What is virtual synchronous coworking? Rising in popularity, it’s as simple as creating an online space to work together in real-time. In addition to my work as a Learning Designer in the School of Professional Studies at Northwestern, I’m a coworking streamer on Twitch!…
Profile Kristina Wilson
Here’s a blog post just in time for the winter quarter…
In an online course, first impressions matter. The first week of the term—and the few weeks before your course begins—may be the most critical as you welcome students to your course and begin building a learning community. …
Defining Prior Learning Assessment (PLA)
Prior Learning Assessment (PLA) is an approach to Credit for Prior Learning (CPL) that allows institutions of higher learning to “evaluate and formally recognize learning that has occurred outside of the traditional academic environment. It is used to grant college credit, certification, or advanced standing toward further education or training.”
PLA strategies vary between different universities and colleges, but may include awarding credit for military and professional experiences, Course Match PLA Projects, exams such as College-Level Examination Program® (CLEP) exams, professional licensures or certifications, and open-source learning opportunities such as MOOCs (massively open online courses). …
Context
Early in 2022, a friend told me he was going to start streaming on Twitch and asked if I would join to watch and chat. I knew little about Twitch, an online community for streaming video gameplay, and as I considered his request I wondered if there could be a place for me in this space.…
It can be time-consuming to add questions manually to a quiz or exam in Canvas, and it is easy to accidentally omit portions of a question, introduce errors such as typos, or improperly identify a correct or incorrect response.
Drafting questions directly into Canvas can also be slow and unwieldy.…
Introduction
This year, the Distance Learning team attended the University Professional and Continuing Education Association (UPCEA) 2021 Annual Conference virtually. For three days in April, this conference brought together leaders in the management, administration, and growth of professional, continuing, and online education programs to share best practices and discuss strategies.…
Next week, the Distance Learning team will attend the Pan-American Continuing Education Association (PANACEA) 2021 Annual Conference. While we are excited for the keynote speakers, poster gallery, and network meetings, we were particularly thrilled to see these often-neglected distance learning topics on the list of concurrent sessions. …
Introduction
In the School of Professional Studies (SPS), group projects are our bread and butter. That means team case studies, small group discussions, peer review, and other collaborative assignments.
One question I’ve heard faculty members frequently ask their peers in course presentations is, “How do you group your students?”
Everyone has a technique for doing it differently, based on any number of factors.…
Introduction
Do some topics or skills seem too large to approach in your course? Are your students struggling with time management? Do you want to provide students with thorough, meaningful feedback but find it difficult to keep up with all the grading?…
Introduction
In the summer of 2018, Quality Matters (QM) released the Sixth Edition of the Higher Education Rubric along with a Rubric Update course to help reviewers brush up on the changes.
For the Distance Learning team in the School of Professional Studies, that’s a big deal.…