Office of Academic Technology :: Spring Arbor University

A Facebook Study

On Friday Morning, Facebook hosted the second largest IPO in history valued at over 100 billion dollars. Not bad for a company started by a Harvard freshman a little over eight years ago. The question is, can it be leveraged for learning?

Continue reading...

The effect of the social environment on the online learner (Part 3)

We have been discussing things that can be done in the online learning environment to enhance student motivation and interaction. One of the things we mentioned last week was the critical importance of timely feedback in the online context specifically. This week, we will talk further about feedback and further implications.

Continue reading...

The effect of the social environment on the online learner (Part 2)

Last week, we talked about the social nature of learning theory and how this can play out in the online learning environment context. This week, we will flesh out what what this might mean for us as we design and deliver distance education courses.

Continue reading...

The effect of the social environment on the online learner (Part 1)

In the Office of Academic Technology at Spring Arbor University, we are not so much in the business of teaching tools. We are very much in the business of helping faculty best use technological tools to teach.

Continue reading...

Learner Motivation as it Relates to Pedagogy

So, one day you wake up and the moment your feet hit the ground you are ready to go and tackle whatever the day has to offer you. Whatever project or task comes your way doesn’t stand a chance to your ferocious tenacity to ‘get er done’. Then another day comes around and takes everything [...]

Continue reading...

Clear Formatting Tip for Font Issue

Some have come across an issue in Blackboard 9 where they go to edit information in an item and the font shrinks to a smaller size. Blackboard is aware of this bug and is working on it, but this is a brief tutorial on a work-around at the moment for removing the formatting so that this does not happen.

Continue reading...

Instructional Design Podcast Series

The term “instructional technology” is often mistaken as a reference to technology used in a teaching or training context. The definition of instructional technology described by Seels and Richey (1994) best describes OAT’s vision of the discipline: “Instructional Technology is the theory and practice of design, development, utilization, management and evaluation of processes and resources [...]

Continue reading...