ELI Webinar | Supporting Teaching in 21st-Century Environments: How the Connectivist Model of Instructional Design Serves the Purpose

Choice is a common element in today’s world, but it is often missing from curriculum-design decisions made for today’s college classrooms. Lecture remains the dominate form of interaction. Nonetheless, universities are embarking on learning-space design initiatives as part of campus master plans. Successful college learning experiences are predicated on not only reshaping physical structures but also implementing a faculty development program designed to support college instructors to impact 21st-century learning. Based on elements of the faculty learning community model, Ball State University’s Interactive Learning Space Initiative has become the cornerstone for changing the culture of teaching in environments created to actively engage college learners. A connectivist approach to instructional systems design serves as the active principle in this initiative to reshape teaching and learning at the college level.

Outcomes:

1. Explore the patterns of success in the Interactive Learning Space (ILS) Initiative that are effects of a connected approach to professional learning.

2. Analyze how established ILS program tenets—faculty-driven programming, ongoing communication, and planning + reflecting—support an interactive instructional system.

3. Explain how the effects of a connectivist theory serve as a faculty development plan to upgrade physical learning spaces to meet teaching and learning needs.

4. Synthesize behavioral transparencies between interactions, connections, and effects on instructional design configurations for professional learning.