tips and tricks for awesome learning design
Explain your course design to your learners
Why should you take the time to explain your course design? Well, helping your learners understand why they are learning in a certain way can be a powerful tool for overcoming resistance to...
Video lectures: how long should they be?
How long should video lectures be? Shorter than six minutes, according to the largest ever study of engagement with online videos. So why is it that tutors continue to produce long video lectures?...
Why HEIs should be focusing on employee experience
The loss of the familiar My colleague Phil recently wrote about how many tutors in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are dealing with a form of bereavement. The shift to online teaching during...
Why a solutionist approach doesn’t work for online learning
Learning happens everywhere, and online learning is no different. So why do so many universities only permit tutors to use the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE)? Prior to the Covid pandemic,...
Why you should challenge your students’ expectations of their performance
"The biggest effects on student learning occur when teachers become learners of their own teaching, and when students become their own teachers." (Hattie, 2009: 22) Sometimes you discover a piece of...
Great online learning isn’t about technology
A lot of people think that awesome online learning is all about using the latest whizzy technology. It isn’t. If someone talks at you for 30 minutes, you switch off - whether you’re online or...
Create the conditions for invention
"The role of the teacher is to create the conditions for invention rather than provide ready-made knowledge." Seymour Papert High quality learning is active - in other words, it involves the learner...
Environment influences learning performance
In business contexts, it is generally accepted that the environment can influence the performance of employees and leaders. But the influence of the online environment is often overlooked when it...
Follow Apollo: the power of synchronous experiences
Imagine watching the 1969 moon landings as they happened. Knowing that you’re experiencing the same wonder and euphoria as millions of people around the globe at the same time. No amount of...
Find the desire paths your learners use
Even if you haven’t heard of desire paths, you’ve seen them. They are the shortcuts across the grass people take instead of the paved paths provided and represent the shortest route between an...
How to avoid the filing cabinet problem
If you've ever had to put content into a VLE orLMS, you've probably faced the 'filing cabinet' problem. This problem can be explained as confusing content for learning. All too often, educational...
What kind of online course is right for you?
We’re all different. This means that what some people consider to be effective online learning may not work for others. So how do you know whether an online course is any good? To find out, you have...
Ask, don’t tell – it’s all about questions
Use questions. Sounds simple, doesn't it? But all too often, online learning becomes a passive experience based on the transmission of knowledge. This will disengage your learners. Using questions...
Make your online session look nice
Nobody likes staring at a mess. When you're learning online, all you have is what's on the screen. So if the screen looks boring, or cluttered, you're unlikely to want to spend much time looking at...
Give spoken instructions in writing too
Make sure all spoken instructions are backed up by the same instructions in writing. When you're talking with your learners, it's easy to assume they have understood you. Some learners will even nod...
Remove barriers to participation
Joining an online teaching session can be daunting for learners. When you're preparing your session, think about how you can remove as many barriers for your learners as possible. Some of the most...
