Inspire Blog Tag: instructional design

The Group Project Paradox: Everyone Thinks They Did the Most Work

The Skill Students Resist, and Employers Expect I have a confession. When I was earning my M.S.Ed. online, I dreaded seeing “group project” on a syllabus. I juggled coursework with a full-time job, logged in at odd hours, and did most of the work on every collaborative assignment. My standards were higher, my contributions more substantial, my late nights longer. I carried the team. Here’s the awkward part: so did everyone else. Researchers have been studying this phenomenon since 1979, when psychologists Michael Ross and Fiore Sicoly found that group members consistently overestimate their own contributions (Ross & Sicoly, 1979). When you ask everyone on a team to estimate their percentage of the work, the numbers don’t add up to … The Group Project Paradox: Everyone Thinks They Did the Most Work
by · April 15, 2026

Link Accessibility – FAQs

The golden rule of link accessibility: links should be descriptive! For foundational information on the why and the how, see OSU Digital Accessibility – Links.)  Let’s dig deeper into a few common questions: Can I use “click here” or “this” for my link text? This practice is not ideal, and it’s best to avoid it. While WCAG does permit it when surrounding context provides enough information, you would not be creating a good experience for your audience. That type of text is not descriptive enough to show the user where the link will go, and it’s especially problematic if this text appears multiple times! Think of people skimming the content – whether visually or via assistive technologies. It’s much more … Link Accessibility – FAQs
by · March 30, 2026

Customizing Your Canvas Course

Customizing your Canvas course is a simple way to create a smoother, more intuitive learning experience—for both you and your students. With a few strategic adjustments, you can create a polished, efficient Canvas set-up that gives students a clean, streamlined learning environment. Personalize Your Home Page Instructors can choose which page students see first when clicking into their Canvas course, and a well-designed homepage can act as a dashboard for the entire course. Most Ecampus courses have a home page that includes a custom banner with the course code and name as well as links to the modules, Start Here module, and Syllabus page. You might want to add links to external tools or websites your students will use frequently … Customizing Your Canvas Course
by · December 8, 2025

Haunted by a Blank Course: Tales from a First-Time Developer

Special Edition: Guest Blog by Assistant Professor of Practice (Urban Forestry), Jennifer Killian When I was asked to create a new course for Oregon State University’s Ecampus program, my first reaction was a mix of sheer excitement… and, well, a little terror. I’ve built workshops, presentations, and even all-day trainings, but assembling ten weeks of graduate-level content from scratch? That felt like wandering through a haunted house to me. Dark, empty, and full of unknowns. Adding to the surrealness, I realized that thirteen years ago, I was a graduate student here, taking several Ecampus courses myself including an early version of the very class I would now be teaching. The idea that I could bring my professional experience back to … Haunted by a Blank Course: Tales from a First-Time Developer
by · October 20, 2025

Problem Solving, Team Conflict and Large Enrollment in Online Courses: Research and Design

Core Education at Oregon State University launched summer 2025 and is designed to deepen how students think about problem-solving in ways that transcend disciplinary-specific approaches. It aims at preparing students to be adaptive, proactive members of society who are ready to take on any challenge, solve any problem, advance in their chosen career and help build a better world (Oregon State University Core Education, 2025). Designing Seeking Solutions Signature Core category courses presents a few challenges, such as the nature of wicked problems, cross-discipline teamwork, and the global impact of wicked problems, to name just a few. In the past eight months, instructional designers at Oregon State University Ecampus have worked intensively to identify design challenges, brainstorm course design approaches, … Problem Solving, Team Conflict and Large Enrollment in Online Courses: Research and Design
by · August 25, 2025