Cooperative learning is associated with a variety of potential benefits to students, including better comprehension and retention, improved perceptions and attitudes, and increased openness to diversity. Yet, there is limited evidence or instruction on cooperative learning activities in asynchronous online classrooms, an increasingly common course…

This learning activity outlines the transitioning of a Hotel and Lodging Management undergraduate course from face-to-face to asynchronous format. It describes how topics were converted into sequential learning modules that included short pre-recorded lectures (from the instructor and guest lecturers), discussion questions, activity tasks, quiz…

This article describes how to design an entangled literacy model, which blends verbal skills with multimodal features of visual, auditory, and other sensory cues to enable students to experience online classes with authentic and comprehensible material; paying attention to modes of communication in online classes also helps approximate…

This article explores the value of generative AI (genAI) tools for much-needed support for instructors in higher education in the realm of course design. Two authors detail their experiences partnering with two distinct tools, ChatGPT and Bard (now known as Gemini), for communication course development, emphasizing iterative collaboration with…

Belonging, or the feeling of being a valued member of a community, has been linked to numerous positive outcomes in higher education. Although creating a sense of belonging at the campus level is important, equally important is fostering belonging in the classroom. Research has shown that belonging is more likely to occur in classes where students…

This essay illustrates how an online language education course, implemented within an online language teacher education programme offered at master's level at an Italian university, was designed to foster pre-service teachers' active learning through digitally-enhanced activities. The course was developed within a community of inquiry framework…

Many instructors question the move to online teaching and learning and it is often met with resistance as they fear that on-line learning will be more structurally didactic. In particular, one of the major concerns is that the value of face-to-face discussions will be lost. This is a core concern for courses that require the development of…

This article presents two similar design cases and a discussion of how like values resulted in dissimilar design moves. Both cases were gamified learning activities for graduate students in instructional design. Both interventions employed rapid prototyping and were delivered synchronously in an at-a-distance setting. This article compares the two…

The Group Exercises is a distinctive collaborative group working activity completed by approximately 170 second-year undergraduate chemistry students each year in June. The activity comprises students working in randomly allocated teams of 4-6 members to complete a structured learning package to solve chemistry problems with industrial relevance…

Teachers are the critical component of students' success in the classroom (NRC 2001), but families are the critical component of student success at home. When families and teachers develop strong relationships and build trust with each other, students benefit (Henderson and Mapp 2002). This is especially true in communities where home culture is…

Over the last two decades, the academy has experienced a renaissance of diversity in pedagogical techniques with the introduction of experiential learning, active learning, flipping the classroom, and, more recently, team-based learning (TBL). TBL adopts a two-stage process that incorporates individual learning with team collaboration. While…

This paper explores the effective online teaching practices and activities used for an asynchronous online learning environment. During the 15-week semester, students had various opportunities to learn rigorous content while utilizing various technological tools. The course, called "How People Learn," offered diverse and exciting…

This design case describes the creation, implementation, and refinement of an online asynchronous teacher education course that supports elementary education teacher candidates in their design of learning segments in preparation for the high-stakes teacher education assessment, edTPA. edTPA is a performance-based assessment that is a requirement…

Recent articles in this "Journal" have advocated for focusing instruction on core ideas of the discipline and moving assessment beyond content knowledge to also eliciting evidence about what students can do with their knowledge. Yet, the deep connected learning supported by this kind of instruction and assessment requires students to…

What happens to a Foundations of Diversity and Equity in Schools course when the main mode of instruction changes? The shifting of the class from face-to-face to virtual asynchronous instruction due to COVID-19 led to a transformation of the activity of the course. To replace the use of various discussion techniques, the author redesigned the…