing rigor or separating learners.

Which metric is the most direct indicator of whether a digital course is achieving its intended learning outcomes?

Answer: Pre- and post-assessment performance data aligned to objectives

Pre- and post-assessments directly measure learning gains aligned to stated objectives, providing the most accurate evidence of whether instructional goals were met.