{"id":3709,"date":"2021-10-11T08:45:27","date_gmt":"2021-10-11T13:45:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ele.local\/?p=3709"},"modified":"2022-08-02T10:48:15","modified_gmt":"2022-08-02T15:48:15","slug":"optimizing-digital-learning-a-new-and-improved-faculty-playbook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.everylearnereverywhere.org\/es\/blog\/optimizing-digital-learning-a-new-and-improved-faculty-playbook\/","title":{"rendered":"Optimizing Digital Learning: A New and Improved Faculty Playbook"},"content":{"rendered":"

The COVID-19 pandemic prompted colleges and universities to make extensive changes to curricula, teaching practices, and policies to meet student needs during the crisis. Many institutions responded by building new capacity in instructional design, digital learning technologies, and online and hybrid learning modalities. Now colleges and universities are assessing how those changes and new capacities can support ongoing efforts to improve equity-centered teaching and learning for the long term.<\/span><\/p>\n

With that in mind, Every Learner Everywhere\u00ae, The Online Learning Consortium (OLC), and the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities have released <\/span>Optimizing High-Quality Digital Learning Experiences: A Playbook for Faculty<\/a><\/em>, an updated edition of a resource compiled last year in the pandemic\u2019s early days.<\/span><\/p>\n

Abby McGuire, Educational Researcher at OLC, one of the co-authors of the revision, says, \u201cThe original <\/span>was one of the most downloaded Every Learner Everywhere\u00ae resources ever. Knowing a lot had changed since the onset of the pandemic is what really caused us to revise it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The original version, titled <\/span>Delivering High-Quality Instruction Online in Response to COVID-19<\/span><\/i> and known informally as the <\/span>Faculty Playbook<\/span><\/i> (<\/span>archived here<\/a>), was a user\u2019s guide to expanding and enhancing digital learning early in the COVID emergency, taking into consideration course materials, scheduling, and communication, as well as instruction. The need was especially urgent for schools serving Black, Latino, Indigenous, poverty-affected, and first-generation students whose lack of access to critical resources and technology might make them disproportionately vulnerable to the crisis.<\/span><\/p>\n

A year into the pandemic, the co-authors and reviewers of the new <\/span>Faculty Playbook<\/span><\/i> assessed that early version, processed reader feedback, and developed an update<\/span>. <\/span>At the heart of the revision is an emphasis on equity gaps exposed and sometimes exacerbated by the pandemic.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThat was probably the most important part of the reboot,\u201d McGuire says. \u201cIn the new version we really attempted to put equity front and center to make sure we were helping faculty meet the needs of racially minoritized and poverty-affected students.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A broader sense of digital learning<\/b><\/h2>\n

Another underlying change in the reboot is apparent in the title. The reference to \u201conline\u201d in<\/span> the original suggested a narrow web-centric focus, while the updated playbook recognizes a range of teaching modalities that use digital learning technologies, from fully remote to face to face.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis one encompasses online, blended, and digital learning,\u201d says McGuire. \u201cAt the onset of the pandemic virtually everyone was shifted online at the drop of a hat. Now things are changing and several studies show that students actually prefer blended environments, and they don\u2019t want to return to the way things were pre-pandemic.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Caring, sharing, and the power of intention\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n

One example of a new feature in the updated <\/span>Faculty Playbook<\/span><\/i> is the section on the Community of Inquiry Framework, a model widely used in both online and blended education that, as the playbook explains, \u201chighlights the importance of three interdependent elements that facilitate successful learning experiences.\u201d These include:<\/span><\/p>\n