Category: Articles

Some learning paths involve complex, critical, or even lifesaving decisions. What path would you take to teach those details and how effective would it be? Materials, case scenarios, and exams are excellent ways to promote learning. In some areas of expertise, hands-on experience might be the best approach. But what if learning from mistakes in real-time is too costly? When it comes to the need to learn difficult tasks or perform skills safely in an active and authentic environment, immersive learning might be a solution.

With remote learning being so prevalent in our classrooms in recent years, you have likely put into consideration when and how to use web cameras for your virtual classrooms. This article looks at the benefits and drawbacks of introducing web cameras to online learning.

Candidly speaking, even with interesting discussion prompts, the same old read, write, post (and respond to two peers) discussion board routine can become a cringe-worthy event not only for students but instructors too. Even though much time and care may have gone into staging scintillating topics for captivating online discussions, they can still fall flat of the critical thinking and dialogue you were hoping to inspire. Although online discussion boards have been around for decades, unfortunately, they may have gotten a bit of a bad rap from some online course participants for generating repetitive thought sharing, voluminous posts readings for course participants, and worst of all-a lackluster conversation. However, according to the Voice of the Online Learner, sixty-three percent of online learners who recently graduated said they would enroll in an online program again. So, online discussion boards cannot be all that bad. While sharing many similarities with methods for cultivating face-to-face interactions, online discussions can offer different opportunities and limitations, in creating meaningful dialogue between students and instructors. Here are a couple of simple ways to make virtual discussions engaging and fun in online, blended, or traditional face-to-face courses.   Build a safe space for the community  There are many […]

Student assessment is a critical aspect of the teaching and learning process. It is important for instructors to strategically evaluate the effectiveness of their teaching by measuring the extent to which students in the classroom are learning the course material. Any student pursuing any course of study will be evaluated in some way. Similarly, each member of the teaching staff will be involved in assessment-related tasks at some time. Assessment consumes a big percentage of your time, and for students, it may be a key predictor of why, when, and how they learn. As a result, getting evaluations ‘right’ is critical, both for your students and for you. 

Welcome to the Winter 2022 term! Although we have resumed our classes in their regularly scheduled format (i.e., in-person, hybrid, and online), we continue to practice flexibility in our teaching due to the recent surge of the Omicron variant of COVID-19. Over the 15 years that Marti Snyder, Ph.D., PMP, SPHR has worked at NSU, she has had the opportunity to teach face-to-face, online, and blended courses to undergraduates, master’s, and doctoral students. Here are 15 strategies that she uses most often in these various formats to engage her students. Many of these strategies overlap and can be used regardless of delivery mode. 

This was a year of transition and dynamic change. With the global pandemic, and with the return to our campus, faculty made the heroic effort to transform their classroom experiences from the BlendFlex model to the face-to-face classroom in a very short time. The Learning and Educational Center (LEC) hosted a series of workshops, deeply rooted in teaching pedagogy, organized training for faculty, published articles, and created videos to support our mission to improve the quality of teaching and learning at NSU. Towards the end of the year, our Brand New LEC Faculty Studio was brought to life! Finally, we were able to implement the Thank-a-Professor Program to allow our NSU Students to send Thank-You notes to our Teaching Faculty for the amazing work that you do in your classroom! In case you missed these, below are links to some of the articles, Shark Notes, and videos along with some data on the workshops that we hosted and co-hosted with some of our university partners in 2021.

The LEC published several articles in 2021 ranging with topics from Classroom Management, Teaching, and Instruction, BlendFlex, Instructional Strategies, Accessibility, Writing Course Objectives and took a deep dive at the Role of Motivation in Online Learning. If you missed them, here are some of the articles we published throughout the year.

The Learning and Educational Center built and equipped a Faculty Studio in the Carl DeSantis Building. In this studio, you can film videos and record audio for course content. A highlight of this studio is the new 66” lightboard that will allow you to craft engaging content and illustrate concepts while maintaining a connection with your audience. This year the LEC introduced the MAKO Commons, a virtual community of practice for faculty to come together and share their teaching and learning practices and research. Additionally, the LEC was inspired by an idea brought to us by Dr. Emily Schmitt of the Halmos College of Arts and Sciences to create the LEC Thank-a-Professor Program. Thank-a-Professor seeks to recognize faculty members who create meaningful and impactful experiences in the classroom. So far we have received over 2,000 thank-you notes and we cannot wait to highlight and begin sharing them in 2022. Capping off a busy year of initiatives, we also launched the LEC Advisory Council to provide guidance and strategic planning support for how the LEC can best serve the faculty.

The LEC published brief summaries of article highlights that you may find helpful. We reviewed these articles and shared them with you. You’ll find articles on The Role of Tempo in Good Teaching, Creating Online Field Labs, How to Structure Your Online Class for Inclusion, Encouraging Self Advocacy, and Using Inclusive Teaching Strategies to Promote Greater Success Among Minority Students.

Creative thinking tends to play a crucial role in the progression of humanity. Examining situations through fresh perspectives can often lead to finding better solutions or gaining a deeper insight into what already works well and why. However, creative thinking can also require a greater amount of effort when trying to do something new or something different. Over the past two years, hybrid and blended learning models morphed into a universal large-scale learning experience galvanized by technology. Instructors and learners had to quickly invent and adapt to new classroom practices using digital tools. Since expectations have changed, we thought it would be helpful to explore some creative approaches to leveraging technology in blended learning experiences.