What do students get when they sign up for an ‘Online Course’?

Another day, another eLearning job. I’ve made the move to Canada and am working at a large technical school in Vancouver area, and though my office has many more resources than my last position, the systematic issues…

Empathy in Instruction

Over the years, I have been quite vocal in my opposition to high stakes testing as a means to assess learning. The example I always gave was this:

“What if a student’s mom died the night before the big test? How do you think they would do? Does this mean they…

Strategies for Reading Online

This last academic year, I’ve had the pleasure of working with a Faculty Learning Community at work, in which we looked at digital vs. print reading and what we could do as educators to support readers of all kinds on campus. The following is something I wrote to support our…

Alumni Relations done right

I know this doesn’t have anything to do with technology, but I thought I’d comment on it anyway.

I graduated from a large University in Washington state, twice. First for my BA in 2002, then again with a Masters in 2007. Alumni relations has never been a…

The worst words you could ever hear as an Educational Technologist

Me: “So why do you want to use ______?”

Instructor: “Because it’ll be cool”

Me: “So why do you want to buy ______?”

“Because we have the…

Open Textbooks: The Missing Link

After attending #opened15 last week, there were lots of sessions talking about open textbooks. Some folks are for, and some against, with Amanda Coolidge weighing in this morning on the real purpose of these projects: to save students money…

There’s so much money to be made in education!

If you haven’t seen this yet, then you should watch it.

An open letter to Higher Ed Admins

Dear Higher Ed Admins,

At a time when most of us here in the United States are facing continuing cuts to education, it’s important to take into account the thoughts and advice of those around you. This is one such piece of advice is from an…