Substantive Post 1 #Challenge C

I have studied multiple open educational resources, but the one that impacted my thought line the most is “Recycle City”. This resource was created by the government of the United States of America, with one goal in mind, to spread awareness about recycling through interesting means, which in this case is games, interactive scenarios. This is an open resource allowing anyone to learn about recycling. The reason why it is impactful is that it offers various interactive activities teaching the learners about recycling, waste management, and sustainability in an engaging way, which makes the information more memorable. 

In this educational resource, we can see the effective use of several principles of Mayer’s multimedia learning principles. The resource used the segmenting principle quite effectively by breaking the content into short and easy-to-understand modules. Cognitive overload was minimized with the help of the modality principle by combining the narration and visuals effectively. The site also used features like interactive maps, mini-games, and scenario-based knowledge, which clearly lie within the parameters of Constructivist and interactive learning theories. 

This open resource offers multiple means of engagement via visuals, text, and interactive activities in order to include the diverse learners, as well as encouraging self-reflection with the help of scenario-based tasks. This OER handled the concept of accessibility effectively by following several Universal Design of learning principles. The one task that I found really effective in making learning meaningful was the task of interactive maps within scenario-based tasks. 

In the end, this open education resource shows how to effectively use UDL guidelines and Mayer’s multimedia learning principles in order to create a well-designed learning resource which can make the learning both accessible and engaging.   

References

The US EPA’s Recycle City. (n.d.). Recycle City. https://www3.epa.gov/recyclecity/index.htm

Mayer, R. E. (2024). The past, present, and future of the Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning. Educational Psychology Review, 36(1). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-023-09842-1