Students don’t always like working in groups. Ann Taylor, an associate professor of chemistry at Wabash College, had a class that was particularly vocal in their opposition. She asked for their top 10 reasons why students don’t want to work in groups and they offered
The first time my middle school-aged son attended a Major League ballgame, he was astounded by what the players were doing on the field before the game. He saw some of his favorite players contorting in all sorts of positions: balancing, running backwards and sideways,
There’s been a noticeable increase in the amount of pedagogical literature that references what’s been documented about learning in cognitive psychology. It seems to be part of the ongoing interest in making instructional practices more evidence-based. But there’s an issue that makes the application of
The flipped classroom model encourages students to complete preliminary work prior to class so they are prepared to engage in higher-level learning experiences during class. But what happens when students don’t do the preclass work and aren’t prepared to participate?
This can be one of
What is instructor presence? It’s the way that instructors present themselves to the students in the online classroom. It also involves simply being present to students through the regular posting of course materials, discussion posts, and announcements.
Instructor presence increases student retention because students are
First impressions are important and you can make favorable ones on the first day of class by doing things just a bit out of the ordinary. Here are some ideas.
I like how blogging lets us stir up ideas, watch them simmer, and taste the results.
I’ll start this mix of ideas with Amy Mulnix’s insight that teachers approach learning about teaching much like students approach learning course content. Examples: students think ability matters
The Pecha Kucha presentation style is gaining interest in education. It requires that a speaker use 20 images, each lasting 20 seconds, to deliver a presentation. This makes the presentation closer to a TedTalk than the usual Death by PowerPoint. The speaker is forced to
Gamification has become a hot topic as instructors and instructional designers work to create engaging learning experiences in online course environments. While there are a number of key features in any gamified system, the awarding of points seems to garner the most attention. Students can
In May’s issue, I discussed the necessary considerations for designing group-based learning activities for online courses. Here, I give concrete examples that can be used to craft different types of group-based learning activities for your classes. For each type of activity, remember to consider the
