UM3D: Instructional Impact Blog
for Designing, Developing, and Delivering Courses
UM3D recently launched a video series called How do I…? on our YouTube channel. Each Friday afternoon we release a new short, concise video answering some of the most frequently asked questions of our technology trainers and instructional designers. You can view our entire series so far in our How do I…playlist. Subscribe so you’ll…
It’s the start of a new semester. For some instructors, this might be the first time using our new learning management system, Canvas. Since launching in Spring 2022, Canvas has become integral to our teaching. Of course, our fully online courses rely on Canvas for materials, lectures, assessments and interactions, but our on ground courses…
Many textbook publishers offer integrations, via “widgets”, with our Learning Management System (LMS). If your textbook is one of those with an integration, you can incorporate resources and quiz questions into your online course easily. With publisher widgets installed, you can link students directly to the publisher’s eBook, tools, and resources. The major publisher widgets…
Cognitive load is the portion of the memory that remembers and processes new information on short time scales (“short term working memory”). It has very limited capacity. Many studies have shown that anything that adds demands on working memory (“cognitive load”) that is not essential for the desired learning will reduce that learning (Meyer and…
Student success is a large part of your course. Your teaching can make all the difference to an online student. (Online) Teaching Your Students Flower Darby, author of Small Teaching Online, writes in her online teaching guide: “Online learning requires high-level executive-function skills that some students may not possess. The lack of social and logistical…