Introduction
Twice a year, the Faculty Center for Ignatian Pedagogy at Loyola University Chicago (LUC) holds a Focus on Teaching and Learning conference where faculty and staff gather to share innovative teaching strategies and case studies. The goal of the event is to “contribute to a faculty and staff life that involves active scholarship, candid and vibrant collaboration, and innovative activities that reflect the University’s mission.”
A cadre of representatives from the Distance Learning team–Learning Designer Jessica Mansbach, Information Design and Strategy faculty member David Noffs, and Learning Designer Krissy Wilson–headed up to Loyola’s Lake Shore campus in Rogers Park to see what our Chicago-area peers were up to.…
Profile Jessica Mansbach
In April’s Online Learning Webinar, learning designers Jessica Mansbach and Krissy Wilson and instructional technologist Jackie Wickham responded to recent student survey results indicating that students want more individual feedback from faculty, sharing six topics related to feedback for online students:
Providing Useful Feedback
Frequency and Timing of Feedback
Getting Students to Use Your Feedback
Tone and Bad Feedback
Time-Saving Feedback Strategies
Considering Feedback in Building Course Structure
Faculty attendees also shared experiences and concerns related to providing feedback to students in the online environment.…
In October 2016, the Distance Learning Team launched its first iteration of a fully online Course Design Workshop. This workshop is designed to help instructors become familiar with our course design process and to allow them to step into the shoes of an online student.…
Is technology driving online education off a cliff? At the School of Professional Studies’ annual Distance Learning Symposium, David Noffs and I raised this question. As instructors and designers of new online courses in the Instructional Design Sequence in the Information Design Strategy (IDS) Program, David and I argued that thoughtful integration of educational technologies into education and training programs is important in designing high quality online learning experiences and modeling sound instructional design strategies for students in the program. …
Learning Designer Jessica Mansbach and Director of Faculty Programs at the Searle Center for Advancing Learning and Teaching Susanna Calkins hosted the October Online Learning Webinar, Stories That Stick: Storytelling as a Meaningful Teaching Strategy. Jessica and Susanna addressed how to use storytelling as an effective teaching strategy.…
The first paragraph of your course syllabus states, “Welcome to the course! In this course, we will cover many topics.” The first paragraph of your colleagues’ syllabus states, “Welcome to the course! In this course, you will learn about many topics.” Do you notice the difference?…
What Are Mind Maps?
Learning researchers in the 1960s proposed mind maps as a way to make learning happen more quickly. Tony Buzan, with degrees in such varied fields as psychology, mathematics, English, and the general sciences, drew attention to mind maps in his writings about strategies to enhance memory and increase learning (Murley, 2007).…
If you sit down with a learning designer at the School of Professional Studies to talk about a strategy for designing or redesigning your course and they suggest beginning with the end of the course in mind, you might find that strategy confusing or counterintuitive.…
Robert Gagne is a well-known educational psychologist who developed a theory of instructional design that is widely recognized in both education and cognitive sciences literature. There are two major parts of the theory. First, Gagne explains, soundly designed educational experiences should reflect clear decisions about what you want the students to know and to be able to do.…