Tag Archives: instructional design

No longer “Javits homeless”!

Instructional Design, Online Learning, , ,

 Linda UngerLinda Unger, Senior Instructional Designer

Dr. Sangeet HoneyCongratulations to Dr. Sangeet Honey who was recently honored at CELT’s Celebration of Teaching Awards, for development of BIO 315 Microbiology, online. This course, when taught face-to-face in Javits, enrolled about 600 students each term it was scheduled. With Javits going offline this month, Dr. Sangeet Honey, Research faculty in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, and undergraduate biology program director Dr. Peter Gergen collaborated with CELT to transition the course to fully asynchronous in Blackboard.

Quite a challenge–redesigning such a large course to a fully asynchronous delivery, but Sangeet’s commitment to his students and Peter’s administrative support made it both possible and, more importantly, effective. Beginning in August of 2019 (no, it didn’t take 2 years), Sangeet collaborated with two instructional designers, Linda Unger and Jennifer Jaiswal, at CELT to rethink how content could be provided, but more importantly, how interaction could be maintained with such a large group of students. Thanks to ample support from Peter in the form of grad and undergrad TAs, Sangeet and CELT were able to create an academically robust structure for students, while managing facilitation workload for Sangeet.

The first fully online version was taught in Summer of 2020 after the Spring course had hastily moved online mid-semester due to the pandemic. Since then it has had numerous tweaks each time to make it run more smoothly by maximizing effective learning activities and redesigning less effective strategies, especially with respect to assessment of students. This course has been taught in Spring 2021 with 400 students and is being taught this Summer 2021 semester with over 100 students.

Throughout these iterations, Sangeet’s “teaching presence” has been consistently excellent, as demonstrated through his recorded lectures; participation in discussion; Zoom office hours; and frequent announcements that provide guidance and general feedback. He also demonstrates compassion, flexibility and approachability with respect to his policies, especially his grading appeals policy.

Sangeet uses:

  •     VoiceThread for his recorded lectures,
  •     A variety of open source media to elaborate on lecture material,
  •     Bb student discussion groups (each led by a TA or himself) for clarifying concepts,
  •     Multiple, low-threshold assignments and quizzes,
  •     A large pool of questions and Respondus Monitor to safeguard exams.

A critical aspect of Sangeet’s success is his willingness to try new approaches and take risks with new teaching methods in order to engage students and promote learning using various modalities. He’s also worked hard (with CELT’s help) at making his materials accessible.

Peter’s commitment to sound pedagogy in large online courses, as demonstrated by allocation of numerous departmental grad and undergrad TAs, has enabled Sangeet to divide the >400-student class into “teams” of about 35–a critical factor that makes this course run smoothly by giving students a sense of community along with the individual attention they need.

In May, Sangeet received CELT’s annual award for Excellence in Teaching an Asynchronous Online Course at the 2021 Celebration of Teaching and CELT is delighted to have honored his work. Watch the video. 

Integrating Technology into your Class

Educational Technologies, Instructional Design,

Editor’s note: This is the second of a two-part blog series on choosing the right technology for your teaching needs. Read part 1, Engaging Students in an Online Math Course During the Pandemic, by Associate Professor of Mathematics, Moira Chas. 

Jennifer Jaiswal  Jennifer Jaiswal, Instructional Designer & Sr Instructional Technologist 

When considering the use of a new technology in your class, it is important to consider how it supports your course alignment. Alignment is the connection between learning objectives, learning activities, and assessment. An aligned course means that your learning objectives, activities, and assessments match up so students learn what you intend and you accurately assess what students are learning.

To ensure that your chosen technology supports the alignment of your course, you should ask the following questions:

  • Does my content, activities, and assessments align to my learning objectives? (Technology integration will work best if your course is well-aligned.) 
  • Does the technology support or enhance learning more effectively than a previous method? 
  • What skills and resources do my students need to use this new technology?

Does my content, activities, and assessments align to my learning objectives? 

Looking at the image below, go through each step starting with your learning objectives, assessments, and activities, and make sure they all work together to support each other. 

Recap: What is Alignment?

Does the technology support or enhance learning more effectively than a previous method? 

The technology should support the activities, assessments, and therefore, the learning objectives that you have identified. Below are examples for each step of the course alignment process:

  • Learning Objective: Students will be able to discuss the theme of science in Victorian Literature.
  • Assessment: Students will be assessed on their ability to work together to discuss and synthesize information into a group presentation based on their perspective of science in Victorian Literature.
  • Activity: Students will participate in a discussion board where they will discuss how the scientific advancements in the Victorian Era are shown in their reading of George Eliot’s “The Lifted Veil”. Based on their discussion, each group will create a presentation using VoiceThread. 
  • Technology:
  • Support:
    • Support Desk contact information 
    • Documentation links for Blackboard and VoiceThread 

By focusing on your learning objectives, you will see what types of technologies are needed in your class to help you make decisions. For this example, you would look for tools to aid in the discussion and the presentation. It is helpful to list out what technologies you need for your entire course so you and your students know what will be used so they will be better prepared. 

Looking through your course you may see opportunities to incorporate technology into your class. Using technology for technology’s sake may not support the students’ achievement of the learning outcomes. In fact, it may lead them to a different learning objective then you intended. If technology has the potential to drastically change your class and its outcomes, you may want to consider revising your learning outcomes and realign the related activities and assessments.

What skills and resources do my students need to use this new technology?

Now that you have decided which technologies to use, it is time to start thinking about what resources to provide to your students. Some recommendations are:

  • Instructions on how to log in and the basic functionality of the new technology
  • Video demonstrations of how to use the technology
  • Sample or practice activities using the new technology
  • Submitting draft versions of the assignment using the technology
  • Contact information for technology support 

Providing additional resources gives your students the best opportunity to complete the assignment successfully and meet the learning outcomes. Preparing detailed instructions and support documentation in advance can also help reduce your workload as the course progresses.

There are many useful resources available internally and on the web. Be sure to search for them before creating anything from scratch. 

Reflection

At the end of the semester, it is important to reflect on the major takeaways from the experience. Think about what worked well and what didn’t, and what you could change to make improvements. This helps you close the loop and decide what will be needed the next time you teach, and decide if the new technology was a success or a hindrance to your class experience. Ask your students questions about the experience. This can help you assess engagement with not just the tool but the tool and the content together.

If you have any questions or would like to discuss further, do not hesitate to reach out! 

 

TAs and Postdocs: Join us for the upcoming College Teaching Seminars to learn and discuss strategies and practices for effective teaching (new dates!)

Instructional Design, Online Learning, TA/Postdocs, ,

All seminars are Wednesday 3:30-5:00pm

Join using this Zoom link

books and tablet on a table
Image from: Wokandapix

2/17- How Selected Learning Theories Inform Pedagogy (rescheduled from 2/3)

In this session we will discuss a selection of current learning theories and strategies/considerations for your teaching. Learning Theory elements discussed include Constructivism, Metacognition, and Growth Mindset and how to implement them in your classes.

2/24- Effective Teaching Online (rescheduled from 2/17)

Effective teaching online has become critical with the ongoing pandemic, and will continue to be a valued skill. In this seminar, we will discuss strategies and tools for student engagement in both asynchronous, synchronous, and blended classes.   

3/3- Panel Discussion with CIE/IRACDA Postdocs 

In this panel discussion you will hear from IRACDA Postdocs who have taught in local institutions – Suffolk County Community College, SUNY Old Westbury, and Brooklyn College.  

3/17- Different Student Populations and Institution Types

We will discuss the ins and outs of applying the teaching strategies you have developed. This will focus on the different types of institutions you may teach at and their varied student populations.   

Do you have any questions? Send us an email!

Engaging All Students Virtually

Classroom Technology, Instructional Design, , ,

As we begin the semester, be sure to find out more about the technology setup in your scheduled room. Concerned about engaging all students? Here are some tips:

  • Have a TA or student monitor the chat and update you when questions arise.
  • Virtual students will need more “wait time” due to the technology – wait for most students to be ready after asking a question.
  • Be clear in your expectations around discussions, breakout rooms, presentations, and assign a role for each member.
  • Use polling or clickers. 
  • Look directly into the camera.

Contact AV Services or AV Services HSC if you have questions about your room, and contact CELT if you want to discuss teaching strategies! two monitors on a podium

 

Crafting Effective Learning Objectives

Instructional Design

One of the frameworks we often use for crafting learning objectives is Benjamin Bloom’s taxonomy of the cognitive domain. Bloom’s taxonomy is a hierarchy with six levels that are used to categorize educational goals. Each level has different groups of verbs that are associated with the level of knowledge or skill students should have acquired. 

Blooms-Taxonomy-650x366

The lower levels of the hierarchy (remember, understand) are low level, usually involving simple recall or restatement of content. While these are appropriate in most courses, we also want students to go beyond remembering and understanding to higher order thinking skills, such as apply, analyze, evaluate, create. These higher order thinking skills are often the main focus of upper division and graduate courses, but can be implemented across the curriculum from general, introductory courses to graduate seminars.

Well-crafted objectives are concrete, specific, measurable/observable, achievable, and relevant. Instead of thinking about what the course will do, think what students should be able to do, having taken the course. Try to avoid using passive verbs such as “know,” “appreciate,” or “understand”  because these can be too subjective and difficult to measure. Good learning objectives focus on what we want students to be able to learn or to do by the end of our course, and we need to choose what evidence (behavior/performance/artifact) best demonstrates that learning.

For assistance in creating objectives, you can use our homegrown digital tool. Select the best verbs by grabbing the red portion with your mouse pointer and dragging it clockwise. The medium blue in each wedge includes the appropriate verbs, and the lighter blue outside includes related teaching methods. The notes in the left-hand, gray column will change with each new section you uncover; they elaborate and give some examples from various disciplines.

If you have difficulty crafting your learning outcomes, it often helps to work backwards. That is, think about student assessments first. What are you actually measuring? Whatever the graded items measure, that is what you want students to know and be able to do with their knowledge.

If you would like a consultation with one of our instructional designers, please reach out!

 

Mcdaniel, R. (2020, March 25). Bloom’s Taxonomy. Retrieved January 19, 2021, from https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/blooms-taxonomy/

 

Strategies for Shortened Terms

Instructional Design, Online Learning, , , ,

 Linda UngerLinda Unger, Senior Instructional Designer

Preparing your online course for winter term? Worried about how to maintain the academic rigor without overwhelming yourself and your students?

Here are some strategies for shortened terms that might help.

Course Design Tips:

  • Organize your content into topical modules, rather than “weeks.” For example, in the fall semester each week might consist of 1 topic, but you can easily double or triple up on topics to teach in winter or summer. 
  • For modules with more than one topic, you can provide students with a choice in topics and have them present to the whole group so students are learning from each other and covering more than one facet of the course.
  • If you use Blackboard’s Date Restrictions to reveal new content in stages, consider overlapping dates so students can work slightly ahead. For example, if module 2 normally ends on Sunday night, you can open module 3 on Saturday instead of Monday.
girl looking at laptop chewing pencil
Image by Jan Vašek from Pixabay

Assessment/Feedback: 

  • Consider using frequent quizzes, short one-paragraph “checks for understanding,” or discussion boards  to help students gauge their own progress.
  • Grade assignments quickly so that students have the benefit of your feedback before it’s too late  to improve their performance.

Workload: 

  • Use an online workload calculator to get a handle on how realistic your expectations are, especially for a winter or summer term. Then think about whether you can trim anything while keeping the essentials of the course. 
  • The New York Department of Education has some guidelines for determining time on task.

Does everything in a regular 14-week term need to be identical in a 6- week or 3-week? Might it be counterproductive in an accelerated term? Can anything be omitted? Try this filtering process for examining the course content*:

Filtering Content

One to two weeks before the course starts:

  • Prepare and send out your syllabus as a Word/PDF attachment. This gives students a chance to buy books and get a jump start on the readings. It also sets the tone for an accelerated term.
  • Send out a link to a welcome video where you briefly introduce yourself and your course. Here’s an example. 
  • Allow students to post an introduction in the discussion board or VoiceThread so they can get to know their classmates.
  • Open the Blackboard site early** so students can access your lectures and other materials. Make the assignment dues dates explicit. You’d be surprised to know that experienced online students will take advantage of this.
  • Cheerlead! Use the Announcements tool in Blackboard to encourage your students to log in early and often. Post an announcement and send it to students’ email addresses. Tell them how much you want them to succeed in the course.

 

*Description of Filtering Content image

**Note: Blackboard will be down for critical system maintenance from December 27, 2020 – January 4, 2021. Consider emailing some readings, etc. to the students with your syllabus so they can get started prior to Blackboard’s availability. While Blackboard is unavailable, you can download a list of your student’s emails from SOLAR. 

 

Using the Community of Inquiry (CoI) Framework to Reflect on Online Course Design

Instructional Design, Online Learning, , ,

Troy Priest  Troy Priest, Senior Instructional Designer

Over the past few months as courses have moved from face-to-face to remote online, both faculty and students have had to –  for better or for worse –  adapt to the new format. Whether moving to remote, synchronous classes or to fully online, asynchronous courses, the transition has many faculty rethinking their course design. Many are reevaluating how they teach their courses and what they need to do to engage students when they may no longer meet at a scheduled time or in a physical space. 

Shifting your course from face-to-face to online requires more than just using technologies to move your content online. It requires reflection and careful consideration on how you might adapt and redesign elements of your course to engage students as a community of learners. 

One useful model for informing our course (re)design is the Community of Inquiry Framework (CoI) (Garrison, Anderson & Archer, 2000; Garrison & Arbaugh, 2007). A Community of Inquiry is a group of learners who through collaboration and discussion construct meaning and understanding. The CoI framework lays out a collaborative-constructivist approach to the learning experience which consists of three essential and interdependent elements – teaching presence, social presence, and cognitive presence (Community of Inquiry Framework, n.d.). 

Community of Inquiry
Matbury, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Teaching Presence

Within the CoI framework, teaching presence can be established by thoughtful and evidence-based instructional design principles. Careful course design, active facilitation, and direct instruction work together to promote social and cognitive processes to achieve meaningful learning. This requires us to rethink our assumptions about how our courses should be designed and delivered in the online space to engage students. We have to ask ourselves, will what I do in the face-to-face course work well in my online course? 

Some factors to consider in the design and implementation of the online course are:

  • Facilitating student learning through discussion boards/VoiceThreads – giving consideration to the ways you want students to participate and how you will moderate those discussions
  • Providing students with frequent, timely, and formative feedback
  • Determining the layout of the course in Blackboard or Learning Management System (LMS) – thinking about how will students engage in the content, where they will find pertinent information, and being explicit about what students need to do to succeed

Social Presence

Garrison (2009, p. 352) describes social presence as “the ability of participants to identify with the community (e.g., course of study), communicate purposefully in a trusting environment, and develop interpersonal relationships by way of projecting their individual personalities.“ With careful consideration and intentional instructional design, we can create and facilitate social presence in an online learning environment. 

Some ways we can create social presence are by: 

  • Projecting our teaching persona via regular Blackboard announcements, welcome video and/or course or module overview videos (using  Zoom, VoiceThread, or Echo 360) thus modeling behavior for our students
  • Developing course activities that allow the class to establish trust and rapport facilitated through the use of icebreakers, discussion boards, and group and collaborative assignments and projects
  • Offering virtual office hours via Zoom

Cognitive Presence

Cognitive presence relates to the extent that learners are able to construct meaning through discourse and reflection. By conveying the big ideas we want students to know and carefully designing activities and assessments around those activities.  

Ways to develop cognitive presence are by:

  • Providing frequent formative assessment and meaningful feedback
  • Articulating clear and measurable learning objectives for the course and modules
  • Using a variety of teaching methods, media, and modalities with multiple opportunities for practice and reflection to achieve the learning outcomes
  • Encourage critical and creative thinking where students question their own assumptions, consider diverse perspectives, and respond to open-ended questions through online discussions and reflections

The CoI can be a useful framework when thinking about (re)designing your online course. If you would like more information about the CoI or you would like to consult with one of our instructional designers to talk about your courses, please contact us at CELT@stonybrook.edu

 

References: 

Community of Inquiry Framework (n.d.) Purdue University Innovative Learning. Retrieved November 3, 2020, from https://www.purdue.edu/innovativelearning/supporting-instruction/portal/files/4_Community_of_Inquiry_Framework.pdf

Garrison, D. R. (2009). Communities of inquiry in online learning. In Encyclopedia of Distance Learning, Second Edition (pp. 352-355). IGI Global.

Garrison, D. R., Anderson, T., & Archer, W. (1999). Critical inquiry in a text-based environment: Computer conferencing in higher education. The internet and higher education, 2(2-3), 87-105.

Garrison, D. R., & Arbaugh, J. B. (2007). Researching the community of inquiry framework: Review, issues, and future directions. The Internet and higher education, 10(3), 157-172.