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Attention Matters!

Attentions Matters!

Attention Matters badge

Students who complete the optional, one-hour Attention Matters! module will receive a digital badge via Badgr.

The information below is posted on the Online Learning Consortium's website.

Attention Matters is an online learning module designed to take students about one hour to complete. It consists of four units, which students complete in sequence, starting with a welcome unit with two pre-assessments — one that gauges attitudes toward attention and another that surveys students on their typical multitasking behaviors, such as texting in class or watching videos while working. Units 2 and 3 address common misconceptions about attention and risks of multitasking through brief online video clips and interactive demonstrations, followed by short text explanations, discussions and self-quizzing. The final unit prompts students to reflect on their own plans for managing attention in the future, culminating in a self-reflective writing assignment.

At the conclusion of the module, students have met the outcomes below:

Unit 1: What Do You Know About Attention?

  • Explain the relationship between memory and attention
  • Describe major characteristics of human attention, especially limitations in how much we can pay attention to at once
  • Explain what change blindness and inattentional blindness tell us about attention
  • Correctly reject the idea that gender, experience, intelligence and other personal characteristics exempt certain people from attentional limitations
  • Describe distractions that can come from external as well as internal sources
  • Correctly reject the idea that “learning by osmosis” happens from passive exposure to information

Unit 2: What Happens When We Overload Attention?

  • Predict negative effects that are likely to happen when multitasking
  • Use quizzing and self-testing to improve results from study time
  • Use the concept of interleaving to improve results from study time
  • Avoid re-reading as a study technique
  • Explain how cell phone use affects important processes such as driving and studying
  • Explain how using a laptop in class can affect other students as well as oneself
  • Use long-term goals to improve results from study time

Unit 3: What’s Your Plan for Managing Attention?

  • Use concepts from behavior change research to create effective plans for managing attention
  • Identify areas where they can improve future behavior to minimize distraction
  • Successfully negotiate with other students and instructors to address other students’ distracting behavior in class
  • Complete a substantive self-reflection on attention and multitasking in their own lives