Online Learning News - July 22, 2020

Explore Designs for Synchronous Learning at Brandon University, Canada

See how instructors at Brandon University in Manitoba structure interactive synchronous sessions, balancing presentations, breakout group discussions and activities. These strategies lead to enhanced student engagement, participation and learning. 

Contact North | Contact Nord’s Directory of Online, Open & Distance Learning Associations and Consortia Throughout the World

Contact North | Contact Nord created this non-exhaustive list of online, distance and open learning associations and consortia around the world, providing links to websites (if available) to widen access to the valuable information offered by each.

Explore the directory

A Few Spots Available!

Thursday, July 23, 2020 from 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. (ET)

Join Dr. David Chandross, gamification and mixed reality expert at the Ted Rogers School of Management at Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada, for an interactive one and half-hour webinar to assist faculty and instructors to design serious games for their online courses using common, simple digital platforms.

See here for more information and to register

Host: Dr. David Chandross

Serious Games Expert & Senior Scholar, Ted Rogers School of Management at Ryerson University

Back by Popular Demand!

Leveraging Online Learning Not Only to Increase Access but Also to Develop New Skills

Tuesday, July 28, 2020 from 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. (ET)

During the first 30 minutes of this interactive webinar, Dr. Bates offers insights, practical advice and guidelines about access and digitalization and how technology can facilitate skills development in post-secondary education. The remaining 30 minutes is a moderated question and answer and discussion session with Dr. Bates.

Register Here

Host Dr. Tony Bates

Contact North | Contact Nord Research Associate

Read Dr. Tony Bates’ Blog Post

In this blog post, Dr. Bates uses the experience from COVID-19 to identify and comment on some of the affordances or ‘difficult to replace’ characteristics of in-person teaching and learning. In particular, revisiting the real benefits of a comprehensive, publicly funded in-person school system.

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

What have we learned from Covid-19 about the limitations of online learning – and the implications for the fall?

Must-Read Books on Online Learning

Must-Read Books on Online Learning features books and articles of interest to those involved in the expansion and improvement of online learning.

Youde, A. (2020). The Emotionally Intelligent Online Tutor – Effective Tutoring in Blended and Distance Learning Environments. London: Routledge.

Tutoring online is an art. Some see it as correcting student work or as an instructional activity, but it is much more than that. It is a relationship of engagement and sharing in which the intention is to develop a sense of real engagement of the learner with the work, the materials being studied, with other learners and with the tutor. It’s a real skill – one that not all who “lecture for a living” have. The focus is on adult learners and the development of intensely human connections. It’s well written and researched.

Browse all Must-Read Books