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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…
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3 Traps of Communication In a University of Toronto MOOC on Communication Strategies for a...
3 Traps of Communication In a University of Toronto MOOC on Communication Strategies for a Virtual Age, Ivan Wanis Ruiz pointed out what he considers to be the three main traps of communication: * Using 3rd person * Using formal language * Using too many details As instructional designers, communication is our bread and…
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Hi everyone, I've recently changed roles within my org, moving from content development...
Hi everyone, I've recently changed roles within my org, moving from content development (learning technologist) to instructional design. Whilst I have a masters in online and distance education and have been undertaking lots of development to upskill myself in terms of learning theories and models, I was wondering if you…
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I have a question about images and copyright with regards to designing courses that will be sold...
I have a question about images and copyright with regards to designing courses that will be sold for profit. I try to only use images that are license-free or free to use if properly attributed. However, I want to use some images that do not state if they have licenses or not. I was wondering if I can still use these…
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For many, it’s back-to-school this week (or maybe a few weeks ago) or back to the office if...
For many, it’s back-to-school this week (or maybe a few weeks ago) or back to the office if you’ve been on summer vacation. Or perhaps it’s simply back-to-routine. Whether you’re a student/learner, their support system, or an instructor/facilitator/educator, you will likely find that learning has significantly transformed…
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Hey Community Members! We’ve got some exciting changes happening within our Brightspace...
Hey Community Members! We’ve got some exciting changes happening within our Brightspace Community and we want your input! Starting Monday August 22nd, you’ll have the opportunity to share your thoughts and recommendations with us through a quick and easy connect. Here you will get a sneak peek of a sample prototype and be…
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Discussion Models, from a Learner’s Perspective This one is for all the Higher Ed instructors...
Discussion Models, from a Learner’s Perspective This one is for all the Higher Ed instructors and course designers out there. I’ve taken several online, asynchronous university courses over the last year or so and wanted to share my perspective on the various Discussion models I’ve encountered. Some have been quite…
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Supporting Learner Retention With Drip Feed Learning I recently attended a session at ATD 2022...
Supporting Learner Retention With Drip Feed Learning I recently attended a session at ATD 2022 called Drips, Bots, and Blogs: Nontraditional Methods for Learning Reinforcement. This session, led by Shannon Tipton, owner of Learning Rebels, discussed the concept of drip feed learning as a strategy to support learner…
