MODL is interactive, online, and personal. It is everything you want learning to be!!
Microsoft Official Distance Learning (MODL) is one of the most exciting innovations to come from Microsoft Learning! It’s a whole new blended learning experience that combines the best of classroom training, live discussion, real-world “Day in the Life” scenarios, self-directed study, and topic-based feedback.
The student-centric MODL courseware is built from the foundation of interactivity and student engagement. As a MODL MCT, you direct pre-built interactions and team collaboration activities in a live classroom. The early Metrics That Matter (MTM) feedback has been off-the-charts for instructor engagement and courseware. This is a great opportunity for you to engage with your students in a whole new way …. no matter where they are located – local, remote, or both.
The MODL Experience and the GEAR Model
The MODL learning experience is built on the foundation of the following instructional design principles:
- Learning is most engaging when multi-sensory support is provided
- Learning is most effective when potential cognitive overload is minimized and avoided
- Learning is most engaging and effective when multi-modality learning support is provided
- Learning how to learn is just as important (or even more important) than learning through instructor facilitation and modeling. This is known as the “Student Evolution Curve”. See below.
- Learning is better sustained and reinforced through continued self-assessment and instructor feedback
The overall MODL experience is based on the GEAR model containing the following 4 components (review the illustration below):
- (G)ATHER – a 2-hour live facilitated virtual (or physical) classroom experience
- (E)XPAND – a 1-hour self-study experience
- (A)PPLY – a 1-hour “Day in the Life” scenario-based virtual hands-on lab experience
- (R)EVIEW – self-assessment and instructor-feedback
By design, each MODL cycle goes through the above four (4) components which constitute one MODL module. There are two MODL sessions within one course day in the traditional MOC terminology.
Student Evolution Curve
One of the key MODL instructional design principles is to provide students an opportunity to take an increasingly greater role in their own learning. Learning how to learn for students is just as important and, perhaps, even more important, than learning through instructor facilitation and modeling. This principle is the foundation of the “Student Evolution Curve” model as illustrated below.
As shown in the illustration, the live virtual classroom sessions help to create independent learners by ramping the dependency on instructor-aided learning down as they ramp up the students’ ability to learn for themselves. This is done through utilizing peer interaction, support materials, and technology learning tools. The yellow highlighted curve shows the path a typical student goes through as he/she learns how to be more self-dependent over the course of 10 MODL modules.
Specifically, in this approach, students:
- Learn how to learn during the 2-hour live virtual classroom sessions.
- Gradually take on greater roles in their own learning even during the 2-hour live virtual classroom sessions. There is more instructor hand-holding in the initial live sessions. However, as the course progresses, engagement activities gravitate more to having students playing a more active role in learning. There is more active reading and processing by students than instructor presenting information in lecture form.
Step 1: Get Trained.
In order to master these instructional principles, please view the four recorded Live Meeting sessions listed below. These sessions describe and demonstrate the critical role of the instructor in the MODL experience (one hour each):
- Session 1 MODL TTT – An Overview
- Session 2 MODL TTT – MODL 2273 Experience
- Session 3 MODL TTT – Facilitating Distance Learning
- Session 4 MODL TTT – MCT Best Practices
Note: MCTs who attended all four Distance Learning sessions at Tech·Ed 2006 or 2007 have already met this requirement and may continue directly to step 2. MCTs who attended some—but not all—of these sessions at Tech·Ed or the MCT Summit need only attend the ones that they missed before going to step 2.
