IDEAS: Instructional Design Experiences and Stories
While the challenges of the pandemic continue, a group of instructional designers from Northwestern University and Oakland University paused to reflect on the happenings of the past year, especially the experiences of supporting students and faculty in the March 2020 emergency transition to remote teaching and learning. Our stories centered around building community, moments of joy and success, and increasing accessibility; please click below to hear them. We hope you enjoy!
Building Community
One of the lessons we learned is the importance of building community as a core strategy both in course design and our day to day work. Intentional community building is an often-overlooked strategy that pays great dividends.
David Noffs and Angela Xiong
Learning Designers, Northwestern University
David and Angela each experienced community support in different contexts.
Moments of Joy and Success
Despite the stress brought on by the pandemic, instructional designers found a sense of pride in their accomplishments helping instructors move online.
Jess Tess-Navarro
Instructional Designer, Oakland University
Jess noticed two notable pandemic wins were the humanization of instructors in the online classroom and the willingness of a program to move fully online for the first time.
Jeanne Kerl
Senior Learning Designer, Northwestern University
Jeanne emphasized instructor-created pages, partly out of necessity and the unique demands on the instructor’s time. This new design made for a more flexible course that the instructor can easily update going forward.
Krissy Wilson
Senior Learning Designer, Northwestern University
For Krissy, it was meaningful to hear about how an early consult had an impact on an instructor’s high school students throughout the year.
Accessibility
Strategies for remote teaching and learning can make classes far more accessible for some students; in fact, points out Northwestern’s senior content specialist Christine Scherer, there are many people who have benefitted, even flourished, from remote working and learning.
Nic Bongers
Senior Instructional Designer, Oakland University