How much of an online course should be standardized? It’s a question that has important implications for institutions, instructors, and students in the online space. In an interview with Online Classroom, Melanie Kasparian, Online Experiential Learning Developer/Instructional Designer at Northeastern University, offered advice on what
More and more instructors are turning to blogging as an alternative to LMS-based discussion. The instructor assigns each student a blog where they are expected to make postings. This shift fundamentally changes the dynamics of discussion.
New learning technologies offer many potential benefits to online learners, but these same technologies can create an additional burden for students who lack the requisite digital literacies to use them effectively. The need to learn how to use the technologies that are part of the
A common approach to generating discussion in an online course is to have students post a response to a prompt and then respond to the posts of several of their classmates. While this approach can generate a substantial amount of participation, the quality of that
Central Washington University offers an information technology administrative management program in an online format aimed at place- and time-bound working adults. The following are three ways the program works to improve student retention.
Participating in team projects offers students the chance to develop interpersonal communication skills (Figueira & Leal, 2013), build relationships with classmates, and increase the level of collective competencies as each group member brings something different to the group. However, in the online environment where the
The online classroom can sometimes feel like a lonely place due to a lack of presence of the instructor and other students. This lack of presence can negatively affect learning and lead to student attrition. Fortunately, some relatively simple measures can significantly add the essential
Project-based learning is a hot topic in education, but most faculty do not understand how to incorporate it into their teaching. The principle is simple: Students learn best when they learn in the process of working toward a goal. The main value of project-based learning
Students enter online courses with various levels of knowledge, experience, needs, and expectations. It’s important to get a sense of what students already know in order to provide the appropriate levels of support and challenge.
One of the biggest complaints about online courses is that students feel disconnected. They don’t know the teacher or fellow students in the class. In online courses, teachers regularly use discussion to make connections with and between students. In a survey of over 350 faculty,
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