Lasallian Way Online

Delve into the transformative impact of community with Dr. Craig Shepherd and CBU’s Center for Digital Instruction. Explore the profound influence it holds for both students and ourselves, going beyond simple physical presence.

Dr. Shepherd shares invaluable insights on cultivating a stronger sense of community, breaking free from traditional classroom boundaries. This episode highlights reciprocity, shared experiences, and common goals that shape a brighter, more connected future.

Join CDI and Joseph Preston, Vice President of Mission & Identity at CBU, for a discussion exploring the Lasallian tradition. Discover how the Lasallian star, symbolizing interwoven Lasallian principles, guides the pursuit of an inclusive, accessible, and holistic approach to education. We will examine how these values shape our institution’s character and commitment to education for all.

Join the CDI team as they gather and record in the same room for the very first time! In this brief exploration of the wild, wild west of online courses, the team discusses the development of assessments for high-quality courses at Christian Brothers University. Topics include the evolution of Online Faculty Training, details of Online Course Design, and pioneering the Online Course First Day Readiness check.

Dr. Jacqueline Stephen, Instructional Designer and Director of the Office of Distance Learning at Mercer University in Atlanta, joins the CDI team to discuss her research on high impact practices for teaching online. Dr. Stephen’s research examines critical topics in today’s global educational climate, including undergraduate and graduate online learner persistence, instructional design, effective practices for online educators, and virtual peer mentoring for racial and ethnic minority women in STEM.

Walk-in tutoring services and writing centers are invaluable staples of many colleges. When a student is learning fully online or even for commuter students, however, these critical services may be out of reach. In this episode of The Lasallian Way Online, we talk with Christian Brothers University professor, Dr. Clayann Panetta, the Director of CBU’s Writing and Communication Corner. Dr. Panetta shares why she made this service available online even before the pandemic, and how providing multiple modalities for students to receive help is critical to CBU’s Lasallian mission.

Course design directly influences student perceptions and satisfaction in any course mode. Transactional Distance Theory encourages course designers and instructors to build learner interactions using dialogue, autonomy, and course structure to support learner needs and preferences.

In this episode of the Lasallian Way Online, the CDI team talks with their own Dr. Shontale M. Bryant about current research and her recently published dissertation titled “Perceptions of Transactional Distance from Black Males in Asynchronous Online Math Courses.”

Artificial Intelligence plays a larger part in our daily lives than ever before. From the mundane to the sensational, AI is here. ChatGPT and other large language models are forcing academia to rethink the way we stay ahead of the curve in university-level education.

Dr. Dale Hale and the Center for Digital Instruction (CDI) team visit with Dr. Andrew Hampton to discuss his book The Frontlines of Artificial Intelligence, Ethics Human-Centric Perspectives on Technology’s Advance.

In this episode of the Lasallian Way Online Dr. Dale Hale and Shontale Bryant “unwrap” two new additions to the CDI team! The Center For Digital Instruction and special guest Dr. James Harr discuss roles and needs instructional designers fulfill assisting educators whether online or face-to-face. Lasallian values highlighted in this episode include meeting each student as an individual and designing courses with quality education and community in mind.

In this month’s edition of the Lasallian Way Online (LWO) we discuss the Federal law designed to protect our students, FERPA. Teaching online can present FERPA challenges that you may not have faced in face-to-face teaching. CDI Director, Dr. Dale Hale, met with CBU Registrar, Scott Summers, to talk FERPA.

In this episode, Dr. Dale Hale and the Center for Digital Instruction (CDI) team talk about engagement in an online course, specifically how faculty and course creators can design for engagement beginning with student learning outcomes. During the podcast, Dale and the Team make the point that online engagement is closely linked with an inclusive, high-quality learning experience and is thus a critical part of being Lasallian online.

Dr. Dale Hale and the CDI team analyze the definition of “hybrid” as applied to courses in higher education. Dale and the team go on to discuss the elements that make a good hybrid course and show that some of these elements mesh well with Lasallian values.

Dr. Dale Hale and Kyle Purpura from Christian Brothers University’s Center for Digital Instruction (CDI) discuss the Hyflex model and how the model can address core Lasallian principles.

In a continuing discussion about academic integrity and what it means for a Lasallian institution to approach cheating and plagiarism online, the three instructional designers on the Center for Digital Instruction team – Shontale Bryant, Tyler Isbell, and Kyle Purpura – discuss strategies that online faculty can pursue in order to promote a greater sense of academic integrity. The CDI team has produced a companion resource, Strategies to Promote Academic Integrity Online. Click “Listen Here” below and then access the document link in the podcast description.

In a continuing discussion about academic integrity and what it means for a Lasallian institution to approach cheating and plagiarism online, Dale Hale and the team at the CBU Center for Digital Instruction explore whether cheating is worse online as compared to in-person. Their guest for the discussion is Kelvin Thompson, Ed.D., the Executive Director of the Center for Distributed Learning at the University of Central Florida. As a world-recognized expert on blended learning, Kelvin is a popular speaker and facilitator, and he is the co-host of “TOPcast: The Teaching Online Podcast.” We are thrilled to have Kelvin join us for this episode!

Academic integrity is a subject that has received a great deal of attention, especially during the Pandemic as so many higher education classes were moved online. In this episode, Dr. Dale Hale leads the Center for Digital Instruction (CDI) team in a discussion about academic integrity and what it means for a Lasallian institution to approach cheating and plagiarism in online courses. Joining the team for the discussion is Dr. Paul Haught, Christian Brothers University’s Vice President of Academics and professor of philosophy.

Respecting all persons, committing to quality education, and endeavoring to achieve an inclusive community are core Lasallian principals. Respecting all persons, committing to quality education, and endeavoring for an inclusive community are core Lasallian principles. But what role does reflection play in promoting these principals? In this episode, Dr. Dale Hale leads the entire Center for Digital Instruction (CDI) team in a discussion about the importance of reflection as it pertains to our Lasallian online courses and to ourselves.

PBL is a student-centered teaching strategy where students formulate content-relevant questions and then design and implement personally meaningful and authentic “projects” to answer the questions they have raised. PBL can be a dynamic way to drive student engagement in online and face-to-face courses and to promote meaningful dialogue between students and faculty. CDI Director, Dr. Dale Hale, and CDI Instructional Designer, Kyle Purpura, join their colleague, Instructional Designer Tyler Isbell, in an exploration of PBL as a viable Lasallian approach to online higher education classes.

Providing students with a clear pathway to learning is a hallmark of Lasallian, student-centered teaching. A well-designed online course can do exactly that. But as we become more experienced online educators, it means our courses can become littered with pages and assignments from the past — making it challenging to navigate from the student side and frustrating to pick through for instructors. Dr. Dale Hale leads the team from CBU’s Center for Digital Instruction (CDI) in a discussion about ‘cleaning’ an online course. The team discusses why occasional course cleaning is important while touching on how to go about doing it.

Dr. Dale Hale and Dr. Lurene Kelley from Christian Brothers University’s Center for Digital Instruction (CDI) discuss how Lasallian core principles can be addressed in online courses. Their guests are Dr. Emily Holmes and Dr. Anthony Trimboli, both from Christian Brothers University.