Multilitteratus Incognitus

When I first started teaching graduate courses back in 2012 (wow...time flies), my hallmark course was titled The Design and Instruction of Online Courses .  Most of my students were folks who were learning to be instructional designers, or faculty who wanted to learn to teach online and had some years of teaching in person under their belt.  One of the most common things I heard in that class was that it was easier when teaching on campus to determine if students were engaged or paying attention.  Just by looking at them, you could determine this by their facial expressions and body language. Eh...OK🤷‍♂️.  While I don't disagree that some people may have this ability some of the time with some of the students in front of them, I still think that people tend to overestimate their ability to do this. Fast forward to today, browsing through the r/Professors subreddit, one tends to find posts asking fellow redditors how they can tell if their student's work is generate...

This blogpost is connected to my participation in this fall’s Creative Commons Certification course . The track that I picked was the educator track, but I’ll deviate a bit from the traditional educator track♦ and put on the hat of a college administrator♥. In my day job, I am the main administrative person for an online master’s program. To borrow a phrase - the “Soup to Nuts” guy for my program.  I am there when prospective students ask questions about our program, help shepherd them through the admissions process if our program is the right fit for their needs, help guide them through the program, and see them through to graduation. Sometimes I am also the alumni contact.  That’s not to say I am alone in this endeavor, there are many people who are part of this intricate machine: from faculty who teach courses, to colleagues at the Registrar’s office who actually schedule courses, colleagues in Admissions, and even other students in the program who help provide an...