 Welcome to Connections, the Neuroscience of Learning and Instructional Design. In Connections, we think about the teaching and learning dynamic differently. Rather than a linear process from teacher to student, we see a spiraling dynamic process of learning, relearning, unlearning and new learning. This new way of thinking about teaching has roots in mind, brain and education science, and neuroconstructivism. It's based on six main principles about human learning. The human brain is unique, different people have different potentials, all new learning passes through the filter of prior experience, the brain is changed constantly by experience, neuroplasticity exists throughout the lifespan, and there is no new learning without the two pillars of memory and attention. Our classes are centered on the belief that knowing how a person's nature, their genes, and nurture their upbringing and environment combine with his or her own free will, choices and decisions in life to determine learning outcomes. This philosophy of learning is compatible with most major educational best practices and mainly differs in how we interact with students and how we leverage technology. We use a flipped synchronous class model, and the key to success at Connections is that we use very typical tools, but in very different ways. For example, quizzes. In every course module, we have a quiz which students can take as many times as they want to. And they're used as formative assessment to ensure that during the synchronous class, we can share vocabulary and conceptual knowledge. There's a lot of great research out there now that shows that frequent low stakes testing is great for memory and therefore enhances learning outcomes. Instead of using a textbook or a single resource for the course, each unit is accompanied by one or more bundles or many libraries. These bundles consist of links to journal articles, videos, podcasts, websites, and other resources with varying levels of complexity and difficulty. These bundles permit students to have multiple entry points to the same topic. This means that the same course can have master level students as well as undergraduates, as well as non-credit students in the same room. 321 Reflections is a one-minute essay that requires students to document three things they didn't know before the class started, two things they're so interested in they want to keep researching, and one thing that they may commit to changing based on the information that was presented in the class. Courses often bombard students with lots of information but rarely give them the chance to step back and actually consolidate what information they've learned. In Connections, we use discussion boards slightly differently and mainly to build a learning community. We ask students to reply to a prompt drawing from their own personal and professional experiences as well as from the literature in the class. These kinds of conversations and debates help students reflect on the information from a very personal perspective and piques their curiosity and helps with memory, emotions, and attention, and therefore learning. Unlike other classes, during our live classes, we really encourage students to have a parallel chat going on. The chat allows instructors and students the opportunity to share opinions, experiences, interesting resources, and interact with one another and permit students with connectivity issues, no mics or cameras to participate in the class in an active way. It also allows for those people who are less willing to speak up in class to share their ideas. We do this at Connections because we know that learning is social. Sharing with peers in this way and building a learning community help individuals feel like they belong, enhance their student engagement, and result in a greater commitment to learning. During each course, we have a semester project and we do this for two reasons. We know that writing is a form of thinking but we also know the chance to personalize the information and to dig deeper into an area of specific interest is also highly motivating to the students. By breaking this down into five smaller parts we students are receiving constant feedback from teachers and peers about the development of their own ideas throughout the term. While many classes have rubrics, ours are shared and, if needed, modified with the students themselves before assignments are completed. The overall structure of the rubrics remains the same so students can create a familiarity with the information and after students receive feedback, they're encouraged to reply and to react to the different criteria. In general, the rubrics are highly detailed and explicitly narrated at each level of achievement because we know that students really appreciate understanding expectations and having a transparency about grading as well as the opportunity to reflect on just how they can improve the next time. Rubrics are just one tool that we use to give feedback with great frequency within the course. As students receive constant feedback in a variety of forms, both written and verbal, they come to habituate a way of reflecting on their work at various stages of the learning process. This type of detailed feedback improves learning and corrective strategies. Within Connections, we have a very flexible policy about resubmitting work. We describe this as an infinite rewrite policy within a specific timeframe. Students are allowed to rewrite work they feel they can improve upon because we know that if they use feedback, they can and do usually improve. Our philosophy is that if a student can learn from their mistakes, they should be given the opportunity to do so. In our courses, we have multiple modes of access to different instructors. Instructors are available to students through synchronous and asynchronous manners, through email, office hours, through discussion boards, live chats and messaging tools. We do this because we know that instructor's social presence promotes students' sense of belonging and affective engagement, as well as community building, all of which are conducive to better learning. As a course on the Neuroscience of Learning, we have multiple strategies. All of this is communicated through an understanding of social contagion in the way that individuals can influence each other in learning contexts. After four years of working within the same structure, we believe we can say with confidence that each individual tool on its own is very successful, but together they create a powerful instructional design that leads to greater student satisfaction, as well as to improve learning outcomes. Thank you for the opportunity to share today about this new instructional design format. We look forward to any queries you might have.