Dan LaSota

Dan LaSota

Dan LaSota, M.Ed. in Online Instructional Design, has dabbled in science education, technology, and public policy for 35 years. He’s been an Instructional Designer at UAF Center for Teaching and Learning for the last 12. He is also a certified QM Peer Reviewer and certified QM Training Facilitator.

Good Course Design Is the Best Defense Against Cheating

A student typing on a laptop with an angle of learning mastery on the right shoulder, and the devil of performance on the left shoulder.
While the prevalence of academic misconduct is debatable and uncertain, its existence is not. Courses can be designed proactively to reduce cheating, plagiarism and other forms of academic misconduct. This teaching tip was motivated by a reading of James Lang's Cheating Lessons, and offers highlights from that book as well as advice from relevant peer-reviewed research.

Transformative Learning in Your Class

Climbers at the top of an outcropping, overlooking a boreal forest.
In the summer of 2012 the University of Alaska Board of Regents approved revisions to Policy 01.01.030 — University of Alaska Fairbanks Mission Statement and University of Alaska Fairbanks Core Themes. Contained therein was this vision statement: "Excellence through transformative experiences." How can we aspire to such a lofty goal? What is the intersection with teaching and learning? And, how might you go about fostering such things in your courses?

Concept Mapping Workshop

An illustration-style image of instructors chatting about a concept map.

Join us Tuesday, 30 January 2024, 1-4pm Instructional designer Dan LaSota for a workshop exploring conceptual maps to assess student comprehension and illustrate course content effectively. Learn teaching and assessment methods through hands-on activities. Available online and in-person; participation requires laptops and…

Sharpening Critical Thought with ChatGPT

A diagram of concentric circles that place educators at the center of teaching design, preparation and practice
In this teaching tip, we explore the possibility of using ChatGPT to develop rich question pools with correct and incorrect responses and having students examine each response in a low-stakes manner. The teaching practice is borrowed from a published article from the Journal of Chemical Education.