How Do I Create the Ideal Learning Environment for Modern Learners?

OVERVIEW

They’re the first generation to have grown up with the Internet, but they might not own a TV. They’re used to instant access to everything from movies to product reviews, but they’re carrying a breathtaking amount of student loan debt. They’re millennials, born between 1981 and 1999, and their life experiences have given them and their slightly older, part-time, and commuting fellow students distinct expectations regarding their academic experience.

The more faculty can align the learning environments in their classrooms with student preferences, the more successful they will be at motivating and engaging students and promoting student learning.

How Do I Create the Ideal Learning Environment for Modern Learners? draws on academic literature and current research to provide an overview of current student culture, and it shows you how to promote student success.

BENEFITS

Generational differences have a direct impact on teaching and learning. Expanding your understanding of ideal learning environments for modern learners will help you:

• Engage modern learners by restructuring your courses
• Increase student motivation by diversifying teaching practices
• Improve student learning and satisfaction by addressing the expectations of modern learners
• Promote student success with proven classroom strategies

Your course redesign efforts will help you start engaging and motivating students like never before, and the entire campus community will reap the benefits. As your work enhances student outcomes, faculty morale and overall institutional success will also improve.

LEARNING GOALS

After watching this Magna 20-Minute Mentor, you will be able to:

• Describe the key characteristics of effective learning environments for modern learners
• Design courses with awareness of contemporary student culture
• Identify pedagogical practices for motivating modern learners
• Use identified practices to support student success

TOPICS COVERED

• Key characteristics of a successful learning environment for modern learners
• Six strategies for promoting student success
• Course design to meet the brain’s search for novelty
• Modern learners’ expectations regarding media usage
• Techniques to draw modern learners into course work
• The significance of group projects for modern learners
• Effective frameworks for course assessments
• Teaching practices that support modern learners

AUDIENCE

This presentation is designed for faculty who want to take their teaching beyond traditional lecture techniques and classroom structures. Based on a unique blend of current research and cognitive and educational psychology, this session offers practical and action-oriented techniques instructors in all disciplines can use to increase student engagement.