Category: Education Article

The challenges for faculty working with students in the 21st century are rising. How can faculty meet the many challenges facing higher education? In the past, faculty could stand objectively in front of the class and provide didactic information to students via lecture. Students came to the classroom expecting information from a book and verbal lecture covering the content. Over time, student expectations and readiness have changed. Students in the 21st century enter the classroom armed with a vast array of knowledge just a swipe away on various digital devices. In addition, they have access to instant entertainment and innovative instruction on various websites, social media, and podcasts. Unfortunately, nationwide scores in math and reading are on the decline—these students often lack the skills to succeed in higher education. The challenge of identifying the best approach to educating these digital natives is on the mind of educators across the country.

Benefits of Creating a Digital Portfolio

Crafting a resume is time-consuming enough. Do you need to create a portfolio on top of that? The short answer is YES!

Here are some other amazing benefits to building a portfolio you can submit to complement your resume for an instructional design job:

• Provides evidence you can do what your resume says you can do
• Builds your credibility with recruiters and potential employers
• Gives you a leg up on your competition
• Tracks your accomplishments in personal and professional projects
• Attracts attention, especially if you don’t have formal instructional design experience

Getting Started on an Instructional Design Portfolio

I know this might seem like a lot of work, especially if you’re starting your portfolio from scratch. I’m not going to pretend like portfolio-building is easy- it’s not! It’s definitely not something you can do overnight.

So, we will break it down into seven

Without utilizing a technique like Action Research, you may not be certain about a solution’s effectiveness and might not be maximizing your student’s potential. Action Research is a process for teachers to reflect and evaluate their teaching practices, identify best practices in current research, and work to improve instructional and student performance in a data-focused way. How often have you seen a new strategy or idea and thought, “Yes! That would be a great way to help my students,” and then sought to try it out? Or, has your district or school ever identified some areas for improvement in the student population and recommended a specific instructional method or strategy to help solve those problems? Every teacher experiences these scenarios, but the only way for a teacher to know whether or not an approach in the classroom is valid and works is to deeply reflect on and evaluate his or

If you have taught before, then you are familiar with the grumpy time of the semester. This is when the semester starts to feel long. It is usually about two-thirds to three-quarters of the way through the semester when we (and our students) start to feel a little grumpier. We believe there is value in acknowledging this eventuality, naming it, and then proactively and intentionally devising plans for what to do when we get into the grumpy time of the semester. Generally speaking, we advocate for the infusion of empathy (one’s ability to take on the cognitive and emotional perspective of others; e.g., Elliot et al., 2011) into all parts of our courses (see Saucier et al., 2022 for a discussion of the empathetic course design perspective). This ranges from our syllabi to our course structures and policies, to our assignments and assessments. We work hard to proactively and intentionally

Students’ experiences in higher education goes far beyond the curriculum in their programs. Beyond the classroom walls there are extra-curricular and social activities and numerous other opportunities to gain unique skills and experiences. One such opportunity is for students to become involved in research. This could be in the form of a paid research assistantship (RA), volunteering in a research lab, or by completing an independent project (out of general interest or as a thesis requirement). An additional opportunity to involve students in research could be by embedding it directly into the curriculum via course-based research. The types of research-related opportunities available to students will differ based on the type of institution (interested readers may refer to our previous article, “Writing Your First Grant,” (Cappon & Kennette, 2022) for tips to secure some funding). There may be more opportunities at a research-focused university than a community college or a school