From the category archives:

Teaching

IRRODL Special Issue on Open Education

November 9, 2009

The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning just released a special issue, focusing on open education and open access. There are several articles in the issue that are well worth reading, giving a strong background into the history of open education, and the possibilities for engagement.
From the issue’s table of contents:
Editorial

Openness and [...]

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Peer mentoring: Strengthening student learning

July 28, 2009

Bryanne Young has written a tip sheet on curricular peer mentoring, a program that “enables students to work together to delve deeper and more analytically into course content”. Peer mentors are not TAs, but students who can help guide their peers through the learning process. Some of the benefits of peer mentoring are:

Deeper student learning
Facilitating [...]

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Some guidelines for implementing active learning strategies

May 19, 2009

After sitting through a couple of workshops that used active learning strategies with varying success, I drafted the following guidelines for facilitators. Feel free to add your own to this list:

Icebreaker activities are a great way to build community and allow students to get to know one another before implementing other active learning strategies.
[...]

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Teach large classes

April 23, 2009

Large enrollment classes have always been a challenge for instructors who try to implement active teaching and learning strategies and activities. Lectures, often contrasted to active learning, appear to dominate large size classrooms today. From the conversations that I had with some instructors, I have the impression that a lot of instructors would try a [...]

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skills for community designers

March 23, 2009

One of the designers behind the Drupal.org – the community that develops and uses the Drupal content management system software – recently published some excellent tips for effective community designers. A good teacher is a community designer.
Read the post for the full list, but here’s the Coles™ Notes™ version:

you need to take responsibility for the [...]

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Rubrics for online activities

March 18, 2009

When integrating online activities into a course, it’s important to clarify what is expected from all participants. How do the instructors define “participating”? What exactly is expected from students? From instructors? How will everyone know if they are participating at the level that is expected? If not, what are the repercussions and implications? How will [...]

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