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Game-Based Learning Experiences
Game-based learning (GBL) is a learning experience, or set of learning experiences, delivered through gameplay or game-like activities with defined learning outcomes. GBL is often confused with gamification, which is the application of game elements to a non-gaming experience. GBL engages students cognitively, emotionally, behaviorally, and socioculturally (Plass et al., 2015). Many factors should be considered when designing GBL, including narrative, player positioning, and interactive design (Dickey, 2005).
Clear and Quick: The Why and How of Rubrics
Rubrics provide students with insight into their performance and mastery of learning outcomes, providing clarity on how grades are assigned and teaching students how to tailor their work. For instructors, rubrics take the guesswork out of deciding how to grade, saving valuable time.
Increase Engagement Now
Whether you’re halfway through the term or just getting started, this post presents actionable, simple strategies you can implement immediately to increase engagement in your course.
Implementing Social Media
Many students use social media platforms in their daily lives, and “emerging evidence indicates that students express positive attitudes toward using social media for learning in general” (Baisley-Nodine, Ritzhaupt & Antonenko, 2018). However, there are also many concerns connected with using social media in an educational setting. These include issues related to a lack of familiarity with the platform, the potential for distraction, and privacy concerns. Therefore, it is important to carefully plan the use of social media in a course to address any potential issues or concerns.
Accessible PDFs
Developing and delivering accessible instructional content—meaning content that students with and without disabilities can readily engage with and use—is essential to the success of an online course. While many accessibility standards and guidelines are broadly applicable, there are also specific considerations unique to different content formats and delivery modes. In this piece, we present recommendations for enhancing the accessibility of PDFs for students.
Quantitative Course Best Practices
"What I hear, I forget; what I see, I remember; what I do, I understand." –Chinese proverb
Accessible Use of Text
Students with diverse cognitive, linguistic, and academic abilities benefit from accessible text. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) establish numerous requirements (known as success criteria) to ensure that text is perceivable, operable, and understandable to all users. This guide synthesizes the essential criteria related to text accessibility. Following these guidelines when creating course content, such as documents, slides, and pages in the LMS, will help you eliminate potential barriers for your learners.
Inclusive Texts
Today’s students are diverse and include marginalized groups that have historically been excluded from mainstream education (Ladson-Billings, 2013). In 2021, students of color comprised upwards of 40% of the 15.4 million undergraduates enrolled in U.S. colleges and universities (Nam, 2023; National Center for Education Statistics, 2023). Gloria Ladson-Billings, whose work centers on culturally relevant pedagogy, argues that diverse students require inclusive learning to succeed. “[These students] do not fit neatly into the rigid categories of race, class, gender, or national origin” upon which hierarchies of the past have been built (Ladson-Billings, 2013, p. 5), so authentic representation of diversity in higher education is critical. Adrienne Keene, an assistant professor of American Studies at Brown University, writes that instructors can do their part to support underrepresented students by being honest about their own bias and blind spots, critiquing their course materials, and integrating meaningful representations of diversity into the curriculum (Fuchs et al., 2020; Keene, 2015).
Developing Instructional Materials
Once you have defined the learning objectives for your course, you can begin to develop assessments to ensure students achieve those objectives. Once you have created assessments, you can begin to develop materials to ensure students succeed on those assessments. This backward design process—which moves from objectives to assessments and finally to materials—is known as learning-centered instruction, and it directs every course task toward the mastery of certain skills and competencies. This blog focuses on the third stage of this process, the development of high-quality instructional materials, beginning with the idea that robust and engaging online courses contain a mix of created and curated content. Below you will find guidelines for creating and curating instructional materials to help you achieve the optimal balance for your course.