Wikifolios, reflections, and exams for online engagement, understanding, and achievement

We are refining three instructional practices in online introductory-level graduate courses on Learning Theories at Indiana University. The course serves a challenging mix of educators, designers, trainers, & researchers. Some are tech-savvy distance learners while others are residential students taking their first online course. It is a required course for many MEd students and a first course for some doctoral students. Despite varied backgrounds and goals, all are expected to gain enduring understanding of the major theories of learning and the primary processes in human cognition, as outlined in a popular graduate-level text. This particular section also included students enrolled in a certificate program that promised more advanced levels of professional social networking. But many of the students were busy full-time teachers, and the course was taught by busy regular faculty. As such it was crucial that the course be manageable for both students and faculty within the standards 12-hour per week commitment. These techniques were gradually introduced and refined over several semesters. Other could gradually incorporate the specific strategies in the context of a normal teaching load; preparing to implement all of the strategies from the start of an existing course would likely be as labor-intensive as designing an entirely new course.