Online courses are rapidly increasing, and in this week's webinar, Jeremy Hopper and Andrew Ells shared some tips to get started. Three key components to success were discussed: A Student-Friendly Course Structure Clear and Measurable Learning Objectives Active Instructor Presence Many ideas were shared by both the hosts and participants to build these components.  We discussed the use of Quality Matters guidelines for course structure and showed the typical ASU Online template for BlackBoard. Learning Objectives were defined and tips were given for how to write effective ones that would help students demonstrate what they were learning, and which helps faculty assess the students.  Finally, we emphasized the importance of having instructor presence to let students know they were connected to a "real" person, and would receive timely feedback on their assignments. Ideas were shared about online office hours, and managing active online discussions to create ...

This month's TeachT@lk webinar focused on the topic of creating effective and efficient virtual office hours. It was lead by Jennifer Mansfield and Amy Kitchens from the ASU GOEE group. We started with some tips for why you should consider doing office hours and what the benefits are to both the student and instructor. Then we discussed when to do them so they were convenient for online students work schedules. Different technologies were discussed, including: Zoom Adobe Connect Google Hangouts Skype Slack Shindig The webinar wrapped up with some strategies and tips, including Using a Google Spreadsheet for appointments Offering incentives- extra credit for best question, first login, etc. Recording sessions for an archive that students can review Bringing in a guest speaker, or focusing on a specific topic of interest   Resources : PowerPoint Slides Recording Article: Zoom:Create Your Classroom in the Cloud (handout)   Article: 7 Strategies for...

ASU currently has 13,164 international students enrolled, and is the #1 US public university to host international students. At our last TeachT@lk Webinar, Renee Klug , University International Educator, Sr. shared information with faculty on understanding and teaching international students. Click on image to view larger Intercultural Competence is a set of cognitive, effective and behavioral skills that support effective and appropriate interaction in a variety of cultural contexts. Renee helped faculty assess their own intercultural sensitivity by sharing 6 models, and having faculty evaluate common statements to understand what level was being used. Once faculty understood the models, she presented classroom strategies that could be used with common student challenges mentioned by faculty, including: reluctance to work in groups negotiating grades not willing to ask for help not speaking up in class not citing resources appropriately  Click on image to see l...

Our last webinar focused on tips and strategies that were seen at the International Forum for Active Learning at the University of Minnesota. ASU was fortunate enough to have Dale Johnson from EdPlus lead a group of faculty and instructional professionals on this great opportunity to learn more about teaching in active learning classrooms. Peter van Leusen shared research and information about what "active learning" actually is, and why we believe it works.  Characteristics of active learning include more than students engaged in activities, but also there is greater emphasis on student exploration and extending and applying student skills and ideas. He shared an article, "Does Active Learning Work? A Review of the Research" as a great resource for more information. Aaron W. Johnson, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Research Fellow University of Michigan Matthew Robinson shared his insights into typical "myths" about active learning. He showed the ...

This week's TeachT@lk Webinar focused on our summer theme of "Feedback" . This time we talked about the different ways to deliver feedback. We started by discussing the ideal situation to give both effective and convenient feedback to students. Then we looked at each of these modes of delivery and discussed the benefits and challenges.    We gave some best practices for using video, and combining it with text. Jason Neenos from UTO demonstrated three technologies that could be used for sharing feedback in both recorded and live sessions. All are free for ASU Faculty: SnagIt Video Demo - goo Adobe Connect Info Page Google Hangouts Tutorial Video As always, there was lots of lively sharing of ideas and discussions, and we ended with a great case study showing how video made a difference to one writing student. Join us again on September 19 for "Get Active!" where we'll share some innovations from the International Forum on Active Learning Class...