EDUCAUSE | Contributed by EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative and Faculty Development

ELI Discovery Tool: Learning Space Workshop Guide

ckeller — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 10:31:21 -0600

The Learning Space Workshop Guide offers a set of action-oriented, modifiable, modular activities for use in faculty development, staff retreats, or similar events. The activities encourage critical thinking about characteristics and principles of effective learning space design, the pedagogical roles of technology, student perspectives, assessment, and related issues.

ELI Discovery Tool: Net Generation Workshop Guide

ckeller — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 10:35:04 -0600

The Net Generation Workshop Guide is a collection of simple activities and suggested readings on the Net Generation. It is divided into easily customized modules that can be used as stand-alone activities lasting a couple of hours or all together for a multi-day event. They have been designed for faculty development, staff retreats, or similar programs.

ELI Discovery Tool: Student/Faculty Questionnaire

ckeller — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 10:41:06 -0600

The ELI Student/Faculty Questionnaire is designed to help you explore student and faculty experiences and expectations with technology in teaching and learning. Specifically, the questionnaire examines student and faculty

Familiarity with learning technologies,
Expectations for the use of technology in teaching and learning, and
Views on how students prefer to learn.

This questionnaire provides insight into possible gaps that may exist at your institution, such as

The difference between the learning technologies that are expected by today's students and those that your faculty feel comfortable using, and
Students' self-described learning preferences contrasted with faculty perceptions of those preferences.

ELI Discovery Tool: Guide to Blogging

ckeller — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 16:26:10 -0500

The ELI Discovery Tool: Guide to Blogging offers practical information about how blogging can be used in teaching and learning and walks users through the important considerations for implementation. It presents real-life examples and first-hand accounts of class blogging; advice on important planning questions, engaging stakeholders, faculty support, and assessment; and an annotated list of helpful resources.

ELI Discovery Tool: Guide to Podcasting

drupal — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 16:06:52 -0500

The ELI Discovery Tool: Guide to Podcasting provides an overview of the technology, case studies, user perspectives, and implementation strategies. A "know-before-you-go" compendium, the Discovery Tool is designed to assist academic technology centers, IT units, and others in making the case for integrating podcasting into teaching and learning. If you are familiar with podcasting but are curious how it could be used in teaching and learning, this guide will recap what podcasting is; give you first-hand accounts of how students use—and don't use—podcasting; show how podcasting supports learning; explain the benefits and limitations of podcasting in comparison with other tools; highlight implementation and assessment considerations; and identify valuable podcasting resources.

ELI Innovations & Implementations – Online@UCF

drupal — Wed, 12 Oct 2005 16:23:31 -0500

The University of Central Florida's Online@UCF initiative serves tens of thousands of students across Florida and engages 75 percent of UCF faculty. It offers 15 online degree programs, 10 online graduate certificate programs, approximately 1,300 fully online and blended courses, and hundreds of other courses that enhance face-to-face instruction with online resources. In AY 2003–2004, almost 44 percent of UCF's roughly 44,000 students enrolled in at least one fully online or blended course.

Online@UCF has achieved this success through three units. Instructional designers in Course Development & Web Services (CDWS) work with faculty to increase their knowledge and use of best practices in fully online, blended, and Web-enhanced learning; the Center for Distributed Learning (CDL) provides planning and administrative support for online learning faculty and students; and the Research Initiative for Teaching Effectiveness (RITE) documents the success of these efforts in the form of improved learning outcomes as well as high rates of faculty and student satisfaction. Together, these units have established Online@UCF as an effective practice model in the development and support of online learning.

ELI's Innovations & Implementations series highlights innovative teaching, learning, and technology practices in higher education. Each Innovations & Implementations piece provides a practical overview of an innovation, focusing on its significance and implementation issues. Use Innovations & Implementations to explore innovative practices that might be of value to your institution.

ELI Innovations & Implementations - Instructional Development Initiative (IDI)

drupal — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 16:34:29 -0500

In 1993, the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University launched the Instructional Development Initiative (IDI), using technology to foster curricular and pedagogical innovation. IDI set in motion a series of carefully managed investments, resulting in a suite of high-profile, campus-wide professional programs for faculty and staff. As a result, Virginia Tech has been recognized nationally for its achievements in engaging faculty in the sharing of successful strategies; expanding the range of active learning experiences available to students; providing a replicable model for other institutions; and managing resources while supporting innovation in an era of continual budget constraints.

Video of Virginia Tech's Faculty Development Institute

drupal — Fri, 11 Feb 2005 16:53:11 -0600

Videos of Veteran Participants in Virginia Tech's Faculty Development Institute describing their new approaches to teaching in Torgersen Hall, a demonstration site for technology-enriched learning activities.

Kerry Redican, Professor, VT Teaching and Learning, comments on:
- effects of a more effective teaching and learning environment on attendance and student attitudes (clip: Kerry 10)
- classrooms like these maximize educational experiences for students and faculty (clip: Kerry 11)

Carol Burch-Brown, Professor, VT Art and Art History, comments on:
- the fluid connection between dealing with material objects and digital resources (clip: carol 2)
- how the teaching, laboratory and public spaces foster varied and sustained intellectual involvement, before, during and after class (clip: carol 9)

Principle-Based Technology and Learning Environment Design for Managing Growing Demand for Digital Learning Content

drupal — Wed, 23 Jul 2003 12:00:32 -0500

Technology that supports and enhances learner-centered practices is a key theme and an important research area for the NLII and one of the reasons Margaret Haughey, editor of the Journal of Distance Education and Education Faculty member at the University of Alberta (http://www.ualberta.ca/), was asked to tackle three questions at a plenary session of the NLII 2003 Annual meeting:

1) What do we know about learning and cognition that should be applied to the online environment?
2) How can existing technologies be used in the design of effective teaching and learning experiences?
3) What are the next challenges higher education will face in moving from the transfer model of learning to the design of rich, Web-based learning environments?

Putting the Learner at the Center: Next-Generation Innovation Emphasizes Enabling Learning in Classrooms and E-Learning Environments

drupal — Wed, 23 Jul 2003 11:43:47 -0500

Learner-centered practices are instructional design and teaching practices that are based on what we know about learning and cognition. Such practices encourage meaningful learning and create environments in which people learn best. The selection, use and funding of technology to enhance and support learner-centered practices is an NLII key theme and research area.

This article introduces the NLII conceptual framework for looking at learning principles and how technology might be used in that context; explains the role of communities of practice such as MERLOT in refining and applying conceptual frameworks;discusses how NLII members Virginia Tech, University of Tennessee, the SUNY Learning Network, University of Arizona, University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Southern California, University of Central Florida, Empire State (SUNY), University of British Columbia incorporate learning principles into teaching practice through learning design, faculty development and online support, technology selection and project planning and funding, and organizational restructuring. Also discussed is the need for linking learning sciences and technology research to everyday practice through faculty research and development and through resources such as LESTER.

A summary of NLII resources and activities on Learner-Centered Practices is given.