Supporting Elaboration

Below are various means of supporting elaboration. You can build some of these assets and interactive opportunities into your courses and you can share these ideas with students so that they have a means of building elaboration into their own study sessions.


Customizable Tools to Support Elaboration

These tools have been designed to be customizable by faculty, and they can be embedded directly into your LMS content. For further information on how to utilize these tools in your LMS see the Interactive-Components page.

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Accordion Builder

Accordion ID Accordion Name Accordion Contents

1

Flip Cards

Flip cards are often associated with retrieval practice, but they can also be useful for elaboration by asking application or open-ended questions or on the front of the card and providing feedback or further prompts on the back of the card.

Flip Cards Exemplar

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Flip Cards Builder

Front Top Header Front Content Back Top Header Back Content

Question

How does elaboration work?

Answer

Digging below the surface of a concept through explanation, description, and connection strengthens and extends understanding.

Question

If combining blue and red makes purple, what colour combination might make orange? 

Answer

Yellow and Red

Reflection

Think of a concept you are trying to learn in one of your courses.

Prompt

What questions could you ask to help you elaborate on that topic?

Settings

The following setting(s) are available, please type 'y' for yes or 'n' for no in the following space provided:

  1. Randomize the flip cards when the page is loaded or refreshed by the learner? Type y for yes or n for no.   n

    Tips for Using Flip Cards

    • Design flip cards to help students identify what information they need to know. Students often struggle with identifying what information is key and what is supplementary.
    • Use a digital flip card deck to encourage students to stick with information until it is transferred to long-term memory. When students have the option to remove cards, they will often do so before they have retained the information (Karpicke, https://learninglab.psych.purdue.edu/downloads/2009/2009_Karpicke_JEPGeneral.pdf )
    • Develop flip cards that present brief scenarios with hints for analysis or prompts for reflective activities. Providing multiple flip cards can enable students to select the topic that is most engaging for them.

    2

    Multi-select Questions

    Multi-select questions are similar to multiple choice, but because they require students to select one or more correct options from a list of answers .

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    Question 1 text: Which are effective elaboration questions? (select all that apply)

    feedback: "What is the definition of elaboration?" is a surface-level question that asks students to recall a fact. The other questions all require deeper thought or self-reflection to develop an answer.

    Question Settings

    The following setting(s) are available, please type response in the following space provided:

    1. Question 1 Answer:Type option number for the correct answer. 1,2,4
    2. Randomize the options when the page is loaded or refreshed by the learner? Type y for yes or n for no. Yes

    Quiz Settings

    The following setting(s) are available, please type response in the following space provided:

    1. Randomize the questions when the page is loaded or refreshed by the learner? Type y for yes or n for no. yes
    2. Insert Quiz Questions inside a Panel?Type y for yes or n for no. yes
    3. Make Panel Collapsible? Type y for yes or n for no. no
    4. Panel Title? Type the title of the panel. Multi-select Choice Quiz Tool Exemplar

    Tips for Writing Multi-select Questions

    • Include the phrase, "Select all that apply" in the question text so that students know that more than one option may be correct.
    • Structure the question so that the stem provides a cue for the student. The options help the learner to identify the correct responses through recognition.
    • Provide 3-4 options for each question, so that the question is neither too easy to guess or too time consuming to read. All options should be similar difficulty; do not include silly options as they distract from the learning.
    • Avoid the use of "NOT" or "FALSE" questions as these make the question more confusing to learners.

    EdTech Tools to Support Elaboration

    There are many EdTech tools that can support you in embedding elaboration into the learning experiences you create. In addition, making students aware of some of the simpler tools below can also support them in building strategies to support more effective independent learning.

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    Accordion Builder

    Accordion ID Accordion Name Accordion Contents

    1

    MindMeister or Venngage

    Create a mind map add ideas and extend a concept and connect that concept to others using Microsoft Visio or web-based applications such as MindMeister or Venngage.

    2

    Padlet

    Have students contribute information to virtual bulletin boards in Padlet. Padlet can be used to answer questions or organize information under pre-defined categories.

    3

    H5P

    Develop interactive learning objects, such as fill in the blanks, hotspots, accordions and agamottos (sequential/evolving images) using H5P, available through eCampusOntario.

     

    4

    Canva or Piktochart

         

    Create infographics using Canva or Piktochart to have students explain and extend a new concept. These can be shared with classmates to create an information bank.

     

     

    5

    LMS Discussion Boards

    Construct discussion board forums within the LMS to present elaborative questions and promote student collaboration and discussion of topics.

     


    Using Elaboration Outside the Digital Space

    To support students in building their own tool box of study strategies, encourage students to engage in the some of the following activities as they are preparing for your assessments.

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    Accordion Builder

    Accordion ID Accordion Name Accordion Contents

    1

    Ask Questions

    • Tap into your inner toddler: Ask probing questions frequently, particularly “how” and “why” questions to help students activate critical thinking skills and connect new information to prior knowledge.

    2

    Visualize Procedures

    • Encourage visualization of procedures. Have students describe a process and how to apply that process to a novel context. Make it fun by creating movie-type storylines or juvenile or unusual scenarios.

    3

    Use Prompts

    • Provide prompts for students to explain concepts and break down the steps of procedures. Have students choose an elaborative example to teach the concept to a peer and prompt the peer to ask probing questions.

    4

    Encourage Examples

    • Prompt students to develop concrete examples (see Module 3) for a concept.

    Tips to Support Elaboration

    The following are some quick tips that you can use when you are building your learning experiences to embed elaboration directly into the learning. 

      1. Ask questions to help students generate meaning from the content. The questions should act as cues for reflection. Provide opportunities for students to check their answers.
      2. Create an elaborative framework of questions for students to access and apply. Using the same framework throughout the first half of a course will promote comfort and confidence in questioning skills from which to build upon in the latter half of the course.
      3. Encourage students to engage in their own elaboration to connect the new information with prior knowledge and share that information with peers.  Multiple elaborative examples increase the depth and breadth of connection and may even provide connections for students who were unable to devise their own.
      4. Provide opportunities for students to rephrase content in their own words.

    Checking Your Knowledge

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    Question 1 text: Elaborative interrogation refers to:

    feedback: Elaborative interrogation involves asking probing how and why questions to strengthen and extend understanding of a concept.

    Question Settings

    The following setting(s) are available, please type response in the following space provided:

    1. Question 1 Answer:Type option number for the correct answer. 1
    2. Randomize the options when the page is loaded or refreshed by the learner? Type y for yes or n for no. Yes

    Question 2 text: Which question would be an effective prompt for elaboration?

    feedback: Asking how, if/then and why questions prompt deep thinking about a topic, which creates meaning and relevance for learners. Asking who, what and define questions prompt recall of stored information without elaboration.

    Question Settings

    The following setting(s) are available, please type response in the following space provided:

    1. Question 2 Answer:Type option number for the correct answer. 3
    2. Randomize the options when the page is loaded or refreshed by the learner? Type y for yes or n for no. Yes

    Quiz Settings

    The following setting(s) are available, please type response in the following space provided:

    1. Randomize the questions when the page is loaded or refreshed by the learner? Type y for yes or n for no. yes
    2. Insert Quiz Questions inside a Panel?Type y for yes or n for no. yes
    3. Make Panel Collapsible? Type y for yes or n for no. no
    4. Panel Title? Type the title of the panel.


    References

    Photography on this page used with permission from the Durham College Online Photo Database.

    Boser, U. (n.d.). Science of learning: Research meets practice – elaboration. The Learning Agency Lab. https://www.the-learning-agency-lab.com/learning-strategies/elaboration/

    Dunlosky, J. (2013). Strengthening the Student Toolbox: Study Strategies to Boost Learning. American Educator, 37(3), 12–21. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1021069.pdf

    Dunlosky, J., Rawson, K.A., Marsh, E.J., Nathan, M.J., & Willingham, D.T. (2013). Improving students’ learning with effective learning techniques: Promising directions from cognitive and educational psychology. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 14(1), 4-58. https://doi.org/10.1177/1529100612453266

    Karpicke, J. D., & O'Day, G. M. (in press). Elements of effective learning. In M. J. Kahana & A. D. Wagner (Eds.), Oxford Handbook of Human Memory, Volume II: Applications. Oxford University Press. https://learninglab.psych.purdue.edu/downloads/inpress_Karpicke_ODay_Oxford_Handbook.pdf

    The Learning Scientists. (n.d.). Elaboration. The Learning Scientists. https://www.learningscientists.org/elaboration

    Weinstein, Y., Madan, C.R. & Sumeracki, M.A. (2018). Teaching the science of learning. Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications, 3(2). https://doi.org/10.1186/s41235-017-0087-y

    Weinstein Y., & Smith, M. (2016, July 7). Learn to study using... elaboration. The Learning Scientists. https://www.learningscientists.org/blog/2016/7/7-1