learning commons

The purpose of the OLC Learning Commons is to prepare educators to create and facilitate successful online learning opportunities!

Grounded in pedagogical research, the Learning Commons includes information and activities related to instructional design, communication, community-building, content delivery, and assessment. The Learning Commons is here to help you offer high-quality, rigorous online academic experiences to all your students.

Whether you just want to survive the next few days or use this opportunity to dig into online teaching and learning, this space is for you. The Learning Commons focuses on pedagogy and best practices, as well as just in time support for those needing it.

The Learning Commons provides daily focus on best practices as you teach, learn, and assess online. You can continue to use the Facebook Group thread for just in time support with resources archived here.

Learning Outcomes

  • Explore and critically evaluate various instructional strategies for course design, communication, community-building, content delivery, and assessment in order to develop a learner-centered approach to online education.

  • Create the components needed for teaching an online course and review them with peers and faculty experienced in teaching online.

  • Cultivate the technological skills needed to create, maintain, and administer a successful online course.

  • Experience online education as a student in order to develop a greater understanding of your future students.

What do I do?

1: Find a buddy to work with! This could be a connection with a virtual buddy, a mentor in the Facebook Group, or someone from your other online professional learning networks (PLNs). Having a connection with another person will allow for critical feedback and support.

2: Follow along for learning events for each day. There's content available and ready for you, with #hashtags to check out and follow. Hang out and view from a distance, complete the activities, and give us feedback so we can improve the resources!

3: Have fun! Learn, create, and share. Let's use this time as an opportunity to re-examine our practices as we engage, connect, and share with new friends. We'll use this opportunity to improve, collectively.