Adapted from Arthur W. Pickering and Zelda Gamson’s 1987 article “Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education”.
Emphasize Time on Task
Ensure all instructional content, resource materials, learning activities, assignments, and assessments are divided into manageable segments that promote learning. Reasonable completion deadlines should accompany every learning activity which includes appropriate open and close dates as well as absolute deadlines and submission times. Many eCourseware features like the course calendar, class progress interface, grade book, dropbox folders, checklists, and other intelligence agents should be incorporated into every course and activated to promote time on task. The class progress interface, for example, can help both students and instructors to recognize when the pace is falling behind schedule. It can also help them to quickly identify and remediate performance problems or issues.
Set Expectations for Teaching and Learning
Generally speaking, educators do a good job of offering “the what” and “the how” behind instructional content which is shared; however, rarely if ever, do they address why students should learn the material or highlight the value acquiring the information will have in their future endeavors. By giving the audience a chance to participate in their own learning and making it as much about them as possible, instructors are able to gain buy-in from their students. More than anything else, students want to know and understand the “WIIFM“ or “What’s in it for me?“ Using the course orientation module ‘Getting Started’ in the M50 template and the syllabus set very clear expectations for what students will learn and how they will be taught. Include details about how they will receive instructional content and, more importantly, explain why mastering the material is important.
The desire to improve performance, increase learning, and change behavior continually drives desires to challenge and expand knowledge especially when it involves how individuals receive, process, and store information. To learn more, watch Adult Learning Theory.
Consider Diverse Learning Preferences
Understanding how students learn and how they prefer to receive information is one of the keys to a well designed online course. Adult learning theory is not an assembly of catchphrases, opinions, or abstract ideas.
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