Group items tagged

"W hat are your learning outcomes for all of your students?" "Do your students know that these are your expectations?" "Do students understand the relationship between their demonstrated achievement of your learning outcomes and their preparation for future success in life and work?"

Example of a rubric that helps IDs or course developers assess the quality of learning objectives in a course

The mission of the Center for Online Learning is to promote quality online courses. There is substantial research to indicate what constitutes best practice in online course design and delivery to achieve good student learning outcomes and satisfaction. It is the purpose of this site to set forth guidlines to achieve that end.

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

Report: Can we adequately answer questions about postsecondary outcomes and value? No. Data play a crucial role in improving college access, completion, and career readiness. Students need clear and timely information about how much college will cost, how long it will take to graduate, and how well a degree will prepare them for the job market and enable them to repay their loans.

Abstract: The growth of online learning within education has corresponded to an increase in use of asynchronous discussion. Asynchronous discussion is a form of interaction that is mediated rather than directed, and is characterized by a time lag in the interactions between discussants. In this paper we conducted a brief narrative review of the literature on asynchronous discussion. We argue, initially, that discussion is necessary, but not sufficient, for successful pedagogic outcomes-especially in the case of online learning. We identified areas of agreement within the literature on what can be considered the key factors for successful asynchronous discussion.

"First, student engagement in educationally purposeful activities is positively related to academic outcomes as repretsented by first year student grades and by persistence between the first and second year of college." "Second, engagement has a compensatory effect on first-year grades and persistence to the second year of college at the same institution"

"When using Bloom's Digital Taxonomy (a revised take on Bloom's devised by educator Andrew Churches), it helps to have a list of verbs to know what actions define each stage of the taxonomy. This is useful for lesson planning, rubric making, and any other teacher-oriented task requiring planning and assessment strategies." [Karen, thanks for passing this along!]

"Teaching positively means that we intentionally consider how we can enhance learning environments, while at the same time increase the ways learners can be successful. Teaching positively aims to not only motivate learners but rather emphasizes how to increase their personal ability to achieve the course learning outcomes."

Research findings: "Faculty who assign team projects without preparing their students to work in teams greatly increase the likelihood that students will have a negative experience and student learning and performance will suffer. Teaching teamwork content is necessary but not sufficient for important educational and performance outcomes. Providing ongoing teamwork support is critical to team success and student learning."

"A student survey instrument was created that captures student perceptions of the instructional characteristics of their course, their learning, and their satisfaction with the course. The data collected from the student survey was merged with data from institutional student information systems (e.g., demographics and course grade)."