1. Designing Online Resources to Enhance
In-Class Interactions
David Wright, Writing Specialist &
Mike Winiski, Associate Director, Center for Teaching and
Learning, Furman University
Jeremy Donald, Faculty Technology Liaison, Trinity
University
NITLE Seminar
September 20, 2012

2. Upcoming NITLE Seminars
• FemTechNet: The First DOCC,* A Feminist MOOC, October 4,
4-5 pm EDT
• Stories of the Susquehanna: Digital Humanities, Spatial
Thinking, and Telling the historia of the Environment, October
9, 2-3 pm EDT
• Evaluating Digital Scholarship, October 10, 4-5 pm EDT
• Keep Up
– Subscribe to our newsletter, The NITLE News
– Check out our event page:
http://www.nitle.org/events/events_list.php

3. Goals
1) Examine Kolb’s Learning Cycle as model for
designing learning environments (whether
physical or digital) that set the stage for
dynamic, rigorous, and robust in-class
interactions
2) Share examples of how we applied this model to
develop flexible online modules to help optimize
face-to-face time
3) Promote dialog about the applicability of this
model at participant institutions

4. Desired Learners
I want my students to show up to class . . .

5. “Reversing the Flow”
“That is, we start in practice, and practice drives
us to content. Or, more likely, the optimal way to
learn is reciprocally or spirally between practice
and content.”
—Randall Bass, “Disrupting Ourselves: The Problem of Learning in Higher Education”
Key: Developing pedagogies that blend
practice and content, both in and out of the
classroom.

6. Traditional Writing Instruction Model
• Give assignment.
• Students write and submit essays.
• Instructors grade essays and give feedback,
which sometimes includes specific writing
instruction.
• Handbooks mostly function as remedial or
supplementary resource.

7. Workshop Writing Model
• Give assignment.
• Students write and submit drafts for workshop.
• Class workshops essays together, which sometimes
includes specific writing instruction.
• Students revise and resubmit essays for final
evaluation.
• Handbooks still mostly function as remedial or
supplementary resource.

8. “Reversing the Flow” with Digital
Tutorials
• Provides instructors with high-quality,
targeted instructional materials.
• Blends writing “content” lessons (e.g. “Writing
Effective Thesis Statements) with the actual
practice of drafting.
• Allows instructors to decide how and when to
incorporate the tutorials into their classes.

9. Tutorials in Richmond’s “Writer’s Web”
Thesis Statement Video Page:
http://writing2.richmond.edu/writing/wweb/th
esis2.html
Thesis Statement Exercises:
http://writing2.richmond.edu/writing/wweb/th
esisexercise.html

10. Assumptions and Notes
• We drink / sip the experiential learning
Kool-Aid;
• We didn’t invent this;
• It’s just a model, but the simplification can
be useful.

11. Kolb’s Learning Cycle

12. The Learner’s View
Experiencing
Applying Examining
Explaining
*denotes student experience

13. Social Media in the Workplace (Business
Writing Class)
• Examine the role of social media in our
professional and personal lives and its
impact on how we communicate with one
another
• Identify traps as well as potential upsides
of social media in our professional lives and
develop strategies for optimizing its use

14. The Learner’s View
Experiencing
Applying Examining
Explaining

16. Experiencing
Applying Examining
Explaining

18. Experiencing
Applying Examining
Explaining

19. You’ve been working for a company for several years.
During a strategy planning session, the topic of Facebook
comes up. The technology doesn’t seem to be a fit for any
of the company initiatives, so the group moves on to other
topics of discussion. You’re an avid user of Facebook and
connect with family, friends, and several co-workers with
whom you feel close. You get home that evening, log into
email, and find a friend request from the Director of
Marketing, an attendee at the meeting earlier in the day.
He’s a very well-respected member of the organization, but
he’s always made you feel uncomfortable for some reason.
You aren’t sure what to do, so you ignore the request. A
few days later, you bump into this co-worker in the hallway.
He asks if you’ve gotten the request. What should you do?

20. Experiencing
Applying Examining
Explaining

21. Lead With Experience

22. As Instructors, We Are All Self-Taught
“That is, we start in practice, and practice drives
us to content. Or, more likely, the optimal way to
learn is reciprocally or spirally between practice
and content.”
—Randall Bass, “Disrupting Ourselves: The Problem of Learning in Higher Education”

23. (From Svinicki and Dixon, 1987)

24. (From Svinicki and Dixon, 1987)

25. (From Svinicki and Dixon, 1987)

26. What do you do with class time?

27. Class time for…
• Targeting the understandings, content, or skills
that students find most difficult
• Providing low-stakes practice and feedback
opportunities (emphasis on peer feedback w/
expert oversight; also an informal assessment
opportunity)
• Letting students build something from their
meaning-making/explaining/mistake-fixing that
can in turn support them in the active
experimentation phase

28. Examples
• Students create a set of criteria or guidelines
to apply during their upcoming active
experimentation
• Students create a set of criteria for self-
evaluation
• Students create something typical to
authentic practice (e.g., a research proposal,
an executive summary, a spec sheet)

29. ACS Blended Learning Grant Project:
Analyzing and Creating Maps
http://bit.ly/NtBkup
Website serves as resource for instructors,
providing online materials intended for out-of-
class use (tutorials, including a substantial case
study, and ideas for writing prompts) as well as
suggested in-class strategies. A complete
sample curriculum for a two-day module on
spatial thinking is also provided.
Screencast Tutorials: Teacher’s Notes: Sample Curriculum:
Map Literacy Writing, activity, and More-developed
Histograms, etc. assignment ideas for example of an
Case Study adapting into your adaptation/impleme
Creating Your Own Map course ntation within a
political science
course.

30. Map Literacy Example
Apply your
guidelines in the
written evaluation
of a new set of
maps, and see if the Answer questions,
guidelines are reply to prompts
aligned with your
own critical
response to the
maps. Note
revisions you would
Discuss homework as a
make to the Working in groups,
class.
guidelines. create a set of
guidelines for map-
(Individually) write list of
making that reflect
pros and cons for a chosen
the criteria you’ve
map, using criteria you’ve
worked together to
developed.
refine.

31. Map Literacy Example
Apply your
guidelines in the
written evaluation
of a new set of
maps, and see if the Answer questions,
guidelines are reply to prompts
aligned with your
own critical (Out of class)
response to the
maps. Note
revisions you would
Discuss homework as a
make to the Working in groups,
class.
guidelines. create a set of
guidelines for map-
(Individually) write list of
making that reflect
pros and cons for a chosen
the criteria you’ve
map, using criteria you’ve
worked together to
developed.
refine.

32. Map Literacy Example
Apply your
guidelines in the
written evaluation
of a new set of
maps, and see if the Answer questions,
guidelines are reply to prompts
aligned with your
own critical (Out of class)
response to the
maps. Note
revisions you would (In class)
make to the Working in groups, Discuss homework as a
guidelines. create a set of class.
guidelines for map- (Individually) write list of
making that reflect pros and cons for a chosen
the criteria you’ve map, using criteria you’ve
worked together to developed.
refine.

33. Map Literacy Example
Apply your
guidelines in the
written evaluation
of a new set of
maps, and see if the Answer questions,
guidelines are reply to prompts
aligned with your
own critical (Out of class)
response to the
Real-time assessment/feedback opportunities
maps. Note
revisions you would (In class)
make to the Working in groups, Discuss homework as a
guidelines. create a set of class.
guidelines for map- (Individually) write list of
making that reflect pros and cons for a chosen
the criteria you’ve map, using criteria you’ve
worked together to developed.
refine.

34. Map Literacy Example
Apply your
guidelines in the
written evaluation
of a new set of
maps, and see if the Answer questions,
guidelines are reply to prompts
aligned with your
own critical (Out of class)
response to the
maps. Note
revisions you would (In class)
make to the Working in groups, Discuss homework as a
guidelines. create a set of class.
(Homework) guidelines for map- (Individually) write list of
making that reflect pros and cons for a chosen
the criteria you’ve map, using criteria you’ve
worked together to developed.
refine.

35. writing-to-learn
assignments
problem-based
conceptual
assignment design
workshops
contextual
learning
experience
design

36. Image Credits
• online communities map - http://xkcd.com/802/
• think - http://www.flickr.com/photos/jakecaptive/3205277810/
• chalkboard - http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeffreywarren/297096827/
• city - http://www.flickr.com/photos/holly_northrop/4278173735/
• bewildered - http://www.flickr.com/photos/viydook/6094186264/

37. References
Bass, R. (2012). Disrupting ourselves: The problem of learning in higher education.
Educause Review. Retrieved from http://www.educause.edu/ero/article/disrupting-
ourselves-problem-learning-higher-education
Kolb, D. A. (1983). Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and
development (1st ed.). Prentice Hall.
Svinicki, M. D., & Dixon, N. M. (1987). The Kolb model modified for classroom activities.
College Teaching, 35(4), 141–146.