Suggested Resources

Websites

• Learning Roadmap for New Online Instructors. Johns Hopkins. Guide to online teaching.

• Universal Design for Learning. CAST. "A framework to improve and optimize teaching and learning for all people based on scientific insights into how humans learn."

Articles

• How to Build Student Confidence and Grit Through Backward Design, Experiential Learning, Harvard Business Publishing, Education, April 2019.

• 10 Tips for Effective Online Discussions, Edwige Simon, Educause Review, Nov 21, 2018.

• Engaging Faculty in Online Education, Karen Sibley and Ren Whitaker. Educause Review, March 2015. SPS's Dean and Director of Online Learning discuss keys to setting faculty up for success in online or blended courses.

• Being There: Establishing Instructor Presence in an Online Learning Environment, Ozgur Ekmekci. Higher Education Studies, Canadian Center of Science and Education, 2013.

• Online Learning Indicators, Erlan Burk. eLearn, July 2011. This article has flags indicating a less-than-optimal learning environment.

• Understanding Students’ Online Interaction: An Analysis of Discussion Board postings, Liyan Song and Scot W. McNary. Journal of Interactive Online Learning, Spring 2011. This study suggests no correlation between the number of posts and students’ success.

• Asynchronous & Synchronous E-Learning, Stefan Hrastinski. Educause Quarterly, 2008. A study of asynchronous and synchronous e-learning methods discovered that each supports different purposes.

• Communities of inquiry in education and the workplace. Instructional Design Fusions, 2011.

• Balancing Act: Managing Instructor Presence and Workload When Creating an Interactive Community of Learners, Tammy Stuart Peery and Samantha Streamer Veneruso. Faculty Focus, 2012.

• How Many Faculty Discussion Posts Each Week? A Simply Delicious Answer, Cheryl Hayek. Faculty Focus, 2012.

• What is Flipped Instruction? Theoretical and Practical Foundations. ITG Blog, September 23, 2015. Exactly how the lecture-based format is enhanced and extended with more active, participatory, and project-based pedagogies.

• How to Give Your Students Better Feedback with Technology. Fiock, H., Garcia, H. Chronicle of Higher Education, 2019.)

• Down-and-dirty Guidelines for Effective Discussions in Online Courses. Dunlap, J.

  (n.d.)

• Three Answer Options Are All You Need on Multiple-Choice Tests!, Christine Harrington, Cengage Blog, 2016.

Studies

• Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning: A Meta-Analysis and Review of Online Learning Studies. U.S. Department of Education, September 2010.

• See parts of this report that may impact your course development and teaching.

Key findings

• Students in online conditions performed modestly better, on average, than those learning the same material through traditional face-to-face instruction.

• Instruction combining online and face-to-face elements (blended learning) produced better learning outcome results than either purely face-to-face or purely online instruction.

• Online learning can be enhanced by giving learners control of their interactions with media and prompting learner reflection.

• Online Report Card: Tracking Online Education in the United States. Babson Survey Research Group in partnership with Pearson, The Online Learning Consortium (OLC), Study Portals, WCET, and Tyton Partners, 2015.

• This is the 13th annual report on the state of online learning in higher education. "Online Learning and MOOCs" (p. 7–8) provides an explanation of the terms used to identify the types of online education.

• Key findings can be viewed in this infographic.

Active Learning

• David Malan on Active Learning. This Harvard CS professor talks about how and why he's using active learning in his face-to-face courses.

• Are College Lectures Unfair?, Paul, Annie Murphy. New York Times. September 2015.

• Active Learning Practices, Brown University, Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning.

• Promoting Active Learning, Stanford | Teaching Commons.

• Active Learning, Harvard University, Bok Center for Teaching and Learning.

• Defining Active Learning, Maryellen Weimer. Faculty Focus, February 2011.

Video

• Communities of Inquiry, Derek Fullerton.

Courses

• Learning to Teach Online, UNSW Australia. Coursera.

Books

• Minds Online, Michelle D. Miller. 2016. Very interesting read. Drawing on neuroscience and cognitive psychology, this psychology professor shows how attention, memory, critical thinking, and analytical reasoning can be enhanced through technology-aided approaches. The free ebook is also available from the Brown Library.

• E-learning and the science of instruction: proven guidelines for consumers and designers of multimedia learning. This text is primarily focussed on corporate training rather than academia, but it includes a lot of research-based guides to the design of online learning of any kind, 4th ed. Wiley, 2016

• Essentials of Online Course Design: A Standards-Based Guide, Marjorie Vai and Kristen Sosulski. 2015.

• The Theory and Practice of Online Learning, second edition. Ed. by Terry Anderson, Edmonton: AU Press, May 2008. This respected title is also available as a free download.

  • Topics explored:

    • The role and function of theory in online development and delivery

    • Infrastructure and support for content development

    • Design and development of online courses

    • Delivery, quality control, and student support of online courses

• Universal Design for Learning: Theory and practice, Anne Meyer, David H. Rose, David Gordon. CAST, 2016.

• Lessons from the Virtual Classroom: The realities of online teaching, Rena M. Palloff, Keith Pratt. Jossey-Bass, 2013. Free ebook available through Brown Library.

• Design for How People Learn, 2nd ed, Julie Dirksen, New Riders, 2016.