Much of the craft of teaching happens outside the classroom, as we make plans for how to best facilitate learning in a course. On today's episode, Edward Oneill joins me to talk about practical instructional design.
Podcast notes
Practical instructional design
Guest
Edward Oneill, Senior instructional designer at Yale.

Teach Better Podcast
I know a little bit about a lot of things. - Edward Oneill (and also Diana Krall, etc.)

What Edward's clients often need

intuitively-appealing ways of conceptualizing the learning process
a survey of the relevant tools & which fit their needs & capacities

Edward's special skill
...finding the points in the learning process where assessment and evaluation can be woven in seamlessly
Design approach of Edward's early courses
Successes

Made sure students had to do something every week
Ensured consistent deadlines
Weekly messages, creatively introducing them to that week

Failures

Disconnected topics, no second chances

You don't learn anything by doing it once. - Edward Oneill

Not opportunities for practice

I wanted to see it as the students' fault. It's so hard to get out of that [mindset]. - Edward Oneill

Biggest challenges in our teaching

We know our content, but we don't realize how tightly packed our knowledge is...
Edward's blog post about the Five stages of teaching
Peter Newbury - prior Teaching in Higher Ed guest on episode #053 shared about recall / connections

Rehearsal and elaboration
It's about stepping away from the center and helping [students] communicate with each other. - Edward Oneill

Methods for incorporating assessment and evaluation into the design of courses

Have shorter/smaller forms of assessment that aren't necessarily graded 100% of the time
Use their performance as your own assessment

Bonni shares about teaching with Ellen's Heads Up iPad game

Jeopardy game as form of reinforcement
Recommendations
Bonni recommends:
Parker Palmer quote
I am a teacher at heart, and there are moments in the classroom when I can hardly hold the joy. When my students and I discover uncharted territory to explore, when the pathway out of a thicket opens up before us, when our experience is illumined by the lightning-life of the mind—then teaching is the finest work I know. - Parker Palmer
Edward comments:
There is a special privilege in people letting you help them grow and change. - Edward Oneill
Edward recommends:
On Becoming a Person, by Carl Rogers
As a teacher, I need to see you as a unique learner. If I really try to understand you and try to help you grow, it is not so much about information transfer; it is a more humane kind of relationship. - Edward Oneill

When you're passionate about teaching and you focus on it and you try to improve - you do. - Edward Oneill