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How Reflection Can Help Develop Empathetic Instructional Designers

Mar 29, 2019
3 min

How Reflection Can Help Develop Empathetic Instructional Designers

Recently, I became aware of the idea of empathy in instructional design. Upon further research, I saw that there seems to be a lot of discussion regarding this topic (especially from the past few years or so). For examples, check out the links below: 5 Steps Towards Empathetic Instructional Design In Online Training A Guide to Empathetic Design Empathy As Your Starting Point for Great eLearning Design Empathy Framework Overview So, what does empathy in instructional design

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Free Online Teaching Tools: EdPuzzle

Nov 30, 2018
2 min

Free Online Teaching Tools: EdPuzzle

EDPuzzle is an easy-to-use video platform that helps instructors boost student learning through video lessons. It collects learner data and can be used in a variety of learning environments. EDPuzzle allows for instructors or learners to create customized videos specific to a particular topic. For example, if there is an important video you would like for your learners to watch, an instructor can create an EDPuzzle video that tracks who watched the video and set up quizzes

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The Age-Old Debate: Theory vs. Tools

Nov 2, 2018
3 min

The Age-Old Debate: Theory vs. Tools

Every now and then, I end up in a conversation with a faculty member, co-worker, or employee about what I consider the age-old debate: Should instructional designers learn tools or theories? While I find it important to know both - eventually - initially, the theory should come first. At least that is my thought process and I wanted to blog today about why. This week, I had a student come to ask advice on interviewing as he has a job interview in the field of ID. As this i

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Learning New Tools: Padlet (take 2)

Oct 26, 2018
2 min

Learning New Tools: Padlet (take 2)

This week, I'm focusing on the use of collaborate tools to increase student engagement in different learning environments. The tool I examined this week was Padlet. Padlet is essentially an online collaborative tool that can help an instructor or trainer elicit responses in real time. As technology grows, so does the need for learners to develop and acquire 21st century skills. Padlet allows learners to respond to questions in real time or at a later date – letting the ins

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Student devices in online environments

Sep 21, 2018
2 min

Student devices in online environments

As part of the ID2ID Program, we are required to attend professional development events in order to keep up with current events. Today, we were presented with a webinar titled Student Device Preferences for Online Course Access and Multimedia Learning, presented by researchers at Oregon State. This presentation opened my eyes to the idea and actual usage of mobile devices in online education. Based on conversations with individuals in the field - I thought the direction of

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Using AIDA: Attention, Interest, Desire, Action in Different Contexts

Sep 13, 2018
3 min

Using AIDA: Attention, Interest, Desire, Action in Different Contexts

What is AIDA? "AIDA stands for attention, interest, desire, and action, and can be used to describe the sequence of events that goes into making someone want to buy your product or service" (Bean, 2014). While author Cammy Bean uses AIDA, a classic copywriting model, to e-learning - I think the same concept can be applied in a wide variety of online settings. But first, let's run though what goes into each step. Attention - "What is your hook? How do you pull the learner in

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Learning New Tools: Poll Everwhere

Sep 7, 2018
5 min

Learning New Tools: Poll Everwhere

This week, I'm focusing on the use of polls to increase student engagement in different learning environments. The tool I examined this week was Poll Everywhere. Poll Everywhere is essentially an online voting tool that can help an instructor or trainer elicit responses in real time. As technology grows, so does the need for learners to develop and acquire 21st century skills. Poll Everywhere allows learners to respond to questions in real time – letting the instructor or

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Getting out of the online assignment rut...

Jul 23, 2018
4 min

Getting out of the online assignment rut...

Lately, I've been working on a few course developments and a full program evaluation. What I have started to notice was the trend or reuse of assignments across different courses. I've realized that many instructors find a teaching assignment or teaching style that works for them and then they try to make that style or assignment work for all online courses. While if tweaked properly this may be effective, it could also affect the students in a number of ways. 1) Not all

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Can design alone result in an excellent online course?

Jul 19, 2018
2 min

Can design alone result in an excellent online course?

I've attended a few professional development and general meetings on the topic of course design and how to effectively design for online courses. While these meetings were interesting in the fact that they showed and explained course design elements (think of the Quality Matters rubric), it is fair to say that without appropriate student-to-student or instructor-to-student interaction that an excellent course design could result in poor evaluation scores. There must be a mix

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Consistency vs. Creativity

Jun 25, 2018
3 min

Consistency vs. Creativity

Over the past few months, there has been a lot of discussion between some of my faculty regarding the concept of being consistent in our online courses. The debate stems from a discussion rubric that is used in all of our courses. Over time each course and instructor has revamped their discussion rubric to include and align with specific course requirements. These revamps in the rubric has now caused some confusion among students as they progress through our program and di

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Overview of ID Models

Jun 4, 2018
4 min

Overview of ID Models

Recently, I ran into a Linked In conversation where people were asking about Instructional Design (ID) models - some individuals were new to ID, some have been in the ID world for a while, and some were just there to add to the conversation. However, it made me realize that maybe there is a need for a blog post that discusses the different ID models I work with (especially in the higher education setting). First, let's discuss what exactly an ID model is. Long story short -

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Finding middle ground...

May 29, 2018
3 min

Finding middle ground...

Recently, I had some major changes outside of my ID world. With any change, comes some sort of anxiety (at least for me). However, in reflecting on these changes I've realized how important the role of compromise is. While you may know what is best for you, depending on your situation it may not be what's best for the bigger group. In order to meet the needs of everyone, you may need to find some middle ground. While in the past, I've discussed the best way to reach out t

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Applying Research to Practice

Apr 16, 2018
3 min

Applying Research to Practice

Recently, I had a conversation with a faculty member about the role of research and the disconnect between what research finds and how the apply these findings into practice. For those who are familiar with academic writing, you can recall a section at the end of most articles called the implications section. This is the section where the author tries to explain how their research has implications for the field. However, how does this transition actually occur? Does it oc

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Evaluations. The good, the bad and the ugly.

Apr 3, 2018
4 min

Evaluations. The good, the bad and the ugly.

Earlier this week, I received our midterm evaluation survey results. While discussing with a co-worker (we'll call her Lisa from now on), it was brought up how an instructor she works with was having a difficult time handling the news that the instructor's class had bad reviews. My initial response was, "What did the students report as not going well?" Lisa responded and said that students reported that the discussions were not helping them to learn. Often times in online

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Sharing Successes & Self-Efficacy

Mar 27, 2018
2 min

Sharing Successes & Self-Efficacy

As mentioned in an earlier blog about goal setting (you can read the whole blog here), I shared how my goal for February was to have an article posted in the eLearning Industry. After some thought and hard work, I'm happy to share that the article I wrote was posted on March 22nd. I had submitted the article in February but it had to be approved prior to officially being shared and published with the community. 7 Keys For Successfully Updating Online Courses has been shared

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Free Online Teaching Tool: Padlet

Feb 14, 2018
4 min

Free Online Teaching Tool: Padlet

As part of my job, I try to explore and test out new technologies for use in online classrooms. One of my previous blog post had focused on building your own community. I would like to take that topic a bit further and discuss the role of developing a community in your own online course. Building a community in your course can be done in a number of ways - personalized announcements, "getting to know each other or course bios," blogs, wikis, discussion boards. However, fo

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Using Web Graphic Memes in Online Course Development

Jan 31, 2018
2 min

Using Web Graphic Memes in Online Course Development

As an instructor you look for variety in your teaching methods. The same is especially true when teaching an online course. However, learning new tools can sometimes be time-consuming and as we all know - online courses can move pretty quick! How do we keep our students engaged and connected to the content we are teaching in such a quick moving time frame? While there are many methods, research articles, and support groups out there to help online instructors with best pra

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