The phrase “desirable difficulties” was first coined in the nineties by psychologist Robert Bjork to describe learning conditions that introduced inconveniences to yield greater learner retention of material. According…
Another Tax Day is upon us. I’ll keep this post brief, just in case you haven’t yet filed. The Internal Revenue Service is good for lots of things, but…
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Due to the shift to performance-based funding in many states, colleges and universities have sharpened their focus on student retention. Because of this, I have sought out information about…
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Where did it all go wrong? Professor Elavor* just wrapped up what she hoped would be a successful semester of her new online course—Introduction to Natural Sciences. Unfortunately, the…
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Using Bridge Questions to Teach Technical Content Online
March 20, 2019 Stefan A. Perun, PhD, and Edward A. Liva
Courses with a great deal of technical content for application in practice such as law, business, or STEM courses are oftentimes designed in what amounts to an information delivery…
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The Art & Science of Quality Course Announcements: How to Avoid the Trap of the Info Dump
February 1, 2019 Karen Costa
It’s the night before a major assignment is due and you sit down to post an announcement in your online course. You want to remind your students of the…
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As the number of online courses and degree programs in higher education continues to increase, more faculty are being asked to design and develop online courses. Sometimes this course…
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An Online Mentoring Model That Works
November 5, 2018 Mary Jane Pearson, PhD, and E. Gail Kirby, EdD
Recent findings indicate that higher education enrollment is being outpaced by online enrollments while overall enrollment in higher education has declined over the last three years (Betts, 2017). Data…
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8 Student Personality Types in Distance Learning Part 2
October 30, 2018 Jack T. Judy
The first part of this article spent time discussing some of the less motivated student personality types I have encountered through the years, as well as providing some context…
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8 Student Personality Types in Distance Learning Part 1
October 29, 2018 Jack T. Judy
I was taking advantage of some down time, cleaning out some of my old files on my computer, when I ran across a great article I saved that covered…
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In the online class environment, students enjoy many advantages, such as increased scheduling flexibility, ability to balance work and school, classroom portability, and convenience. But there are potential shortcomings…
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As an online instructor, I require my students to engage in weekly discussion forums. In the online college environment, discussion forums are designed to simulate a professor and his…
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“I’m sorry to bother you, but…” was the opening line of every email I received in the first week of this semester. This line was usually followed by nothing…
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Finding the Instructional Value in Peer Review Discussion Boards
June 22, 2018 Priscilla Hobbs, PhD, and Evan Kropp, PhD
In their article on the effect of instructor participation in online discussion boards, Margaret Mazzolini and Sarah Maddison (2003) asked if, “online instructors [should] be encouraged to take a…
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Online students need to feel an instructor presence in their classes. Thorough explanations and effective communication help fulfill this need and can transform a mediocre online course into a…
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By now we’ve all heard about the importance of faculty engagement in online courses. A faculty member who properly engages in an online classroom can boost student success, improve…
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Strategies for Creating a Successful Online Classroom
April 6, 2018 Jill Alred, PhD, and Candace Adams, EdD
Online learning presents new challenges beyond those of a traditional classroom because students must become more responsible for their learning. Many learners are unfamiliar with the online learning environment,…
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Many faculty members express concern that discussion in their online courses is shallow or sparse. What is it that makes meaningful dialogue so elusive in online courses? Some practices…
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What Online Faculty Can Do to Avoid Burnout
January 5, 2018 Edna Murugan, PhD, and Noura Badawi, EdD
With the increase in online classes being offered by higher education institutions and the convenience and flexibility it affords (particularly for adult learners), it is important that institutions hire,…
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But What If They Cheat? Giving Non-Proctored Online Assessments
December 8, 2017 Sheryl Cornelius, EdD
As online education continues to grow, so does the potential for academic dishonesty. So how do you ensure your online students are not cheating on their tests? Bottom line,…
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In Educational Assessment, Online Education
Which Assessment Strategies Do Students Prefer?
October 27, 2017 John Orlando, PhD
While most faculty stick with the tried-and-true quiz and paper assessment strategies for their online courses, the wide range of technologies available today offers a variety of assessment options…
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Pause, Play, Repeat: Using Pause Procedure in Online Microlectures
October 23, 2017 Judith Dutill, MA, and Melissa Wehler, PhD
We all know the classic thought experiment involving a tree falling in the woods, but have you heard the one about online lecturing: If a faculty member posts a…
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In Academic Leadership, Online Education
Tips for New Online Faculty Deans: A Faculty Perspective
September 22, 2017 Noura Badawi, EdD
We know that strong leaders empower and genuinely care for those whom they lead. That empowerment and care is not expressed by the words they speak, but by their…
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A student’s initial introduction into higher education can be exciting and frustrating, especially when the student is enrolled in their first online class. This year I taught a newly…
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Engaging Students in Online Courses: Adding Experiential to Asynchrony
August 14, 2017 Eric J. Perry, PhD
Teaching online is a unique experience for faculty and students. Although I love the online environment for some courses, it does present its own challenges. One of those challenges…
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There’s a widely circulated YouTube video you may have seen called “A Conference Call in Real Life.” To spoof the strange, stilted dynamics of conference calls, it replicates them…
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At a time when online institutions are in fierce competition for students and accreditation agencies are taking a critical look at online course quality, it is becoming increasingly important…
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Ten Concierge ‘Keys’ for Supporting Individualized Online Course Development
April 28, 2017 David S. McCurry, EdD, and Bonnie B. Mullinix, EdD
Large group training workshops to facilitate online course design can be a mechanistic experience and a nightmare to schedule given perpetually busy faculty with overloaded calendars. Equally ineffective static,…
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Student discussion differentiates online education from the old correspondence courses. But there are still many questions to answer in order to facilitate good discussion online. Hong Zhiu, of the…
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In Educational Assessment, Online Education
Reduce Online Course Anxiety with a Check-in Quiz
March 10, 2017 Maryellen Weimer, PhD
“Online classes are often intimidating for first-time students,” writes David St Clair. “They wrestle with the gnawing fear that their class has no anchor in the physical world and…
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Instructor Presence: How to Keep from Going MIA in Your Online Course
February 3, 2017 Steve Dwinnells, PhD
As an adjunct professor and one who works daily with faculty in helping them understand online education, I have noticed and heard of increasing numbers of professors going missing…
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Five Ways to Make Your Online Classrooms More Interactive
December 12, 2016 Amy Peterson
The convenience and flexibility of the online learning environment allows learners to develop new skills and further their education, regardless of where they live. However, for all of its…
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Classroom Assessment Techniques, or CATs, are simple ways to evaluate students’ understanding of key concepts before they get to the weekly, unit, or other summative-type assessment (Angelo & Cross,…
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More and more students are flocking to the online classroom for the convenience of earning college credits from the comfort of their home. However, many of these students are…
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Many instructors feel that they need to be experts in mathematics in order to understand analytics. But according to John Vivolo, director of online and virtual learning for New…
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Students like online classes due to their flexibility and convenience. But not all students do well in these courses; the statistics indicate that online classes have a much higher…
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Student Engagement Strategies for the Online Learning Environment
March 14, 2016 Paula M. Bigatel PhD
During the past year and a half, our faculty development unit has been gathering data from students about how engaged they felt in their online courses. We wanted to…
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The online classroom can sometimes feel like a lonely place due to a lack of presence of the instructor and other students. This lack of presence can negatively affect…
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In his wonderful TED talk, Dan Meyer describes how he began one of his math classes by showing students a video of a hose slowly filling a bucket with…
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Participating in team projects offers students the chance to develop interpersonal communication skills (Figueira & Leal, 2013), build relationships with classmates, and increase the level of collective competencies as…