Education Commons^™

Adapting Under Pressure: A Case Study In Scaling Faculty Development For Emergency Remote Teaching, David R. Gomez, William Swann, Mary Willms Wohlwend, Stephanie Spong

Faculty Scholarship

This case study examines the adaptation of an existing online, asynchronous faculty development resource at the University of New Mexico to support the unanticipated need for all instructors to teach remotely starting in spring 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The course—entitled Evidence-Based Practices for Teaching Online (EBPTO)—was previously utilized to support instructor transitions to distance education by applying constructivist principles to the development of evidence-based online teaching practices. The course was adapted to address institutional and instructor needs as a result of the pandemic, including increasing facilitation resources. The largest EBPTO cohort, with 117 participants, began in June 2020. …

Chunk Of Change: Microlearning, Social Cognitive, And Transformative Learning Theory To Support Wellness Routines, Jessica Brand, Jenny Erickson

Instructional Design Capstones Collection

This paper explores the design of a 5-week course for Jamie O'Neil, a fitness and nutrition coaching company. Any quest to achieve optimal wellness requires the ability to make consistent personal choices that support one's own health, fitness, and nutritional needs. Efforts to support these choices are often strengthened when targeting both the cognitive and behavioral domains. Jamie O'Neil found this to be true. Clients revealed themselves to be highly self-critical and to operate on top of assumptions and beliefs about themselves. These beliefs deterred their motivation and ability to sustain new health habits. To ensure that both the cognitive …

The Effect Of Pedagogical Agent Persona On Performance, Self-Efficacy, And Attitudes In Adult Learners In An Online Environment, Justin L. Mathews

Dissertations

Pedagogical agents, virtual avatars that are often included in online training or educational modules, have been studied in a variety of disciplines to determine the extent to which their inclusion in online or multimedia learning environments may influence both cognitive and affective outcomes in learners. The present study examined the effect of a peer-like pedagogical agent providing motivational messaging in an online English language learning environment to determine if the agent will positively affect college students’ performance, self-efficacy, and attitude in comparison to a control group. All participants studied an online, self-paced English grammar module, either with (treatment version) or …

Higher Education – Just How High Is It?, Matthew Barclay

The International Institute for Innovative Instruction Blog

Some people argue that the nature and purpose of education is to gain a broad range of knowledge. Unfortunately, higher education programs and courses are often afflicted with the myopia of knowledge, or even just brief encounters with it, above everything else. I don’t think knowledge alone represents the true heights of “higher education.”

Practice: An Essential Supporting Cast Member Of Outcomes-Based Instruction, Matthew Barclay

The International Institute for Innovative Instruction Blog

I love good movies. Most of us do. Movies represent a complex combination of many elements combined by filmmakers to deliver a viewing experience to the audience that can be very moving, endearing, and memorable. Or the movie can fall flat, or just be mediocre.

Among all the elements that go into moviemaking, the lead talent is key to the success of a show. But so is the supporting talent.

Evaluation: The Bright, Illuminating Principle Of Teaching And Learning, Matthew Barclay

The International Institute for Innovative Instruction Blog

A few years ago, the planet Pluto was downgraded to “dwarf planet” status. Pluto is a small body made up of rock and ice, located billions of miles from the sun (Nasa, 2012). In other words, it’s a cold and rocky place, of little significance, far from the center of the system. This sounds like a description of evaluation in the realm of teaching and learning—at least a description of how evaluation is often treated.

Creative Design: Asking “What Is It Like” And “Who Cares?”, Matthew Barclay

The International Institute for Innovative Instruction Blog

How do we put creativity into academic courses without getting irrelevant or distracting? Creative design is somewhat of a holy grail in many industries, and this is certainly true in the area of teaching and learning. As designers and consumers of instruction, we seek creativity.

Encouraging Non-Native English Speakers In The Classroom, Marivic Lesho

The International Institute for Innovative Instruction Blog

International students are a vital part of the community at American universities. There are innumerable benefits to this intercultural exchange, but for students to have the best experience, instructors need to be prepared to address certain language-related challenges.

Critical Framework The Gathering: Adding New Instructional Practices To Your Library, Emily Frigo, Maya Hobscheid, M. Knoff

Conference Proceedings

No abstract provided.

An Instructional Design Primer, Rob Wood

The International Institute for Innovative Instruction Blog

Much has been written in this forum about instructional design; however, for some followers, the primary concepts and principles of instructional design may yet be relatively new. The goal of this post is to provide a little history and a few highlights about the practice of instructional design with an emphasis on higher education.

Introducing The Learning Lounge Podcast, Joel Gardner

The International Institute for Innovative Instruction Blog

At Franklin University’s International Institute for Innovative Instruction, we design and develop learning experiences for students and clients all over the world. From clarifying learning goals and shaping a learning strategy to integrating quality content and creating effective materials, this work can be complex. Instructional media is one of these components, and if done right, it can increase learning and make a course more engaging. In my experience, however, creating quality media can be difficult, especially when working with teams of faculty, staff, and instructional designers who are dealing with heavy workloads and competing priorities.

Enter Bradd Birmingham, the Director …

Why Is It Difficult To Measure The Roi Of A Training Program?, Jessie Kong

The International Institute for Innovative Instruction Blog

Many organizations spend a lot of money to provide training programs to improve their performance in today’s competitive environment. Since investment in training programs has been increasing, upper management want to justify the actual costs and benefits of training programs for their various stakeholders.

Why Study Human Performance Technology?, Joel Gardner

The International Institute for Innovative Instruction Blog

Many instructional design programs, including Franklin’s master of Instructional Design and Learning Technology, include a course on Human Performance Technology (HPT). However, very often, when I work with students or instructional designers who are learning about HPT, they fail to see the connection between instructional design and HPT. In this video, I explain my perspective on why HPT is critical for learning professionals, including instructional designers.

Baby Steps Toward Sleep: Using Instructional Design In Everyday Life, Carolyn Levally

The International Institute for Innovative Instruction Blog

As a mom to a little girl who will be turning one shortly, I’ve realized that I’ve quite suddenly become a teacher of basic life skills for her – how to eat, how to go to sleep, how to walk, etc. For the first few months of her life, I used a cold hard approach to teaching some of these skills, such as “let’s just put a bottle in her mouth and hope that she takes it.” When this tactic failed miserably, I started considering applying instructional design to my teaching strategy, especially the concept of “chunking” learning. Having worked …

Modeling: Online Students Need Demonstrations, Too, Matthew Barclay

The International Institute for Innovative Instruction Blog

How many times have you seen children pretending to be their sports heroes while playing basketball or soccer? How many teens or adults have you seen wearing a movie star’s hairstyle or adopting the clothes of another favorite celebrity? How often have you observed people mimicking media personalities in voice, gestures, sayings, etc.? Have you ever found yourself doing something because someone else did it and you thought it was a great idea? Of course you have. Whether it was beneficial or damaging in the long run, you have most likely done something only because someone you esteemed did it.

Quantifying Creativity: A Left-Brain Approach To Learning Objectives, Rob Wood

The International Institute for Innovative Instruction Blog

I am a teacher. I love the time when the proverbial light goes on in a student’s mind and a theory or concept or method or technique suddenly makes sense. I witness the moment that a few sparks of knowledge kindle a fire of learning.

Tips For Effective Collaboration With Subject Matter Experts, Tasha Weaver

The International Institute for Innovative Instruction Blog

Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) are critical members of any course design team, for their contributions to both the course content and the cost of the project (Bedell, 2018). A SME can identify and prioritize the content needed to address critical course learning objectives, and she can do this efficiently, saving the designer hours of research. The question is: how can you, as the designer, best partner with the SME to create an effective learning experience for students? The following presents some tips and best practices for collaboration.

How Much Work To Assign In Our Courses?, Jesse Fuhrman

The International Institute for Innovative Instruction Blog

No matter what type of course we are designing, we have to keep in mind how much time we are expecting learners to spend. When thinking about time expectations, there are a number of things to consider, beginning with the expectation set by those who are asking for the course or training module.

Graduate Assistant Experience At The Institute - An Interview With Amie Tope, Amie Tope

The International Institute for Innovative Instruction Blog

Amie Tope, 2018 graduate of Franklin University’s Master of Science in Instructional Design & Learning Technology (IDLT) program, recently sat down for an interview with the IDLT program chair, Dr. Yi Yang. Amie not only graduated with a 4.0 GPA and gave a speech at the Winter 2018 Commencement—she also accepted a job offer before she graduated from the program! During this interview, she talks about her experience working as a graduate assistant for the International Institute for Innovative Instruction (the Institute), and offers suggestions for future graduate assistants.

Bridging Learners And Clients: Challenges And Strategies, Xiaopeng Ni

The International Institute for Innovative Instruction Blog

As discussed in my previous post, “Clients as an Instructional Resource,” integrating clients into the curriculum is promising and potentially innovative. A client-based course emphasizes a pedagogical orientation to gain real-word experience through meeting the “expressed needs” from the outside of the classroom. Students create impactful work, collaborate with clients, and sense professional culture. During the past several months, by collaborating with other faculty members, I had opportunities to implement some of these ideas in two graduate courses: Marketing Communication Planning and Instructional Design Capstone. The results, based on students’ feedback, are positive and well demonstrate its pedagogical values.

Do You Apply Learning Theories To Your Online Course?, Jessie Kong

The International Institute for Innovative Instruction Blog

Emerging technology is changing almost every aspect of our lives. As a result, we should not be surprised that new technology has an impact on how people learn. The development of online learning has rapidly increased through the advancement of technology. Indeed, technology is a powerful tool for instruction—it helps students actively engage in class activities, collaborate with their peers, and develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Of course, technology can also save time and money by delivering online instruction anytime and anywhere. Therefore, we cannot ignore the use of technology that can create many instructional strategies and activities.

The Emotional Roller Coaster Of Getting Stuff Done, Kevin Stoker

The International Institute for Innovative Instruction Blog

Getting things done is both daunting and empowering…and sometimes overwhelming. It’s likely rare that you have too little to do. Every day you look at that pile of work on your desk or the 500 emails that you need to respond to and you wonder how you’ll get through it. When you look at the totality of the things you need to accomplish it can sometimes feel like the weight of the world is on your shoulders. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

What International Teaching Has Taught Me About Instructional Design, Niccole Hyatt

The International Institute for Innovative Instruction Blog

As instructional designers, we rarely get an opportunity to interact with the learners who actually experience what we develop. We typically rely on learner evaluations, input from teaching faculty, or future enrollment numbers as evidence of positive instructional design interventions. However, there are many reasons why learning events succeed or fail. If a course is well designed, but the instructor is not up to par, can we blame the development of the course? What if the designer of a particular course is also the individual who teaches it? Taking it a step (or a flight) further, what if the class …

Applying Project Management Strategies In A Large Curriculum Conversion Project In Higher Education, Joel Gardner, Patrick A. Bennet, Niccole Hyatt, Kevin Stoker

The International Institute for Innovative Instruction Blog

Higher education is undergoing great changes that require universities to adapt quickly, and making these changes can be difficult. One discipline that can aid in executing change is project management, which has developed a set of clear processes and strategies for completing initiatives quickly and effectively. Several authors have identified project management competencies as key in the practice of instructional design. However, in our experience it can be difficult to operationalize project management, particularly in instructional design projects that are large in scope and require a quick turnaround.

Mind Maps Allow Our Students To Paint A Picture!, Barbara Carder

The International Institute for Innovative Instruction Blog

When Fred Barnard said that “a picture is worth a thousand words” back in 1927, odds are that he wasn’t thinking about mind maps in higher education, but his idiom was true then and it remains true today.

Five Challenges For New Online Instructors, Constance Wanstreet

The International Institute for Innovative Instruction Blog

A boot camp for new online instructors focused on five challenges related to transitioning to online teaching, building spaces for learning, preparing students for the work of online learning, managing the classroom & assessing learner outcomes.

Learner Responsibility: Questions And Implications, Jesse Fuhrman

The International Institute for Innovative Instruction Blog

Recently, I was discussing the issue of personal responsibility with a colleague. Specifically, we were discussing the responsibility of students to know where certain kinds of information is found within a course, or how a certain type of action is accomplished within a given learning management system. At what point is it no longer the responsibility of the course designer to create learning objects to convey this information? When does the student bear the responsibility to either already know or to learn this information on their own?

My Reflections On The Association For Educational Communications And Technology (Aect) 2017 International Convention, Lewis Chongwony

The International Institute for Innovative Instruction Blog

From November 6 – 11, 2017, the Hyatt Regency Jacksonville Riverfront in Jacksonville, Florida was a beehive of activity, as members of the AECT, one of the oldest professional organizations, passionate about uncovering better ways of helping people learn, congregated for the 2017 convention. With close to 400 concurrent sessions, several workshops, and more than 1,000 attendees, the place was beaming and brimming with excitement and an aura of freshness as attendees imbibed from pots of research, best practices, and experiences of speakers and peers both in sessions and during breaks. Looking around, I could easily tell that the 2017 …

O Designer, Look In The Mirror, Matthew Barclay

The International Institute for Innovative Instruction Blog

What chef ever made a meal that he or she would not be happy to eat or was doubtful the paying customer would relish? It may happen but it is likely rare. People in the profession of cooking and creating excellent meals take pride in their work to satisfy their customers. They strive for the joy of those they serve.

Looking Back, Looking Forward: Instructional Design Reflections, Rob Wood

The International Institute for Innovative Instruction Blog

Franklin University graduate student Amie Tope is preparing to enter the instructional design field in early 2018. Dr. Rob Wood has been practicing instructional design since 1988 and serves as a faculty member at Franklin University. Amie and Rob recently sat down for an informal, collegial discussion to talk about their perspectives. While Amie looks forward to stepping across the threshold and formally beginning her instructional design career, Rob is looking back over nearly 30 years as an instructional designer and considering what eventual retirement might look like.