Connecting with students is one of the most rewarding aspects of a professor’s job. Some faculty hesitate to teach online, frequently offering the rationale: “I want to connect with…
“What are we supposed to be doing?” (said every student at least once in a breakout room). Small groupwork enables students to “compare their current understandings with those of…
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One List to Rule Us All: The Benefits of Unified Writing Guidelines
July 8, 2020 Diana Jacobs, PhD, and Trisha Prunty
Many years after graduating with our undergraduate degrees, we can still remember the stress of being a student. One lesson that stands out from those years: if a student…
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Last spring, my college, like so many other schools, made a dramatic mid-semester pivot from face-to-face instruction to online classes. It was trial by fire for instructors and students…
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You just submitted grades and you’re getting ready to teach again. You remember how your classes went, but each time you start planning, you wonder what your students thought…
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On Friday, March 13th, I received the email. In response to the rising coronavirus pandemic, we were moving to one week of online instruction. Five days later, one week…
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In Course Design, Online Education
The Emergency Campaign: Discord, D&D, and Distance Learning
June 29, 2020 Kristen Bailey, Thomas Bullington, and Luke MacIver
Dr_Tom 🎲 Dungeon Master (DM): Not every DM plays the villain. That’s not my style. I prefer to hover the party, telling the story, urging the student-adventurers onward. One…
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In Effective Teaching Strategies, Online Education
Helping Students Develop Digital Content Curation Skills
June 26, 2020 Brad Garner, PhD
In our 24/7, always-connected world where we are inundated with information from all sides, the ability to identify quality resources to inform our research and actions has become a…
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Using Social Media to Retain and Connect with Students in the Shift to Online Education
June 24, 2020 Abdullah Al-Bahrani, PhD, and Rebecca Moryl, PhD
COVID-19 has upended normal social connections that develop between students and professors. We are missing the connections that develop through casual interactions in office hours, pre-class discussions, post-class questions,…
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Best Practices for Leading Positive Change in Higher Education
June 22, 2020 Valencia Gabay, MEd, and Shannon Voyles, EdD
It is becoming increasingly important for universities to meet the needs of today’s global learners. As a result, online academic institutions are raising the bar on instructional practices and…
