Instructional Designer

Hello!

CWI's Instruction Coordinator & Faculty Outreach Librarian

At CWI

Before CWI…

Course Background Information

HO 0107 - 02: Medical Law and Ethics

Prerequisite for several ISU degrees

Student Perspective

1. Students love the textbook and find it an easy read
2. Student engagement is a struggle

Faculty Concerns

1. Faculty would like to improve instructor presence
2. Faculty would like to improve accessibility
3. Faculty would like explore implementing Universal Design for Learning (UDL)

Recommendations

Current Strengths

1. Introductions, both yours and the students
2. Student-to-student forum
3. Videos with captions

Recommendation One

Consider using more frequent, short videos

• Your own video introduction
• Invite students to post video introductions as well

Recommendation One: Videos

Vanderbuilt's educational video review suggests
videos be no longer than 6-9 minutes

UDL guidelines suggest multiple modes for
engaging with content and communicating student understanding

Recommendation One: Videos

Informal, shorter videos can address:

• instructor presence
• accessibility
• student engagement

Recommendation Two

Consider optional student video or multimedia responses on forum Assignments

Media exclusively? media as supplements to written elements? Your choice!

CAST has useful, short pages on using audio, images, and videos accessibly

Recommendation Two: Multimedia Options

These could address:

• UDL recommendation for multiple means of communication
• Student feelings of community belonging and engagement

Recommendation Two: Multimedia Options

• Caution: consider demonstrating how students can add captions and alt text to their media, particularly if you offer this option for forum posts
• Benefit: multimedia creation and accessibility are valuable, transferable skills

Recommendation Three

Consider a Student-Faculty Forum, similar to your existing Student-Student Forum

Recommendation Three

UDL encourages adaptive design, and the Universal Design for Learning: A Practical Guide* encourages student feedback as part of "design thinking"

* written by Takacs and Zhang of the Justice Institute of British Columbia, therefore not one of CAST's official UDL resources… but very useful!

Recommendation Three: Student-Faculty Forum

Formative student feedback could help:

Recommendation Four

Consider Clarifying and Minimizing Potential Sources of Confusion

This could address:

• faculty interest in accessibility and UDL
• help students better engage with material

Recommendation Four: Clarify

Consider adding your own synthesis or highlights to materials

Referring to course performance and learning objectives is a strength!

Reducing the executive function necessary for students to make these connections takes this strength further

Recommendation Four: Clarify

UDL has excellent examples for clarifying

For example, you could list assignments in more strictly chronological sequence

Recommendation Four: Clarify

Consider Using Inline Frames for Documents

Moodle's documentation has more details on using IFrames in Moodle.

Recommendation Five

Additional "What Will You Learn" Summaries

These can help students:

• better understand in the short term
• better prepare for transfer in the long term

Recommendation Five: Summaries

You've already begun doing this!

Consider doing it more intentionally and consistently

Recommendations Summary

1. Use multimedia
2. Optional media responses
3. Student-Faculty forum
4. Clarify for engagement & executive function
5. "What Will You Learn?" summaries