Reading Time: 3 minutes Perhaps you already leverage small group discussions to powerfully engage your students in the classroom. Or, perhaps, like me, you’ve wondered: How do I push students towards more specific, quality discussion answers? In this post, I’ll share how I’ve used collaborative Google Slides in the classroom to encourage students to actively engage in analysis and problem-solving. Why use digital collaboration for discussions? I began implementing small group student discussions in the classroom during my first year of graduate teaching after reading Stephen D. Brookfield and Stephen Preskill’s Discussion as a Way of Teaching: Tools and Techniques for Democratic Classrooms (2nd ed., 2005). Brookfield and Preskill’s classic…
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Transform Your Teaching: Objectives with Dr. Haisong Ye
Reading Time: < 1 minute In this episode, Dr. Rob McDole and Jared Pyles discuss objectives with Dr. Haisong Ye who has a PhD from Indiana State University and is an instructional designer in the Center for Teaching and Learning at Cedarville University. Check out the episode to hear them engage in a thought experiment to create objectives for a course on how to make a good cup of coffee. Podcast links Show notes Dr. Haisong Ye advocates for working through creating course objectives by starting with a simple question: what do you want students to be able to do by the end of this course? This strategy helps instructors…
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Transform Your Teaching: A Conversation with Dr. Vladimir Bratic
Reading Time: < 1 minute In this episode, Dr. Rob McDole talks with Dr. Vladimir Bratic who has a PhD in Mass Communication from Ohio University and is an assistant professor of Media and Communications at Hollins University. Check out this episode to hear how Dr. Bratic advises higher education instructors to navigate the future of education with the growth of ChatGPT. Podcast links Show notes Dr. Bratic wants students to think critically so they can learn on their own and be able to ask the right questions. Rather than focusing on content delivery, he is passionate about teaching students “how to think, not what to think”— and this informs…
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Transform Your Teaching: Building a Community of Inquiry for Effective Online Learning – Adapting to Online Learning and Future Outlook
Reading Time: < 1 minute In this episode, Dr. Rob McDole and Jared Pyles conclude our series on the Community of Inquiry framework. Check out the episode to hear their discussion on the future of online learning in higher education. Podcast links Show notes Building on the Community of Inquiry framework, Jared and Rob emphasize the importance of constructing an online course that is well-designed. They encourage frequent communication between instructors and students in an online setting and suggest strategies such as using video feedback and monitoring student engagement to ensure effective communication. As Rob thinks about the future, he emphasizes the potential of AI in online learning, citing examples…
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AECT Reflection: Rob McDole on Seize the DAI
Reading Time: 2 minutes Like my colleagues, I spent three days at the AECT conference. I had contemplated not going because of mental fatigue. But I decided David Wiley—Chief Academic Officer for Lumen Learning and former president of AECT—may have something interesting to say about AI. As I approached his session, it was standing room only. Attendees filled the seats and others stood in the back and in the doorways. I found a table right outside and put my headphones in and joined the Zoom session from my iPad. I felt a little like Zacchaeus. From the start, the session was different from what Mr. Wiley had originally planned. He…
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Transform Your Teaching: Building a Community of Inquiry for Effective Online Learning – Cognitive Presence with Dr. Norm Vaughan
Reading Time: < 1 minute In this episode, Dr. Rob McDole and Jared Pyles chat with Dr. Norm Vaughan who has a PhD in Education from the University of Calgary and is currently a professor in the Department of Education at Mount Royal University. Check out the episode to hear them discuss a key component of the Community of Inquiry framework—cognitive presence. Podcast links Show notes Dr. Vaughan emphasizes the importance of understanding students’ needs and prior experiences to connect the learning with their existing knowledge. The design of a course should consider the unique characteristics of different groups of students and create an environment that fosters collaboration and interaction.…
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AECT Reflection: Haisong Ye on Mental Fatigue and Its Implication in Course Design
Reading Time: 2 minutes Attending a conference was fun but also cognitively demanding. Rob McDole, Jared Pyles, and I attended three full-day sessions at the AECT annual convention in Orlando in October. Every morning after three sessions, I felt I was experiencing mental fatigue. Interestingly, one session I attended was a study conducted by Inan Fetching from Texas Tech University on how course workload and perceived course value would impact students’ mental fatigue. In Fetching’s study, he collected data from student surveys of over 500 online students who enrolled in undergraduate online courses. Among the participants, more than 60% were employed (32% were employed full-time and 30% were employed part-time). A…