Poodagogy

A) Faceless, never to be seen B) Speaking too quickly to be understood C) Trying to explain PowerPoint slides with text that is too long and too blurry D) Glug, glug, glug E) ALL OF THE ABOVE 

(via You Do the Math!) As the first thing students encounter in a course, the syllabus can also set the tone for the course and students’ expectations for what is to come. We see a lot of funny things in syllabi and while these examples might not make students laugh, they certainly gave us a chuckle…and then we went to work on fixing them.

(via In Absentia) One of the challenges of teaching and learning online is creating and maintaining a sense of presence, by instructors and by students. In a face-to-face learning environment, it is more obvious who is attending and participating and who is not. When an instructor is absent, it’s not uncommon for class to be canceled for the day or week. But what happens in an online course when an instructor simply fails to show up at all? 

(via It might be poodagogy if...) What is poodagogy? What are the tell-tale signs? How do I know if my course has it? Is it catching? Is there a cure? While poodagogy may be in the eye of beholder, there are some practices that are inarguably bad and should be avoided. We asked for your examples of poodagogy and here's what you gave us, a sampling of some really poodagogical stuff found in actual courses.

(via Reliable Sources) When assigning research to students, it is common for professors to place restrictions such as requiring that sources be cited or come from a peer-reviewed academic source or absolutely outlawing the use of Wikipedia. Students are often criticized for taking the first thing Google gives them rather than taking the time to really analyze what they’re reading, connect it to the course content, and synthesize it into new knowledge. But what happens when a course designer does the same thing? Or worse?

(via Egad! eLearning and Global Accessibility Awareness Day) Today is Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD),  so we thought we would like to share some thoughts. Here we are now in 2018 and while we are encouraged by the increased level of awareness of accessibility we see on campus, not a day goes by without some major face-palm moments. This would be very discouraging if not for the fact that each incident is an opportunity for education and awareness. Sure, we thought we would be farther along in quest for universal accessibility 28 years after ADA, but the war is not over and we ARE winning many battles, one syllabus, one course at a time.

(via Simon Says...) Alignment. Instructional designers are obsessed with it. Admittedly we can get a little hung up on verbs but it’s all in the name of alignment. We start with learning outcomes and look for assessments that match the learning outcomes. A good learning outcome should be measurable with an assessment and a good assessment should measure mastery of the learning outcome. When everything lines up, instructional designers get all warm and fuzzy. When things don’t line up, they get sad, very sad, and it all becomes like a game of “Simon Says” gone very wrong.

(via The Cart Before the Horse) As instructional designers, we help instructors to first consider learning outcomes and objectives, and then to select teaching and learning tools to facilitate the learning process. We ask how we can best help learners to achieve the learning outcomes. What teaching and learning tools can we use to facilitate and enhance the learning process? What types of assignments and assessments  best support the learning outcomes and objectives? What kind of information, formative feedback, and resources should we provide to facilitate and promote learners’ success? But what happens when your backwards design goes, erm, backwards?

(via What’s Good for the Goose, Part II) We have all heard faculty complain about the quality of their students’ work. It turns out that faculty “students” are no different. How can faculty expect more of their students than of themselves? How can we help them to see that what is good for the goose IS good for the gander?  

Here at Poodagogy we’ve seen some pretty strange things in courses and this one is too good (okay, really awful) not to share. After reading this chapter, a student should be able to:LO1. Explain what you would have done if your infant male child’s penis was destroyed in a medical accident (simply suing the hospital/doctor is not an answer). (Social Psychology, module on Nature vs Nurture)

(via Dial Up Access Not Recommended) A standard component of most syllabi for online courses is a section that details the hardware and software requirements for a course. See this example from a Teaching with Technology course. It's VERY detailed.

(via Lather. Rinse. Repeat.) Many online courses seem to follow the same recipe: 1) Read, 2) Discuss, 3) Do some kind of assessment, usually an assignment and/or quiz to prove understanding of the reading. What does this accomplish in terms of meaningful learning?

(via "This course is online, except...") Students take online courses for a variety of reasons. Whatever the reason, students expect that their asynchronous online course will be, well, asynchronous and, erm, online. Imagine a student’s surprise when they find out that their course is online except for the parts that aren’t, like tests and exams that account for 50% or more of the course grade. 

(via 27 Years) The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), signed into law in 1990, is now 27 years old. That makes the disabilities civil rights law the same age that more than one rock star has passed into the ether and into legend. One would think that after 27 years it would be more generally accepted that accessibility for people with disabilities is not only a civil right, but a human right. That makes it all the more shocking that the following exchange would have taken place with a provider of content for online courses.

(via Trigger Warning) Regardless of which side of the trigger warning debate that you fall, whether you see them as a tool for inclusivity or a threat to academic freedom and open discourse, there are some things that would seem like a no-brainer, like this rather disturbing discussion prompt from an online course on public speaking and rhetoric.