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A special thanks to our practicum student, Xiuyuan He, for contributing to this month’s From the Archive blog post. Xiuyuan is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison iSchool.

In this month’s From the Archive blog post, we highlight resources on the theory and practice of online education, which may be useful to educators and administrators who are interested in online course development and design. Our first resource offers an overview of selected learning theories, principles of deeper learning, and successful instructional strategies. The second is a collection of presentations from a 2016 committee meeting on online education; this meeting centered on a report published by the Online Education Policy Initiative at MIT. Our last resource is from the Articulated Technological Education Pathways project. It provides an introduction to and tutorial on Moodle, a free, open-source learning management system.

Online Learning Strategies: Theory Overview

Still relevant today, this webinar from the Maricopa Advanced Technology Education Center (MATEC), takes a closer look at online learning from an instructional perspective. Several knowledge acquisition theories including constructivism, experiential, and contextual learning are discussed along with the implications for online learning.This webinar can assist instructors as they design their online courses to encourage more student interaction and include meaningful learning activities for students. The webinar requires Blackboard Collaborate Launcher to view. A handout and presentation slides are also available.

For more resources offered by MATEC, visit the ATE Central resource portal.

Supply Chain for Middle-Skill Jobs: Report Release on Online Education from MIT Researchers

This collection of slide decks, offered by the National Academy of Sciences, includes material presented at a 2016 committee meeting titled Supply Chain for Middle-Skill Jobs: Report Release on Online Education from MIT Researchers. Created by the Online Education Policy Initiative (OEPI) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the Online Education: A Catalyst for Higher Education Reforms report, "look[ed] at the challenge of how both online and blended learning can be optimized by incorporating emerging lessons from learning science, from discipline-based education reforms, and from cognitive science." 

A few of the topics covered during the 2016 committee meeting include the challenge of disaggregated improvement efforts on campuses, interdisciplinary collaboration and institutional and organizational change, career and technical education, as well as outside-in and inside-out research approaches.

For more archived resources offered by The Supply Chain for Middle-Skill Jobs, visit the ATE Central resource portal.

Learning How to Use the ATEP Moodle Course

This course module, developed by the Articulated Technological Education Pathways (ATEP) project, is intended to teach users how to use Moodle, an open-source learning platform. Users will learn how to navigate Moodle, assign roles, control what users see, deliver content to users, how to communicate with students, and more. Each section of the course includes resources related to the instruction topic. The module is divided into nine sections: Getting Around Moodle, Course Roles, Display Control, Profiles, Activities, Groups, Gradebook, Reports, and Communication.

For more archived resources offered by ATEP, visit the ATE Central resource portal.