My favorite part of instructional design is creating multiple engaging ways to meet the learning goals of the lesson. What I need to work on is expanding my toolbox and being brave to use other tools besides my favorite ones. Students may become bored of using the same cooperative learning structures, or introspective learners may get overstimulated in my classroom.

My desire is that my ELL students would be able to leverage their bi- or multilingualism to their advantage. I want to give them the freedom to process in their mother tongue and allow tools that enable them to do so. Although I recognize the importance of recognizing literacy as separate from learning a new language, it is easy to forget or not support a student's growth in academic language literacy.

For me, it is all about using inclusive language and eliminating exclusive language. I need to assess the curriculum for exclusive gaps, as well as assess my lesson implementation for areas that have the potential to exclude students. In particular, we have a number of students who are not native speakers, and we need to make sure they have access to the learning.

I learned two key things:

As an instructor, I must plan my lesson flow to meet the needs of each learner. Strategies I used as a K-12 educator for differentiated instruction and assessment carry over to higher education. (I can adjust them so that students do not feel as it they are being treated like children.) Also, my plan cannot be rigid, I must be able to modify and adjust based on how students are engaging the content.

Second, I must be careful to be self-aware of the inner bias and stereotypes I hold due to gender. For example, I… >>>

I love this module! What a simple reminder to take what is done well in the in-person environment and make it alive in the online environment. A big takeaway for me is ACCESSIBILITY. It doesn't matter if we do all these cool thing in course design and engagement--but if the student can't get to it, can't understand it, doesn't see the value of it... it won't help the learner.

Problem-based learning and inquiry learning structures give students freedom to learn and make their own learning decisions. This can be enhanced by authentically giving context to the problem in the local community.

Emphasize the importance of patience in "failure." Failure is an opportunity to learn and to build resiliency. Promote a growth mindset and give everyone to capitalize on their strengths.

My goal is to use collaborative learning each class session that builds on itself. I want students to problem-solve and be agents of their own learning, yet know that they are not alone. There is power in listening and everyone bringing something to the learning experience table. 

Knowing and applying the principles of andragogy are key! Cultivating motivation, self-direction, relevancy, learner validation, and more lead to ownership and empowerment.