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Making Individualized Connections with Online Students

In the absence of meeting your students in a face to face course, how can instructors make individualized connections with their students in the online course environment.

Introduce yourself and demonstrate to the students that you have a passion for the subject of the course. Provide a video introduction. Provide your professional biography and a picture. Encourage students to do the same in the first discussion forum.

Give students a choice. If you are an educator who truly differentiates, you will give students choices on assignments, projects, etc. Instead of authoring a paper every week, give students the choice of creating a short video, podcast, or presentation. In addition, provide choices in disseminating information. Read this article or watch this video. Providing students with choices gives them an investment in the course.

Review the instructions for assignments/discussion/assessments. Go over them and go over them, again.  Ensure that all instructions are clear and with step-by-step details, if necessary. Students can get easily frustrated when instructions are not clear. 

All students learn differently, and students in an online classroom are no exception. Provide students with multiple opportunities and formats for learning, including videos, audio lectures, and project choices that help engage and encourage learning for all students and preferences. Differentiated instruction promotes learning for all students, as well as encourages engagement in the online classroom.

Encourage Peer Review and Engagement. Encourage students to communicate with their peers. Peer communication allows students to develop a network of support, rather than have students only rely on the instructor. Allow students an opportunity to get to know one another in an introductory thread, and encourage students to connect throughout the course. Online learning can be lonely, but it does not have to be. Students can learn to develop a community in the online classroom.

Course Announcements

Create an announcement for each module. Give students the threads between modules in each announcement. For example, in last week’s readings, we explored….This week, we will be using that knowledge and applying it to…

Announcements can also be the place where your personality shines through. Give extra instructional help on areas that you know are challenging for students. Provide some of your professional experience in the subject/content area. Update announcements during the week, as needed. These practices demonstrate that you care and are an active part of the class.

To maintain an instructional presence in the course, use the announcements as an area to do some online teaching. If students typically have issues with a specific part of the course, provide additional information and assistance to answer questions before they are asked. The announcements area is your chance to “teach”. You can include tutorials, additional resources, etc…

Go beyond the university requirement of posting a weekly announcement. Be accessible and respond to student inquiries in a timely manner. Provide substantive feedback and positive critique. Inject some fun into the classroom with a story or anecdote. Learn the mechanics of an online course. Become fluid in the learning management system. 

As an educator, you are trying to provide students with the best educational experience whether it be online or “in-seat”. Think of things you do in your real life courses and how they can be translated into digital format. Do not be afraid to experiment.

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Understanding Student-Centered Design

Today’s digital students are demanding a higher quality of education and customized learning experiences. Accessibility and success depends on personal factors that extend beyond the campus. Students are looking for learning that relates directly to them. Online learning has allowed students with busy work schedules, hectic personal lives, and a lengthy list of responsibilities to continue their education. However, traditional online programs may fail to meet student needs, because they are mainly a one-size-fits-all solution. As adult learners are looking to explore career opportunities, new skills, or personal interests, their learning experience is significant. Universities that offer a student-centered design approach will engage and elevate their learners, and above all, retain those learners for the duration of the program.

As a college or university curriculum leader, you can propose tailoring the design thinking process or human-centered design process to student-centered design.

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Social Media for Authentic Learning

Social Media

In this post, we will explore several types of technology, including social media used for learning, blogs, and wikis. We need to remember that although blogs and wikis, in some cases, predated social media, they are considered a part of social media.

When integrating social media to support authentic learning in the classroom or learning situation, we must first define what authentic learning experiences are. Authentic learning experiences are created around real-life, genuine purposes. They engage students in critical thinking and twenty-first-century learning, teach important skills such as research and collaboration, and improve student learning. Authentic learning can rely on technology to develop typical scenarios that learners encounter in real-world settings. Online authentic learning experiences often integrate asynchronous and synchronous communication and social media for teamwork, including collaborative online investigations, resource sharing and knowledge construction. Social media tools, such as blogs and wikis, can help learners find a broader community where they can share information and resources.

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Plugged into Curriculum Development

Being plugged into curriculum development compels one to examine emerging theory in current curricular development, but we have to examine the whole picture in recent education. We have seen educators customize and individualize curriculum according to needs of all students. In many instances, we have seen new assessments (next generation computerized assessments) and other technological resources (adoptino of iPads) being instituted. In addition, we have seen an emphasis on skills over facts in curriculum design. We will explore how emerging trends in curriculum development are demonstrated in specific subject or content areas.

In the K12 arena, English language arts (ELA), reading, or writing (literacy); social studies; mathematics; science; foreign language; the arts; and physical and health education make up what is frequently known as the “common curriculum”.  The common curriculum is what is usually taught in schools everywhere.

How might you as a curriculum developer anticipate a future trend in a subject or content area? How would you identify a political, economic, or other social factor (e.g., wellness’ effect on physical education and health) that has the potential for re-shaping a subject area? How you would identify technology or another outside influence that might affect a subject or content area (e.g., virtual and augmented reality)? Some trends in the given subject areas can be found below:

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How To Attract Your Students With Virtual and Augmented Realities

VR and AR

In classroom across the world, educators are exploring how virtual and augmented realities have found their way into classroom enhancing the traditional learning environments by blurring the physical and digital world. In addition to creating comprehensive, rigorous, and coherent curriculum, educators also created a personalized and motivating learning environment for every student. Reducing the gap between the real and digital world makes the learning environment more flexible and adaptive.

Virtual reality and augmented reality have the potential to transform the way educators communicate with students, the way educators attract students to learning. But where do we start? With so many devices, information, and experiences available on the internet, virtual and augmented technologies can be overwhelming.
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