New ASC Office of Distance Education shares resources online, in forums

The College of Arts and Sciences Office of Distance Education recently published “Increasing Motivation and Maximizing Student Engagement: The Benefits of Gameful Learning” as part of a growing set of resources available to ASC instructors teaching in online and hybrid contexts.

In this resource, ASC Office of Distance Education Instructional Designer Jessica Henderson provides an overview of gameful learning, “a series of evidence-based psychological approaches to create a learning environment that supports a combination of students’ intrinsic motivators – those motivators that are self-determined, carry internal value for the individual, and lack the need for external influence – and the extrinsic motivators that allow for the greatest sense of autonomy and self-determination.”

The office plans to regularly publish articles on distance learning teaching questions. ASC instructors successfully deploying evidence-based strategies and innovation will also be highlighted.

In addition, the Office of Distance Education has identified topics for its autumn semester teaching forums, the first of which is scheduled Oct. 25 and focuses on Assessment: Alternatives to High-stakes Testing. ASC Teaching Forums are designed to foster a community of distance education professionals and provide a venue for meaningful reflection and discussion. Recordings of panel presentations from the spring/summer may be found here.

Director Elizabeth Vu, who is also an associated faculty with the Department of Comparative Studies and a Drake Institute senior affiliate, the Office of Distance Education, leads the office, which also includes Henderson; Sarah Dove, instructional designer; and Jeremie Smith, distance education coordinator. The office was opened in spring 2021 to meet the growing demand for instructional support for ASC faculty.