Main Body
The Pedagogical Wrapper
Three basic elements of the pedagogical wrapper
Rich media alone does not cause learning.
In a self-directed learning environment, it is risky to assume that online students will, without guidance, accurately interpret the purpose, value, or meaning of the resources they are assigned to read or watch for an instructional purpose. Online learners need to know what they are engaged with, what to look for as they are engaged, and how a resource relates in some way to an instructional activity or assessment.
The triangular “pedagogical wrapper” concept was developed to meet online learners’ need for coherence, relevance, and certainty as they operate as self-directed students in asynchronous online instruction.
Before engagement: Provide background information that conveys relevance and credibility to the resource in terms of the instructional goal.
Ideally, the learner should be maximizing their attention on what matters about the resource – not on trying to determine what the resource is, where it came from, what it is about, and why it is relevant. Learners also benefit from knowing that the resource comes from an authoritative publisher or author since they will be referring to it later as part of their writing, reflection, or discussion participation.
Second, by providing provenance to the resource, the learner is able to explore it further to discover a new organization, prominent author, media resource, or event that could be added to their personal learning network.
During engagement: Provide tasks for learners to do while focused on the activity or resource such as themes, trends, or events to look for.
Learners are constantly constructing meaning from the flow of information that they receive (as they receive it) based on their unique prior knowledge and backgrounds (Wittrock, 1974). The challenge for instructors is to guide the focus of learners’ attention to help facilitate their knowledge construction towards the desired instructional goal (Wittrock, 1992).
Without guidance about what to look for, learners may focus on an aspect of the resource or activity that is secondary or superfluous to its intended use. It is best to assume that the purpose for learners’ engagement will not be self-evident to them without instructor guidance.
While we do not wish to limit what learners should be looking for at the expense of other details, offering thematic guidance will make the best use of the time learners commit to engagement.
After engagement: Provide an opportunity for interactive discussion or reflection that draws upon learners’ observations and experiences. The key component to building coherence in the activity as a whole is to ask a variant of the following statement as part of the discussion or assignment prompt: “How did the readings and media influence your position?”
The goal in this technique is to produce the conditions for learners that will capture their emergent experiences and draw from them in