Category: Higher Education

Finding the Middle Ground: Connecting the Dots between Learner Needs and Learning Theory

This post was co-wrote by Ann Broda and Jess Pierce .

A course’s design includes many dynamics which can alter how it’s implemented. In addition, the instruction process may provide different results when it comes to meeting objectives, therefore the success of a course and its impact on student learning varies greatly. With these differences in learning spaces and learners it is often hard to know where to begin with design. But, even with various learning environments and stakeholder needs, some concepts of course design and evaluation transcend being environmentally specific—and these heuristics can be helpful tools for all learning spaces. As Ann and I reviewed various concepts and theories behind course design for this blog post, we discovered two essential components instructional designers can use in course design to create effective learning and the positive results of implementing them in the online modality: learning needs analysis and Constructivism.

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Meaningful Traditions: Reflecting on 2023 

Christmas traditions vary from family to family and person to person. But whether it’s decorating with lights to brighten the long winter nights, hanging stockings on the mantel, or placing a manger in a prominent location for all to see, these traditions seek to fill the season with significance and cheer.

Each December, our team enjoys the tradition to pause and reflect on the research and resources we share on the website. And we hope this tradition of reflection brings meaning to our Model eLearning community. With 2024 only a couple weeks away, it’s time to for the traditional review of the highlights of 2023.

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Instructional Technologies for Presentation and Organization: A Technical and Pedagogical Perspective

This blog post is written in collaboration with Kyle, Instructional Media Support.

In this post, we’re excited to introduce and discuss four instructional technologies useful in eLearning environments: Descript, OBS, Coda, and H5P! Originally, we began exploring these technologies from a purely technological perspective. Tara asked Kyle to review the tools to understand them from a technical point of view: how do these technologies work? What are their practical uses and limitations? 

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The AI Revolution is Here! What this means for Educators, Students, and the Learning Environment

If you’ve followed our blog for a while, you’ll recall several of our posts have explored the future and possibilities of artificial intelligence (AI) in education, eLearning, and instructional design. The release of Generative AI (Nvidia) and OpenAI programs (ChatGPT and GPT-4) in the past year has accelerated the AI Revolution in all aspects of life, including education.

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Introducing Our New Media Assessment Rubrics

Instructional media (images, video, and audio content) helps students visualize topics, practice skills central to a course, and allows them to interact with content in a variety of ways. At its best, high-quality instructional media “engages students, aids student retention of knowledge, motivates interest in the subject matter, and illustrates the relevance of many concepts” (Mateer, Ghent, Porter, et al., n.d.). Our eLearning team at SAU takes high-quality instructional content seriously, and we are currently developing new ways to determine the quality of media used in our courses.

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Instructional Design for Mental Health

When instructional designers or subject matter experts (SMEs) design a course, students’ mental health often unintentionally gets overlooked. Courses that overlook students’ mental health, even unintentionally, show a lack of empathy and understanding on our part. 

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Collaborative and Social Learning Tools for eLearning

Authentic engagement between students and instructors is immensely important in eLearning. That being said, both collaborative and social learning are the heart behind any virtual course. Not only that, but researchers at the University of Calgary Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning describe these modes of learning as an “opportunity for students and instructors to engage in shared efforts to search for meaning, understanding, and solutions to complex problems or concepts” (Anselmo et al., n.d.). Thankfully, the rapidly-developing sector of collaborative and social learning tools allows us to provide these opportunities for authentic engagement.

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Does Going Digital Alter Learner Retention?

People engage in learning through different formats. This can vary based on the learning environment and the stakeholders involved in the development of content. With the recent uptake in online and computer learning, as course designers and instructors we need to ponder a new question—is the option of having a digital textbook and taking notes on a computer just as effective as a paper textbook and handwritten notes? This debate includes many individuals adamantly on one side or the other, so the answer should be investigated through research to determine what the evidence tells us. To begin this conversation, let’s look at existing studies and determine how these two available options should inform course design moving forward.

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Authentic Self-Assessment in eLearning

Self-assessment is an incredibly powerful tool to foster self-reflection and growth for all—and it’s especially important for college students. More students take a greater number of courses and programs online. And overall, online learning is generally more self-paced. Students need to build and hone self-assessment skills to help them track their progress and set goals for future weeks, months, years of assignments, projects, and exams.

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Digital Content Curation Tools for Education

Digital content curation tools allow us to easily create, collaborate, share, and evaluate educational resources and collections. With “[…] advances in technology, enhanced tools allow researchers to preserve their work in new venues and formats to reach new audiences. (Deschaine & Sharma, 2015, p. 20). In Curating an Instructional Content Collection for Teaching and Learning, I shared how to use content curation in course design to provide accurate, relevant learning resources and model 21st century information literacy skills. In this post, I’ll discuss digital tools for curating educational content.

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