Online Teaching Strategies

Educational games and simulations can engage students in higher-level cognitive thinking, such as interpreting, analyzing, discovering, evaluating, acting, and problem solving. Recent technical advances in multiplayer, user-created virtual worlds have significantly expanded the capabilities of user interaction and development within these simulated worlds. This ability to develop and interact with your own simulated world offers many new and exciting educational possibilities. This article explores the technical capabilities and educational potential of these new worlds. Additionally, it presents and illustrates a model, which uses interaction combinations, to identify course content and topics having educational applications in virtual worlds.

The default design of commercial course management systems limits instructional creativity and pedagogical approaches, particularly for novice users

This presentation will show participants how to use Web 2.0 social networking tools like LiveJournal and free online media content (podcasts and short films) to create dynamic learning communities. We will look at specific examples of how to integrate Web 2.0 in face-to-face, hybrid, and fully online courses.

This panel discussion examines both the process and product of teaching in Second Life from the perspectives of instructors and an instructional designer. Participants will see how instructors use Second Life to teach foreign languages and nursing, illustrating the breadth of possibilities virtual reality offers to introduce students to other cultures and clinical procedures. The experience enhances students' critical thinking, decision making, and diversity awareness.

Most lecture capture systems are too tech-heavy, too expensive, require too much training, and are too difficult to adopt across a campus. Until now. TechSmith’s newest beta software, Camtasia Relay, changes everything. Join Michigan State University and see how they’re better connecting with students, anytime, anywhere.

Critique_It is an online virtual classroom critique system originally developed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Croquet and ported to Second Life. The critique is a rudimentary instructional methodology in the arts that can be applied to most other disciplines. Critique_It provides an environment for simulating authentic learning strategies and allowing the possibility for feedback from peers and experts from outside the campus.

The presentation will give a development perspective to incorporating a virtual field trip into a newly created online entomology course. The field trip in the traditional course took students to a local farm to uncover the varying species of bugs at the farm, as well as where they lived and what they ate. As the course went online, the 3D virtual environment enabled virtual students to share experiences similar to those of the traditional students while learning the same content.

An online virtual case-based management system was developed to provide an interactive learning portal using simulated case scenarios, collaborative learning, decision support, and real-time assessment of student motivation and decision skills. Learn how to dynamically create and implement online case scenarios using virtual characters, speech, and other media-rich content.

To enhance the learning experience of a term paper, students were required to publish their papers in Wikipedia. Publishing for a large audience provided authentic feedback and encouraged students to do their best work. Using Wikipedia also allowed students to connect with a vibrant community and share their knowledge by making their papers publicly accessible.

Brandeis University's Division of Graduate Professional Studies offers entire graduate certificate and degree programs via distance learning. This presentation will illustrate how the division recently applied NEASC Best Practices for Electronically Offered Degree and Certificate Programs for self-assessment and to ensure the quality of its online programs, which resulted in a successful reaccreditation.