Activities

Learning should be fun and when it is, it usually sticks – that’s the belief we work to when it comes to creating interactive assets that turn abstract knowledge into concrete gains.

Unlike traditional reading or listening where real understanding can fall through the gaps, interactive exercises ask students to show their learning through action.

Monitoring comprehension in real time gives teachers instant insight, highlighting weak spots well before exam season starts.

Here’s how our interactive activities have helped bring learning to life.

Foreign Language Activities

Gamified language learning for tech-savvy teenagers

The background

Irish educational publisher Gill Education, needed a range of digital assets to support their new modern foreign language programme for 12 to 15 year olds.

We needed to make sure new assets shared design elements with existing content, while also adding greater depth so students could expand their learning.

The challenges

Providing variation across abilities – each activity had to appeal to a broad range of students working across different levels.
Supporting knowledge depth – assets needed to be entertaining enough for students to actively engage in learning, while also giving them the chance to explore topics in greater depth.
Consistency between text and digital – our digital assets needed to complement existing textbooks, and have a clear visual link to resources already being used.
Ensuring functionality across devices – activities had to be accessible by teachers in the classroom, and by students scanning QR codes.

The solution

Working with the programme authors, we created a suite of 90 interactive digital assets using the mAuthor platform for responsive design and seamless use across devices.

Taking inspiration from the activities prepared in the textbooks, we designed multiple games focusing on hands-on activity to embed learning, including drag and drop and fill-in-the-blank quizzes, alongside multiple-choice questions.

We took design cues from the existing language programmes to ensure common visual links between print and digital. The result was a curated collection of digital assets which allowed students to expand their learning while also supporting different learning styles.

Irish Language Activities

Setting grammar goals – one game at a time

The background

Gill Education wanted an Irish grammar book to accompany their Irish language learning programme for students between 12 and 18 years old with different learning styles.

The goal was to create assets that tested students’ understanding of key grammar concepts, including Irish sentence structure, positioning of adjectives and tenses.

The challenges

Making grammar fun – learning content had to appeal to students across a broad age range.
Providing flexible learning – every activity needed to work doubly hard and be suitable for quick in-class use, as well as easy to use for at-home revision.
Ensuring functionality across devices – access to activities had to be seamless across platforms to support teacher-led classes and group work.

The solution

Collaborating with the textbook’s author we made sure activities aligned with key learning objectives. We then turned these goals into fun, unit-specific games designed to appeal to students with different learning styles.

Using creator-led software, we designed a complete series of interactive activities, ranging from quizzes and flashcards to classic multiple-choice questions, which could be used across all devices, both in and out of the classroom.

Physical Education Activities

Tests of strength – designing interactive quizzes for PE theory

The background

One of Ireland’s leading educational publishers, Gill Education launched a new PE programme for students between 12 and 15 years old.

We were tasked with creating end of unit quizzes that tested students PE know-how. As an added challenge, we also had to comply with strict data protection rules which affected where assets could be stored.

The challenges

Designing for intuitive interaction – quizzes needed to be seen as a quick revision aid, letting students check their knowledge at the end of each study unit.
Creating a visual link with existing assets – quiz content had to visually match existing resources to create a sense of familiarity for students.
Complying with data regulations – laws meant student data couldn’t be stored by Gill Education so we couldn’t use an LMS.

The solution

Working with the textbook authors, we developed complementary quizzes that gave students a quick and easy way to test what they’d learnt. Accuracy and accessibility were top priorities too, as students' knowledge of key terms would affect final results in formal state exams.

We decided to export each quiz as an html package, so while these could be hosted by Gill Education, user data was cached in their browsers to meet data laws.

ABOUT DESIGN R O W S

Learning never stops.

That’s why at DESIGN R O W S, we create and develop bespoke eLearning tools for everyone, from 3 to 103.

Our focus is simple – to design engaging content that learners actually remember. All our eLearning assets are designed entirely in-house, which means we can provide accessible and inclusive material that your organisation can scale and adapt to meet changing needs. We can also develop multilingual content with translations from English to a variety of languages including Irish, French and German.

Because we tailor our eLearning content, we’ve helped a whole host of people retain the knowledge they need to work well and learn well. But if we had to choose, our areas of expertise include education (particularly within the Irish education sector), health and safety, logistics, and technology.

DESIGN R O W S founder Shannagh Rowland, has been crafting eLearning content for global audiences for nearly a decade. Formerly the principal instructional designer at Ireland’s leading educational publisher, Gill Education, Shannagh is also a graduate of New York University and Trinity College Dublin.