Author Archives: Crystal Donlan

About Crystal Donlan

Crystal Donlan is the Instructional Designer and Online Learning Specialist at Elizabethtown College. Crystal holds a M.Ed. in Learning Design and Technology from Penn State University, where she is currently engaged in doctoral study. An educator for over 20 years, Crystal has taught in K-12, correctional, community-based, and - most frequently - higher education settings; her primary research interests include digital badges and micro-credentials, distance and online learning, and 21st century literacies.

Optimizing Learning Objectives for Real-Life Skills

Incorporating real-world skills into college learning objectives benefits students by making their education more relevant, engaging, and valuable. It prepares them for the demands of their future careers and empowers them to adapt and excel in an ever-changing world. Additionally, it aligns with the expectations of employers and contributes to the overall societal benefit of a highly skilled and capable workforce.

When students learn with the intention of applying their knowledge in real-life situations, they are more likely to retain that knowledge and transfer it to new contexts. This promotes deeper learning and long-term retention of skills and concepts. By aligning learning objectives with real-world skills, faculty help students develop practical competencies that are directly applicable to their chosen fields. This preparation enhances graduates’ readiness for the job market and their ability to contribute effectively in their professions.

Teaching real-world skills also encourages students to become adaptable lifelong learners who can thrive in a dynamic and rapidly changing world. When students develop real-world skills during their college education, they gain confidence in their abilities and feel more capable of tackling professional challenges. This self-assurance can positively impact their career trajectories, service perspectives, and contributions to society.

For more advice on incorporating real-life skills into your learning objectives, take a look at this resource: Optimizing Learning Objectives for Real-Life Skills DONLAN IDOLS.

And, for additional support on related topics, please feel free to attend our next open office hours session on Thursday, October 19, from 6:00pm to 7:30pm.

The Benefits of Course Alignment

Alignment – the practice of matching learning content, activities, tools, and assessments with a course’s learning objectives – contributes great value to the teaching and learning ecosystem. By facilitating the growth and improvement of both instructors and institutions while enhancing the learning experience for students, efforts toward an aligned and refined course pay off in improved outcomes. Focusing our approach on evidence-based course design principles that have proven effective in boosting student engagement and retention benefits all stakeholders by demonstrating our dedication to continuous improvement. Bottom line: By promoting high-quality learning experiences, we help to enhance student success – and that’s a solid win for everyone.

While alignment is typically a practice associated with online courses, its benefits permeate into other instructional delivery modalities due to its focus on reliability and relevance. Even engaging in an informal review of your course can provide insight into ensuring that our online, hybrid, and face-to-face courses meet established standards for course design. This helps us maintain a consistent level of quality across the curriculum and also allows us to make necessary adjustments and enhancements to our offerings. The Online Course Basic Standards Rubric can help you get started in evaluating and improving your course for effective alignment. Give it a try!

For additional help with course alignment or other instructional design needs, please reach out to Crystal Donlan, Etown’s Instructional Designer and Online Learning Specialist, at donlanc@etown.edu or contact any member of the Teaching and Learning Design Studio. We look forward to working with you on refining your course!

 

Creating and Aligning Your Syllabus to Optimize Student Success

Your syllabus is more than a document that contains important information about your class; your syllabus acts as a contract and a covenant between instructor and student by setting the tone, creating an impression, and conveying expectations across the breadth of the learning experience. Crafting an effective, relevant, and thorough syllabus takes time and planning, but the return on this investment is a solid stand-alone piece that will serve as a foundational document for the duration of the course.

The Creating and Aligning Your Syllabus to Optimize Student Success session recording from the SGPS virtual event held on October 27 is now available for viewing! Please feel free to watch the recording at your leisure.

Curated resources on this topic are also available to you. Just scan the QR code below:

To schedule a design consultation, receive coaching on syllabus writing, or troubleshoot alignment issues in your course, please reach out to Crystal at donlanc@etown.edu or stop by the Teaching and Learning Design Studio in Nicarry Hall! Be well, and keep learning!

Upcoming Professional Development Opportunities

The Etown Teaching and Learning Design Studio is holding a number of professional development events this semester. Mark your calendar – you won’t want to miss these exciting learning opportunities!

Everyone Designs Series

Learner-centered experiences don’t just happen – they are built around a way of thinking that examines cognitive, social, practical, and strategic aspects of learning science to create solid opportunities for growth. This virtual how-to series offers synchronous one-hour brainstorming sessions where participants receive a brief overview of a design-centered issue and then explore innovative solutions. Facilitated by Crystal Donlan, these one-hour Zoom meetings are held at Wednesday and Friday mornings on the following schedule for October through December:

Leading from Any Level Series 

(Facilitator: Crystal Donlan, Instructional Designer & Online Learning Specialist)

The Leading from Any Level virtual roundtable series takes its focus on the premise that all members of the teaching and learning community– regardless of rank or status–possess leadership potential and professional authority. This series combines synchronous one-hour discussion sessions via Zoom in unison with an asynchronous mobile app to connect and inform the collective narrative on relevant professional growth topics. This learning experience takes place entirely from digital spaces, so participants can join from anywhere! Zoom meetings are held Thursday afternoons on the following schedule for October through December:

Quick Canvas Series 

Join Sharon Birch for Quick Canvas sessions. Each Zoom session consists of a 10-minute demonstration followed by time for questions.  For those of you who can’t make it, sessions will be recorded and posted in the Faculty Development site in Canvas.

Upcoming sessions will take place on:

Subscribe to News from the Teaching and Learning Design Studio for updates on the programming schedule. If you’d like to be on our 2022-23 professional development mailing list, please complete this form. And as always, you can contact the Studio at studio@etown.edu with any other questions or ideas you may have.​​​​​​​

The Leading from Any Level Workshop Series Starts Tomorrow!

Leading from Any Level Series 

The Leading from Any Level workshop series takes its focus on the premise that all members of the teaching and learning community – regardless of rank, status, or title – possess leadership potential and professional authority. This series combines synchronous one-hour discussion sessions via Zoom in unison with an asynchronous mobile app to connect and inform the collective narrative on relevant professional growth topics.

This learning experience takes place entirely within digital spaces, so participants can join from anywhere! Zoom meetings are held Thursday afternoons at 2:00pm on the following schedule:

September 29    Becoming a Critically Reflective Practitioner

October 20         Examining Issues of Power in Teaching and Learning

November 10    Leading from Where You Are

December 1       Balancing Politics and Practice

February 2          Initiating Crucial Conversations

February 23       Navigating Conflict with Empathy

March 16            Dealing with Professional Uncertainty

April 6                 Embracing Institutional Culture 

If you are interested in learning more about this series, please contact Crystal Donlan at donlanc@etown.edu.   (No RSVP is necessary to participate! )

Using Rubrics to Clarify Expectations

Instructors can use rubrics as a tool within the learning environment both to convey their expectations to students and to delineate their grading criteria. As a highly customizable tool, rubrics should be built and scaled based on the assignment they are purposed to assess. This, of course, rather demands an initial investment not only to develop learning activities but to design appropriately scaled assessment rubrics. Below is a list of resources that can help get you started on rubric development for your course assignments – but these tools are not one-size-fits-all. Starting small with a more widely applicable rubric may help you delineate some expectations for a set of assignments and/or a smaller project. Over time, you may wish to expand your rubric use to culminating projects, essays, and lab reports. 

As always, we at the Etown Teaching and Learning Design Studio would love to help you develop these helpful and specific learning assessment tools! Please feel free to reach out to us if you would like an instructional design consultation to discuss your vision and to brainstorm ideas for using rubrics in your class. 

AAC&U VALUE Rubrics (American Association of Colleges and Universities)

Beyond Fairness and Consistency in Grading The Role of Rubrics in Higher Education 2020

Creating and Using Rubrics (Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence at Carnegie Mellon University)

Grading Rubrics: Sample Scales (The Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning at Brown University)

Learning Maps for Ten Essential Learning Outcomes (Stockton University)

Using Rubrics (Center for Teaching Innovation at Cornell University)

Using LMS-Based Discussion Forums to Extend Learning

Utilizing LMS-based discussion forums provides instructors an effective multimodal strategy for extending course content learning into reflective cohort conversations. By engaging students’ prior knowledge with emerging themes in the learning experience, we set the stage for activities that encourage the community of inquiry among learners.

The attached guide provides timely advice and extended resources for developing and incorporating discussions within the LMS. Focusing on both the metacognitive aspects of the design process and the pedagogical considerations of practical implementation, this PDF provides best practice guidance, relevant examples, and additional resources to consult as you build discussion forums tailored to your specific course experience.

Using LMS-Based Discussion Forums to Extend Learning CDonlan IDOLS

Using Discussion Forums for Active Learning Across Modalities

Because discussion helps students process information, it remains important to learning across all academic disciplines and delivery modalities. With the goal of getting students to practice using the concepts they are learning through the course material, designing a discussion requires skills different from giving a lecture. Online forums embedded within the course LMS are an accessible way to facilitate class discussion, regardless if your course is face to face, online, or hybrid/hy-flex. Not only does an online discussion engage students with course material before coming to class in person, it also helps them reflect on material they have learned while also giving them time to absorb content and articulate responses.

Discussion-based teaching focuses on active learning principles and prioritizes discourse rather than passivity. Through an active learning approach to discussion, important concepts and skills are reinforced and explored through the community of inquiry. This interchange provides students with opportunities to think about, talk about, and figure out course material through guided practice and scholarly exchange.

Some additional benefits of online discussion for learning is that it increases students’ interest, comfort level, and sense of belonging. Through engaging in discussion, students get different perspectives on the topic. Good questions and thoughtful answers can get students to think deeply and make connections; this empowers learners and fosters greater agency and autonomy. The online discussion forum approach to engagement also helps students who might otherwise struggle to speak up in a face-to-face class because it provides them an opportunity to concentrate and formulate responses before interacting; this “buffer” allows learners to reflect on the topic and to think about the material in critical ways.

Providing open-ended prompts for discussion that elicit critical reflection, communicating clear expectations on both assignment and assessment, and allowing the community of inquiry to unfold organically are vital aspects of the mindful scaffolding approach to safeguarding the learning environment across modalities. A student’s ability to synthesize, to question, to engage, to utilize concepts, and to hypothesize can be optimized through these high-engagement/low-stakes learning opportunities.

If you would like additional guidance on designing effective and engaging discussion activities, please reach out to the Teaching and Learning Design Studio – and check out these helpful resources:

The Art and Science of Successful Online Discussions

Constructing Effective Online Discussions

21 Ways to Structure an Online Discussion, Part 1

21 Ways to Structure an Online Discussion, Part 2

21 Ways to Structure an Online Discussion, Part 3

21 Ways to Structure an Online Discussion, Part 4

21 Ways to Structure an Online Discussion, Part 5

Celebrate World Teachers’ Day with Professional Development

Today we celebrate teachers around the globe, and acknowledge their contributions to improving the quality of life for learners everywhere. I am proud to be a teacher, and to help other teachers grow their skills to nurture the learning ecosystems we serve.

Introduced by UNESCO in 1994, World Teachers’ Day emphasizes not only the impact teachers make on the educational community, but also the issues affecting teachers as we endeavor to continue our good works.  The theme “Teachers at the Heart of Education Recovery” has been appropriately designated for this year’s observance; this theme focuses on the broad work we are doing to deliver quality learning experiences and to evolve teaching perspectives even through disruptive adversity.

With this idea in mind, the Etown Teaching and Learning Design Studio proudly announces the availability of a second in a series of fully online professional development courses designed to enrich your practice as a valued member of our faculty. Teaching Presence Across Modalities aims to help you feel more comfortable and confident in establishing your teaching presence across multiple modes of instructional delivery; designed by a learning scientist, this free course offers up-to-date practical knowledge and instructional techniques to utilize in your daily practice and gives you access to resources you can revisit and grow as you move forward in your teaching. This professional development experience will remain open through November 30; the first course in this series, Giving Feedback in the Online Environment, is still open for your participation until October 31.

Now is the perfect time to invest in yourself the way you invest in our students!

Happy World Teachers’ Day! Keep learning. ??❤️

Happy Online Learning Day!

When you think about active learning spaces, what do you envision?  Robust content, engaging activities, student dialogue, community involvement, creative freedom? What does a learning space look like in 2021?

Active learning spaces do not necessarily constitute physical areas. One of the great lessons of 2020 was that learning can – and will – take shape across diverse delivery modalities. Authentic learning can – and will – continue to flourish in digital environments. Best practices integrated with technological tools, agile frameworks, design integrity, and invested stakeholders hold infinite potential for cultivating the online learning landscape in ways that grow more dynamic and inclusive every day.

Today, September 15, is National Online Learning Day, which makes it the perfect time to expand your perspective on what constitutes learning and to open your mind to the possibilities of where learning occurs.