Conference Presentations

What can you do when content expertise, quality design, and learner motivation aren’t “enough” to obtain learner success? Designers and faculty can enhance online learner experiences by considering the multiple domains of wellness needed to live healthy, blissful lives. By using inclusive design strategies that merge these domains with QM standards, designers and faculty can create optimal online learning environments. 

In this session, faculty, as well as advisors and administrators, will learn how to identify at-risk online learners, how to evaluate effective support strategies for online learners, and how to adopt practical approaches to support online learners' social-emotional well-being and academic success.

Does your course stack up? Alignment, academic rigor, and course level are key building blocks for quality course design. If one block is missing, the whole structure might tumble like a Jenga puzzle. See how we created a rubric to ensure our courses were built to put student success on top!

Navigating a course is like planning a road trip. Learners find their way while being aware of potential potholes, toll roads, and speed traps. Learn how thoughtful assessment planning at a public community college lead to customized competency-based education (CBE) courses that help learners reach their learning destination.

The first impression of an online course can be enhanced with a clear overview and course introduction for learners. This session will address best practices related to including multimedia for the purpose of introducing a course. Two free multimedia tools (Screencast-O-Matic" and VoiceThread) will be shared about how to create engaging videos in a course “tour”.  The “tour” will assist learners with orientation to the learning management system and the design of the course.

Do you struggle with student engagement in your online synchronous classes? Do you wish your online class could use more active learning techniques, but you do not know where to start? During this session, simple, practical strategies will be shared that can be used to foster student engagement in synchronous online classes (and asynchronous too). The presenter has taught online large classes synchronously and asynchronously for more than a decade, and will share the class-tested strategies she uses to energize online classes.

As more institutions are offering accelerated programs, it is essential that research assess the effectiveness of course design to ensure learners master the course and module learning outcomes. Wlodkowski and Ginsberg (2010) reported that many disciplines have overloaded the content that is required for learning in a course by designing instruction focused on extensive facts and research that only marginally support the learning outcomes.

This session examines traditional and future design models of lifelong learning which can include greater access, convenience, immediacy, and credit for prior knowledge. How will faculty, designers, and institutions prepare to adapt to the changes that are centered more on learners? Join us for the analysis of microlearning, badges, stackable credentials and ways to use artificial intelligence (AI) to demonstrate mastery of outcomes where lifelong learning is delivered in a more seamless and immediate manner.

In the last decade, significant emphasis has been placed on the process of creating quality online courses, with distance learning staff collaborating with faculty to create engaging and meaningful online course content. One way to meet the challenge of designing quality online courses, given the time and financial investment, is to create what is frequently termed a “master course”.

Faculty support staff at Oregon State University Ecampus found that while they had the tools needed to depict quality course design — the QM Higher Education Rubric — they needed a resource that could paint a picture of what quality online teaching looks like. Recognizing the need for faculty support and development extended beyond course design, Ecampus staff developed research-based Online Teaching Principles to help online educators take a well-designed course and facilitate it successfully.

With more faculty becoming familiar with using multimedia in online courses, the question that needs to be addressed is how effective are we at reaching our students. In this session, we will explore the research and discuss a framework for developing quality multimedia for online courses.

CCCS is reimagining online learning across the state’s 13 community colleges. This session will address our efforts to expand the QM framework to incorporate DEI elements into the criteria for a “healthy course.” We will share resources, successes, and challenges related to promoting equitable online learning experiences.

This session will focus on design & delivery techniques to better gather and use feedback in your online class. We'll cover: 1) individual feedback ideas for engagement and connection, 2) time-saving ideas for group feedback and auto-feedback, 3) soliciting feedback for continous improvement, and 4) using the feedback loop for "just-in-time" online teaching strategies.

Humanizing teaching supports the affective and cognitive dimensions of learning by combining facilitation and course design. Several key practices can reinforce the environment where students can find increased success. Key humanizing elements and strategies will be explored.

Given what we know about what ChatGPT and other AI tools can—and cannot—do, as educators we must confront two very different issues: First, what should we be teaching our students to prepare them for a world in which they are likely to be using AI tools? Second, how do we assess what students have learned when ChatGPT provides an exceptionally helpful resource for cheating?

For years, faculty have relied on simple voice over PowerPoint to deliver lecture content. However, this method has repeatedly fallen short on engagement and interaction, especially for today's online learner. How do we get learners to actually watch our lectures? Additionally, what strategies can we use to encourage learners to keep going and focus on key pieces of information? At the University of Akron, we'll share the innovative ways faculty have elevated their lectures with interactivity, thoughtful questions, and powerful visuals to get learners to actually watch and engage.

Classrooms continue to become more diverse. Students at all academic levels enter the classroom with various, unique needs. How do we ensure that students can participate? That all students are represented in the course? That everyone's needs are met? By designing courses with the Inclusive Pedagogy (IP) framework, faculty, and instructional designers can create courses that support and provide equity for all learners and fulfill QM standards.

When is a course “done”? Is it when you first hit publish, or when all of the standards have been met? This session will address how a course is never truly finished, but in a state of constant evolution toward the best possible version. We’ll talk about instructional and design challenges and enhancements faced along the way of creating a course using a truly collaborative process. Iterative improvement for the win!

The popularity of online education continues to increase, with many institutions offering courses to students worldwide. With online student numbers rising year on year, learner profiles are more diverse than were previously possible, but this has brought with it unique challenges relating to accessing, interacting with, and generating course content. Course content creators, and Instructional Designers in particular, are uniquely positioned to work with Subject Matter Experts (SME) such as faculty to design accessible content for a variety of learner profiles.

With growing concerns about student wellbeing in higher education, this session provides an overview of trauma-informed pedagogy and its application to teaching and learning. Specific classroom strategies and technologies addressing toxic stress/promoting self-care for students will be highlighted.