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Writing Effective Rubrics
Rubrics are ubiquitous grading tools in many classrooms and lecture halls. When used well, they can help to make grading fair and consistent by ensuring all learners are being assessed with the same criteria in the same way. However, not all rubrics are equal. A poorly designed rubric can muddy learners’ understanding of a…
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Designing Graphics for Online Learning
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, which is an important consideration to remember when designing online courses. You can use visual elements to bring learning to life, improve retention, and aid in creating a consistent and professional learning experience. Let’s explore some sites that you can use to source…
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🔦Customer Spotlight Event
⭐ ConvosWithCommunity: Video Note With Joe Sisco (UWindsor - Customer Spotlight) ⭐ We are excited to invite you to our upcoming webinar, where we will be highlighting our amazing Brightspace Video Note Tool in a special Customer Spotlight event! Join us on March 30th, 2023 at 12PM ET for a 30-minute presentation showcasing…
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Interleaving
You’ve no doubt seen the shocking amount of information we forget after training thanks to Ebbinghaus’s Curve of Forgetting. To combat the forgetting curve, a technique that I used to use as a prof and have recently come back to as an instructional designer is interleaving. What is it? Interleaving: basically weaving…
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Using Backwards Design in Brightspace
What is Backwards Design? Image by 愚木混株 Cdd20 from Pixabay Backwards design is a method for creating online courses that begins with the end goal in mind and works backwards to create a logical and effective curriculum. The method is based on the idea that, by defining the desired outcomes of a course and aligning the…
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Taking Breaks in Online Learning
With in-person learning, breaks are necessary every hour or two. Learners have a chance to stretch, use the washroom, have a drink or snack and reset their brain for the next learning chunk. With self-paced online learning, learners can take breaks whenever they’d like, but it’s still a good practice for content creators…
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A.I. use in discussions?
Is anyone use A.I. in their online discussions (e.g., rewriting/improving discussion prompts and replies to student posts) or in other ways in their courses?
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Get Your Learners Thinking with Metacognition
When was the last time you thought about thinking? Having an awareness of your own thinking is known as metacognition. Research suggests that fostering metacognitive thinking results in higher academic achievement and improved critical thinking skills.¹˒² Metacognitive approaches have existed for years, but there is still…
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Topics I want to learn more about!
The goal and vision of the Instructional Design Best Practice Group has always been to share resources and information that could help other community members on what they should consider when using Brightspace from an Instructional Designer's (ID's) perspective. Over the years, many dedicated and hardworking Instructional…
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The Importance of Introductions
You likely wouldn’t walk into a classroom already reading a book, lecturing, or playing a video. Instead, you’d come in, say hi, and say something like “today we’re going to…”. Even online, it’s important to give that introductory bit, maybe even more important. Learners aren’t mind readers, and if you aren’t immediately…
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Event: Let's Chat Metacognition!
Event Alert Metacognitive skills are vitally important for meaningful learning! But how can we, as educators, facilitate our students' thinking about their thinking??Join us in the Brightspace Community on February 10th from 8:30-9:30 EST to connect with Research Fellows Emma O-Neill and Carmel Hensey from University…
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Podcasts About Instructional Design
It goes without saying that as an Instructional Designer, I love to learn! As such, I make it a priority to keep updated with what’s currently happening in the field. Podcasts are an incredibly accessible and convenient way for anyone to stay up to date on best practices and trending topics in Instructional Design. Allow…
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Data Driven Design: End-User Testing for Authentic Feedback
I love data and feedback metrics in all shapes and forms. It started out by innocently logging my runs in the Nike Run App to track mileage, then I upgraded to a run watch and it grew a little more obsessive to my pouring over the data and drilling down into each detail I could to identify patterns and make little tweaks…
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Writing Good Assessments
Whether it is an informal knowledge check, a project, or a big exam, assessment is an important part of any course. It’s how we know whether the learner has taken away what they were supposed to from the learning. But writing good assessments isn’t always easy. For starters, what is a “good” assessment? Here’s a few…
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Canadian Copyright Update
As Instructional Designers you know copyright exists to balance protection for intellectual property and ensure greater access to ideas for the benefit of society. Are you aware of the latest change in Canadian copyright law that may please some copyright owners more than those wanting access to their works? What’s new?…
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Teaching Distracted Learners
Photo by Karsten Winegeart on Unsplash It’s the holidays! Some of your learners will feel merry and bright; some will find these to be dark days. Almost everyone has something other than learning on their minds. As instructional designers and course creators, we know our learners want to succeed, even when they’re…
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Using Convergent Thinking to Assess and Refine Ideas for Instructional Design
This post is a follow-up to my previous one, Using Divergent Thinking to Generate Ideas for Instruction Design. In that post, I wrote about the wonders of Creative Problem Solving and how we can use it to flex our creativity and develop novel solutions to problems. As I discussed, Creative Problem Solving is made up of two…
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Using Divergent Thinking to Generate Ideas for Instructional Design
One of my favourite things about being an Instructional Designer is that there are ample opportunities to problem-solve. Each project we work on has unique design opportunities and challenges that can be tackled in numerous ways that produce novel, innovative results! Each of us has the potential to be creative, and we can…
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Check out our 'Welcome' Resource!
Hey Community Members! 👋 Welcome to our new space! We’re thrilled you are here and excited to get you connected to so many resources that we’ve built to support YOU! 🎉 Check out our latest Learning Center offering, Introduction to Brightspace Community! What to Expect in this Resource: · Brightspace Community Overview ·…
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What Else Can You Teach?
Teachers, instructors, facilitators and instructional designers have a certain freedom when it comes to creating content. Yes, we must ensure that our teaching materials meet the learning objectives, but there’s space within those teaching materials for adding a little something extra. Imagine you’re teaching math through…
