Included E-learning Principles that Promotes Critical Thinking Skills

E-learning is known as either a self-study or an instructor-led educational format (Clark & Mayer, 2011).  Critical thinking is known as the process of actively applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating information generated by observation, experience, reflection, and reasoning.  A critical thinker needs instruction on what is involved while learning, interesting content to learn, and needs the opportunity to practice what they’ve learned.  Some e-learning principles used in the Computer operation: Basic Knowledge storyboard that use critical thinking skills are known as segmentation, pretraining, learner controlled, contiguity, and feedback.  By using these principles in this storyboard, it allows the student to think about what they are learning and how they can use the knowledge they’ve gained to complete every day activities.  The storyboard used segmenting by breaking lesson up into manageable segments to allow the student to focus on one thing to not cause cognitive overload.  Pretraining principle in this storyboard involved a video that described how computers began their history.  This allowed students to become familiar with the subject without diving into hands on learning.  This video also allows the learner to control their learning.  When graphics and corresponding text is used, it allows the student to make reference to one another to gain knew knowledge; this is known as the contiguity principle and this storyboard uses a flowchart to show the proper steps of turning on a computer.  Lastly, feedback allows the student to grow in the instructed subject due to the communication with the instructor that instructs them on what is right and what is wrong.  This storyboard uses a rubric to quickly give the student proper feedback before they begin the project.

Clark, R. C., & Mayer, R. E. (2011). E-Learning and the science of instruction:
          Proven guidelines for consumer and designer of multimedia learning          
           (3rd ed.) San Francisco, CA: Pfeiffer.