RECOMMENDED PRACTICES FOR DIGITAL LEARNING
DESIGN
- Your learning should be conversational and age-appropriate in both tone and language
- Deliver just-in-time learning; teach people what they need to know, when they need to know it - nothing more, nothing less
- Ensure your visuals are engaging
- Ensure your visuals add value and do not distract for the content you are teaching - limit your screen content to essential information
- Highlight essential information (this means tossing out formal learning objectives (that no one reads anyway))
- Employ pre-learning when possible; it gives learners confidence going into the session, allows you to focus on more complex and detailed content, and enables learners to take accountability for their own learning
- Leverage free online tools to create storyboards, videos, info graphics, podcasts, and more!
- Leverage social media to help share content, stimulate peer to peer interaction, and keep the conversation going
- Plan for and utilize collaboration!
- Ensure everything you are teaching and everything students will interact with is accessible
Thura's Digital Forums for ESL Educators
Using Online forums for ESL classes Online forums help support learner writing development, such as problem-solving, critical thinking, and critique skills - all useful for shorter and less formal assignments. In addition, they allow for embedding and displays of multimedia, which offers an advantage over paper submissions. They also provide a means for learner response and discussion of readings that are assigned as independent work, and could be a place where students reflect and express their thoughts and opinions on course readings. Examples of free forums and blogs ■www.proboards.com ■ www.freeforums.org ■ www.wordpress.com ■ www.padlets.com ■ www.forumotion.com Thura's Methodology
If you have no time to photocopy and do extra ‘unpaid’ work, refer to the suggested websites below for different materials for forum/ blog assignments. They offer a broad range of materials such as articles, academic talks, informal talks and videos, and lectures. You can either print the readings or provide links in your forums for the students to access the materials. ■ www.hbr.org Articles and reading materials ■ www.uefap.com All language skills- Academic ■ www.ted.com Videos and listening ■ www.cbc.ca Reading and Podcasts ■ www.bbc.co.uk Reading and Podcasts ■ www.youtube.com VOA Learning English Listening Skills ■ www.businessenglishonline.net Case studies ■ www.readinga-z.com Reading Assessment Assessments can be conducted daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly depending on program length and duration. I do my assessment weekly, and I give the rubrics including marks to my students based on the following criteria: ■ Number of postings ■ Demonstration of knowledge and understanding from the assigned reading/ video ■ Compliance with online guidelines and etiquette Suggestion You can still include parts where you would assess grammar, use of language, punctuation, etc. as desired. Personally, I was teaching writing as a separate course to the same group, so in my assessment, I focused more on the content and the argument as opposed to accuracy for the sake of not placing additional pressure on learners when it came to writing. |
CANADIAN LANGUAGE BENCHMARKSLesson about Social Media from The ESL Library
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improveeducationbydwest.pdf | |
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