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March 18, 2025
News from the Postsecondary Teaching with Technology Collaborative
In this issue of News from the Collaborative for spring 2025, we share our latest research into the online college experience, new articles on the Collaborative blog, and our upcoming conference presentation. We hope to see you at AAC&U CLASS in April!
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New Publication
Beyond Engagement: Promoting Motivation and Learning in Online Courses
This new brief examines how students develop and use self-directed learning (SDL) skills – motivational, metacognitive, and applied learning processes that enable them to sustain effort, reflect on progress, set goals, and adapt their study strategies.
Drawing on interviews with students in online STEM courses at eight broad-access institutions, the brief reveals key insights into students’ strengths, motivations, and learning strategies for online courses and offers recommendations for instructors to support student success.
Public Webinar
Supporting Student Success in Online Courses: Insights from Students and Faculty
How can online college courses better support student motivation, engagement, and help-seeking behaviors? Join a panel of researchers, students, and faculty on Thursday, April 3, at 3pm ET for a public webinar where we explore student experiences in online courses and new evidence-based strategies to address challenges students encounter in online formats.
New Blogs
Listening to Students: Experiences of SDL in Online Courses
In this blog post, Senior Research Associate Susan Bickerstaff at the Community College Research Center (CCRC) shares insights and key takeaways from the Collaborative’s latest research brief “Beyond Engagement: Promoting Motivation and Learning in Online Courses.”
Researchers, Practitioners, and Collaborative Members Connect at DREAM 2025
This blog post by CCRC Communications Assistant Shayleah Jenkins brings readers to the Collaborative’s presentation on instructional strategies to support student success in online courses at Achieving the Dream’s 2025 Annual Convening, held in February in Philadelphia.
Practitioners Leading the Way: Developing a Model for Self-Directed Learning in Online Courses
This blog post by CCRC researchers Ellen Wasserman and Susan Bickerstaff previews the features of a forthcoming instructional model and shares how its design process has benefited from collaborating with practitioner partners.
Upcoming Presentation
2025 AAC&U Conference on Learning and Student Success (CLASS), April 3–5
"Bringing SDL Theories Into Postsecondary Online Learning Contexts"
In this session, presenters will share research underpinning the Collaborative’s SDL framework and describe an ongoing empirical study of SDL support in online courses at community colleges and broad-access universities, including teaching strategies to improve students’ self-efficacy and belonging, reflection, and help-seeking.
Participants will explore how to implement teaching practices in online/hybrid courses aligned with an evidence-based SDL framework and will engage in interactive activities to identify opportunities to bolster SDL support across course types.
Be sure to visit our website to stay up to date on our upcoming events as well as our past events. For past events, we provide all our presentation slides and materials.
Contact Us: Email us at postsec-collab@sri.com or visit postseccollab.org.
The Collaborative is a research and capacity-building center that aims to study and improve how faculty teach and use technology to help students apply and strengthen self-directed learning skills (SDL) to increase their success in online courses. The Collaborative is a partnership of SRI Education, the Community College Research Center at Columbia University’s Teachers College, Achieving the Dream, and nine broad-access colleges and universities.
