Building Effective Study Guides for Online Learning and Assessment

Study guides are common features of science-based (and some social science) courses. These are information sets created by learners to help them prepare for upcoming exams. If effectively designed (by the faculty member usually) and executed (by the learners) with faculty oversight, such study guides offer effective notes for student learning. They serve as powerful resources to enhance memory. Study guides are effective because they help learners synthesize (sometimes contradictory) information from various information sources and are expressed in the learners’ own words to enable instructor evaluation of their actual comprehension. These guides enhance learner citations of research sources. Such digital study guides may integrate text, imagery, URLs, and other resources. These help learners take ownership of the learning and help them express their understandings through their own interpretive lenses. This presentation will include some live examples of study guides and their various strengths and weaknesses. There will be ideas for how to take the “retro” concept of a study guide and re-make study guides into interactive learning resources, with special strengths in intensive, concentrated, or accelerated courses