Debra Parks

Excellence in Teaching
CHEP Status: Expired
CHEP Awarded: 01/17/2017
Excellence in Online Teaching
CHEP Status: Active
CHEP Awarded: 01/13/2023

Badge Evidence | Completed Courses (4 Hours Each)

This introductory course covers the essential roles of a teacher and the competencies required to be a successful instructor in an educational institution. Proven techniques and strategies for planning and preparation are presented and discussed. In addition, the course offers effective methods for conducting the first class meeting and delivering course content. This course provides a solid foundation for new instructors and serves as an excellent refresher for more experienced instructors.
This course provides methods and techniques for managing students and class activities. We start by reviewing the steps instructors need to follow as they introduce a class to new students. We then discuss strategies to effectively deal with unfocused and challenging students. The course ends by describing common mistakes made by instructors and ways to avoid them.
This course provides methodologies and examples to help instructors increase content retention and application by students in need of support. The course starts by covering the skills needed by instructors to be clear communicators. We then discuss ways instructors can become effective in monitoring students and using student groups as learning tools. The course concludes by covering techniques and strategies to instruct diverse learners, including learners with disabilities.
This course covers the different ways individuals learn and apply new knowledge. We start by covering the steps the brain goes through as it processes new information, and how knowledge is stored and retrieved. We then discuss how intelligence is measured and how learners process information through the use of multiple intelligences. Moving from theory to practice, the course shows instructors how to use the learning needs of students to increase knowledge acquisition and retention. The course includes a number of easy to implement strategies to help students retain and use new content.
This course provides an introduction to the concept and philosophy of active learning, and describes a variety of methods to help instructors "activ-ate" their class. The course includes active learning examples that utilize both critical and analytical thinking skills. We also identify the risks that may discourage instructors from using active learning strategies and offer suggestions for managing them. A three-step method is suggested for developing an active lesson, and a comprehensive model is offered as a guide for creative active learning strategies.
Questioning can be one of the most effective classroom teaching strategies. However, many instructors are not familiar with the techniques and research findings associated with good questioning. This course begins by comparing and contrasting the major types of questions and their most appropriate uses. Some relevant statistics and research findings are presented, followed by a discussion of four effective questioning practices. The course concludes by offering a few tips and suggestions for instructors to consider.
The purpose of this course is to familiarize instructors with the concepts of soft skills and emotional intelligence (EQ) so they can use this information to improve their professional performance. The course provides a comparison of hard and soft skills, including people skills and workplace behaviors. Ten "most important" soft skills are discussed in detail and the relationship between EQ and soft skills is explained. The course concludes with tips and suggestions to help instructors enhance their soft skills and EQ.
The majority of careers require the ability to think critically and problem solve at one level or another. Employers seek individuals who can think independently, propose solutions, and solve problems. The content in this course provides the foundation for critical thinking and demonstrates how people with different interests, abilities, and aptitudes approach problem solving. The course covers the different kinds of intelligence and how they impact critical thinking, for a broader understanding of how people process solutions to problems. It concludes with step-by-step instructions for helping students develop and refine their own critical thinking skills.
Did you ever hear that we only use about 10% of our brains? Were you ever told that you are more right-brained or left-brained? Did you know that males and females learn differently as a result of differences in their brains? Did you know that people have different learning styles? Did you ever hear that you retain more of what you do or see than of what you read or hear? If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, you have experienced a "myth-understanding." The purpose of this course is to explain the background and truth about these myth-understandings that pervade much of the popular literature to this day. All persons who are involved in the education of others must guard against these myths and ensure that they do not influence their professional practices. Note: Many learning theories have been developed that represent the efforts of researchers with different perspectives on how individuals develop and learn. As within any field, facts and myths may be driven by controversial opinions and philosophies that need to be considered by individuals engaged in professional development.
As previously homogenous communities become more diverse and the population of English language learners in educational institutions increases, educators need to provide services that give such learners opportunities for academic success equal to those provided to native English speakers. This course provides information about teaching English language learners, including the legal and cultural considerations instructors must take into account and ways to show respect for cultural differences and diversity. The course will explore the factors affecting how English language learners learn, and will provide strategies and techniques for instruction and motivation. This course will also cover how best to assess students for content-area knowledge and language proficiency.
Awareness has grown in recent years that, to be effective today, learning must include more than knowledge and "hard skills," or technical ability. In a world where work is often team-based and project-driven, teaching needs also to encompass attitudes and social competencies. This course will describe ways students can enhance their professional skills across the curriculum. Strategies for teaching effective personal interaction and ways to support student professional growth and development will be discussed. This course will also explain how students can improve their writing skills and computer literacy across the curriculum.
When designing instruction for adult learners, it’s important to consider a host of factors. This course describes the characteristics and motivations of adult learners, and the best practices and techniques for teaching them. It discusses the different theories of adult development and adult learning, and their relationships to the classroom experience. In addition, this course examines brain-based teaching strategies, the theory of multiple intelligences, and how the different parts of the brain are affected by new learning.
As opportunities for education become more prevalent, educational institutions must compete to increase, or even maintain, their student enrollment levels. More and more institutions are adopting the strategy of treating students like customers in order to be successful. This course will review the characteristics of adult learners and determine the reasons adult students leave the institution. It will discuss the concept of interacting with students as though they are customers and how the students-as-customers concept relates to the instructor and the classroom. This course will also describe the methods and techniques of effective communication. Included are guidelines and techniques for advising and mentoring students.
This introductory course will provide you with the knowledge and skills to create successful online courses, whether for faculty-supported distance education delivery or as a supplement to classroom instruction. You will learn to design and develop online courses that have structural integrity and navigational simplicity with a focus on student-centered learning and intellectual interaction. The course covers various learning activities that are supported in an e-learning environment and describes the typical components of an online course. We will provide you with the media strategies and course design methodologies that will allow you to develop online courses in an effective and efficient manner.
Your degree of success as an online instructor relies heavily on several factors, among which are your level of preparedness before the date on which the course is launched; your ability to make a smooth transition into the roles and responsibilities associated with teaching in an online environment; and the effectiveness and efficiency with which you manage learners, instructional transactions embedded in the course as well as the learning environment. In this course, you will learn how to project your authority and presence into the e-learning environment, build a relationship with each learner, promote and nurture learner participation, provide informative and constructive feedback in a timely manner, minimize attrition, manage communications, manage unacceptable behavior and resolve disagreements.
This course will provide you with the knowledge and skills to author, teach, assess, and revise successful online courses. You will learn to develop a course framework with consistent modules. Constructing an online community and a dynamic syllabus are important in helping you communicate with students. You will also learn how to develop an assessment plan including self- and peer-assessment as you progress through the course. No online course is complete without a comprehensive revision cycle. This course will walk you through the process of "closing the loop" to create a complete revision and improvement plan for your online course. We will provide you with ideas for student-centered learning, with activities and intellectual interactions using a variety of technology tools.
This course will provide you with basic information to teach in a virtual learning environment and understand the importance of organizing course content. You will learn about the important role technology tools play in teaching and organizing an online course. You will also learn the difference between synchronous and asynchronous learning. As the components of each are discussed, you will further identify appropriate methods, develop guidelines, organize content, and establish a pattern of teaching for each method.
This course will provide you with information to help you effectively communicate with students and encourage communication among students in an online environment. You will learn the importance of facilitating instructor-to-student (I2S), student-to-instructor (S2I), and student-to-student (S2S) communication. Technology tools play a vital role in the communication process and several are discussed in this course. In addition, discussion is also provided to help you further understand how to manage and measure communication in an online course and help students communicate effectively.
This course outlines the main characteristics of "dynamic" course design for blended instruction and highlights effective teaching methods that facilitate the learning process. Participants in this course will have an opportunity to customize the design principles and methods presented to suit their individual professional context.
This course will provide you with strategies and techniques to help prepare students for the online environment. To do so, you must also assess your strengths and weaknesses as an online instructor. As you help students assess their readiness for online learning, you are also preparing them for the expectations and realities of the online environment. By identifying students' strengths and weaknesses, you can provide guidance to help them achieve the learning outcomes. This course not only notes the necessary technical skills, it also discusses non-technical skills as well as techniques for successful learning and helping students develop their online persona.
This course will provide you with strategies and techniques to help you reduce your workload in the online environment. The course begins with an overview of good principles for education and questions to consider prior to developing Workload Management Strategies (WLMS). This course also provides WLMS for teaching online, communicating and collaborating, and revising your online course.
This course will provide you with a basic overview of the background and history of the popular instructional method called active learning. This method differs from traditional educational methods such as the lecture model. Active learning has a definite place in education especially in the online learning environments. It is used to support teaching outcomes like critical thinking skills, interpersonal skills and knowledge acquisition that all instructors wish for their students. However, active learning it calls for a change of attitude on the part of students and the instructor in order to be successful. But the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages as it can make students enthusiastic about learning. Learn about this brave new world of teaching and learning for the next generation.
This course will provide you with strategies and techniques to immerse students in an interactive environment that will incorporate gaming and simulations to introduce, engage, and reinforce online learning. This course will begin with definitions of gaming and simulations as a tool for online learning and will provide guidance to evaluate, implement, and assess the effectiveness of games.
This course will provide you with an overview of online instructors’ and learners’ personality traits. Participants will be provided with information about the traits themselves, as well as how to identify such traits, utilize them, and develop lessons to reach all students.
This course will provide you with an overview of Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and Mixed Reality (MR). With the advancements that have been made in providing reality-based instruction, this course will help instructors to stay current with the latest developments in the different types of realities that are available as instructional supports. This course will provide working definitions for each of the realities, and information pertaining to various components of teaching online using these realities. Benefits, challenges, and best practices will also be discussed. Real-life applications of VR, AR, and MR, along with various equipment that may be utilized, are provided.
Active and passive learning are critical concepts to ponder for online learning. Each one has positive benefits when explored and applied in the context of learning and the designing of instruction. There is, however, a difference between passive and inactive. One is an intentional part of learning while the other is the absence of something. We will explore these and other concepts in this course. In addition, strategies will be shared that will enable educators to make their online instruction more engaging and beneficial for learners.