ELI Discovery Tools

ELI Discovery Tools help you move ideas into action. Whether you’re considering a technology implementation, faculty or staff workshop, or another project relating to teaching, learning, and technology, the tools will equip you with the concepts and practical guidance to move forward successfully.

ELI members enjoy exclusive access to Discovery Tools for the first 6 months they are available. If you are from an ELI member institution, log into your EDUCAUSE profile to access them. If you are not from an ELI member institution, click the links below to see if a tool is now publicly available.

• Check if your institution is an ELI member.
• Learn more about ELI membership benefits and becoming a member.

Feel free to customize ELI Discovery Tools to meet your institution's unique needs. We invite you to share your improvements with the ELI member community—just forward suggestions or revised materials to EDUCAUSE Director of Teaching, Learning, and Professional Development Julie K. Little (jlittle@educause.edu) or ELI Program Administrator Carie Page (cpage@educause.edu).

Workshop Guides

Save time creating faculty and staff development events—take advantage of the readings, discussion questions, and customizable worksheets in the workshop guides. Use the modules individually for brief, one-hour seminars or all together for day-long or multi-day programs.

ELI Discovery Tool: Learning Space Workshop Guide

The Learning Space Workshop Guide offers a set of action-oriented, modifiable, modular activities for use in faculty development, staff retreats, or similar events. The activities encourage critical thinking about characteristics and principles of effective learning space design, the pedagogical roles of technology, student perspectives, assessment, and related issues.

ELI Discovery Tool: Net Generation Workshop Guide

The Net Generation Workshop Guide is a collection of simple activities and suggested readings on the Net Generation. It is divided into easily customized modules that can be used as stand-alone activities lasting a couple of hours or all together for a multi-day event. They have been designed for faculty development, staff retreats, or similar programs.

View a screencast overview /ir/library/multimedia/ELI060607/Net_Gen_Discovery_Tool_v2_1.swf of the Net Generation Discovery Tool.

Technology Guides

These guides offer essential information and practical guidelines for integrating technology into teaching and learning, helping you evaluate your options, make the case to stakeholders, plan, and move ahead with implementation. Use individual units to accomplish specific goals or all units for a comprehensive process.

ELI Discovery Tool: Guide to Blogging

The Guide to Blogging offers a practical exploration of what blogging is and how it can be used to support teaching and learning. It walks you through the important issues to consider before launching a blogging program, shows you what other colleges and universities are doing, helps you navigate discussions with stakeholders, and points you to places you can find additional information.

ELI Discovery Tool: Guide to Podcasting

A "know-before-you-go" compendium, the Guide to Podcasting is designed to assist academic technology centers, IT units, and others in making the case for integrating podcasting into teaching and learning. The guide recaps what podcasting is; gives first-hand accounts of how students use—and don't use—podcasting; shows how podcasting supports learning; explains the benefits and limitations of podcasting in comparison with other tools; highlights implementation and assessment considerations; and identifies valuable podcasting resources.

View a screencast overview /ir/library/multimedia/ELI060607/G2P_v3_3.swf about the Guide to Podcasting.

ELI Discovery Tool: Applying Technology to Teaching and Learning

Applying Technology to Teaching and Learning is a 7-step process to help you select and integrate technology into teaching and learning. Whether you are a faculty member, academic administrator, instructional technologist, or part of a planning committee you can use them to:

• Focus on the key learning issues that should drive technology selection
• Better understand your technology options
• Implement the technology that best supports your teaching and learning objectives

These guides will help you clearly explain what you want to do, why it will make a difference to learning, and how it can be done successfully. So, when you need to present your project for approval, you will be ready with the answers.

Student Input Tools

Use these ELI Discovery Tools to gather student feedback about needs, wants, and issues with teaching, learning, and technology at your institution. Use the results to engage your campus community and better plan initiatives.

ELI Discovery Tool: Student/Faculty Questionnaire

The ELI Student/Faculty Questionnaire is designed to help you explore student and faculty experiences and expectations with technology in teaching and learning. Use it to explore student and faculty familiarity with learning technologies, expectations for the use of technology in teaching and learning, and views on how students prefer to learn.

The questionnaire site contains:

• An introduction to the questionnaire and instructions on use
• A guide to facilitating a successful deployment of the questionnaire
• A guide to the use of focus groups as a follow-up to the questionnaire
• Microsoft Word files of both the student and faculty versions of the questionnaire

ELI Discovery Tool: Student Input on Learning Spaces Tool

The ELI Student Input on Learning Spaces Tool gives colleges and universities a structured yet creative way of seeing their campuses as their students do, and thus helps them to more effectively plan and design their learning spaces.