My colleague Karen Teeley showed me how to use KAHOOT! in a conference today! I very much recommend using this free, fun learning game to encourage study and participation in your classroom!
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Not too long a go, our own Joel Gardner received the Robert L. Bailey Graduate Teaching Award at Franklin University. This a video of his comments upon receiving the award at Franklin's graduation in May 2013.
by Dr. Joel Gardner, EdTech Dojo co-curator There are a lot of opinions about how to design quality instruction. New technologies, theories, and processes are continually created and touted as the next greatest thing for instructional designers. And while these new technologies can be powerful, there are a few key instructional strategies that must be implemented to maximize learning effectiveness. These principles have consistently been shown to increase learning and engagement, but often instructional designers become enamored by the new technologies and fail to implement these strategies effectively. In this post, we will describe these strategies and show how you can use them effectively in your design. 
We can categorize all instructional activities into two basic categories:
The Four Basic Strategies for Creating Excellent Instruction
The next time you design a piece of instruction, ask yourself how well you are using these strategies. If you will conscientiously apply them, you will find increased student learning and instructional design effectiveness. This article was originally posted at elearningindustry.com. by J. Clark Gardner, EdTech Dojo co-curator
What does it take to be a good online instructor? There are definitely qualities and abilities in instructors that truly empower students to have a rich online learning experience. I've boiled it down to a list of six qualities. These can be helpful to review if you are an online instructor yourself, or if you are helping faculty develop good online teaching skills. 1. A good online instructor is comfortable with technology. You don’t have to be an expert. You just have to be comfortable with the idea of technology, and willing to get your feet wet. 2. A good online instructor clearly articulates expectations for students. Students know how to act and what is expected of them in a classroom. In an online class, you have to spell it out for them. Be clear about what kind of behavior and participation you expect in order for them to succeed. 3. A good online instructor guides learners through student-led activities. Online learning requires students to lead themselves through the content. It is up to you to create instruction and activities that empower them to do so. 4. A good online instructor responds to students’ needs in a timely way. This does not mean you have to be online 24/7, answering emails and questions the minute they come in. But it just means you are consistent, you have a pattern, and your students can count on hearing back from you in a reasonable amount of time. 5. A good online instructor manages time efficiently. Teaching online brings flexibility, but also requires discipline. Setting aside time to work on your course and keep up with feedback ensures that time won’t get away from you. 6. A good online instructor is willing to do it all over again. Experienced authors say there is no such thing as good writing, just good rewriting. The same could be said about online course development. You’ll do everything you can to make it good the first time. Then, you’ll take what you learned and make it great the next time. Good curriculum design is an iterative process. Think about these qualities, and how you can maintain the ones that you feel are your strengths, and improve on those that are more of a challenge. Doing so will definitely improve the courses you are involved with and create an even more rewarding experience for your students. by Dr. Joel Gardner, EdTech Dojo co-curator What is Task-Centered Learning? What is Problem-based Learning? How are the two approaches similar and how are they different? To help provide some clarity on the differences between these two influential approaches to instructional design, my colleague Dr. Greg Francom and I recently wrote and published an article in EdTech Magazine. Our purpose is to helps instructional designers and teachers see the merits and strengths of each of these approaches while understanding the differences. You can also click here to access a pre-publication draft of the article.
This article is a really good introduction to these influential theories and should be useful to instructional design students learning about the many approaches to instructional design. It can also be used in an introductory course for that same purpose. Thanks to Dr. Greg Francom for inviting me to assist in the writing of this article - he is an excellent scholar, a good writer, and a good friend.
by Dr. Joel Gardner, EdTech Dojo co-curator In the world of educational technology, we tend to focus on instruction and technology as tools for increasing knowledge. However, in many organizations, there is a need to improve performance as well as learning. The field of human performance technology focuses on using a variety of tools for improving performance. Unfortunately, this field can be difficult to describe. In this new video, I explain briefly what human performance technology is.
by Dr. Joel Gardner, EdTech Dojo co-curator
One of the major issues that educators are facing is the retention of students, particularly in online courses. I have worked to address this issue in my own work in higher education, and I recently came across a review of the literature that summarizes key research findings in this important area. The review was conducted by Kevin Shanley, an employee at Utah State University. Through his research, he identified 10 strategies for retaining students in online courses. I discussed these strategies in a recent blog post and also linked to his original publication. I thought it would be worth sharing the blog post here. http://joelleegardner.blogspot.com/2012/07/retention-of-students-in-online-courses.html by Dr. Joel Gardner, EdTech Dojo co-curoator  In a past podcast on the Dojo, we featured George Joeckel, an Instructional Designer at Utah State University. He has recently created a new version of his tool the PDF Course Guide Builder. This tool is designed to enable course instructors and instructional designers to create syllabi easily and in alignment with quality instructional standards. The link below introduces the tool and provides resources for using it effectively.
http://georgejoeckel.blogspot.com/2012/07/pdf-course-guide-builder-designed-for.html by Joel Gardner, EdTech Dojo co-curator One of the most fundamental tools and instructional designer uses is a systematic approach to designing instruction. Previous videos shared on the Dojo have described the general phases of this process, which are encapsulated in the ADDIE Process. In this new video, we provide a basic overview of the general ADDIE Process and then describe a specific process called The Systematic Design of Instruction, commonly known as the Dick and Carey Model. Again, it is a basic overview, but it gives a good description of what the instructional design process is and how it is used by instructional designers. We hope it is helpful! by Dr. Joel Gardner, EdTech Dojo co-curator My experience has been that instructional designers are regularly asked, “What is instructional design?” A previous video attempted to answer this question by describing what an instructional designer does. As part of a series of introductory videos to be used in the MS Degree in Instructional Design and Performance Technology at Franklin University, I have created the video below to describe from another angle what instructional design is. I hope it is helpful! |
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