Inspire Blog Category: Course Design/Learning Design

Want to create a memorable experience for your students?

I was recently reminded of a conference keynote that I attended a few years ago, and the beginning of an academic term seems like an appropriate time to revisit it on this blog. In 2019, Dan Heath, a bestselling author and senior fellow at Duke University’s CASE Center, gave a presentation at InstructureCon, a conference for Canvas users, where he talked about how memories are formed. He explained that memories are composed of moments. Moments, according to Heath, are “mostly forgettable and occasionally remarkable.” To illustrate, most of what I’ve done today–dropping my kids off at spring break camp, replying to emails, going to a lunchtime yoga class, and writing this blog post–will largely be forgotten by next month. There … Want to create a memorable experience for your students?
by · June 3, 2024

What is a Lecture?

Seems like an easy question to answer, right? I might not give it a second thought. Yet, as an online course developer, I sometimes find myself in conversations with co-developers where I realize I’ve been working under a different assumption about what a lecture is. And that’s fine, I kind of like having my preconceptions challenged. I wanted to share a little of that experience. Our media development team has one of the stricter definitions of lecture, a specific kind of video recording. They have to, they are handling hundreds of videos every term. It’s essential for them to be able to sort media into the most efficient pipeline. Makes sense. However, when I am working with subject matter experts, … What is a Lecture?
by · May 13, 2024

Design Strategies for Student Support in Online Courses

Editor’s Note: This is a guest blog post by Skye Nguyen. Skye completed an Instructional Designer internship at Ecampus in Fall 2024 and graduated with an Instructional Design certificate from OSU in Spring 2024. Support for students is a key component in increasing the likelihood of student success. Students can encounter various types of barriers, such as technical issues or glitches and learning curves of these technologies when taking classes, and even more so when taking online classes. Educause highlights that the expectation of the learning environment is changing to Learning Spaces (Learning Spaces, n.d.). These Spaces not only hold space for traditional classrooms but are morphing to include more virtual presence.  To ensure a smooth transition we should incorporate … Design Strategies for Student Support in Online Courses
by · April 22, 2024

Redesigning Office Hours for Asynchronous Online Courses

While attending a panel presentation by students pursuing degrees online, I heard one of the student panelists share something to the effect of, “Oh, I don’t do Office Hours. However, instead of Office Hours, one of my instructors had these ‘Afternoon Tea’ sessions on Zoom that I loved to attend when it worked with my schedule. She answered my questions, and I feel like she got to know me better. She was also available to meet by appointment.” What wasn’t revealed was why this student wouldn’t attend something called “Office Hours” but did attend these other sessions. Did “Office Hours” sound too formal? Was she unsure of what would happen during office hours, or unsure of what the purpose was? … Redesigning Office Hours for Asynchronous Online Courses
by · March 18, 2024

Assessment Design: The Case Against Extra Credit

As a follow-up to discussing equity in grading and group work, Feldman (2019) offers a compelling case against the use of extra credit. “But wait a minute,” I can hear you saying, “Extra credit is optional—students have to opt-in if they want to do it! And it can be fun! What’s wrong with that?” Many instructors may think of extra credit as a way to benefit students and give them extra opportunities in a course, especially at the end of a term, to improve their grade, take on additional challenges, and demonstrate additional skills they have learned. (I know I thought about extra credit that way at one time!) However, there is more at play with extra credit than you … Assessment Design: The Case Against Extra Credit
by · February 26, 2024