Tag: pedagogy

An Overview of Universal Design for Learning

A Heightened Awareness of Accommodations

At a recent Toastmasters officers meeting in a popular coffee house, the club secretary asked me to switch seats with him. While I didn’t have a problem switching, I was curious why he wanted me to move. He informed me that as our meeting’s notetaker—and left-handed person—he needed a space conducive for taking notes. My seat was the only space at the table that met his need.

As an Instructional Designer, his request made me think about Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and the importance of designing environments to meet the needs of everyone. Continue reading “An Overview of Universal Design for Learning”

Communities of Inquiry (CoI): Cognitive Presence

Throughout this series, we’ve unpacked the three presences of Charles Sander Peirce’s Community of Inquiry (CoI) model. In my previous posts, we’ve looked at social and teaching presence. Cognitive presence, the final presence, combines both social and teaching presence. Today we’ll discuss how you can incorporate cognitive presence in your online course. Continue reading “Communities of Inquiry (CoI): Cognitive Presence”

Communities of Inquiry (CoI): Teaching Presence

In my last post, I introduced Charles Sander Pierce’s Community of Inquiry (CoI) model and discussed the importance of an instructor’s social presence in an online course. Continue reading “Communities of Inquiry (CoI): Teaching Presence”

Implementing the Community of Inquiry (CoI) Model into Your Online Course: Social Presence

As an online instructor, it can be challenging to create and maintain community with students in your courses. Last fall I discovered an education model that continues to help me create and maintain community, both as an instructional designer and as an adjunct instructor: Charles Sanders Peirce’s Community of Inquiry (CoI).

Continue reading “Implementing the Community of Inquiry (CoI) Model into Your Online Course: Social Presence”

Student-Teacher Relationships: The Key to Motivating Students

I recently concluded my Motivation in Education series, which explored Keller’s ARCS Model for Motivation. Each of the model’s components (attention, relevance, confidence, and satisfaction) share a common thread: the relationship between a teacher and their students.

Continue reading “Student-Teacher Relationships: The Key to Motivating Students”

Make your eLearning More Authentic

Have you noticed that our culture is beginning to value authenticity over authority?

We’re tired of being told. We want to be asked.

We’re tired of overly-complicated wordsmithing. We want clear and concise information.

We’re tired of not knowing. We want to be kept in the loop.

Authenticity is what we all crave. Continue reading “Make your eLearning More Authentic”

Personalized Learning

Innovation in the digital world seems to move at the speed-of-light.  As I wonder what the conversations around digital learning will center on in five years, I believe the lasting dialogue will be “personalized learning.”

Those of us in the world of educational technology know of the rhetoric around the term, but we do not seem to have a shared understanding of its meaning.  Many use the omnipresent phrase to refer to efforts to tailor instruction to each student’s unique needs and preferences.  Continue reading “Personalized Learning”

The MOOC: Window into our Pedagogical Soul

Remember the “Year of the MOOC” of 2012? What would possess us to even consider such a thing as a Massive Open Online Course? Maybe the MOOC captured our life-long-learner imaginations with the potential to enable free university-level education on an enormous scale.

This royalty free image is from pexels.com
This royalty free image comes from pexels.com.

Even the least of us could take a MIT or Stanford course from the leading expert of the world. Or, maybe the MOOC captured our mind’s eye because at our core we are teachers with an absorbing yearning to share our insightful understandings with as many as possible. But alas, the MOOC luster faded quickly. Continue reading “The MOOC: Window into our Pedagogical Soul”

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