https://www.opcw.org/media-centre/news/2022/07/opcw-advisory-board-education-and-outreach-advance-strategies-promote
I have just returned from The Hague, where I had the privilege to attend the 13th meeting of the Advisory Board for Education and Outreach of the #OPCW. Before the meeting, I had the great honour to work with several of the leaders of the OPCW to discuss a model for high-end e-learning to inform the OPCW's global educational initiatives. I began by asking them to describe a powerful learning experience. They shared incredible stories and identified these common elements of peak learning experiences:
* Feeling overwhelmed
* Exposure to content that deepened their understanding of the world
* Diversity of opinions within the learning environment
* Interactivity with the instructor and other students
* The growth of self-efficacy
* The opportunity to express what they were learning with family, colleagues, and friends
* Relevance to their real-world environments
* Reinforcing and strengthening their internal motivation
This describes what the best faculty and instructional designers try to achieve in any learning experience in any modality. High end e-learning requires particular attention to these elements, and this can only be achieved if the organization has strategy, infrastructure, and well-prepared instructors who can build community and connection. For an institution like the OPCW, these essentials can be supplemented by Open Education Resources and the issuance of micro-credentials that learners value.
It was a great and exciting meeting, and I am thrilled to be part of such an important mission. (Of course, my eyes are closed in the picture!).