Education Commons^™

Building Relationship-Rich Opportunities Online, Shirley P. O'Brien, Kelli Spayd

Pedagogicon Conference Proceedings

Mentoring is an important process in building rich relationships in learning. The use of e-mentoring as an innovative strategy to promote a relationship rich experience for faculty and students is described. Data collected reinforces learner-centered professional value in the promotion of student engagement.

First And Lasting Impressions: Creating Course Tour Videos To Guide Online Students, Melony Shemberger

Pedagogicon Conference Proceedings

Online course design has gained increased attention in education, given the global health crisis brought on by COVID-19. Students need to familiarize themselves at the beginning of an online course to be successful. An important item often overlooked, however, is the inclusion of a course tour video, which can help serve as an effective orientation for a student new to the course. This article will share best practices and insights on how to make a brief video guiding students to navigate a course more effectively, setting them up for success.

Using Video Technology For Discussion Forums: Building An Engaged Online Community, Shirley P. O'Brien, Steven Shisley Dr.

Pedagogicon Conference Proceedings

Faculty used various multimedia technology delivery methods within higher education in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Instructors were urged to be more agile when considering tools to promote student engagement within the forced, online environment. Video technology is a mainstay in both online and hybrid education as well as in the workforce. Flipgrid, an agile learning tool, promotes asynchronous class discussions to reinforce higher levels of thinking in Bloom’s taxonomy of learning. Data collected from three courses suggests that Flipgrid promotes student engagement in a learner-centered approach. Implications are suggested for online learning.

The Importance Of Building A Social Presence In The Online Classroom, Amanda W. Joyce

Pedagogicon Conference Proceedings

While important, many of the guidelines put in place to prevent disease transmission during the Covid-19 pandemic (social distancing, quarantining, facial coverings, etc.) have created challenges to building student-student and student-faculty relationships. However, these relationships are, according to the Community of Inquiry model (Garrison et al., 2000), essential to learning. The purpose of this piece is to explore strategies to build social presence in the classroom to benefit students and faculty alike. Strategies such as the strategic use of discussion boards, collaborative assignments, class announcements, extra credit, and more are discussed in the context of improving student learning without significantly …

Give ‘Em Something To Smile About: Connecting With Online Students Through Humor, John Huss

Pedagogicon Conference Proceedings

Humor and higher education are infrequently mentioned in the same conversation, but much empirical evidence supports the contention that the use of humor is related to positive student perceptions of the instructor and learning environment (Banas et al., 2011; Garner, 2006; James, 2004; Suzuki & Heath, 2014). The literature certainly establishes a foundation to consider humor as a critical element of any instructor’s online teaching arsenal and such an inclusion may be particularly pertinent at this time, given the undeniable shift in higher education dynamics as more institutions, both by choice and circumstance, witness unprecedented growth in their web-based programs. …

Focus On Relationships And Strengths: Engaging International Learners Online, Candy Ho

Teaching Culturally and Linguistically Diverse International Students in Open or Online Learning Environments: A Research Symposium

The shift to online courses during the global COVID-19 pandemic highlighted that teaching and learning online is an evolving practice for both students and educators. Notably, for international students, challenges with learning online can be more pronounced, as they are also adapting to cultures of their host country and expectations from their post-secondary institutions, while attempting to forge connections with their domestic peers. This paper describes several notable pedagogical interventions implemented by the author in her Canadian-based, online, asynchronous courses that have a high number of international students. These include repurposing office hours, reporting on student feedback, and incorporating Indigenous …

The Pandemic Pivot At An Ontario College Of Applied Arts And Technology: A Review Of International And Domestic Student Success, Adam Mcgregor, Wendy Whitehead, Christina Decarie

Teaching Culturally and Linguistically Diverse International Students in Open or Online Learning Environments: A Research Symposium

Building on an earlier action research project looking at international student grades at an Ontario College, the researchers explored the impact of learning in an online learning environment on international student performance. The researchers asked: 1) Is there a significant difference in the average student grades (regardless of country of residence or origin) between online delivery and in-person delivery? 2) Is there a statistically significant difference in average student grades between delivery methods, based on country of origin or residence?; and 3) Is there a statistically significant difference in average student grades between domestic and international students, based on delivery? …

Ada Compliance In Online Courses: Free Tools And Resources For Creating An Inclusive Environment For Both Students And Instructors, John Huss, Shannon M. Eastep

Pedagogicon Conference Proceedings

Online courses must be accessible to students with disabilities, yet instructor training in accessible design is often an afterthought, leading to legal vulnerability and a breakdown in the learning partnership between student and instructor. Based on feedback from faculty members who shared their familiarity with expectations from the American Disabilities Association (ADA) and Section 508 of the Workforce Rehabilitation Act, as well as challenges and perceived barriers, this session demonstrated free tools, practical suggestions, and important design tips for bringing all courses into compliance., even for those instructors with less than sophisticated technological expertise.

Librarian At The Colloquium: Delivering Unique Library Content For Phd Students, Susan Franzen

Transforming Libraries for Graduate Students

PhD students have unique needs and require different resources and services from the library than undergraduates, which is especially true of professionals in a nursing program. As clinicians, many do not have experience with the research and writing intensive requirements of a doctoral degree. The majority have not taken classes for years, and their master’s degrees were more hands-on, clinically-based. They often do not feel confident in their ability to search the literature, read closely, or write expansively. A unique avenue through which to meet their needs and share library resources is a PhD colloquium course.

Students take the colloquium …

One Workshop, Many Locations: Meeting The Needs Of Both On-Campus And Distance Students, Lisa Becksford

Transforming Libraries for Graduate Students

The diverse needs of graduate students can be difficult to gauge, and even when their needs are known, it can be difficult to develop programming that meets the needs of graduate students across disciplines and program levels. In spring 2018, a needs assessment survey was conducted by the graduate librarian at a large, comprehensive public university with graduate students at multiple campus locations. Based on respondents’ articulated needs for additional help in data management, research skills, scholarly publishing, and citation management, a workshop series, Research Tools for Graduate Students, was launched in fall 2019. The series sought to provide graduate …

Developing And Transitioning Faculty To Online Teaching, Barbara Serianni

SoTL Commons Conference

In the midst of decreasing trend in postsecondary enrollment, enrollment in fully online programs continues to trend upward (U.S. Department of Education, 2018). Given the persistent growth of online learning in higher education as the result of adding fully online courses to traditional on-campus programs of study and the persistent development of new fully online programs, the question of instructional effectiveness must be asked. Are faculty in traditional 4-year public universities prepared to effectively deliver online instruction and support the needs of online students? If they are, how were they prepared? If they are not, how can they be prepared?

The Impact Of Learning Preferences On Retention Of Adult Students In An Online Degree Program, Juliann Mcadoo

Scholar Week 2016 - present

Adult students choose online courses for flexibility and convenience and educational institutions are providing more options to meet demand, but online courses have higher rates of attrition that can lead to lower retention. Low retention of students has consequences for students, colleges and universities, and society as a whole. The purpose of this research was to determine the relationship between learning preference, based on a multiple intelligences model, and choice of major, student satisfaction, and retention of adult students in a fully online degree program. A review of literature found that learning preference has been correlated with student performance in …