This post introduces a new Coursera product and white paper called Guided Projects on Coursera Facilitate Hands-on Acquisition of Skills. The product is based on a split-screen design, where an expert demonstrates how to do something on one side, and the student tries to do the same on the other side. The white paper explains the pedagogy behind the model; it gives us an alphabet soup history of learning theorists until it finally settles on cognitive load theory and the use of 'worked examples' in direct instruction. There's really no other place Coursera could have landed; they were never going to be able to embrace constructivist or connectivist methods. And I think they'll find their results are similar to what we see with, say, DuoLingo - you can get through the basics, but progress slows and stops once memorization of technique ceases to be sufficient.
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