October 24, 2016
In any course where the assessment is focused on scholarly writing, students who have not used the online database, or are accustomed to using the onsite recourses of the library often avoid it or go to other more familiar resources such as Google, or even Google scholar. These alternative sources do not focus on scholarly…
October 24, 2016
It is very important to design an online course in a way that supports students to get started on the right foot (Chico, 2009). When a student starts an online course, they read the essential course information (syllabus, course expectations, instructor introduction) and learn about the course policies and expectations. Otherwise, miscommunications can happen due…
October 24, 2016
Similar to the six-word story from the flash fiction genre, the Six-Word Memoir is a writing genre for telling a personal story in six-words. In popular culture, it has become a global movement now featured in the book Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs: by Writers Famous and Obscure, on [in the US]…
October 21, 2016
Individualizing assignments in an online course promotes student and instructor interest, challenges students to strengthen their research skills, and prevents students from paraphrasing other students’ work and presenting it as their own. This entry describes a strategy used to teach an online course in Urban Sociology, however, this strategy could be applied to many other…
October 21, 2016
Nonlinguistic strategies require students to create a representation of new information that does not rely on language. Marzano, Pickering, and Pollock (2001) define non-linguistic representations as the use of visual, kinesthetic, and whole body systems to acquire and store knowledge. Mental images and physical sensation combined with linguistic modes allow students to better reflect. This…
October 21, 2016
Exit tickets are an easy way to assess student learning and can provide evidence of mastered content or misunderstandings as well as help students to self-reflect on their understanding of content.
October 21, 2016
When the majority of instruction takes place in an online environment, it may offer more challenges for monitoring student learning and understanding of course content. Certain pedagogical techniques that combine theories and practices from face-to-face instruction can be infused in online teaching to help address these concerns and keep instruction engaging, rigorous, and responsive to…
October 21, 2016
Weekly lab reports are an integral part of the foundational engineering curriculum. In many conventional science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) curricula, students are required to write a report after each weekly experiment, documenting the lab process. Recent research by Vargas and Hanstedt (2014), however, indicates limitations of weekly lab reports, including reduced effectiveness to…
October 21, 2016
It can be difficult to build a sense of community in an online course (Moskal et al., 2010), especially in mathematics where written work is usually somewhat limited. I find that regular class discussions provide a considerable benefit in this process. But the practice that has most effectively improved connections between students and between me…
October 20, 2016
Aligning students’ instructional preferences with course activities and providing opportunities for learner choice are widely recognized as educational best practice, helping students to engage with content and learn more effectively (Kern & State, 2009; Patall, Dent, Oyer, & Wynn, 2013; Patall, Cooper, & Wynn, 2010), and researchers and practitioners have started extending this instructional approach…