Making real-world connections in an online course

Abstract

Connecting students to real-world events and aligning them with your course topics is a critical component of student learning.You can always something trending on social media, in the news, or happening in your local community that relates to your topic in some way. An example is having students watch a short MSN political clip of a candidate and using it to point out body posturing, speech techniques, or other components that could align with a speech course or sociology topic. Another example would be a geology course where students actually research and look for the effects of the Cocos Fire on the local environment one year after the fires in and around the CSUSM campus. This takes the course and makes it more meaningful to a student.