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Find Exemplary Projects

Course Exemplars

CITES EdTech would like to spotlight some of the faculty that we work with. Periodically, we will add profiles and multimedia interviews of distinguished faculty regarding their own experiences with online teaching and their thoughts about the future of educational technology.If you would like to be a part of our faculty showcase, please email us at edtech@illinois.edu.

Blended Learning

SPAN 122: Elementary Spanish
SPAN 103: Intermediate Spanish

Teaching Context

Spanish 122: Elementary Spanish and Spanish 103: Intermediate Spanish are large, blended courses that each enroll up to 1, 000 students a semester. The classes are broken into sections of 20 students that meet for two hourly sessions a week. The students also participate in a rigorous online component. There are no lecture sections.

Pedagogical Goals and Strategies

Despite the number of students, the Spanish department wants to encourage speaking and communication-based activities in the classroom. At the same time, they want to provide numerous guided listening, writing, and drill-and-practice exercises with frequent assessment and feedback.

Technological Component

The two courses make extensive use of Illinois Compass assessments and discussion boards. The students take over two-hundred short graded online quizzes, many of which have an audio component. After the quizzes are graded, they are made available for students as self-tests to provide a self-directed practice environment. The class also makes extensive use of discussion boards to facilitate graded written assignments.

Student Engagement

Because of the frequency of online assessments and discussion assignments, students spend considerable time on task in the online environment where they are also provided with rapid and continuous feedback on their progress in the course. In addition, because repetitive drill-and-practice exercises are online, face-to-face class time is spent working on conversation practice and other active and engaging communicative activities.

EdTech & CITES Partnership

  • helping optimize quiz settings and question types and develop self tests for drill-and-practice assessments
  • embedding streaming media in quiz questions
  • managing multiple sections and the extraordinarily large grade book in Illinois Compass

Student Engagement

PLPA 200: Plants, Pathogens, and People

Teaching Context

Professors Cleora D’Arcy and Darin Eastburn team teach PLPA 200: Plants, Pathogens, and People, an advanced composition general education course that meets requirements in Natural Sciences and Technology, and draws students from across campus. Enrollment in the class is limited to 75 students. Professors D’Arcy and Eastburn teach the course alternating semesters, but collaborate continuously, experimenting with new approaches that will address the learning styles of all of their students.

Pedagogical Goals & Strategies

Professors D’Arcy and Eastburn have focused much of their effort on addressing the multiple learning styles of their students through the use of multiple paths into the subject matter - both in terms of instructional format and media. In fact, they have conducted several semesters of research into the learning style profiles of their students and have made adjustments to their course accordingly.

Technological Component

Illinois Compass is used to deliver PowerPoint notes and to provide online quizzes, which encourage students to stay current in their work. Respondus software is used for managing the online quiz content and accessing the results. iClickers are used for in-class comprehension checks and to encourage participation during lectures. Most recently, a weekly 5-7 minute podcast has been made available providing students with a review of the major concepts for the week, clarification of common points of confusion, and study questions.

Student Engagement

Multiple modalities and formats address a variety of learning styles. Weekly comprehension checks motivate and help students assess how well they’re keeping up with the class. Use of iClickers and discussion during lectures facilitate student interaction with the content, and weekly podcasts focus student attention on the key concepts and issues, and on potentially confusing points.

EdTech & CITES Partnership

  • providing technical support and consultation as needed in work with Illinois Compass and Respondus
  • server hosting, consultation and initial equipment loan for podcasts
  • presenting at EdTech brown bags