Develop Critical Thinking Skills through Online Simulations Created with Blackboard’s Testing Tool

Description Simulation with sophisticated manikins or standardized patients has firmly established itself as an effective teaching practice in nursing and medical education (Liaw, et.al., 2015; Shin, Park & Kim, 2015). Although mastering many skills of advanced practice nursing requires high fidelity simulation, the thinking processes – diagnostic reasoning and clinical decision-making – can be successfully …

Related Tags: , , ,

Use Role Play to Increase Student Engagement in Online Discussions

Description As faculty, we are always trying to both stimulate student engagement and assess learning. One method for increasing student engagement that has been gaining in popularity is engaging students in role play activities. These activities can vary in scale from large, multi-day events (such as Reacting to the Past) to smaller activities contained within …

Related Tags: , , , ,

Post First Discourse

Description Online discussions are most effective when students engage in higher order thinking, taking time to reflect and compose original posts. Instructors play a key role in purposefully designing discussion forums that move “student discourse out of the margins of thinking to deeper levels of thought” (Williams, Jaramillo, Peski, 2015, p. 46). The post-first discourse …

Related Tags: , ,

Implement Tuning Protocol to Improve Online Discussion Peer Replies and Assignment Quality

Description Asynchronous discussions are often utilized in online courses and while they can be effective toward creating and sustaining a learning community, they are not effective if not optimally designed. It can sometimes be difficult for students to converse in a way in which knowledge is co-constructed, and a way in which students can constructively …

Related Tags: , , , ,

Assign Collaborative Experiential Learning while Partnering with Clients

Description While there is sometimes resistance to group collaborations in online learning (Smith et al., 2011), adding a collaborative experiential learning component can more deeply engage students AND provide them the opportunity to develop an array of competencies including “coordinating across time zones and geographic locations, developing computer skills, enhancing internet search skills, and interacting …

Related Tags: , , , ,

Facilitate Student Participation in a Virtual Conference of a Professional Association

Description Regardless of academic discipline, educational programs in the realm of higher education are charged with preparing graduates with the skills, knowledge, and dispositions needed for the workplace (Trede, Macklin, & Bridges, 2012). Part of this preparation entails scaffolding the development of students’ professional identity so they can “develop a sense of who they are …

Related Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Foster Peer Review Using Online Discussion

Description Peer review is a strategy steeped in the social interaction proposed as essential to cognitive development by scholars such as Bruner and Vygotsky (Price, O’Donovan, & Rust, 2007; Hughes, Ventura, & Dando, 2004). Peer review involves small groups or pairs of students sharing work with one another, creating an environment where students can develop …

Related Tags: , , , , , ,

Assign Six Word Memoirs for Reflection and Synthesis

Description 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 …

Related Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Encourage Authentic Learning in Online Discussions through Photovoice

Description One of the major challenges in higher education is for students to find relevance and value in the content they are learning in the classroom (Ambrose, 2010). This extends to the online discussion, where students sometimes do not see the value in actively participating the discussion and do the bare minimum to complete the …

Related Tags: , , , ,

Increase Participation and Engagement in Student Introduction Posts through Narrative

Description It can be difficult for students to connect with each other and with instructors in web-based courses. A number of strategies, design-decisions, and activities can be used to alleviate this issue (Vonderwell, 2003). One commonly used activity is the introduction post – the digital correlate of the in-class introduction. The instructor creates a discussion …

Related Tags: , , , , ,