Online Teaching and Learning

Strategies for Addressing Grammar in Threaded Discussions

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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Memorable Interactions: Content, Community and (the lack of) Control

Online discussion has tremendous potential to engage students, develop written communication skills, and promote learning. Unfortunately, discussion boards often fall short, resulting in perfunctory posts and comments and surface treatment of the issues. If discussions, online or otherwise, are to endure and change thinking, they

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A Simple Gamification Solution for Teachers

Gamification became a hot topic in education when it was discovered that games are ideal learning instruments. We think of students’ amazing dexterity in navigating virtual worlds as somehow innate, but in reality they have learned quickly because of fundamental design considerations that can apply

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Distributed Proctoring: Lessons from Tufts University

One of the most common questions about distance learning is how to ensure academic integrity during exams. After all, students at a distance have ample opportunity to consult unauthorized resources or even engage another person to take an exam for them. The concern over this

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Online Learning 2.0: Why You Should Be Texting Your Students

Faculty generally view texting as the Devil’s work. It distracts students from the lecture—and even from ordinary activities such as eating and walking. But while it’s true that uncontrolled texting in class splits student attention, controlled texting via in-class polling questions can be a great

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Creating a Syllabus for a Large Online Course

A well-organized syllabus is essential for any online course, particularly large online courses. Peggy Semingson, associate professor of literacy studies at the University of Texas at Arlington, teaches online courses to groups of up to 300 to 400 students and finds that the syllabus plays

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Using Student Analytics for Online Course Improvement

Many instructors feel that they need to be experts in mathematics in order to understand analytics. But according to John Vivolo, director of online and virtual learning for New York University, every faculty member can learn to use the course analytics available through their LMS

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