Resources

Distance education today offers more than teaching and learning online. The growing sophistication and flexibility of synchronous technologies, plus continuing advances and familiarity with their uses, has opened up new opportunities for engaging students and relating with them in a myriad of ways. Honed through many years of experience and grounded in distance education research, the tips selected for this book are placed in the well respected framework of the instructional design process: pre-planning, planning, developing, implementing, evaluating. Of special interest is the Companion Web Site designed to offer depth, additional materials, and a practitioner blog. With the web site, the book, the blog, the reader has the opportunity to work with point and electronic media to create an innovative plan. The Companion Web Site and blog are hosted by Instructional Communications Systems of the University of Wisconsin Extension, making available their experience and wealth of information to us all. (From the Publisher)

A new course. Maybe a new institution. Or, perhaps a last-minute class assignment. Where does the adjunct or new faculty member begin? How to make this an involving, innovative course? Patricia Linehan creates a plan for developing a dynamic and well-organized course. By using the structure that she outlines, instructors--whether experienced or novice--will be able to easily structure the course and then move on to concerning themselves with the content. Based on her own experiences as an adjunct, a new instructor, and an advisor to new professionals, Dr. Linehan developed this straightforward and practice system. It includes preparing for a new class, assessment, active learning skills, and important attention to professional development. (From the Publisher)

Making Learning Happen provides an accessible and practical discussion of teaching and learning for the post-compulsorysector of higher and further education. Much of the existing educational literature on 'learning' is written in language which makes it inaccessible to the people most directly involved in learning: learners and their teachers. This book avoids the unnecessary jargon and elitist language which has too often hitherto hindered teachers and learners alike in thinking about how best to make learning happen. This book will help staff in higher and further education increase the 'learning payoff' which their students derive from a wide range of educational contexts, at all levels in post-compulsory education. The book is centred around Phil Race's well-known 'ripples on a pond' model of learning, which has identified five fundamental factors underpinning successful learning: 'wanting' to learn 'needing' to learn 'learning by doing' 'feedback' 'digesting - making sense of what has been learned'. This text will allow teachers and students to address these factors head-on in a wide range of contexts, including large-group teaching, small-group work, online learning, and in their use of formative feedback to help their students. Included in the book is a self-analysis questionnaire to enable learners to reflect on how these factors contribute to their own approaches to learning. Making Learning Happen is a valuable resource for Postgraduate students on PGD higher and further education courses, staff development courses in all Bristish universities, and is a helpful tool for lecturers and tutors in higher and further education, post-16 teachers in secondary education, educational managers, and students themselves. (From the Publisher)

Daryl G. Smith's career has been devoted to studying and fostering diversity in higher education. She has witnessed and encouraged the evolution of diversity from an issue addressed sporadically on college campuses to an imperative if institutions want to succeed. In Diversity's Promise for Higher Education, she analyzes how diversity is practiced today and offers new recommendations for effecting lasting and meaningful change. Smith argues that in the next generation of work on diversity, student population mix and performance will no longer be acceptable indicators of an institution's diversity effectiveness. To become more relevant to society, the nation, and the world while remaining true to their core mission, institutions must begin to see diversity, like technology, as central to teaching and research. She proposes a set of practices that will help colleges and universities embrace diversity as a tool for institutional success. This thoughtful volume draws on 40 years of diversity studies. It offers both researchers and administrators an innovative approach to developing and instituting effective and sustainable diversity strategies. (From the Publisher)

Rethinking Learning for a Digital Age addresses the complex and diverse experiences of learners in a world embedded with digital technologies. The text combines first-hand accounts from learners with extensive research and analysis, including a developmental model for effective e-learning, and a wide range of strategies that digitally-connected learners are using to fit learning into their lives. A companion to Rethinking Pedagogy for a Digital Age (2007), this book focuses on how learners’ experiences of learning are changing and raises important challenges to the educational status quo. Moves beyond stereotypes of the net generation to explore the diversity of e-learning experiences today • *Analyses learners' experiences holistically, across the many technologies and learning opportunities they encounter • *Reveals digital-age learners as creative actors and networkers in their own right, who make strategic choices about their use of digital applications and learning approaches Today’s learners are active participants in their learning experiences and are shaping their own educational environments. Professors, learning practitioners, researchers, and policy-makers will find Rethinking Learning for a Digital Age invaluable for understanding the learning experience, and shaping their own responses. (From the Publisher)