Creatively Distracted
Creatively Distracted
Curiosity isn't just a key to learning; it's a brain-boosting superpower. Research shows that curiosity triggers a dopamine response, enhancing memory and enabling incidental learning. Cultivating curiosity is a skill that can result in more effective learning.
The end of fall semester is rapidly approaching and soon we’ll be planning our classes for spring. Of course, part of this process is refreshing course syllabi. A syllabus is the document that serves as the key to the course…
For many students, the transition to college can be a challenge. Whether just out of high school or an adult learner, students face a mountain of new information, new technology, new academic rigors and new university processes. UAF has many…
Clear, easy-to-follow instructions for quizzes, assignments and discussions within your course are key in guiding learners through the assessments you ask them to complete. Find tips for writing good instructions in this Teaching Tip.
The Online Course Evaluation Rubric serves as a framework for making notes on and progress toward preparing your course for next semester. Several instructional designers worked together gathering important course elements into categories with evaluative statements to jumpstart your review.
On May 7, 2021, the Community@UAF WordPress server will be updated to the Gutenberg editor. Here is information to share with students on using the new editor.
CTL is updating WordPress sites hosted on the community server to use the Gutenberg block editor on May 7, 2021. The Gutenberg block editor is a very different editing experience compared to the WordPress classic editor. Here’s how you can prepare.
Course schedules are tried-and-true tools that provide a bird’s-eye view of your course, and can effectively communicate to students your plan for the semester. A well-crafted course schedule clarifies structure, facilitates planning and explains pacing.
Accessibility is a topic appearing in mainstream conversation with increasing frequency. When it comes to making course materials accessible, there are a variety of open tools available.
General Education Requirements (GER) for baccalaureate degrees describe required courses that students must complete in order to achieve a bachelor’s degree. Here at UAF, GERs provide a common set of learning experiences for students and have outcomes that encapsulate the…
Maybe you have a good idea, and you’ve even been working through topics for the first few episodes but what’s next?
The answer isn't the same for all classes or for all faculty. Google Classroom lacks built-in integration with the Blackboard Grade Center but does integrate easily with other Google apps.
If you're using WordPress as a tool in your class, now is a good time to think about a strategy for resetting your course materials for the fall semester.
The GIF format is ideal for creating animated images and they are commonly used to propagate memes, grab attention, succinctly explain a step-by-step process and otherwise communicate visual information quickly. We see them in news articles, our social media feeds and even in instruction. Is a GIF an element you would consider incorporating into the banner image of your online course?
WordPress is a publishing platform that provides flexibility for course materials, facilitates open teaching practice, and serves as a public platform for student work. The flexibility of WordPress is one of its strengths, but it also means that the learning curve may feel steep for those using it for the first time. Is it right for your course?
Universal Design is a collection of principles for making an experience for a range of users with consideration to age, ability, size and any other condition that causes them to be more or less successful interacting with the world. It is an approach to design that intentionally means to benefit many individuals and it can be applied to course design.
There is no shortage of discussion platforms to choose from if you’re interested in implementing one in your class. Among the available platforms is Slack, a third party communication app that blends elements of chat, discussion board, and social media.
In order to better prepare graduates for the challenges of work, life, and citizenship, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine recently issued a report urging institutions of higher education to integrate the arts and humanities with science, technology,…
If you’ve ever used WordPress in your class as a space for student contribution, you’ve likely wondered if there is an optimal way to see what is being published and who is making contributions. This information is vital in an online course where post and comment activity often happens asynchronously. In this Teaching Tip, we’ll discuss strategies that allow you to track student engagement and interaction.
Podcasting has been a pedagogical player in the education arena for a number of years. Both face-to-face and CTL-supported Instructors can use podcasts to provide students with on-demand listening materials.
Similar to Microsoft Word, Google apps support the creation of templates for documents with particular pre-formatted layout and style requirements. Templates are a simple–often overlooked–tool for saving time by eliminating the repetitive processes of formatting and layout. Templates help reduce cognitive overhead by allowing users to focus on creating content.
How do you follow news online? We have so much access to information we can’t possibly read it all. Do you remember the episode of "I Love Lucy" where Lucy works at a candy factory? She has to wrap all the chocolate coming down the belt but it keeps moving faster and faster. The pace of news today can feel like this.
Have you noticed Google has been growing their list of Chrome-related products? The names are similar but the features are notably different. I was losing track of this growing Chrome universe. This article is an attempt to explain each tool and how you could use it in a classroom.
Is it possible to distill instructions to mere seconds using an animated GIF? While reading the Google product blog, I noticed they use this strategy to illustrate new functionality within their apps. These short demonstrations helped me understand new functionality without requiring me to launch the actual application and click around.
Maps are a natural and efficient way to communicate spatial information. More than serving as tools to help us think about physical space, they are useful for visualizing and organizing information within the context of a particular place. Maps provide a concrete landscape on which to present a story tied to a place that can provide visually compelling interpretation of data.
Have you been playing Pokemon Go lately? You have probably heard about it if you haven’t actually tried it out for yourself. Apart from cute Pokemons, one of the reasons this game is sensational is because it involves Augmented Reality (AR), which is a digital layer that can be seen on top of the real world through your mobile device, which is super fun.
There may be times you need to explain concepts that are visual in nature, for which you might want to annotate or diagram ideas for your students who are not physically in the room with you. This can be the case, for instance, if you are teaching an elearning course or if you are using a flipped classroom model in your class.
PopcornMaker is a free to use, drag and drop video editor that makes mashup-making easy, even with multiple types of media. This is no ordinary video editor. It goes beyond basic edits, enabling creators to augment video and audio files by layering media resources on top of the timeline.
Many of us use video in our classes, but sometimes we forget that video is a media format that is not as equally accessible to all viewers. Viewers who are hearing impaired will not be able to hear the voices, music, or background audio we include in our video. It is our responsibility to take steps to ensure that we make video content accessible for as many of our viewers as possible.
Do you remember virtual worlds? They haven’t gone anywhere, but back in the middle of the last decade, 2006-2009, they were getting a good deal more attention than they are now. Names from the automotive industry, news agencies, music labels, and even universities jumped in to see what all of the hype was about. Worlds such as Second Life, Open Sim, Kaneva, and Blue Mars were just some of the virtual spaces people could walk into.