Blog

Student learning is more impactful when meaningful reflection is integrated into course design (e.g., Lee & Sabatino, 1998).  Providing students with the opportunity to think about their learning experiences and articulate connections to their personal, professional and academic goals can help them better prepare for career success and lifelong learning (e.g., Rolfe, Jasper, & Freshwater,…

The case method group activity is an instructional design strategy that involves faculty members providing one or more case studies to which groups of students respond. The case(s) could be a real-life case or simulation. It could be description of key concept(s) applied, a story or scenario, an actual case study, a problem or mystery,…

The utility of writing assignments to enhance learning biology is well documented (e.g. Mynlieff et al., 2014; Couch et al., 2015). Such assignments can provide the basis for assessing higher-order and critical-thinking skills (Kelly et al, n.d.). Furthermore, when students are able to react to instructors’ feedback by re-drafting or adjusting their written work, exam…

A scavenger hunt can be used to help orient students to an online course at the beginning of the term.

Description Discussion prompts are the written “springboard” from which online discussions are launched and are essential to encourage shared understanding (Du, Zhang, Olinzock, & Adams, 2008). Discussion prompts can vary from pithy (e.g., “Discuss [Topic X]”) to verbose (e.g., an entire printed page of instructions). However, the best standard for gauging the effectiveness of a…

Description Instructor Testimony UCF education professor Debbie Kirkley uses student blogs to fulfill the requirement of students to keep a journal throughout the semester to reflect on course projects and their experiences. The benefits of using this type of blog are as follows: Link to example artifact(s) Explore a student example from Debbie Kirkley’s class:…

Blogs offer an easy way for peer-to-peer knowledge sharing and acquisition outside of the learning management system (EDUCAUSE, 2005).