by Sara Loges
August has been declared Connected Educator Month by the US Department of Education, and we’ve been actively following the conversation through the first part of the month on Twitter (#CE12).
According to the DOE, the idea behind Connected Educator Month is:
“Online communities and learning networks already help hundreds of thousands of educators by providing ‘just in time’ access to knowledge and opportunities for collaboration, and by reducing isolation. Expanding participation will allow more people to realize the full benefits of this arena for professional learning and collaboration,” (read the full press release).
To commemorate, we thought we’d share five easy ways for you to observe:
by Jenn
It seems every year we hear more from Faculty that students just aren’t reading their course content. Blame it on last night’s big party or this weekend’s football game all you want – your students today just aren’t the same. They want instant access to their course content, grades and assignments – and they want it all in one place. With the start of the new school-year around the corner, we have just the fix for your biggest problem. Introducing: Blackboard Digital Content.
by Andrea Meier
Q: How do you engage today’s active learner? A: Use an image!
As you prepare to go back to school, we thought we’d share some important data about just how much students retain. The bad news – it’s just a fraction! The good news – visual aids can dramatically increase the fraction! Take a look…
How can you use this information? Supplement your teaching to include more images. Pinterest is flooded with great images and infographics. Where do you look for great multi-media? Share your thoughts in the comment section below or click here to learn more about the Active Learner
by Karen Yoshino
For someone who travels like me – all over the planet working with institutions to develop manageable, sustainable practices for measuring student learning it feels like spring . . . maybe the kind that gets your hay fever going. It feels like spring because from North America to Asia, home grown assessment models are blooming. By this I mean that many institutions have invented their own way of number-crunching grades or pass rates and call that measuring program outcomes. These practices tend to have a common thread running through them; they generate data that may be useful in telling you where you stand, but they do not provide the slightest hint on how to improve. Grades never did, and grades never will. The whole point of assessing program learning outcomes is to identify ways to improve and to close gaps between desired performance and actual performance.
Accreditation requirements around the world, by the way, are pretty consistent and clear:
1. Identify your program outcomes;
2. Measure your program outcomes;
3. Use the results of measurement to improve your program.
by Andrea Meier
As Senior Director of Product Management for Learn Course Delivery, Jim Chalex conducts research & guides the development of new capabilities to help instructors, learners, and staff get the most out of their online learning environment. He specializes in assessment, data visualization, and analytics.
Data is in, but you don’t us need to tell you that. It’s evident by the number of infographics that pop up every day presenting data in a compelling way on any number of topics; these past few weeks, it’s been all about which Olympic athletes are getting the most social buzz and how the winningest Olympic nations fare when it comes to education.
But, regardless of the topic, it’s what we do with data that really matters. The same can be said for integrating EdTech into the classroom.
We know that students are already grabbing their education by the reins and looking for ways to personalize every part of their learning process – from where they get content to the tools they use in the classroom – they are in control.
So why shouldn’t we give them the opportunity to evaluate themselves?
