New versions of digital education platforms are coming out all the time, adding on to the features they’ve had, and changing where to find them. These are exciting features for sure but software and app updates have never been more challenging than when you discover them right in the middle of your next session. Now you can control for a feature, the next day you can’t, the following day it’s back on again but in a different place…

Which brings me to my question: do you practice the new features first, or do you jump in medias res with them? One of my colleagues commented that students may be up for the experiment if you just warn them first. Is it part of “learner engagement” that should yield interest and positive learning outcomes (see e.g. Montgomery et al., 2015), or does the struggle with the new feature sidetrack the learning from the content you actually want to convey?

It may be somewhat different when learners are asked to themselves produce the content in a different way and format, e.g. as blogs, vlogs etc. (Liu, 2016). What do you reckon?

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(Warning, just because you have an update, it doesn’t mean your audience has the latest version of the same app. They may not see what you see…)

Liu M-h (2016), “Blending a class video blog to optimize student learning outcomes in higher education”, The Internet and Higher Education, 30(2016): 44-53.

Montgomery AP, Hayward D, Dunn W, Carbonaro M & Amrhein C (2015), “Blending for student engagement: Lessons learned for MOOCs and beyond“, Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 31(6).