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The Importance of Skepticism in Instructional Design

To many of my friends, I’m something of a Luddite. They all have newer phones than I do; these days, I’m usually about three models behind the curve. Heck, I didn’t even have a smart phone until almost 2014. I miss things that happen on LinkedIn and Instagram, because I don’t use them. And I’m more of a lurker than an actual poster on Facebook and Twitter. My wife often laughs at me, because I lose my phone in the house and have to use Find My iPhone at least three times a week. I do have a gaming console in the house…but it’s a PlayStation 2. 

At work, I’m well known as a skeptic. I am often the one eliciting the eye rolls from my colleagues as I play devil’s advocate about a solution, or the one who might stick with a certain technology tool a little longer than others. When there is a problem to solve, I’m always looking for a free or low-cost option first. You might think that this sounds backward, in a technology-focused discipline where it is indeed my job to move forward and pursue new directions in instruction. So why would I hold back from the edge, and choose instead to look over it from a safe distance? It turns out that there are a number of advantages to treating design work with a healthy dose of skepticism. Continue reading →

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Considering New Options for Responding to Student Writing

In her recent Computers and Composition article on teaching writing using Learning Management Systems (LMSs), Allison Hutchison unpacked the “wicked problem” faculty face when using an institutionally-required system. Hutchison’s literature review outlines how faculty in the field of rhetoric and composition have critiqued the technologies that mediate writing instruction; indeed, this type of scholarship has become increasingly prevalent, as digital platforms for composing seem to be ever increasing (and thus ever more frequently appearing in our classrooms).

I’ve attempted to apply Hutchison’s framework for identifying the problem, the needs, and the potential solutions (albeit in a much simpler format) to a particular strand of practice in the writing classroom: providing feedback on assignments. DePaul recently adopted two technologies that can be used for this purpose, and both contain affordances and limitations that instructors should consider when adopting. The descriptions below are perhaps more utilitarian and less of a critique, but given that this is a blog post, and not an academic article, that framing seemed more…well, useful.  Continue reading →

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Click Training for Humans

A brown and white siberian husky
Rollo Koenig

As the proud parent of a two-year-old Husky, I am well-versed in the many ways to train a dog.* One of the most common methods of training a dog is through the use of clickers. This method of training uses operant conditioning, pairing a treat with a sound, to reinforce a specific behavior. Amongst trainers, the common belief is that using a sound, instead of voice commands, ensures that the feedback received is consistent and non-judgmental. This all makes sense when training animals, but do these same methods work for teaching humans? A recent episode of the podcast Hidden Brain explored this topic further. Continue reading →

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What Reality TV Taught Me About Effective Student Mentoring

During hands-on activities in the web-design classes I teach, I often ask, “What would Project Runway mentor (and national treasure) Tim Gunn do?” After all, if you’re going to take teaching tips from only one reality-TV star, it should be Tim Gunn. He was a faculty member at Parsons for a quarter century and chair of their fashion department for several years, making him one of the few reality-TV stars with a CV that would make any SoTL-loving academic swoon. 

During his tenure on Project Runway, Tim’s primary role was to serve as the contestants’ mentor and sounding board. While Tim didn’t officially evaluate contestants as a judge, mentors on other competition shows often shift more fluidly between coaching and assessment roles, much like faculty do throughout the term. On RuPaul’s Drag Race, for example, RuPaul serves as a supportive, caring mentor during consultations in the workroom. Later, he’s more distant (figuratively and literally) and authoritative when leading the judges in final critiques and contestant eliminations. Continue reading →

The Power of Mindfulness

I recently participated in Interactive Health’s webinar on “The Power of Mindfulness” and it reiterated a theme that’s been in my heart, “living in the now.” This message has resonated with me because that’s what we’ve been talking about at my church recently. So, hearing it again, through a secular medium, was emphatic. I bet the idea of being present seems almost impossible to most of us; well, at least for me, it does. Our minds are constantly wandering back and forth. We focus on the past. We think of what we could have done, or said, or what we did do or say. This leads to feelings of regret, guilt, and shame. We focus on the future, wondering whether we’ll get that new job, or that raise, or whether that relationship will ever get better, and the list could go on. This results in feelings of fear, anxiety, and depression. But here’s some advice, how about just be present? Live in the now! This quote by Bill Keane helps put things in perspective, “Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift of God, which is why we call it the present.” Being present isn’t about being careless or mindless or totally ignoring the past or future. It is about channeling our focus and awareness effectively. We acknowledge the past to understand what is and use the present to shape what will be.

So, how can we be present?

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Online Intercultural Exchange: Save the lost (in translation) with an emoji ;-)

On October 9, 2019, President of the United States, Donald Trump, wrote a letter to the President of the Republic of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, expressing concerns and sharing his advice on the situation in Turkey. What version of this letter do you want to read? English? Turkish? I suggest grabbing the one floating around social media. It is simple, fun, and without the need for interpretation. It was written in a universal language: emojis!

Emojis placed to symbolize the message sent from President Donald Trump to the President of the Republic of Turkey

A picture is worth a thousand words. When it comes to communicating with people from different cultures, that picture can be an emotional icon, called an emoticon, or a small pictograph of a face or object, called an emoji.

Continue reading →

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Virtual and Augmented Reality in Education

The age-old question of how to keep learners engaged is being answered by new age answers:  augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and mixed reality (MR). With these emerging technologies, topics come to life for students. The experiences are novel, learners have control over their interactions, and can therefore become immersed in their experience.

Without any equipment except my cell phone, I tapped into the free Google Expeditions app and invited a virtual skeleton into my office:

an image of a virtual skeleton in an office

Continue reading →

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SLATE 2019 Takeaways

Something I like to do for this blog is to post a review of any conferences I attend. My hope is that anyone who is struggling to find the right conference can look at my reviews as a guide to help find the “right fit” for them. 

This year I attended the SLATE conference in Naperville, IL. This was my second time attending and it had been several years since I last attended SLATE. The first time I went, the focus and content within the conference was very BlackBoard heavy. DePaul uses D2L, so the focus on BlackBoard really limited the sessions I could pick from.

I decided to give SLATE another chance this year to see if they broadened their learning management system (LMS) coverage. Sadly, for me, even though it wasn’t as Blackboard-centric, the only other LMS included was Canvas. I found myself with a limited amount of sessions to choose from, again, because the sessions were heavily based around LMS offerings that DePaul does not use. Despite the limited options, however, I did find some sessions that proved to have useful takeaways.

There also seemed to be a focus on new products, rather than new concepts, this year. Which I should preface with at this point, factoring the amount of conferences I have gone to and what I have already learned by working with my knowledgeable colleagues at DePaul, it’s getting harder to go to conferences and have those “eureka” moments. Continue reading →

Chemistry and Diversity & Inclusion at DePaul University: A Metaphor

Traditionally, Colombia celebrates Chemist’s Day (El día del Químico) every year on October 31st. The Colombian Council of Professional Chemists organizes events or meetings to help celebrate the day (https://cpqcol.gov.co/eventos/dia-del-quimico/). In short, today is certainly a big day for chemists around the world, but especially in my home country, Colombia. On account of this day, and given my role not only as a chemist but also as the Associate Provost for Diversity and Inclusion at DePaul University, I feel very motivated to write this short blog post wherein I attempt to link chemistry and diversity, at least symbolically. Continue reading →

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Best Practices for Video Use in Instructional Design

“We can just record my existing PowerPoint slides.”

The phrase always sends shivers down my spine.  Not because recording PowerPoint slides isn’t effective, as in some situations it can still be useful, but because of the seemingly flippant attitude of the “just” part.  If only it were that easy, and a recorded PowerPoint was the end-all solution for online learning.

This is always where we start our conversation that, in essence, defines my ethics of video lectures in instructional design.  This is a very loose framework, and not necessarily based on any particular theory I’ve encountered, but rather through observations of multitudes of online courses using various approaches to content delivery and seeing what works based on the course and the context.  Simply deploying a “video” isn’t really that simple.

Recently, I heard a phrase that I think sums this up nicely: “You haven’t yet mastered a tool until you understand when not to use it.” Continue reading →