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Thought this was a nice easy read regarding a topic that comes up each year. We all know educational games should tackle more than memorization and that multiple choice questions offer a puerile level of analysis, but seems like we keep falling back into these two traps. Looking forward to tackling new projects that treat learning as the ally instead of the goal, and encourage exploration more than stepping through checklists. Just sharing because I enjoy chewing this stuff over all the time.

Folks who study student retention and success in community colleges are well-acquainted with the concept of "high-impact practices." They're a set of measures that have been shown through empirical research to make positive differences in student outcomes. The list of high-impact practices usually includes learning communities, service learning, writing-intensive courses, undergraduate research, internships, and capstone courses, among others.

+ useful bibliography in one of the comments

Example of moving a Math course online and creating community by getting students to record themselves explaining solutions to problems

"As long as aviation pioneers tried to mimic birds, controlled, heavier-than-air human flight proved impossible. Along somewhat similar lines, it is only by breaking decisively from traditional face-to-face models that it will be truly possible to create the kinds of immersive, social experiences in online education that will truly engage students and promote high levels of attainment among broad profiles of students."

With apologies for the title -- some interesting graphs here that demonstrate the level of engagement at various video lengths. Makes the case for short videos. One thing that doesn't seem to be considered is how the video is integrated (or not) with learning activities.

A collection of tips for the first month of teaching a course. [We might think about how this approach translates to an online environment beyond the Start Here module.]

Great blog post about the critical need to align content with objectives in adaptive learning and the time and effort required to do so.

Though this post refers to in-class activities, the techniques are readily transferable to online teaching and learning.

A set of good discussion facilitation tips, especially for faculty who are new to online teaching.

In the WCET Frontiers blog, Dr. Katie Linder summarizes findings of the Ecampus Research Unit's collaborative national study with 3Play Media.

"To humanize online teaching is to create a situation where strangers can meet by the campfire, discuss what is important to them, and depart with the sense of connection, despite the darkness, and a feeling of community. It is that feeling of authenticity."

"Instructional designers are consumers (and sometimes producers) of the learning science literature - and they bring this knowledge base into their work with faculty. Once faculty have the opportunity to learn and apply learning science research for their online courses, they will want to do the same for their residential courses."