Excerpt: "faculty autonomy, competence, and relatedness positively predicted autonomous motivation (intrinsic, identified), but not controlled motivation (introjected, external). Autonomous motivation, in turn, predicted greater incorporation of effective teaching strategies, namely instructional clarity, higher-order learning, reflective and integrative learning, and collaborative learning."

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

Excerpt: "In order for video to serve as a productive part of a learning experience . . . it is important for the instructor to consider three elements for video design and implementation: 1. cognitive load 2. non-cognitive elements that impact engagement 3. features that promote active learning."

Key finding: "Our data suggest that inserting short summaries into existing course videos is a simple and facile way to improve student recall of course contents." Thirty-second lecture summaries at the midpoint and end of lecture videos were correlated with significantly better learner performance on related quizzes. This was true if the lecture summary was delivered by the course instructor but not if it was delivered by a "guest." (Note: The average video length was approx. 10 minutes.)

Key finding: "A strong majority of those who have taught online, 71 percent, say doing so has helped them develop skills and practices that have improved their teaching both online and in person. More than seven in 10 say online teaching has enabled them to think more critically about how to engage students with content, better use multimedia content and better use the learning management system."

Takeaways: "A four-year university-wide study of students' e-textbook practices found that e-textbook use has increased, particularly among younger students. The major barriers - including a student preference for print and unfamiliarity with e-textbooks - show signs of being alleviated. Other factors related to mobile device access and pedagogically effective e-textbooks show little change over the study period. Instructor practices have improved, but there is still room for growth, with implications for focused professional development."

Summarizes legal basis for accessible online educational materials and provides tips and key links to aid instructors in moving toward Universal Design for Learning.

"The basic idea behind the use of 'Learning Styles' is that learners can be categorized into one or more 'styles' (e.g., Visual, Auditory, Converger) and that teaching students according to their style will result in improved learning. This idea has been repeatedly tested and there is currently no evidence to support it. . . . We argue that the interests of all may be better served by promoting evidence-based approaches to Higher Education."

"Students who completed the online homework activities performed significantly better on a common comprehensive final exam than students who did not participate. . . . These findings suggest responsive online homework in general, and a responsive-adaptive learning system driven by knowledge space theory in particular, has a significant positive impact on student performance in the first-quarter general chemistry course."

"The findings suggest that a new role, the life skill promoter, has emerged. Furthermore, analysis of the remaining roles (pedagogical, designer, social, technical and managerial) showed that: (i) online instructors are, first and foremost, pedagogues; (ii) the design of the particular online program influences the pedagogical and designer roles and; (iii) the managerial role has declined in importance over the years due to the development of more intuitive and transparent online scenarios from the beginning of the course onward."

"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."

An interactive site that helps faculty select and implement social media for use in their teaching based on Bloom's levels, types of content, instructional methods and forms of assessment in the course.

Includes many links to excellent UW Accessible Technology and DO-IT guidelines, tips and how-to pages.

"One of the biggest misunderstandings about online learning is that it has to be limited to things that can be done in front of a computer screen. Instead, we need to reimagine online courses as something that can enable the interplay between offline activities and digital augmentation. . . . We need to focus . . . more on finding ways to robustly capture evidence of offline learning that can be validated and critiqued at scale by peers and experts online."

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

"Leaders from the Professional and Organizational Development (POD) Network in Higher Education - a national organization of professionals involved in faculty, graduate student, and organizational development - have developed eight principles to guide colleges and universities in adopting, implementing, and purchasing online faculty development programming."

"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!]

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."