Category Archives: Course Design

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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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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 →

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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 →

A Brief Look at Open Educational Resources (OER)

This summer, Pearson announced it will transition to a “digital-first” model where their future textbook releases will primarily be in continually-updating digital formats. On the heels of an announcement that McGraw-Hill and Cengage will merge, this decision highlighted a large problem for textbook providers: how to expand access and reduce costs.

Of course, it’s worth noting that while Pearson states they are “commitment to lowering the cost of higher education,” nearly two-thirds of their revenue now comes from digital products.

These decisions directly impact the two-thirds of faculty reported requiring textbooks (and nearly half requiring articles/case studies in their classes according to one study). So as faculty and students feel the pressure of skyrocketing textbook price inflation, the majority of students who do not have access to textbooks cannot do so because of cost. In fact, in one survey, 65% of students reported skipping buying a textbook because of costs.

While many faculty attempt to control costs by supporting used textbooks, rental programs, or placing copies on reserve, there is another option: Open Educational Resources (OER).

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It’s Time to Talk About Deadlines

In September of 2018 I decided to take a leap of faith and go back to school to get an MFA in Game Design. I don’t have a background in games, my undergraduate degree is in music performance, but I’ve always loved games and when I found DePaul’s MFA in Game Design program I knew this was the path I needed to take.

This may sound ridiculous, but when I enrolled in graduate school I did not expect to be challenged by (and greatly struggle with) deadlines. Without giving the wrong impression about my overall self-confidence, deadlines have never really been a problem for me. Most of my career before going back to school was as a corporate copywriter: deadline city. If I was used to meeting tight deadlines literally every single day then surely I’d be able to handle following a syllabus and staying on top of things in school.

These are just a few of the thoughts that mocked and bludgeoned my consciousness as I fell into panic, disbelief, and about 60oz of cold brew while frantically pulling my first all-nighter to finish a project for school.

What happened? 

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Learning Theories & Cognitive Psychology in Higher Education

If you teach college students, I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that you barely have time to brush your teeth, let alone ponder how well-established learning theories and principles could improve your teaching. So, for the sake of your well-being and your oral hygiene, I’ve rounded up a few oldies but goodies and some practical tips that are relatively easy to implement. With any luck, you’ll be ready to roll out a new evidence-based teaching strategy in less time than it takes to microwave a Lean Cuisine in the faculty lounge and inhale it at your desk.

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Difficulty in Academia: Limits and Benefits

How hard is too hard? Is there an optimal failure rate for learning? Robert Wilson, Amitai Shenhav, Mark Straccia, and Jonathan Cohen would say yes.  In their 2018 study, The Eighty Five Percent Rule for Optimal Learning, the researchers set out to discover the “sweet spot” for difficulty in academia. They found that the spot where the most learning occurs –one that is not too hard so as to create frustration, but not so easy so as to not warrant doing– is a 15% failure rate.  What does this mean for students?  At its most simplistic level, it means that if you get 15% of the answers on an assessment wrong the test is at the optimal difficulty. 15% wrong? Wait that is only an 85% (or a B+), won’t that mess with my GPA (and perhaps my self-esteem)!? 

While I don’t think we can go so far as to say that an 85% is the ideal grade, I do think that we can do more to design classes that both encourage and reward failure.

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DePaul’s Mission in the Classroom

In common to most, if not all, teachers, I always commit myself to designing and carrying out successful teaching. In particular, I subscribe to the notion that teaching success correlates with students learning. Accordingly, part of my job as a teacher is to identify and facilitate ways of learning that best match the kinds of learning that needs to occur in my courses. Because there is no such thing as an all-purpose approach to teaching (or one-size fits all approach), I understand the need to maintain a life-long commitment to continuous improvement upon my teaching and learning. Thus, I intentionally make every effort to keep abreast with evidence-based developments on approaches to teaching and learning. For example, I regularly read journal articles and books related to teaching and learning. I attend the Annual University Teaching and Learning conference, the University Fall Forum, and other teaching and learning workshops. Among the many lessons I have learned is the critical role that the classroom climate has on students learning. Indeed, course climate has been suggested as a very important component in the design of effective instruction. For example, Ambrose et al. (2010) suggested seven principles for effective teaching based on literature research and their own teaching experiences. Two of these principles seem to explicitly connect learning with the climate of the course.

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Don’t Worry, it’s a Standards Feature

Congratulations, you’ve been selected to teach ABC-461 this coming quarter!  The department thinks you’re the perfect expert to update the course and a copy of the last professor’s syllabus has appeared in your inbox. Now retired, Dr. Otto Heare left you some of his notes and course materials, but seems you’re going to have to do some serious work.

Script of the word "standards"During your meeting with your instructional designer, you state that you have full freedom to modify the syllabus but note there are some pesky standards that must be included. Dr. Heare didn’t really give you much guidance on what they mean and your department chair told you there was documentation somewhere but they can’t find it right now.

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Take a Break!

I sit here writing this as Spring Quarter is nearly upon us. I am finishing up the last two of many courses in a particularly heavy load, and still waiting on some materials for both. It’s a weird time; I know there are things that desperately need finishing, and there are other projects I am giving short shrift right now due to my development work, but there is a strange sense of calm that occurs just before the very end. It’s almost a sense of inevitability; the quarter’s going to start whether we’re ready for it or not, and so sometimes it’s better to just sit back and let things ride.

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