Barbara Islas

It is important to establish the learner's "buy in" to help the learners engage in the learning process. Methods for increasing engagement include: making the information relevant to them, providing background information that piques their interest, and provide activities that meet their own goals. The activities should be personally relevant, culturally relevant, socially relevant, age appropriate, and appropriate for diverse backgrounds and cultural groups. 

When the instructor allows learners to express their knowledge in various methods, this becomes more engaging and relevant to the learner.  

The "action/expression" principle is the "how" of learning. This addresses the manner in which the learner expresses what they know. The learner should be allowed to use multiple modalities for communicating their understanding of the concepts. Some of my students prefer to express this using a template that helps guide them through the components of the main concept. Others may prefer to give a presentation. 

We use templates when students are needing to describe a disease or disorder. This helps them identify the problems that go along with the disorder and set goals for how to solve the problems. The… >>>

Comment on Dara Rodemack's post: I agree. I was thinking the same thing. I am an auditory and visual learner. I have to read the text out loud to help me comprehend the information. Images that highlight the main concepts will also help me to comprehend the information. I can understand by reading, however, it is not my main learning style.

UDL provides various methods for disseminating instruction and evaluating the knowledge and skills of the learner in a manner that allows all learners to be successful.

This can be a challenge for the instructor. The instructor needs to continually improve on the methods to assure the learning experiences are challenging and encourages high-order thinking. 

By utilizing the principles of UDL, the instructor can better meet the goals of the concepts and skills that need to be mastered. 

Some things to consider when designing the learning environment include: how do the students learn best, what type of learner are they (visual,… >>>

When evaluating the assessment type used, it is important to check the validity and reliability of the assessment. Validity will evaluate the results for how clear and logically sound the results are. Reliability evaluates the accuracy and dependability of the results. 

When planning the course activities, the instructor will need to begin with a list of outcomes (the end result of the course). Once outcomes have been written, decide on the assessment methods to be used. These assessment methods can be formative and summative. The formative assessments will occur more frequently and can be alternative and traditional in nature. As… >>>

When developing an authentic assessment consider the task and allow the students to be creative while developing it. Authentic assessments will allow the instructor to refine their instruction based on the outcome of the assessment. Break down the assessment into specific steps to be evaluated. Get input from the students. 

There are several types of authentic assessments. Embedded assessments can collect information about the students' learning to determine how to proceed with the next lesson. There may be times when information may need to be reinforced based on the information gained. 

Portfolios, case studies and problem-based learning are examples of… >>>

There are two types of taxonomies: Bloom's and Fink's. Both are beneficial when organizing activities and assessments. The Bloom's taxonomy is divided into three categories: cognitive, affective, and psychomotor. The cognitive verbs might include knowledge-based verbs. Affective and psychomotor verbs include application and problem-solving demonstrations. 

Fink's taxonomy includes six parts: the foundational knowledge will help the students to remember the essential elements. This is low level learning. Application includes the demonstration of skills, such as managing projects and developing creative methods of remembering how to apply the concepts. Learning to learn is self-directed learning to learn more about a particular… >>>

There are formative and summative assessments. The formative assessments are given frequently and are not high stakes. The summative assessments usually occur after a module, midterm or final. 

In addition, there are traditional and authentic assessments. The traditional assessments are reliable but does not evaluate the skills of the students. The traditional assessments are in written form. An example of this type of assessment would be the SAT college entrance exam. For the nursing realm, HESI is an example of a traditional assessment. The authentic assessment is less formal and can include hands-on learning. The authentic assessment can take a… >>>

I have been more intentional about my nutrition. However, I do need to alter my schedule to allow time for exercise. This includes taking walks. When possible, I can take a walk around the building, while at work. 

I have neglected fun activities. My hobbies have taken a back seat during the time I have been teaching. This should be more of a fun activity to pursue.

For those of us who learned strictly in a lecture environment, a flipped classroom may sound ludicrous. However, instead of being the content expert who delivers the content in a F2F environment, technology allows us to flip the classroom so that student-centered learning is more effective. A flipped classroom is not always effective, and more research is being conducted on this. However, I have found that students are more receptive and engaged with the concepts when a flipped classroom is utilized. Students are more likely to come to class prepared.