For many freshman-level courses, it may be fair to assume that learners will be coming in cold to the learning domain. Coming in “cold” means that they lack basic background in the field. It also means that their skillsets may be scatter-shot in terms of the subject materials, and the learners may well be acquiring their learning skills as they go.

Building on “Knowns”

Strategies for supporting novice learners to a learning domain are manifold. First, one strategy involves building on “knowns.” Knowns are the concepts, facts, and practices that learners may already have been exposed to from other courses or learning sequences or experiences. Those college courses where the administrators and faculty have done the “articulation” work tend to have clearly defined sets of “knowns.” They collaborate to make the transitions in learning that much more effective. These learning anchors may be principles; they may be concepts; they may be practices; they may be problem-solving experiences. All said, these anchors help learners to piece together a more comprehensive understanding and savvy in a particular course or domain field.

Opportunities for Exploratory Learning

Exploratory learning refers to light investigations that may be done in a field with which one has little prior experience. Online resources and immersive spaces may be harnessed by instructors and learners for “remedial” learning to get up to speed in a particular field. There may be online “treasure hunts” for resources to enhance a course early on. Those who have different learning preferences may find resources that are more aligned to their own preferences with the wide variety of contents on the Web.

Help-Seeking

Another support for those coming in cold is to connect them to on-campus resources. There may be tutors and special labs that are used for further learning in this area. It is important to encourage a learning atmosphere of “safety” which encourages learner-help-seeking and questioning. Then, too, it helps for instructors and their teaching / research assistants to be accessible to support learners.

Supplementary Learning and Practices

There should be designed opportunities for people to get the help that they need. These may be practice sessions. These may be lab simulations. These may be extra credit assignments that encourage learning and exploration.

Lead-up assignments and learning that is built-up piece-by-piece may help learners be more aware of their own learning (metacognition) and decision-making.

Scaffolding to Understand a Text

Many learners today have a hard time reading textbooks. It’s not the primary mode of learning for many to decipher signs and symbols on a page. Rather, many would rather go with the video lectures or audio-narrated slideshows. There are multiple ways of designing a multimedia message, and it may help to overlap some contents by highlighting what is important in a textbook or lecture.

And Instructional Designers, Too

This idea of coming in cold applies to the experience of instructional design, too. IDs tend to be generalists, with a smattering of knowledge in a lot of little fields and maybe domain knowledge only in education and educational technologies. They walk into domain fields of others’ high expertise and lifelong trainings, and have to function effectively or at least passably. This requires being a fast-study in a number of fields and making time for some intensive research and reading work early on and throughout a project.