Course Design

A course shell is a modifiable template with consistent structure and navigation, used as a starting point when creating a course in an LMS, and is developed by instructional design experts.

With more higher education experiences moving online, students have fewer opportunities to practice their verbal communication skills compared to traditional face-to-face environments. Speeches, presentations, and recitations that students might engage in within a traditional brick and mortar classroom may be less feasible online, and students also miss out on the typical questioning, conversation, and interaction…

Description Peer review has the potential to be an effective activity for students to engage in, for several reasons. Students do not rely on the sole voice of the instructor, who is an expert in the matter. Peers may be able to communicate with other peers in a way that is difficult for the instructor.…

Learning retention can be encouraged and reinforced through the integration of real-life examples and artifacts into course material (Chrestensen, 2007).

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…

An email message with a “hook” employs a concise, narrative-driven scenario to motivate students to log into an online course. These email messages have a provocative subject heading that summarizes a specific real life situation where learners would need to apply the content covered in that installment of the online course. When the learner opens…