Canva is a valuable tool for creating infographics. Infographics offer a quick, visual means of conveying useful information and can be used in both face-to-face and online settings. I selected it not just to address activities in my edX Instructional Design courses but because it has potential for my work as a trainer, consultant, and as a professor. Furthermore, Canva offers multiple other outputs that are valuable in all of these settings from instagram posts to brochures to presentations, worksheets, and more.
For my first experience with Canva, I didn't stop to think about learning theory until I was done with the first project. I then reflected on that experience and what theory would best explain that experience.
Initially, I would describe my learning as hands on, experiential, and problem-based. In some ways I was rewarded when my actions resulted in a desired outcome and "punished" when they did not. However, behaviorism is not the best way to describe the learning process. I constructed new knowledge in a problem-based authentic learning environment (I created a real infographic). Thus constructivism has some merit as a theory for this type of learning.
As I proceeded with my project, learning as I developed it, I had to consider what I already understood about the environment. I could, in that sense, intuit, steps to take. The environment includes elements such that "what you see is what you get" or WYSIWYG. In that sense the online based software uses elements that are similar to many programs such as selecting a template, clicking the "T" with the word text to add and work with words, seeing where I could "bring forward" or "send to the back" like in Office products, etc.
As I moved through the process of learning by doing, I would consider what I wanted to do and then ask myself the following: How can I get from here (where I am now" to the "look" I want to have, where I want to be? I built on my existing knowledge creating new knowledge of Canva. In addition to constructivism, this also suggests that cognitivism may be playing a role.
However, another theoretical framework, connectivism, also has merit in terms of explaining my experience. Of the theories presented in the edX USMx LDT100x course, connectivism was the one theory with which I was not familiar at all. In that each part of the process connected both to other software I had used and the idea behind how the elements were arranged connected to aspects of design (which involves psychological principles and relates to a personal passion of mine, photography and art), in many ways this project was a natural integration or connection of different pieces I already had.
My first project became the constructivism infographic.
The experience of considering my own learning helped me to be aware of where I was gaining or constructing new knowledge, where elements of the process were meaningful to me, where I sought out support (i.e., using the help function). I think that elements of multiple theories helps to explain my learning process with Canva.
To complete the course, I actually returned to the software for other weekly deliverables. Finally I challenged myself to learn one of the other products that Canva could help me create. I chose to create an Instragram post but with the idea that this kind of brief message could be useful in many training/teaching contexts as well as sharing ideas via social media. My final product is below.
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Alycia Harris, PhD, MBA, CPTD, SHRM-CP
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