Designing and Delivering Experiential Journalism Tasks in Online Environments: A Framework Grounded in Cognitive Apprenticeship Theory

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, journalism and mass communication (JMC) schools were increasingly integrating online educational delivery into their programming. The pandemic then forced instructors to transition all programming almost overnight to emergency remote teaching environments. This had an acute disruption on applied courses within JMC professions. As higher education pivots toward an uncertain future amidst a likely endemic COVID-19, JMC instructors will need access to evidence-supported pedagogy that can be contextualized across modalities. This five-round Delphi study featured a panel of 24 experienced online JMC educators, who co-constructed a framework of pedagogical practices and instructional design strategies for designing, delivering, supporting, and evaluating rigorous experiential learning activities in online environments. The resulting framework—called The EXCEL Online Framework—is comprised of 36 primary and 59 ancillary practices that JMC educators can contextualize to their online courses. Analysis revealed the primary practices aligned closely with principles of the Cognitive Apprenticeship Model. [ FROM AUTHOR]