Recently in Course design Category

I had the opportunity to discuss teaching and learning ideas with the adjuncts a week before school started. What a great group of people who do a very difficult job - they usually just get dumped in the classroom with little guidance, so I hope our conversation provided some useful ideas. Here's the Adjunct Presentation (PDF) I used that focuses on how people learn and how to design effective classes that actually can work for students (and you). 

There is a lot of attention these days on using ePortfolios for students to post their work, track their progress, and even implement as part of an assessment strategy. I know at least a few of you are interested in such a concept, and the education department has all their students doing some type of portfolio, so what I'd like to know is how many of you would like to engage in a discussion on how to implement eportfolios: what they are, what they could look like, how they might work, what tools you would use to create and maintain them, how they relate to students' courses, degree programs, and/or life at the college overall. I think this is a highly relevant topic that we should pursue, so send me a line to share your thoughts.

You know, we spend so much time discussing great things to try in our classes we often don't think to mention the things you really should not do. Here are a few examples that occur more than you think--usually because instructors simply don't realize what they're doing:

If you read any of my documents or keep up with recent literature in education, you'll see the word authentic quite a bit. Authentic learning is not merely a buzzword--it's an approach to designing learning environments that helps students connect to what you want them to get from your course or program. Authentic does not mean practical, or vocational, or anything like that. Authentic means that the course goals, content, activities, and assessments reflect what real experts would actually do in that field. It means that you design experiences that are what happens in the real world. Don't make them

No, I don't mean failing classes. I'm talking about providing a safe environment in your class where students can try things, experiment, explore, without fear of penalty (such as a grade). Did you write an elegant essay the first time you picked up a pen? Was your first research experiment an unqualified success? As brilliant as you undoubtedly are, I doubt it. It takes 

During the last weekend in January of 2008, Barry Hill, Joel Kline, Mike Fry, and Jim Duffy attended the Educause Learning Initiative Conference in San Antonio. For me, (Barry), it represented a completely unexpected mindshift in my perspective on how students approach not just learning, but life in general. I have not generally used a great deal of technology in the classroom, and only viewing it as a tool to simply supplement what we do in our classes. It finally dawned on me that students don't just use technology, they live it and don't even think about it. They obtain information, collaborate with friends, and generate content in a totally digital media world. In other words,