Join us on April 24 for Achieving the Dream’s 2026 Teaching and Learning Summit: Future-Ready Pedagogy, a free, virtual event that will explore how community colleges can strengthen student learning in a world shaped by technology with practical strategies.
Beyond Engagement: Evidence-Based Strategies for Improving Self-Directed Learning in Online College Courses
Friday, April 24, 2026, 1:00-2:00 and 2:15–3:15 PM
To succeed in online courses, students need skills to manage their own learning, stay motivated, and ask for help, often with limited guidance. In this session, researchers present an actionable self-directed learning (SDL) framework to bolster students’ learning skills and mindsets. They will share the SDL Instructional Model, comprised of three easy-to-implement instructional strategies co-developed and tested in STEM courses at broad-access institutions.
From this session, participants will:
- Deepen their understanding of how SDL addresses student and faculty challenges in online courses;
- Explore three evidence-supported strategies to promote SDL that can be implemented in any course, regardless of discipline or modality;
- Learn from perspectives from instructors and students who have used the Model; and
- Reflect on how to apply the Model in one’s own institutional and instructional settings.
Participants will leave with specific guidance and resources to apply these strategies in their own classrooms.
Learn more and register here!
Presenters
- Susan Bickerstaff, Senior Research Associate, Community College Research Center (CCRC), Teachers College, Columbia University
- Hannah Cheever, Senior Education Researcher, SRI
- K.C. Williams, Executive Director of Teaching and Learning, Achieving the Dream
Materials
- Self-Directed Learning Instructional Model
- Self-Directed Learning Instructional Model: Course Implementation Guide
- Self-Directed Learning Instructional Model: Campus Resource Guide (DRAFT, Fall 2025)
- Infographic: What is the Self-Directed Learning Instructional Model?
- Presentation Materials
Categories: Past Event
Tags: Instructional Strategies Online Learning Postsecondary Learning Self-directed Learning