This book provides an updated look at issues that comprise the online learning experience creation process. As online learning evolves, the lines and distinctions between various classifications of courses has blurred and often vanished. Classic elements of instructional design remain relevant at the same time that newer concepts of learning experience are growing in importance. However, problematic issues new and old still have to be addressed. This handbook explores many of these topics for new and experienced designers alike, whether creating traditional online courses, open learning experiences, or anything in between.

This resource includes best practices in applying learning design principles, searching for learning resources, identifying digital rights requirements, and ensuring accessibility compliance in the classroom.

This document is used as a programmatic planning tool. First, stakeholders collaborate to map out the goals and key elements at a program level. Then, with these goals and elements in mind, stakeholders design each course.

Project Management for Instructional Designers (PM4ID) is a textbook about project management tailored specifically for instructional designers, intended for use in graduate programs in educational technology.
This book is based on a pre-existing openly licensed textbook which was donated to the commons by a benefactor that desires to remain anonymous, and has been collaboratively revised and remixed by faculty and students at Brigham Young University.

This template will guide faculty or program directors in how to map out a course into competencies, deliverables, learning topics, course-specific materials, and so forth.

In Fall 2021, the University System of Maryland’s William E. Kirwan Center for Academic Innovation hosted a faculty showcase titled Silver Linings: Lessons Learned from Teaching during the Pandemic. Faculty, individually and with colleagues, shared challenges, triumphs, lessons learned, and new approaches for supporting quality teaching and learning brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Sessions explored novel instructional approaches, active learning pedagogies, student engagement practices, assessment techniques, communication strategies, and faculty-staff and faculty-student partnerships.

Following the showcase, presenters were invited to take part in these proceedings, in which they were asked to critically reflect on the work that they undertook. Together, these essays help paint a picture of teaching and learning efforts that are flexible, creative, empathetic toward students, and inclusive of students’ differing needs. In terms of organization, the volume’s essay topics start with finer-grained, classroom-level adaptations and move through broader philosophical musings, research findings, and faculty and student supports.

The intended audiences for this volume are faculty colleagues and those who support them in the work of fostering intentional, high-quality teaching and learning, from department chairs and deans, to instructional designers, to teaching and learning center directors. It is also my hope that more senior academic leaders will read this volume and consider the ways in which institutions writ large can better support faculty in advancing the kinds of innovations found within this volume.

A PDF of this book is available for download at https://www.usmd.edu/cai/sites/default/files/Silver%20Linings%20%281%29.pdf