Online Teaching and Learning in Higher Education


Book Description

This book is to explores a variety of facets of online learning environments to understand how learning occurs and succeeds in digital contexts and what teaching strategies and technologies are most suited to this format. Business, health, government and education are some of the core sectors of society which have been experiencing deep transformations due to a generalized digitalization. While these changes are not novel, the swift progress of technology and the rising complexity of digital environments place a focus on the need for further research and novel strategies. In the context of education, the promise of increased flexibility and broader access to educational resources is impelling much of higher education’s course offerings to online environments. The 21st century learner requires an education that can be pursued anytime and anywhere and that is more aligned with the demands of a digital society. Online education not only assists students to success-fully integrate a workforce that is increasingly digital, but it helps them to become more comfortable with the use of technology in general and, hence, more prepared to be prolific digital citizens. The variety of settings portrayed in this volume attest to the unlimited opportunities afforded by online learning and serve as valuable evidence of its benefit for students’ educational experience. Moreover, these research efforts assist a more comprehensive reflection about the delivery of higher education in the context of online settings.




Online Teaching and Learning in Higher Education during COVID-19


Book Description

This timely volume documents the immediate, global impacts of the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) on teaching and learning in higher education. Focusing on student and faculty experiences of online and distance education, the text provides reflections on novel initiatives, unexpected challenges, and lessons learned. Responding to the urgent need to better understand online teaching and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, this book investigates how the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) impacted students, faculty, and staff experiences during the COVID-19 lockdown. Chapters initially look at the challenges faced by universities and educators in their attempts to overcome the practical difficulties involved in developing effective online programming and pedagogy. The text then builds on these insights to highlight student experiences and consider issues of social connection and inequality. Finally, the volume looks forward to asking what lessons COVID-19 can offer for the future development of online and distance learning in higher education. This engaging volume will benefit researchers, academics, and educators with an interest in online teaching and eLearning, curriculum design, and more, specifically those involved with the digitalization of higher education. The text will also support further discussion and reflection around pedagogical transformation, international teaching and learning, and educational policy more broadly.




Global Approaches to Sustainability Through Learning and Education


Book Description

Unequal distribution of wealth, poverty, pollution, and gender inequality are just a few of the problems we face and struggle to eliminate. Sustainable development offers a long-term holistic solution to these problems through meeting the needs of the current generation without endangering the capability of future generations in meeting their own needs. Sustainable education or education for sustainability is a transformative learning paradigm that prepares learners and provides them with knowledge, ethical awareness, skills, values, and attitudes to achieve sustainable goals. Global Approaches to Sustainability Through Learning and Education is a comprehensive academic publication that facilitates a greater understanding of sustainable development and fosters a culture of sustainability through learning and education. Highlighting a range of topics such as ethics, game-based learning, and knowledge management, this book is ideal for teachers, environmentalists, higher education faculty, activists, curriculum developers, academicians, researchers, professionals, administrators, and policymakers.




Best Practices in Online Teaching and Learning Across Academic Disciplines


Book Description

Communication studies: fostering effective communication in online courses / Rosalie S. Aldrich, Renee Kaufmann, Natalia Rybas -- Composition and writing: embedding success: supplemental assistance in online writing instruction / Sarah E. Harris, Tanya Perkins, J. Melissa Blankenship -- English: facilitating online learning through discussions in the English classroom: tools for success and stumbling blocks to avoid -- Margaret Thomas-Evans, Steven Petersheim, Edwin A. Helton -- Political science: engaging students through effective instruction and course design in political science / Cheral A. Forge, Kristoffer Rees, Lilia Alexander, Ross C. Alexander -- Criminal justice: calming, critical thinking, and case studies: the politics, pitfalls, and practical solutions for teaching criminal justice in an online environment / Stephanie N. Whitehead, M. Michaux Parker -- Psychology: student misconceptions of psychology: steps for helping online students toward a scientific understanding of psychology -- Beth A. Trammell, Gregory Dam, Amanda Kraha -- World languages (Spanish and French): best practices in online second language teaching: theoretical considerations in course design and implementation / Dianne Burke Moneypenny, Julien Simon -- History: teaching history online: old struggles, new pathways / Justin Carroll, Christine Nemcik, Daron Olson -- Fine arts (drawing): best practices in online teaching for drawing / Carrie Longley, Kevin Longley -- Sociology, anthropology, and geography: igniting the passion: examples for sociology, anthropology, and geography / Denise Bullock, Katherine Millerwolf, Wazir Mohamed, Marc Wolf -- Philosophy: the proof is in the pedagogy: a philosophical examination of the practice of backward design / Mary A. Cooksey -- Biological sciences: online teaching and learning in biological sciences / Parul Khurana, Neil Sabine -- Mathematics: best practices of online education in mathematics / Young Hwan You, Josh Beal -- Education: building online learning communities on the foundation of teacher presence / Jamie Buffington-adams, Denice Honaker, Jerry Wilde -- Economics and finance: using simulation games to engage students in online advanced finance courses / Oi Lin Cheung, Litao Zhong -- Nursing: meeting QSEN competencies in the online environment / Paula Kerlerbaumann, Tony Abreymier, Karen Clark.




Small Teaching Online


Book Description

Find out how to apply learning science in online classes The concept of small teaching is simple: small and strategic changes have enormous power to improve student learning. Instructors face unique and specific challenges when teaching an online course. This book offers small teaching strategies that will positively impact the online classroom. This book outlines practical and feasible applications of theoretical principles to help your online students learn. It includes current best practices around educational technologies, strategies to build community and collaboration, and minor changes you can make in your online teaching practice, small but impactful adjustments that result in significant learning gains. Explains how you can support your online students Helps your students find success in this non-traditional learning environment Covers online and blended learning Addresses specific challenges that online instructors face in higher education Small Teaching Online presents research-based teaching techniques from an online instructional design expert and the bestselling author of Small Teaching.




Enriching Collaboration and Communication in Online Learning Communities


Book Description

Effective communication is essential in every organization, including educational institutions. Often, members of the online community work in isolation. Collaboration across varying disciplines and departments can promote unique professional development activities and create a stronger connection to the entire online community. Enriching Collaboration and Communication in Online Learning Communities is a critical scholarly publication that supports communication and collaboration in online settings by focusing on the ways all members of the educational institution can create community to foster personal and professional growth for all. The book takes an in-depth look at communication strategies and challenges including managing conflict, working effectively in virtual teams, critical thinking, intercultural and cross-cultural communication, and online leadership. It is ideal for faculty, teachers, administrators, principles, curriculum developers, professionals, researchers, and students.




Small Teaching


Book Description

Employ cognitive theory in the classroom every day Research into how we learn has opened the door for utilizing cognitive theory to facilitate better student learning. But that's easier said than done. Many books about cognitive theory introduce radical but impractical theories, failing to make the connection to the classroom. In Small Teaching, James Lang presents a strategy for improving student learning with a series of modest but powerful changes that make a big difference—many of which can be put into practice in a single class period. These strategies are designed to bridge the chasm between primary research and the classroom environment in a way that can be implemented by any faculty in any discipline, and even integrated into pre-existing teaching techniques. Learn, for example: How does one become good at retrieving knowledge from memory? How does making predictions now help us learn in the future? How do instructors instill fixed or growth mindsets in their students? Each chapter introduces a basic concept in cognitive theory, explains when and how it should be employed, and provides firm examples of how the intervention has been or could be used in a variety of disciplines. Small teaching techniques include brief classroom or online learning activities, one-time interventions, and small modifications in course design or communication with students.




Best Practices in Online Program Development


Book Description

Best Practices in Online Program Development is a practical, hands-on guide that provides the concrete strategies that academic and administrative departments within institutions of higher learning need to develop in order to create and maintain coherent and effective online educational programs. Unlike individual courses, an online education program requires a comprehensive, inter-departmental effort to be integrated into the ongoing educational project of a college or university. This book focuses on the: Integration of online education into the institutional mission Complex faculty-related issues including recruiting, training, and teaching Multifaceted support required for student retention and success Need for multilayered assessment at the course, program, technical, and institutional levels Challenges posed to governance and by the need to garner resources across the institution Model to insure ongoing, comprehensive development of online educational programs Best Practices in Online Program Development covers the above topics and more, giving all the stakeholders in online educational programs the building blocks to foster successful programs while encouraging them to determine what role online education should play in their academic offerings.




Reach Everyone, Teach Everyone


Book Description

Advocates for the rights of people with disabilities have worked hard to make universal design in the built environment "just part of what we do." We no longer see curb cuts, for instance, as accommodations for people with disabilities, but perceive their usefulness every time we ride our bikes or push our strollers through crosswalks. This is also a perfect model for Universal Design for Learning (UDL), a framework grounded in the neuroscience of why, what, and how people learn. Tobin and Behling show that, although it is often associated with students with disabilities, UDL can be profitably broadened toward a larger ease-of-use and general diversity framework. Captioned instructional videos, for example, benefit learners with hearing impairments but also the student who worries about waking her young children at night or those studying on a noisy team bus. Reach Everyone, Teach Everyone is aimed at faculty members, faculty-service staff, disability support providers, student-service staff, campus leaders, and graduate students who want to strengthen the engagement, interaction, and performance of all college students. It includes resources for readers who want to become UDL experts and advocates: real-world case studies, active-learning techniques, UDL coaching skills, micro- and macro-level UDL-adoption guidance, and use-them-now resources.




Reshaping International Teaching and Learning in Higher Education


Book Description

This volume provides a broad examination of how technology and globalisation have influenced contemporary higher education institutions and how moves towards internationalisation within and between educational providers continue to be a force for change in this context. Showcasing the varied responses to and utilisation of new technologies to support international teaching and learning endeavours at a range of higher education institutions, this book introduces content from around the world, emphasising the global importance of the internationalisation of education. Featuring contributions from some fresh young voices alongside the work of experienced and internationally renowned scholars this collection critically scrutinises the potential of information and communication technologies (ICTs) on the capacities and patterns of university education; assesses and refines the contention that ICTs are facilitating the (re-)shaping of university practices as well as challenging traditional educational models and learning strategies; provides a comprehensive portrait of the ways in which ICT use engages higher education providers, society, and individuals to facilitate potentially more democratic, globally focussed access to knowledge generation, creation, investigation, and consumption processes through internationally focussed education; and examines the differing pace and scope of change in international educational practice and context between and within countries and disciplines. With an international range of carefully chosen contributors, this book is a must-read text for practitioners, academics, researchers, administrators, policymakers, and anyone interested in the future of the university in an information age.