Keeping Accessibility in Mind During the COVID-19 Conversion of Courses

March 24, 2020.Reading time 20 minutes.

quote from text in an image: It is much, much harder to retrofit accessibility onto existing educational materials than it is to get it right the first time.

We welcome today’s guest post from Cyndi Rowland, Executive Director of WebAIM (at Utah State University) which empowers organizations to make their web content accessible to people with disabilities. Cyndi gives us great and compassionate advice for teachers and faculty suddenly thrust into teaching with technologies. Thank you for sharing your wisdom, Cyndi! — Russ […]

Evaluating Faculty Participation in Online Workshops

February 27, 2020.Reading time 9 minutes.

Example of a network analysis graph for the discussion-based workshop. Each circle represents a participant in the workshop, while the shaded groupings represent different sections of the workshop. Circles show how particpants are grouped in large circles. The lightly facilitated group is more dispersed and have lines drawn between participants showing how they interact. The Facilitated discussion forum is one tightly connected circle with more interaction.

Last week we welcomed Lynn Wahl, Instructional Designer for UNC Charlotte, to discuss how they used design thinking to create online faculty development workshops. In a continuation of the topic, Lynn joins us today to talk about how to assess a learning opportunity such as the online workshops to ensure they continue to engage attendees […]

Design Thinking for Faculty Pedagogy Training

February 21, 2020.Reading time 8 minutes.

a circle graph showing the "innovation sweetspot." Three circles labelled "desirability, viability, feasibilty" all interlapping. The innovation sweetspot is right in the middle of the three other circles.

Have you heard of design thinking? This process is a non-linear, iterative process that focuses on understanding users and redefining problems to create innovative solutions and prototype said solutions to make them even better (interaction-design.org). We can use design thinking in a variety of arenas, not the least of which is to design courses. Today’s […]

What do they still need to learn? The Impact of Smartphones on Curriculum

January 28, 2020.Reading time 10 minutes.

Hold on, let me finish up one thing on my phone. Okay, I’m finished! Now, onto our post. I don’t know about you, but it can be hard for me to put my smartphone down sometimes. This relatively small device has become a large part of my life. I not only keep in touch with […]

Using a Research-Based Approach – It’s Up to Us

December 4, 2019.Reading time 14 minutes.

Today we welcome Andria Schwegler, Associate Professor and Program Coordinator for the Master of Science Educational Psychology at Texas A&M University – Central Texas. Andria joins us to discuss the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) and the opportunity such scholarship provides for improving education, teaching, and hiring. In addition, she discusses whether there is […]

What We Talk About When We Talk About Student Engagement

November 20, 2019.Reading time 9 minutes.

At a recent #DLNChat, one of the questions, answers, and resulting discussion prompted me to ask Karen Costa (writer, faculty member, and faculty development facilitator extraordinaire) to write a piece for us on her comments. Today’s blog post is thought-provoking and, I hope, word-changing for you. Thank you, Karen, for reminding us about the importance […]

Finding Quality in All the Right Places: Promoting Online Course Reviews to Faculty Designers

July 11, 2019.Reading time 11 minutes.

How do you ensure quality in online courses? That word gets a lot of buzz in higher ed! Today’s Frontiers post is all about quality and how to implement a course certification process. Joining us from the University of Central Florida is Senior Instructional Designer Aimee deNoyelles, who co-designed an online course review process for […]

Breathing New Life into the Collaboratory, Reviving an Innovative Teaching Space

August 31, 2018.Reading time 14 minutes.

Many of us have an interested in increasing the opportunities for our students to work collaboratively. An excellent way to help facilitate group work is to make sure our learning spaces are conducive to group conversations, work, and study. Many in higher education are also interested in making sure our learning spaces are equipped with […]

Rigor, Meet Reality

April 5, 2018.Reading time 15 minutes.

text box which reads: …Faculty members must plan collaboratively beyond the courses they teach to design program-level strategies to demonstrate rigor.

How do you define academic rigor? I know when I was completing my undergraduate and graduate coursework, I could tell the difference between a rigorous course and one that would be a little less time consuming. I also understood, especially in graduate school, that the more rigorous a course was, the more I “got out […]

Supporting Faculty Through a Learning Community

February 22, 2018.Reading time 11 minutes.

How do faculty at your institution enhance their teaching skills or discuss best practices with their peers? Today, we’re thrilled to learn about Louisiana State University’s Online Teaching Cohort program from Hala Esmail, the Manager of the Faculty Technology Center for LSU. This group meets several times a semester to hear presentations from experts, participate […]