This Postsecondary Teaching with Technology Collaborative report examines how faculty and staff at nine institutions reconsidered students’ online learning needs in the midst of the pandemic, and it explores how supports were offered to help students strengthen their self-directed learning skills.
This Postsecondary Teaching with Technology Collaborative brief discusses some of the challenges with online teaching reported by STEM instructors, describes a self-directed learning (SDL) framework to address these challenges, and highlights support strategies that can be integrated into teaching practices.
Don’t miss our session: Facilitating Positive Student Help-Seeking Experiences in Online Courses. Monday, March 18, 2024, 11:30 am – 12:30 pm PT. Community college instructors will learn about the reasons students avoid asking for help, particularly in STEM courses. Research has linked such avoidance to students’ experiences of discrimination and marginalization, but studies show that students who seek help have better outcomes and experiences.
Check out our session A framework for self-directed learning strategies to support student success in online learning. Friday, April 12, 2:30-3:15pm MT. Researchers will present an evolving framework for understanding the motivational mindsets, metacognitive skills, and applied learning strategies that students need to develop in order to be successful in online courses. We will share emerging strategies implemented by institutional partners in online and blended classrooms to support development of skills highlighted in the framework (this portion of the presentation will include specific practices from an institutional partner).
Check out our session Developing Self-Directed Learning Skills in the Online Classroom: Importance and Strategies. In this session, researchers from the Postsec Collab will present evidence about their predictive validity with academic outcomes and strategies for promoting the development of these skills in online courses in community colleges.
Despite increasing attention to diversity, equity, and inclusion in postsecondary STEM education, the field continues to see gaps in the participation and success of historically marginalized students (e.g., due to race or ethnicity, gender, first-generation status, and especially intersectionality).
Creating Online Environments to Promote Motivation and Learning: Perspectives from Students at the 20th anniversary of Achieving the Dream’s Annual DREAM conference from February 19 to 22, 2024 in Orlando, FL.
Carlton Fong, a professor of curriculum and instruction at Texas State University, has expertise in motivation, metacognition, and instructional design, with a focus on STEM courses. His work on student agency and how it helps students feel connected to college and motivates them to seek help.
We at the Postsecondary Collaborative are extraordinarily grateful to our institutional partners and advisors for your work with us in 2023 to support faculty and students in online STEM courses. We thank you for your continued partnership and inspiration
Scaling evidence-based education technology (edtech) products in the postsecondary market is challenging. Developers need to figure out how to break into classrooms long dominated by commercial publishers – and how to attract funding when investors tend to focus on the much larger and less fragmented K–12 market.