Inspire Blog Category: Tips & Tricks

9 Ways to Start Thinking Like a Game Designer

What can instructional designers learn from video game design? This might seem like a silly question—what do video games have to do with learning? Why might we use video games as an inspiration in pedagogy? As instructional designers, faculty often come to us with a variety of problems to address in their course designs—a lack of student interaction, how to improve student application of a given topic, and many more. While there are many tools at our disposal, I’d like to propose an extra tool belt for our kit: what if we thought more like game designers? Video games excel at creating engaging and motivating learning environments. Hold on a minute, I hear you saying, video games don’t teach anything! … 9 Ways to Start Thinking Like a Game Designer
by · March 6, 2019

Active Learning: What Does the Research Show?

Active Learning: What Does the Research Show? We often hear about new approaches in teaching, and some can take on near-mythical status. That might be the case for active learning. It’s been widely touted as the “most effective” pedagogical approach, but unless you have time to dig through the research, it may not be easy to determine if this trend is applicable – or beneficial – to your teaching and discipline. So what does the research say about active learning? This article provides a brief summary of research results for active learning applied in STEM subjects. Why Use Active Learning? Before we discuss why active learning is beneficial, let’s clarify exactly what active learning is. As opposed to passive learning, … Active Learning: What Does the Research Show?
by · March 1, 2019

Take the sting out of grading

“…expertise is learned from prolonged experience with good feedback on mistakes.” – Daniel Kahneman Students are eager to receive meaningful feedback quickly. With hopes of improving their class performance, timely and substantive feedback is essential to helping students get on track before it is too late. Yet, knowing this doesn’t change why feedback and grading sometimes gets put off, despite our best intentions – it can appear daunting and time consuming. 8 ideas on how to take the sting out of providing feedback: Self-checks Not all feedback requires your intervention or even a grade. Can you set-up an activity where students can check their understanding and get immediate feedback? A simple solution is to create a short practice activity (e.g. … Take the sting out of grading
by · October 18, 2018

How to Spot Disengaged Students and What to Do About It

Fall term is in full swing, and right now students are at their best in terms of motivation and anticipation of a good term and academic year ahead. In a few weeks, however, the motivation that students started out with in September may change to disengagement as the term progresses. Some students, for example, have the misconception that online courses are easier than face-to-face courses. This misunderstanding can cause them to feel overwhelmed and disengaged when they realize that their online courses are just as rigorous as their face-to-face courses. Now is the time to get a jump on ways to spot disengaged students — and what to do about it — before they give up and drop that fabulous … How to Spot Disengaged Students and What to Do About It
by · October 8, 2018

Curating Instructor Presence in Online Education

Whether you are a new or seasoned online instructor, understanding how to establish and maintain instructor presence is a commonly shared challenge. What is known about online learners is they want to know their instructors are engaged and regularly interacting in the course. Students also express how important it is to know that their instructors care about them. There is a natural distance inherent in online classrooms which necessitates purposeful actions and intentional structures to prevent isolation and to foster connection. There is great news… this distance can be overcome!  Moreover, research has indicated that instructor presence has a relationship with perceived student satisfaction and success. Being there for your students can make a difference! Being present goes a step … Curating Instructor Presence in Online Education
by · August 17, 2018