Hi, I am Klaus Petritsch, a physicist with a PhD done at University of Cambridge. I am also a certified instructional designer (University of Stout, USA) currently based in Finland where I also received my vocational teaching certificate.

I do contract/ freelance course design and workshops (e.g. creativity and critical thinking and problem solving) at schools, universities and companies as well as for private individuals from all around the world.

I cannot share work I did for my paying clients but here is some material from my studies or voluntary projects. Feel free to try it and share it.

A Free Mini Course on Critical Thinking:

Start the course (about 15min, 30 screens) here.

The aim of this course is to raise awareness that critical thinking can be learned and is not only a very useful skill in everyday life but also fun and for many easier to improve than logical thinking skills.

Critical thinking helps extract reliable knowledge from the noisy mix of reliable and misinformation that surrounds us.
 
Critical thinking is broken down into a few key components two of which are creative thinking and inquisitive thinking.

You can challenge yourself to solve several puzzling questions and thereby explore two of the same powerful techniques used by scientists, detective investigators or investigative journalists.

 

How to Reduce Cognitive Load in Multimedia Instruction:

Start the course (about 20min, 40 screens) here.

The course is aimed at anyone with an interest in designing instructions e.g. teachers, instructional designers or anyone who designs presentation material.

Upon completion of this course you will be able to apply multimedia design principles to reduce unnecessary cognitive load.
More specifically you will:

·         Understand the working memory concept and its three assumptions

·         Differentiate important principles to reduce cognitive load

·         Use a simple interactive job aid to evaluate and improve multimedia instruction

It is essentially a game with the aim to collect certain info ‘cookies’ to unlock a badge and become a cognitive load wizard. The course should be consistent with cognitive load research as published by R. Moreno and R.E. Mayer.

If you are interested you can view the design document for this course here.

Here is an unpublished paper I wrote on "Aligning learning activities with objectives and how three properties may aid course designers". Free to view/distribute it. I tested several learning/teaching methods in a Theory of Knowledge (TOK) course. I defined properties like interactivity, active participation and ease of alignment trying to make courses and their design more effective.

Not generally learning related but still about knowing things: Here is my PhD thesis entitled "Organic Solar Cell Architectures". Done at the Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge in July 2000. Free to view/distribute it.

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