Infusing Mindfulness and Habits of Mind in Online Course Design

The continued and increasing demand for online education opportunities requires new, authentic, learner centric strategies for teaching online. The purpose of this innovation is to design lessons that infuse the practice of mindfulness and application of habits of mind activities within existing course design. The intent is to increase student efficacy before, during and after taking an online course. The session seeks to discuss and resolve issues of student and faculty online presence including gaps in student/teacher perceptions vs. statistical reality. The intent is to identify student success factors beyond course design and teacher interactions by adding mindfulness and the eight habits of mind to online coursework. This session will examine the potential influence of mindfulness as a habit of mind on students’ online participation and assess whether mindfulness influences students’ self-regulation and self-efficacy and affects attrition rates among first-year students in a post-secondary, online, beginning composition course. Participants will discuss and engage in developing online strategies that will focus on the psychosocial as well as cognitive needs of the student in an online environment.