Posts

I was kind of proud of the advice I gave an instructor, let’s call him Rutledge, today. The advice, he said, pulled him out of a shallow rut (where he shouldn't have been on his birthday), A student, let’s call him Ted, in his class insists on using profanity with every comment, and every comment… Continue reading Give students a voice to resolve classroom disruptions

Why is being a Learning Designer (or Educational Developer, or any other of the dozen or so synonymous titles) tricky business? Go have a conversation with one and find out. They would love to speak with you, especially if you are post-secondary faculty.

When teaching a course, do you find that students are using their own preferred platforms to communicate rather than the ones you provide them in the course, such as discussion forums and Collaborate Ultra? I wrote an email in response to an instructor on this topic. Some things to keep in mind when deciding how… Continue reading How to grade students for participation when they use their own tools to communicate?

A quick post to stimulate thought. I while ago, way pre-pandemic, I attended a conference (BNet I believe) and the keynote put an image into my head of an elastic band and how it related to post-secondary funding. He mentioned, as he gestured with his hands, that post-secondary institutions grow and thrive as long as… Continue reading Danger of snapping back to the pre-pandemic world in post-secondary

Creators of software apps ensure that their apps give their users the affordances required to intuitively set up learning activities. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines affordance as, “The qualities or properties of an object that define its possible uses or make clear how it can or should be used.”  In Blackboard’s learning management system (LMS), for… Continue reading A little about modern software