Search

Filters
There are 57 results that match your search. 57 results
December 03, 2024
In our Personal Experience Insights series, members of the Everspring Learning Design department share first-hand accounts of creating online learning content and meaningful takeaways from their professional experiences.
January 13, 2025
Inclusive citation practices can empower educators to cultivate equity, enrich academic discourse, and create welcoming learning environments. By prioritizing diverse perspectives and ensuring the representation of underrepresented voices, instructors can address systemic inequities in scholarship and amplify marginalized contributions. Such efforts not only deepen students’ critical engagement with course materials but also foster a sense of belonging, preparing them to thoughtfully navigate an increasingly interconnected world.
September 03, 2025
Our workforce has undergone a profound transformation, driven by emerging technologies, automation, and shifting business priorities (Silva, 2024). These forces are reshaping job roles, workflows, work environments, and the skills required to succeed. The global pandemic was also a major accelerator, pushing these changes forward across industries. As a result, the rapid evolution of work has created an increasing need for continuously updated and, in many cases, entirely new skill sets.
December 28, 2022
Many online courses focus on written communication skills, featuring discussion posts, papers, and case study reports among other assignments. However, oral communication and presentation skills are just as integral to students’ success, and, indeed, many employers list presenting as one of the most desirable skills for job candidates (Suhadi et al., 2021).
March 03, 2023
Formal writing requires a sustained focus on content and close attention to detail. For these reasons, written assignments can be an effective assessment tool in graduate courses when they are thoughtfully and purposefully designed. This guide provides recommendations for faculty who are looking to harness the pedagogical benefits of written assignments.
October 21, 2022
Peer review is an active learning technique in which students evaluate peer assignment submissions and provide each other feedback. There are several benefits to using peer review in a course, including increased attention to detail and quality and engagement in constructive critique (Chong et al., 2012). Peer review may also help students develop effective problem-solving strategies (Wagner & Rutherford, 2019). Peer reviews can impart cognitive benefits for both students who conduct reviews and students who receive peer feedback (Knight & Steinbach, 2011). When implemented effectively, the peer review process equips students with valuable feedback and promotes classroom community.
September 28, 2023
Student-generated content—materials and tasks created by learners for other learners—can strengthen engagement by providing students an opportunity to express creativity, practice critical thinking, and increase ownership of learning. Developing student-generated content requires learners to produce an instructional artifact, demonstrating new knowledge alongside existing understanding. Student-generated content can include a variety of formats:
February 18, 2025
As higher education evolves to meet the needs of today’s diverse learners, competency-based education (CBE) is gaining traction for its student-centered approach and promises of affordability and workplace preparation. According to a 2020 survey, 128 unique institutions were operating a total of 1,057 CBE programs between 2018 and 2020, and 82% of responding institutions expected CBE programs to grow further between 2020 and 2025 (American Institutes for Research [AIR], 2021). While interest in CBE may be growing, most institutions remain in the early planning stages.
November 16, 2022
Discussions are an impactful way to build engagement and discourse in asynchronous online courses. When properly designed, discussions can encompass the three pillars of engagement: student-content, student-student, and student-instructor. Asynchronous discussions allow students time to reflect prior to participating, which can lead to deeper insights and richer discourse. Moreover, when participating in discussions, students have the opportunity to collaborate with others, participate in an online learning community, and gain insights from others’ unique experiences and perspectives (Ransdell et al., 2018). Facilitating multiple types of engagement in an online course can improve student motivation, satisfaction, and achievement (Dailey-Hebert, 2018).
December 29, 2022
Designing a successful multimodal course means, at each step of the process, considering what each format does well—structuring the course such that each piece of content, each activity, and each interaction uses the most effective delivery method available. But what does that look like in practice? This piece describes three approaches to structuring a multimodal course. In each model, asynchronous and synchronous time complement one another and support module- and course-level objectives. Where the models differ is in the relative importance of asynchronous activities in enabling students to complete synchronous activities and vice versa.