Here are a few templates and tools that can be used by a faculty member who either does not have the resources of an instructional designer at hand or merely chooses not to work with an instructional designer. The core standard for a well-designed course is the alignment of the objectives with the course assessments, … Continue reading Online Tools to Aid Design of Your Course
Authors Kyle Grice and Margaret Bell Our faculty learning community (FLC) generated some big ideas to make STEM classrooms more equitable. Below are some big ideas to make STEM classrooms more equitable; we give a brief orientation to the concepts, with links to additional resources, and potential next steps. Of course, this is only a … Continue reading Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Foundational STEM courses Curated Resources and Action Items
“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 … Continue reading Best Practices for Video Use in Instructional Design
My wife and I recently returned from a two-week trip to Italy. It was my first time ever in the country and my first time to Europe in over a decade. We were hopping from AirBnB to AirBnB for over a week, living out of a carry-on-size bag each, before we stayed at a place … Continue reading Do You Speak My Design Language?
For years, the staff in my office have been talking about and writing about a platform of accessibility and concepts of Universal Design. Erin largely talked about a movement within accessibility called the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework. UDL focuses designing and ensuring that spaces —physical or digital— can be used by virtually anyone. … Continue reading Becoming an a11y: Inclusive Design in the Classroom
Instructional design is a growing industry because many institutions and corporations are realizing that designing, developing, and delivering online curricula for their employees is extremely beneficial. As a result, employers are researching instructional design tools that would best fit their work environments. Research has shown that no matter what the industry, students and employees learn … Continue reading Instructional Design Tools to the Rescue
Emails, I get emails. Lots of them. Most of which are requests from faculty for help with their courses in D2L, and most of those are about courses that were designed in the absence of—or refusal of—input from an instructional designer (someone, shall we say, like yours truly). And most of the issues for which … Continue reading Quick Tips to Reduce Course Management Stress
Sidewalk cut-ins. Elevators. Buttons that open doors. If you’ve ever been out and about in a wheelchair, used a dolly to move furniture, or pushed a baby stroller, you know to look for and use these things. But the fact is these innovations are relatively recent and were not mandated until the Americans with Disabilities … Continue reading Teaching Diverse Learners: How the Universal Design for Learning framework can help instructors engage a range of learners
It’s summer in Chicago, and with the abundance of fun activities to engage your attention the last thing you may want to do is think about how to improve the accessibility of your online course. Relax. I’m not here to harsh anyone’s summertime mellow. But the fall term is approaching, so step into Dee’s Course … Continue reading Summer Course Accessibility Stress Reliever
When I was an undergrad, my “intellectual conversation crutch” was bringing up something from Jon Stewart’s Daily Show. After moving to Chicago, that crutch morphed into inserting something I read in The New York Times or New Yorker. Now? “I was just listening to a podcast about that…” is something I say with annoying frequency. … Continue reading Why don’t more online courses include podcasts?