The writing style of the standard syllabus is frequently flat, emotionless, and formulaic. It’s made so in part by the list of things that faculty are required to put in the syllabus: contact information, learning objectives, course description, ADA and other policy information, etc. These
Handing back graded work or posting grade results is not usually a favorite course event for teachers. There are always those students disappointed in their grades. Some simply look disappointed; others quickly switch from disappointment to anger. A few take it up with the teacher
Motivation and engagement play a central role in student success and satisfaction. However, the online learning environment poses special challenges. Without proper course design and facilitation it’s all too easy for online learners to feel isolated, bored, and unengaged with the materials. The following are
If you’re looking to improve how you handle online office hours, consider the strategies adopted by Deborah Vietze, professor of psychology and urban education at the City University of New York.
A team project should include some lessons about collaboration. In particular, students need to learn how to do shared document editing. Most people are still using outdated systems and methods of collaboration from the paper age that waste time and create errors. Students need to
Service-learning has been used extensively in health professions education. However, there has been limited use of service-learning in the online learning environment due in part to the difficulty of managing the community aspects of this pedagogy. Kettering College has implemented service-learning in an online program
Creating useful and usable digital lecture materials for blended and online courses is challenging. Recording an instructor lecturing to a classroom can be difficult, and most students are not interested in watching a 50- to 90-minute recording of a lecture. And because students might not
I’ve seen lots of lists that identify the characteristics of good teachers. They’re great reminders of what we should aspire to be as teachers. I haven’t seen many corresponding lists that identify the characteristics of good learners. I decided to put one together and invite
I’ve been doing some reading on group test-taking (often called cooperative or collaborative testing in the literature). I am stunned by the number of studies and the many ways the strategy has been used. I’m not going to summarize the research in this post, but
In a September 2012 post I briefly highlighted a number of studies documenting that most students don’t multi-task well. When they’re texting, looking at Facebook, or cruising on the Internet and listening to a lecture or discussion and trying to take notes, they aren’t dealing
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