We have a radical approach to online learning that's working well in the new training, the School for Social Design. I bet it could work well for other topics.
It combines these components: a textbook, a mission database, an alumni database, paid experts, and guides. 👇
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2/ How it works: readings and exercises from the textbook are only assigned when the student is *motivated*, because they've been sent on a mission to apply the material in the real world, usually with alumni or expert teammates who they want to impress.
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3/ The textbook is linked to a database of missions which a student can be assigned to, and each assigned mission is linked into a database of people who can join the student on that mission—including their friends, lovers, colleagues, co-students, alumni, and paid experts.
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4/ Each student has a personal guide, who is in charge of picking missions for the stage that the student is at, that go with their personal style and situation. The guide is also responsible for coordinating with paid experts, alumni, etc.
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5/ Guides are evaluated on (1) how well they can assess their students motivations and joys, (2) whether the missions they pick are fun, impactful, and motivate the student through the course, and (3) whether the teams formed for each student lead to lasting relationships.
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6/ Is this a known pattern in edtech / pedagogy? (Maybe , , or know?)
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Broadly speaking, "project-based learning" often adopts structures similar to these. There's a lot of variety in the details, though, and those seem to matter a great deal! I haven't read any consistent unifying findings which could help build reliable repeatable frameworks here.
I guess the following are missing from project-based learning: (1) projects should be with a network of embedded practitioners; (2) the guides.
Re: 2, guides aren't domain experts. They're learning style and coordination experts. And most importantly, people who care a lot.
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Interestingly, many project-based programs do indeed include those elements! The space is quite a hodge-podge of techniques. Hard to draw general conclusions.
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