Not Every Course is Transformative
We often use the word transformative for things that are probably less than that. However, after teaching the capstone course in the Information, Design, and Strategy (IDS) department of Northwestern’s School of Professional Studies (SPS) for the past five years, I can honestly say that I witness student transformation regularly each time I teach the course.…
Profile David Noffs
The fall quarter is here, so what is new in Canvas?
In the Summer of 2024, Canvas introduced several significant improvements to its discussion and announcement features, offering enhanced usability, engagement, and productivity for both students and instructors. The enhancements available to instructors and students include the following:
Discussions and announcements can be optionally viewed in a split screen that displays the original post and replies for a single thread of the discussion.…
Distance Teaching and Learning Summit for Online Leadership & Administration Plus Roundtable, Presented by UPCEA, July 25-27, 2023, Madison, Wisconsin.
Our presentation, “You Belong Here: Building an Equitable and Inclusive Online Learning Community,” delivered to over 50 attendees, addressed the rapid growth of global learning and threats to affirmative action.…
How is Technology Supporting Student Engagement and are there Opportunities for Further Exploration?
Technology is fundamental to supporting engagement in online learning
The foundational element of effective asynchronous online learning remains the discussion board, a primary feature in all major learning management systems. Discussion boards are virtual classrooms where students and teachers gather to interact and engage with the course content and each other.…
This year’s National Disability Employment Awareness Month (#NDEAM) theme is “Advancing Access and Equity.” We will celebrate on Thursday, October 26 at 12 PM Central with a webinar that will highlight the importance of ensuring all people have equal opportunity to contribute their skills and talents in the online classroom.…
Back to Krypton…
In the late summer of 2017, Jacob Guerra-Martinez a Learning Designer and game-design researcher in Northwestern University’s School of Professional Studies, pitched an audacious plan to a part-time faculty member in the School of Professional Studies. He wanted to gamify a discussion board so that graduate students could choose between being heroes or villains while debating and supporting opposing views.…
Introduction
If you’ve taught face-to-face before, there’s a good chance you’ve developed slides to help give lectures in your classroom. You may even have structured your course around them: ten slide decks for ten weeks of class. There’s no shame there–keynote speakers and conference presenters use slides as an important part of their practice, and when properly designed they can make for engaging in-person presentations.…
Learning designers Jeanne Kerl, Brian Runo, and David Noffs attended the Second Annual Teaching Forum on Promising Practices: Learning from Our Community held April 18, 2018 at the Norris University Center at Northwestern University’s main campus in Evanston.
The plenary session speaker was Dr.…
Several members of the Distance Learning Team at Northwestern’s School of Professional Studies attended Loyola’s Focus on Teaching and Learning (FOTL), a one day conference on January 10, 2018 at Schreiber Hall in Chicago.
The Keynote address, delivered by Dr. Therese Hutton of Seattle University, was entitled, “If I Could Only Fit in More Learning:” Making the Most of Your Classroom Time.…
This post was guest authored by David S. Noffs M.P.H., Ed.D.
Since 2001 Dr. David S. Noffs has worked at Columbia College Chicago as an adjunct faculty member in the Interactive Arts and Media department teaching sound design, web design and programming.…