A learning management system used to streamline online course content. Instructors can connect with their students in this online environment and provide them with course assignments, quizzes, discussions, grades, etc.
An ungraded, anonymous mid-semester survey offers students a chance to voice concerns and ask questions about a course and its administration. Surveys of this type can be setup easily in Canvas. Compiled results can fuel a follow-up conversation and/or announcement where the instructor can address student feedback by answering questions and alleviating issues or making plans to do so.
The culminating class project in Earth 103: Earth Futures requires students to research and write short essays about 6 different communities around the world that are actively in crisis or soon will be due to climate change. Giving students agency to select locations that are meaningful to them, like their hometown, a favorite vacation spot, or the home of their ancestors supports one of the main aspects of constructivism: that learning experiences should be student-centered.
Discussions are where you share findings of your independent research about the objectives established for the lesson and where you learn with your fellow students.
Research has shown that videos requiring high student interactivity can improve learning. This video is unusual in that it was used as a data source for conducting a time and motion study. The video contains no words, just unedited footage of harvest operations. This video was one of many utilized in ABE 885: Biomass Harvest and Logistics. The goal for students was to learn by doing, so students timed the field operations shown and then used the data to make calculations.
Many instructors supplement their online course materials with instructor-created or third-party YouTube videos. While these videos can enhance the learning experience, they often leave students in a passive role. Current learning theory suggests that we can motivate more effective learning when learners play an active role rather than a passive role.
A key component of your graduate coursework is participating in online discussions with classmates. Often, online discussions become an opportunity to check a box or write a multi-page report. I would like to move our discussion beyond this to one that becomes a true conversation where we explore ideas together.
In GEOG 438W: Human Dimensions of Global Warming, rubrics are used not only to evaluate student work but are employed as a tool for fostering a feedback cycle focused on reflection and inquiry. In addition to a draft of their paper, students are asked to submit a marked copy of the assignment rubric, which is casual in tone and student-centered, to show how they think they’ve done with their writing.
Credit: Storm surge damage to Texas coast after Hurricane Ike, NOAA (Public Domain).
GEOSC 402: Natural Disasters, is offered during the prime time for tropical storms and hurricanes to occur. Often during this course, the instructor will send out current, relevant news articles. In addition, if a natural disaster is imminent, the instructor will post an advance message to help students focus on information that will be discussed in class following the event.
In this short, weekly announcement video (2:30 minutes), the instructor provides a good deal of pertinent information for her students.
In addition to the content of the announcement, the instructor is allowing the students a glimpse into her real life, as she is working remotely from a campsite in Florida. In other videos, she is in her office, at the Nittany Lion Shrine, etc.
