A few years ago I was struck by a question: What makes students so motivated to engage in “work” doing tasks in video games, yet at the same time so regularly unmotivated to do work in class that could actually benefit them and their careers?
Students like online classes due to their flexibility and convenience. But not all students do well in these courses; the statistics indicate that online classes have a much higher dropout rate compared to traditional face-to-face classes.
We were tasked with developing courses that relied primarily on OERs in order to eliminate or reduce textbook fees. In doing so, we created a checklist of characteristics to look for when evaluating OERs for potential inclusion in a course. We drew inspiration from Quality
While online learning has transformed how instruction is delivered, it has had less of an impact on assessment methods. Most online courses still use traditional assessments such as papers and exams. But the digital revolution opens a myriad of ways to assess student learning beyond
Using Twitter, HootCourse, and Other Backchannels to Engage Online Students
The university population in the United States has grown increasingly diverse in the past 30 years, with international students making up between 10 percent and 20 percent of the enrollments at many universities. For the vast majority of international students, English is not their first
The benefits of group work are well known. Students develop critical thinking and enhanced reflection skills (Conrad & Donaldson, 2004). Group work promotes transformative learning while establishing a sense of community. There is a sense of positive interdependence when we are all in this together
Students in an online course can feel detached from the instructor and one another, so one of the most important things an online faculty member can do is send each student a welcome message. Welcoming students will kick off the learning relationship, and pay dividends
Icebreakers can help promote the important social component of online learning. Common icebreakers have students share information about themselves with the idea of creating a bit of conversation and perhaps provide fodder for course-related discussions later in the course.
Threaded discussions are a crucial part of most online learning models. By composing comments and posting them to a discussion board, students in online classes demonstrate their comprehension of what they are learning; they reflect on how their response to the course content compares with
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