Singularity™ Learning
Our Educational Approach
American InterContinental University Online’s Singularity™ learning model (SM) seeks to establish our programs on an instructionally sound foundation. Singularity™ represents the integration of technology and instructor-led instruction; the integration of anytime/anywhere learning and real-time interaction, support, and feedback; the integration of self-directed and instructor-initiated instruction; and the integration of competency-based vocational and academic skill development. In essence, Singularity™ blends diverse methods of interaction and support between the student and various forms of instruction to achieve a unified learning environment.
“Context of Learning” Theories
In addition to the Fourth Dimension Learning™ theory, the SM integrates the theoretically diverse concepts of “context” to create a learning environment that is multi-dimensional. A number of theories are incorporated into this “context of learning” including Gagné’s Conditions of Learning (Gagné, 1966); the importance of structuring and sequencing of instruction (Reigeluth, Merrill, Wilson, & Spiller, 1980); the socially mediated aspects of learning (Brown, Collins & Duguid, 1989; Lave & Wenger, 1991); individual construction of knowledge through experience and external constraints (Piaget, 1952; Vygotsky, 1978); respecting the experiential knowledge resident within and among adult learners (Pea, 1993); and fostering deep learning (Laurillard 1996, Marton and Saljo 1976; Ramsden 1992).
Online Instructional Delivery Structures
Online courses, offered as part of degree programs through American InterContinental University Online, are offered in a 10-week quarter term. Each quarter is divided into two five-week sessions, allowing students to focus on half of their course load in the first session and half their course load in the second session.
This delivery structure is based on the adult learning theory that supports the belief that adult learners are more successful in focusing on one or two courses at a time. In addition, this structure allows a student to remain as a full-time student in the pursuit of his or her degree, but able to better focus on half the course load at a single time.
Each course includes five learning units that consist of one learning event in each unit. Each learning event produces a learning product that is evaluated on an outcomes mastery model for learning assessment. Students are also provided self-assessments to test their acquired knowledge in each learning unit in a non-graded setting.
Each unit contains three basic elements:
- Presentation—which provides explanation and modeling
- Generative Learning Support—which encourages discovery and self-directed learning
- Knowledge Construction—which drives the learner towards integration and application and reflection
References
Brown, J.S., Collins, A. & Duguid, P. (1989, January-February). Situated cognition and the culture of learning. Educational Researcher, 32-42.
Gagne, R. M. (1966) The conditions of learning. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
Laurillard, D. (1996) Styles and approaches in problem solving, The Experience of Learning, 2nd ed. (pp.126-45). Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press.
Lave, J. and Wenger, E. (1991) Situated learning and legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Marton, F. & Saljo, R. (1976) "On qualitative differences in learning - I: Outcome and process", British Journal of Educational Psychology 46 (1): 4-11.
Pea, Roy D. Practices of distributed intelligences and designs for education. In G. Salomon (Ed.), Distributed Cognitions. (pp. 88-110). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Piaget, Jean. (1952) The origins of intelligence in children, translated by Margaret Cook. New York: International Universities Press.
Ramsden, P. (1992) Learning to teach in higher education. London: Routledge.
Reigeluth, Charles M., Merrill, M.D., and Wilson, B.G. (1980, October). The elaboration theory of instruction: a model for sequencing and synthesizing instruction. Instructional Science. 195-219.
