The Universal Design for Learning research suggests that providing multiple modalities of content will improve student learning outcomes, but it can be time-consuming to develop multiple formats of your course content. The new Ally tool will do this for you … Read More
Sway is a chat platform that connects students with differing perspectives into one-on-one conversations and facilitates better discussions between them. Developed with Heterodox Academy and inspired by John Stuart Mill’s radical view that engaging with opposing perspectives is an essential tool for improving reasoning and solving complex problems, Sway aims to create online spaces where we can all learn to discuss controversial issues more openly and constructively.
Researchers examined how lecture video playback speed affects student learning by having undergraduates watch recorded lectures at normal speed (1x), faster speeds (1.5x, 2x, 2.5x), or by watching videos more than once at increased speed. Students completed comprehension tests immediately after viewing and again one week later. The study focused on whether faster playback harms understanding or long-term retention, a common concern among instructors using recorded lectures.
Teacher Confirmation Theory (Ellis, 2000) explains how instructor behaviors communicate to students that they are valued, respected, and capable of learning. These confirming behaviors reduce psychological distance, increase motivation, and improve affective and cognitive learning outcomes. The theory identifies four core dimensions: willingness to engage, recognition, acknowledgment, and endorsement.
The Inclusive Pedagogy (IP) Toolkit from Georgetown’s Center for New Designs in Learning & Scholarship (CNDLS) offers faculty a concise, practical collection of strategies for creating learning environments where all students can participate and succeed. It outlines core principles of inclusive teaching—such as transparency, flexibility, and fostering belonging—and turns them into easy-to-apply practices for course design, classroom interactions, and assessment.
Is it more effective to take a 10-minute break halfway through a 90-minute lecture or a 90-second break every 10 minutes? Researchers investigated the effect of the timing of these breaks on learners in an undergraduate psychology course and have some interesting findings:
One of the challenges of teaching is reaching every student. This can be especially difficult in distance courses where you don’t have a chance to grab a student after class to check in on them.
Deslauriers et al. (2019) compared traditional lecture with active learning in an introductory physics course. Although students in the active sections learned more—as shown by higher performance on objective tests—they felt like they learned less. The authors argue that active learning requires more cognitive effort, which students may interpret as poor learning, while smooth lectures create an illusion of learning. This mismatch suggests that student perceptions alone (e.g., course evaluations) can be misleading when judging teaching effectiveness.
Chew & Cerbin propose a research-based framework of nine interacting cognitive challenges that teachers must address in order to promote “optimal learning” rather than merely acceptable performance. They emphasize that teaching is not just delivering content but creating the conditions in which students learn. Each of the nine challenges represents a characteristic of how students think, learn, or struggle — the idea being that failure to address any one of these can undermine learning. The authors describe each challenge, provide examples, and suggest instructional strategies for mitigation.
This is a piece of my own research I conducted with Teri St. Pierre and others that is very relevant to designing YourPace courses. To understand the experience of academically high achieving working mothers in distance education, we interviewed and … Read More