"For those who think online learning can't be truly interactive, Patti Shank and her colleagues clearly demonstrate--in hundreds of examples--that it can. The real lesson in The Online Learning Idea Book is that technology doesn't build interactive learning; creative thinking and good, solid instructional design does. Using even a smidgen of the great ideas in this book will increase the learning effectiveness of any online program." --Marc J. Rosenberg, consultant, and author of Beyond E-Learning "Patti Shank has collected great ideas about online learning and teaching from all over the globe. If you are an online instructor or instructional designer looking for new ways to involve and engage your learners, you'll be inspired by this book!"--Terry Morris, associate professor, William Rainey Harper Colleges Filled with techniques, tools, tips, examples, resources, and dozens of "great ideas,? this invaluable resource helps people who are looking to build online instructional materials -- or improve existing materials -- discover and implement what the best and brightest in industry and education are doing to make online learning more engaging and compelling. Increase your know-how in the following areas: Look and Feel: how to increase ease-of-use Graphics and Multimedia: how to make instructional graphics engaging and compelling Activities: how to make instruction itself engaging and compelling Tools: how to use a variety of online tools Instructional Design: how to design better and faster.

Many books recommend teaching and learning strategies based on current learning research and theory. However, few books offer illustrative examples of how to take these strategies and put them into action in the real world. The Online Learning Idea Book is filled with concrete examples of people who make learning more inspiring and engaging every day, in all kinds of settings, all over the world. In this second volume of The Online Learning Idea Book you will find brand new and valuable ideas that you can adopt or adapt in your own instructional materials, to make them more dynamic and more worthwhile for learners and learning. These ideas will let you peek over the shoulders of some of the world's most creative instructors, instructional designers and developers, trainers, media developers, and others in order to help spark creative ideas of your own. This hands-on resource will help you build online instructional materials or improve existing materials including online courses, modules, activities, or supplementary materials for classroom-based courses. This book provides great tips, techniques, and tricks in the following areas: The Design and Development Process, Supporting Learning, Synchronous and Interpersonal Activities, Asynchronous and Self-Paced Activities, and NS Better Media. Within these pages you will discover creative ways to give your online and blended instruction a boost by adopting and adapting great ideas from others.

This is an essential resource for anyone designing or facilitating online learning. It introduces an easy, practical model (R2D2: read, reflect, display, and do) that will show online educators how to deliver content in ways that benefit all types of learners (visual, auditory, observational, and kinesthetic) from a wide variety of backgrounds and skill levels. With a solid theoretical foundation and concrete guidance and examples, this book can be used as a handy reference, a professional guidebook, or a course text. The authors intend for it to help online instructors and instructional designers as well as those contemplating such positions design, develop, and deliver learner-centered online instruction. Empowering Online Learning has 25 unique activities for each phase of the R2D2 model as well as summary tables helping you pick and choose what to use whenever you need it. Each activity lists a description, skills addressed, advice, variations, cost, risk, and time index, and much more. This title is loaded with current information about emerging technologies (e.g., simulations, podcasts, wikis, blogs) and the Web 2.0. With a useful model, more than 100 online activities, the latest information on emerging technologies, hundreds of quickly accessible Web resources, and relevance to all types and ages of learners--Empowering Online Learning is a book whose time has come.

Meaningful Online Learning explores the design and facilitation of high-quality online learning experiences and outcomes through the integration of theory-based instructional strategies, learning activities, and proven educational technologies. Building on the authors’ years of synthesized research and expertise, this textbook prepares instructors in training to create, deliver, and evaluate learner-centered online pedagogies. Pre- and in-service K–12 teachers, higher education faculty, and instructional designers in private, corporate, or government settings will find a comprehensive approach and support system for their design efforts.

Engaging the Online Learner This updated edition includes an innovative framework the Phases of Engagement that helps learners become more involved as knowledge generators and cofacilitators of a course. The book also provides specific ideas for tested activities (collected from experienced online instructors across the nation) that can go a long way to improving online learning. Engaging the Online Learner offers the tools and information needed to: Convert classroom activities to an online environment Assess the learning that occurs as a result of collaborative activities Phase in activities that promote engagement among online learners Build peer interaction through peer partnerships and team activities Create authentic activities and implement games and simulations Praise for Engaging the Online Learner "The Phases of Engagement framework provides a road map for creating community at each phase of an online course. This book is an invaluable guide to innovative practices for online learning." Judith V. Boettcher, coauthor of The Online Teaching Survival Guide "Engagement is the heart of online learning. The authors have developed an encyclopedia of tried-and-true learner engagement activities that are authentic and ready to use." Donald P. Ely, professor emeritus, instructional design, development and evaluation in the School of Education, Syracuse University

This book provides an updated look at issues that comprise the online learning experience creation process. As online learning evolves, the lines and distinctions between various classifications of courses has blurred and often vanished. Classic elements of instructional design remain relevant at the same time that newer concepts of learning experience are growing in importance. However, problematic issues new and old still have to be addressed. This handbook explores many of these topics for new and experienced designers alike, whether creating traditional online courses, open learning experiences, or anything in between.

Continuing to Engage the Online Learner Contributing to both the theoretical and practical literature, Continuing to Engage the Online Learner expands on the work of Conrad and Donaldson's bestselling Engaging the Online Learner. This next-step resource introduces a new phase to their proven model, the Phases of Engagement, and addresses a wide range of online and hybrid learning environments, technology tools, and communication styles. Comprehensive in scope, the book provides an introduction to the theory of engaged learning and its design, assessment, and management in online and blended learning environments and describes the types of activities that motivate the online learner in each phase of engagement. This down-to-earth resource also includes 50 new and illustrative activities paired with each phase of engagement. In Continuing to Engage the Online Learner Rita-Marie Conrad and J. Ana Donaldson provide relevant and theoretically-sound information to enhance teaching and engage learners, offering a practical handbook for instructors. "Conrad and Donaldson have done it again! Not only have they presented a solid and useful discussion of the phases of engagement, they have brought the theory alive through the presentation of practical activities that would work well in any online or hybrid course." Rena Palloff, faculty, Fielding Graduate University and author, The Excellent Online Instructor

"For those who think online learning can't be truly interactive, Patti Shank and her colleagues clearly demonstrate--in hundreds of examples--that it can. The real lesson in The Online Learning Idea Book is that technology doesn't build interactive learning; creative thinking and good, solid instructional design does. Using even a smidgen of the great ideas in this book will increase the learning effectiveness of any online program." --Marc J. Rosenberg, consultant, and author of Beyond E-Learning "Patti Shank has collected great ideas about online learning and teaching from all over the globe. If you are an online instructor or instructional designer looking for new ways to involve and engage your learners, you'll be inspired by this book!"--Terry Morris, associate professor, William Rainey Harper Colleges Filled with techniques, tools, tips, examples, resources, and dozens of "great ideas,? this invaluable resource helps people who are looking to build online instructional materials -- or improve existing materials -- discover and implement what the best and brightest in industry and education are doing to make online learning more engaging and compelling. Increase your know-how in the following areas: Look and Feel: how to increase ease-of-use Graphics and Multimedia: how to make instructional graphics engaging and compelling Activities: how to make instruction itself engaging and compelling Tools: how to use a variety of online tools Instructional Design: how to design better and faster.

Published in Association with 2020 AECT Division of Distance Learning Book AwardSocial presence continues to emerge as a key factor for successful online and blended learning experiences. It is commonly described as the degree to which online participants feel connected to one another. Understanding social presence—with its critical connections to community-building, retention, and learning outcomes—allows faculty and instructional designers to better support and engage students. This volume, Social Presence in Online Learning, addresses the evolution of social presence with three distinct perspectives, outlines the relevant research, and focuses on practical strategies that can immediately impact the teaching and learning experience. These strategies include creating connections to build community, applying content to authentic situations, integrating a careful mix of tools and media, leveraging reflective and interactive opportunities, providing early and continuous feedback, designing with assessment in mind, and encouraging change in small increments. Because student satisfaction and motivation plays a key role in retention rates and because increased social presence often leads to enriched learning experiences, it is advantageous to mindfully integrate social presence into learning environments.Social Presence in Online Learning brings together eminent scholars in the field to distinguish among three different perspectives of social presence and to address how these viewpoints immediately inform practice. This important volume: • Provides an overview of the evolution of social presence, key findings from social presence research, and practical strategies that can improve the online and blended learning experience• Differentiates three distinct perspectives on social presence and explains the ideas and models that inform these perspectives• Explores specific ways in which social presence relates to course satisfaction, retention, and outcomes• Offers practical implications and ready-to-use techniques that are applicable to multiple disciplines• Introduces current research on social presence by prominent researchers in the field with direct inferences to the practice of online and blended learning • Looks at future directions for social presenceSocial Presence in Online Learning is appropriate for practitioners, researchers and academics involved in any level of online learning program design, course design, instruction, support, and leadership as well as for graduate students studying educational technology, technology-enhanced learning, and online and blended learning. It brings together multiple perspectives on social presence from the most influential scholars in the field to help shape the future of online and blended learning.

Online education, both by for-profit institutions and within traditional universities, has seen recent tremendous growth and appeal - but online education has many aspects that are not well understood. The SAGE Encyclopedia of Online Education provides a thorough and engaging reference on all aspects of this field, from the theoretical dimensions of teaching online to the technological aspects of implementing online courses—with a central focus on the effective education of students. Key topics explored through over 350 entries include: · Technology used in the online classroom · Institutions that have contributed to the growth of online education · Pedagogical basis and strategies of online education · Effectiveness and assessment · Different types of online education and best practices · The changing role of online education in the global education system