A faculty member once told me that experience does not teach; only reflection on experience teaches. We become better teachers by reflecting on what went right or wrong after each class to learn what we should change in the future. This is why I try
Context is everything in learning. The events leading to the Civil War make sense only within the wider context of debates over states’ rights and federal power. Understanding these broader principles also improves retention of the events themselves because our minds are built to remember
One major attraction of social media is that we are using trusted sources to curate interesting content. Friends post funny videos and the like that appear on our Facebook timelines. With millions of new items appearing on the web daily, we could not possibly scan
Last year my dean informed me that I needed to offer our public speaking course online. This was not a course that naturally lent itself to an online format. In fact, I could not think of a course more poorly suited for an online format
Videos are being integrated more and more into the online classroom. However, they can create barriers for learners with hearing problems. If a student asks for an ADA accommodation for a video, you will be scrambling at the last minute to create a text supplement.
When we look at the value of collaborative group work, the research is clear: group work is beneficial to learning. It improves retention, critical thinking, persistence, motivation, satisfaction, engagement, time on-task, and the list goes on and on.
Now, these benefits are not unique to
There has recently been quite a bit of discussion on ways to use Twitter in education. But commentators have said little about whether Twitter offers advantages over traditional LMS discussion forums. Should the online instructor use Twitter instead of the tried and true LMS?
I rely a lot on discussion boards in this course and use the adjective “substantial” to describe the level of responses students should submit. Since this is a graduate level course, participants’ work should be of graduate level quality. While there is no set number
The online learning field is constantly changing, with new ideas appearing all the time. Here we look at the major trends in online education over the past year.
Faculty know that the increased think-time provided by asynchronous online discussion allows for deeper and more active deliberation by students than is possible in face-to-face courses. But this advantage is often lost as online discussions revert to personal opinions and anecdotes. One method for keeping
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