As instructors, we make hundreds of decisions throughout a semester as we interact with our students, explain concepts and procedures, or assess their knowledge and skills. To help us make choices - among other important factors - understanding the characteristics and needs of learners is fundamental to designing effective and efficient learning experiences. For example, as parents can tell you, there is quite the difference on how one would explain a certain concept to a 5-year-old versus someone who is in his late thirties! In addition to age, other characteristics play important parts, such as location, language, background, etc. Hence, familiarity of fundamental facts pertaining to the learner population can significantly support the learning effectiveness, efficiency, as well as the engagement. Over the past decade, the learner population of ASU Online has seen significant growth. What started with a few hundred enrolled students at the beginning of the decade has grown exponenti...

This week's TeachT@lk Webinar focused on a challenge that many of our faculty are focused on this summer. Change ! As ASU begins to convert BlackBoard courses to Canvas, there are many opportunities to improve all our courses in ways to benefit both faculty and students. Most materials CAN be moved into Canvas, but the question is SHOULD you move all your materials? Peter van Leusen , from EdPlus, talked about strategies to determine whether materials in your Blackboard course were valuable and important enough to import to Canvas. He suggested spending time looking at course evaluations, talking with TAs and your instructional designers to determine if content should be kept, modified or "dumped" before moving to Canvas. Jason Neenos , from UTO, then went over tips regarding file structure in BlackBoard and how it would import into Canvas. Showing that each folder became a "module". He shared a quick "Cheat Sheet" to help faculty remember how ...

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 ...

On Tuesday, July 12, our TeachT@lk webinar on  "informal learning" looked at various examples on integrating this type of learning into our courses. Although there are some challenges for faculty that want to use informal learning like organizing group work, time limitations and assessing the work, the benefits include: Reinforcement and extension of important concepts from class Appealing to multiple learning preferences Connecting class content with a student's personal goals and motivation Giving students skills to learn outside, and beyond the classroom Helping students develop a Personal Learning Environment (Bonwell & Eison, 1991; Felder & Brent, 2009) To take advantage of informal learning opportunities, faculty can create open-ended assignments, give students choices in topics, and options for a final deliverable . For these types of projects to be successful faculty should help students identify resources, and develop a work flow, inclu...