What is understanding and how does it differ from knowledge? How can we determine the big ideas worth understanding? Why is understanding an important teaching goal, and how do we know when students have attained it? How can we create a rigorous and engaging curriculum that focuses on understanding and leads to improved student performance in today's high-stakes, standards-based environment? Authors Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe answer these and many other questions in this second edition of Understanding by Design. Drawing on feedback from thousands of educators around the world who have used the UbD framework since its introduction in 1998, the authors have greatly revised and expanded their original work to guide educators across the K-16 spectrum in the design of curriculum, assessment, and instruction. With an improved UbD Template at its core, the book explains the rationale of backward design and explores in greater depth the meaning of such key ideas as essential questions and transfer tasks. Readers will learn why the familiar coverage- and activity-based approaches to curriculum design fall short, and how a focus on the six facets of understanding can enrich student learning. With an expanded array of practical strategies, tools, and examples from all subject areas, the book demonstrates how the research-based principles of Understanding by Design apply to district frameworks as well as to individual units of curriculum. Combining provocative ideas, thoughtful analysis, and tested approaches, this new edition of Understanding by Design offers teacher-designers a clear path to the creation of curriculum that ensures better learning and a more stimulating experience for students and teachers alike.

When facilitating high-quality education, using digital technology to personalize students' learning is a focus in the development of instruction. There is a need to unify the multifaceted directions in personalized learning by presenting a coherent and organized vision in the design of personalized learning using digital technology. Digital Technologies and Instructional Design for Personalized Learning is a critical scholarly resource that highlights the theories, principles, and learning strategies in personalized learning with digital technology. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics, such as collaborative learning, instructional design, and computer-supported collaborative learning, this book is geared towards educators, professionals, school administrators, academicians, researchers, and students seeking current research on the area of personalized learning with digital technology.

“What does a new instructional designer need to know to find her or his feet when working with faculty to create online classes?” This is a practical handbook for established and aspiring instructional designers in higher education, readers who may also be identified by such professional titles as educational developer, instructional technologist, or online learning specialist. Jerod Quinn, together with a team of experienced instructional designers who have worked extensively with a wide range of faculty on a multiplicity of online courses across all types of institutions, offer key guiding principles, insights and advice on how to develop productive and collegial partnerships with faculty to deliver courses that engage students and promote enduring learning.Designing and developing online classes for higher education takes a combination of pedagogical knowledge, the ability to build trust with faculty, familiarity with frameworks on how people learn, understanding of accessibility and inclusion, and technical skills to leverage a learning management system into an educational experience. Coming from diverse backgrounds, few instructional designers enter academia well versed in all of these aspects of creating online classes. This book provides the foundation on which instructional designers can build their careers. The guiding principle that animates this book is that the student experience and successful learning outcomes are paramount, and governs discussion of course design, pedagogy, the use of multimedia and technological advances, as well as the use of different forms of interactive exercises and group assignments. The succinct, informally written chapters offer ideas and means to apply theory to the daily work of instructional design and cover the four key components that drive this work in higher education: ·Defining the scope and main design approaches of our work·Building trust with the faculty we work with·Applying frameworks of how people learn·Mastering common online instructional practices.

Designing Personalized Learning Experiences offers theoretically grounded and pragmatic approaches to designing personalized learning initiatives for higher education and organizational contexts. With current research concluding that a multitude of variables can enable learners to direct their own experiences and achieve their goals, new guidance is needed to hone the range of instructional approaches, activities, and interactions available to support adult learners. This book offers practical strategies on how to design and implement effective personalized learning interventions, advance learning and engagement, encourage ownership over the learning process, and decrease attrition. Professionals in instructional design, learning and development, organizational development, consultancies, and beyond will be emboldened by the work to leverage a mix of technology-enabled social and content interactions.

Higher education programs are continuously expanding globally and now, students who are enrolled in online courses can reside anywhere in the world. Due to this phenomenon, institutions are forced to adapt to serve their remote students. Cultivating Diverse Online Classrooms Through Effective Instructional Design provides emerging information on designing online courses recognizing cultural differences, building effective learning environments and forums, and integrating classroom aesthetics. While highlighting the challenges of online education and intercultural learning, readers will learn valuable ways to maximize student communication, learning, and other culturally diverse classroom tools. This publication is an important resource for instructional designers, graduate students, academics, and other higher education professionals seeking current research on the best ways to globally expand online higher education.