Description Adult online learners are often non-traditional learners. They juggle multiple life demands, often multi-tasking. Many are returning to school after time away. They have varying levels of digital literacy, and a vast array of life experiences. While online learners may appear to be too diverse to have common goals and learning obstacles, this assumption …
Continue reading “Five Quick Content Revisions to Enhance Online Student Experience Before the Course Start”
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Active Learning,
Content,
Engagement,
Interaction,
Peer-Reviewed Entry,
Student Success,
Time Management
Description Faculty seeking a dynamic lecture-recording method for their online, hybrid, or flipped classrooms appreciate the Lightboard strategy. A Lightboard is an educational technology tool with a glass writing surface embedded with LED lights, allowing instructors to face the camera and create engaging instructional videos. LED lights and fluorescent markers make the writing highly visible …
Continue reading “Lightboard Lecture Pedagogy and Best Practices”
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Engagement,
Flipped Classroom,
Instructor Presence,
Interaction,
Lightboard,
Online,
Peer-Reviewed Entry,
Social Presence,
Video
Description When teaching in an online course it is vital to engage students and create a connection and sense of community (Flock, 2020). Student engagement is an important component of student success and increased academic outcomes (Rioch & Tharp, 2022). The Community of Inquiry theoretical framework suggests addressing three components when designing online courses that …
Continue reading “Create Weekly Introduction Videos to Facilitate Successful Course Navigation”
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Cognitive Load,
Communication,
Communities of Inquiry Framework,
Content,
Engagement,
Expectations,
Organization,
Peer-Reviewed Entry,
Teaching presence,
Video
Description Adult online learners are often non-traditional learners. They excel at multi-tasking, and finding small windows of divided attention learning times as they balance life demands. Attention spans are waning, and the days of fascination with talking head videos have passed. A recent research review suggests that online education videos should be no more than …
Continue reading “Leveraging Lecture Passwords to Humanize your Online Course”
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Engagement,
Humanized Strategies,
Interaction,
Peer-Reviewed Entry
Description As an online instructor, do you feel frustrated when students do not read your course announcements, discussions, e-mails, or other written communication? What if we could capture attention by borrowing online marketing copywriting secrets designed to cut through life’s distractions? Online marketers are copywriting masters. Copy is text-based content that persuades readers to act …
Continue reading “Capture Student Attention with a Digital Writing Makeover”
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Communication,
Engagement,
Interaction,
Peer-Reviewed Entry,
Writing
Description Quizzes are a well-established method for testing student understanding, in both forms of summative and formative assessments. To ensure that the quizzes are impactful for students, intentionality is required (Ebner & Efron, 2012). Instructors must consider that the timing, modality, and approach all influence its effectiveness. When using quizzes in alignment with learning objectives, …
Continue reading “Using Zoom Polling Feature to Increase Student Engagement and Learning”
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Active Learning,
Assessment,
Engagement,
Peer-Reviewed Entry,
Poll,
Quizzes,
Zoom
Description Student introductions are a high-impact practice: they build community within the course, set the stage for more substantive forms of student-student and student-instructor engagement, and can reveal unknown issues or strengths on the part of students (Dolan, Kain, Reilly, & Bansal, 2017). Building community in online classes (Nelson & Goodson, 2018) through introductions helps …
Continue reading “Create Intentional Communities through Meaningful Student Introductions”
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Assignments,
Content,
Discussions,
Engagement,
Equity,
Interaction,
Introduction,
Peer-Reviewed Entry,
Quizzes,
Social Presence,
Support
Description Discussion boards in online courses are widely known to encourage higher-order thinking and reflection. However, text-based discussions may not be the best choice for all students or all learning outcomes. Student-created video is used increasingly in the form of video discussion boards. For example, instructors may have heard of Flipgrid, a popular video discussion …
Continue reading “Using Video Discussion Boards to Increase Student Engagement”
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Assessment,
Discussions,
Engagement,
Formative,
Interaction,
Video
Description Online debates have been found to elicit higher levels of cognitive presence in online discussions versus the more traditional question-and-answer format (Zydney, deNoyelles, & Chen, 2014). This can be explained in several ways. In a debate, students must argue for or against a position, with the intention of persuading others to assume the same …
Continue reading “Incorporate Online Debates to Stimulate Critical Thinking and Engagement”
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Assessment,
Critical Thinking,
Debate,
Discussions,
Engagement