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Podcast Series: Innovations in Education

Explore the full series of eCampus News podcasts hosted by Kevin Hogan—created to keep you on the cutting edge of innovations in education.

Indiana U builds community and empowers students with machine learning

In the past decade, higher education has experienced a major shift toward digital experiences. This change reflects the way in which the rising generation prefers to engage with each other and with their instructors—as well as how they desire to learn. It’s an evolution that is echoed at campuses across the nation.

This means that the way faculty and staff interact with students is fundamentally changing. Students expect to be able to connect with us anytime, from anywhere. This is particularly challenging for us at Indiana University (IU) because we are so geographically dispersed and touch an enormous diversity of individuals and groups, with a fall 2018 enrollment of more than 114,000 across eight campuses and multiple satellite locations. At IU, we have a compelling need to create new pathways to support our students and to give them digital options to engage with faculty, staff, and each other across disciplines and locations.

To address this challenge, we believe it’s important to leverage smart tools that not only tap into the expertise of our staff but also incorporate emerging capabilities such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning.…Read More

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Should every educator also be a gamer?

University instructional design experts and seasoned gamers say playing games is essential for professional development

game-educator-courseThere’s an old saying for writers that goes “Write what you know,” and now, it seems that current instructional practice is telling educators developing courses something similar: “Design what you know.”

Today’s course design is under incredible pressure from popular practices favored by students—practices like the inclusion of interactive mobile technology, blended learning, Flipped Learning, and the integration of peer community forums—and according to experts, understanding the reasons why students prefer these methods of instruction can be gleaned from taking part in gaming.

“We do games so that we can relate better to our students,” said Kae Novak, chair for ISTE’s SIG Virtual Environments and project lead instructional designer for student engagement and assessment at Front Range Community College. “Students constantly tell us that they wish classes were more like games, so knowing the parts of gaming that can be incorporated into learning helps to change our knowledge structure.”…Read More

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How to flip faculty PD

Flipping helps faculty get more personalized support, provides community

flipped-PD-facultyThe recent focus on flipping courses for students highlights the multiple benefits this method of teaching and learning can provide. However, faculty, otherwise known as perpetual students, can benefit from this method through professional development (PD).

But how do you actually flip PD? In much the same way a professor would flip course material, with a few slight adjustments; for example, in offering IT or other departmental specialists on-hand for expertise and support.

By looking to flipped PD experts, as well as multiple resources on the subject, this article examines why flipping PD is beneficial to educators, especially when learning to implement different education technologies.…Read More

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