The goal was for students to apply and reflect upon the Six Strategies for Effective Learning (heretofore referred to as “The Six”) in a course that had reasonably high memory demands.

The Learning Project was worth 25% of students’ final grade and consisted of three components spaced across the semester: Summary and Course, Implementation, Outcomes and Evaluation.

At Week 4, students summarized The Six (integrating across videos, blog posts, PowerPoints, and posters) and described the course to which they were going to apply them. I expected submissions to include an introductory paragraph describing what students hoped to gain out of the project as a learner, six individual paragraphs summarizing each strategy, and a concluding paragraph detailing the course they chose, why they chose it (which could include apprehension about their prospects of “doing well”), and the course’s evaluation structure (i.e., how many tests, what type of questions, etc.). I expected approximately 4 to 5 double-spaced pages. My feedback clarified misunderstandings and confirmed that the course they selected would provide ample opportunity to practice these techniques.

At Week 7, students specifically and explicitly explained how they incorporated The Six into their studying. For example, students described at least one concrete example that they generated. I instructed students to devote one substantive paragraph to each of The Six resulting in approximately 3 double-spaced pages. My feedback helped students refine their implementation moving forward.

At Week 13, students evaluated their outcomes. I emphasized that students should assess the strategies as honestly and objectively as possible, even if it meant owning up to poor implementation or questioning whether the strategy was really effective in that context. I instructed students to devote a paragraph exploring each strategy. I also requested at least one concluding paragraph summarizing what worked and what did not and reasons supporting those conclusions. I directed students to Syeda Nizami’s guest post for inspiration. (Neat aside: Syeda’s post got me thinking about creating The Learning Project in the first place!) I expected approximately 4 double-spaced pages. My feedback encouraged critical commentary, probed arguments underlying conclusions, affirmed individual differences within the context of normative trends, and acknowledged the difficulty in isolating effectiveness when implementing many strategies at once and to varying degrees.

Student Takeaways

Students generally LOVED this project. All of the students noted that implementing these strategies improved their learning and their well-being: “After doing this project I do believe that my learning has improved... I now don’t spend three or more hours a night for a week straight cramming in as much information as I can… I can now spread the studying out so I don’t feel so burnt out and defeated every week.” Some students measured their learning in summative outcomes, effort, and confidence level: “Overall I think the fact that I was consciously aware of how I needed to study and what strategies are statistically shown to improve memory had a large part to do with my getting a higher grade, because I just felt like I was more prepared and that I had put much more organized effort into studying for this test, and that made me feel pretty confident. Although I did not get the grade I was hoping for which would have been in the nineties, I am improving on the tests and I think if I keep up with the techniques that I thought were helpful I can reach that goal on the next test.” The general tenor of students’ conclusions was resoundingly hopeful.