Online Learning News - April 20, 2022

Free Contact North | Contact Nord Webinar

How to Improve Assessment and Feedback Practice

Tuesday, April 26, 2022

2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. (Eastern Time)

Register Now!

What can the future of assessment and feedback look like?

Hosted by Sarah Knight, Head of learning and teaching transformation, higher education at Jisc, you’ll come away from this engaging and interactive webinar with an understanding of how to:

• Help learners understand what they are aiming for by engaging them with the requirements and performance criteria for each task

• Support learners’ personalized needs by being accessible, inclusive and compassionate

• Foster active learning by recognizing that engagement with learning resources, tutors and peers offer opportunities for formative development

• Develop autonomous learners by encouraging self-generated feedback, self-regulation, reflection, dialogue and peer review

• Manage workloads effectively by having the right assessment, at the right time, supported by efficient business processes

• Foster a motivated learning community by involving students in decision-making and supporting staff in developing their own practices

• Promote learner employability by assessing authentic tasks and encouraging ethical conduct

A Decade of TEACHONLINE.CA

When Contact North | Contact Nord launched teachonline.ca in 2011, the intent was to share best practices and resources with faculty, instructors, instructional designers, administrators and policy-makers.

By 2022, more than a decade later, the same focus exists for teachonline.ca, attracting 275,000 unique visitors each year from around the world!

Read the Full Story

Dr. Tony Bates’ Blog:
Online Learning and Distance Education

In this blog post, Dr. Bates discusses the strengths and weaknesses of synchronous and asynchronous teaching and learning based on lessons from COVID-19.

Read Contact North I Contact Nord Research Associate Dr. Tony Bates’ blog post:

Discussing the strengths and weaknesses of synchronous or asynchronous teaching

Leaders & Legends of Online Learning

Dr. Mark Nichols’ Podcast

Leaders & Legends of Online Learning is a podcast that brings first-person perspectives from online learning experts that inform and inspire. Each interview lasts about 30 minutes, and links to each guest's work and profile.

In this episode, Dr. Mark Nichols interviews Dr. George Siemens, Professor and the Executive Director of the Learning Innovations and Networked Knowledge Research Lab at the University of Texas at Arlington.

Beyond the Basics:
Helping You Teach More Effectively with Zoom’s Advanced Tools

You have mastered the basic features of teaching on Zoom, so now what?

Beyond the Basics is live training geared specifically to educators and trainers like you. Led by Contact North | Contact Nord’s e-Learning Training Facilitator, our FREE session will help you boost engagement and accessibility for all types of learners:

• Enable live transcriptions for added accessibility
• Use PowerPoint as a virtual background, as a more immersive way to present
• Use focus mode to help learners avoid distractions by only seeing the host's webcam
• Use immersive view for creative discussions
• Set up and use exit surveys for all types of feedback
• Set up advanced polling and quizzes for instant engagement

Register now for a one-hour live FREE training session!

This Week’s Must-Read Book 
on Online Learning

Student-Created Media: Designing Research, Learning and Skill-Building Experiences

By Scott Spicer (2022)

Moving past traditional assignments – essays, tests, exams – to a rich, story-telling, multi-media approach demands new skills and capabilities for students and their instructors. This book offers insights into how to enable this work. Case studies, step-by-step guides, checklists and questions will help readers craft appropriate and effective assignments, which have deep impact on students and their audiences. 

Browse all Must-Read Books

Search the Profiles of
115+ Online Learning Researchers
in the Contact North I Contact Nord
Searchable Directory

The researchers share a common commitment to improving online learning experiences for students. They explore topics such as strategies for student engagement, design principles, learning motivation, success and support.

Each profile features the researcher’s interests, key collaborators, institutional information and top three cited publications in the past five years.

Search the Contact North I Contact Nord
Searchable Directory

Upcoming Events in Online Learning

EdCog 2022: 10th Anniversary

McMaster Conference on Education & Cognition

July 14 & 15, 2022

Onsite and Virtual Options

Cognitive scientists have been systemically studying processes such as attention, memory and learning for more than 150 years. This rich resource of knowledge has been only recently applied to developing evidence-based interventions in education. The speakers in this conference will explore how cognitive principles can inform instructional design and critical issues in education to bridge the gap between the lab and classroom

For More Information and to Register

About Contact North | Contact Nord

As Ontario's community-based bilingual distance education and training network, Contact North | Contact Nord helps underserved residents in 1,300 small, rural, remote, Indigenous and Francophone communities access education and training without leaving their communities.

Visit contactnorth.ca for more information

Most Popular Resources on teachonline.ca

1. A New Pedagogy Is Emerging... and Online Learning Is a Key Contributing Factor 
2. Searchable Directory of 1,700 Upcoming Education and Technology Conferences From Around the World 
3. Ten Facts You Need to Know About Micro-Credentials 
4. Ten Guiding Principles for the Use of Technology in Learning
5. COVID-19 and the Impact on Online Learning